[17] In the following century, the new forms co-existed with Rus' and appeared in an inscription on the western portal of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl (1515), on the icon case of the Theotokos of Vladimir (1514), in the work by Maximus the Greek,[18] the Russian Chronograph written by Dosifei Toporkov (died 1543 or 1544)[19] in 1516–1522, and in other sources.

[20] On 16 January 1547, Ivan IV was crowned the tsar and grand prince of all Russia (Царь и Великий князь всея Руси, Tsar i Velikiy knyaz vseya Rusi),[21] thereby proclaiming the Tsardom of Russia, or "the Great Russian Tsardom", as it was called in the coronation document,[22] by Constantinople Patriarch Jeremiah II,[23][24] and in numerous official texts.

Due to the propaganda of the Commonwealth,[40][41] as well as of the Jesuits, the term Moscovia was used instead of Russia in many parts of Europe where prior to the reign of Peter the Great there was a lack of direct knowledge of the country.

At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the literal meaning of an independent ruler, but in the reign of Ivan IV (1533–1584) it came to imply unlimited (autocratic) rule.

The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; powerful; formidable".

Vladimir Dal defined grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars: "Courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, but people in obedience".

Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549.

Hoping to make profit from Russia's concentration on Livonian affairs, Devlet I Giray of Crimea, accompanied by as many as 120,000 horsemen, repeatedly devastated the Moscow region, until the Battle of Molodi put a stop to such northward incursions.

Tens of thousands of soldiers protected the Great Abatis Belt – a burden for a state whose social and economic development was stagnating.

In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions.

As a result of the policies of the oprichnina, Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Russia and were the most capable of administering it.

Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Russia and led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the Time of Troubles (Smutnoye vremya, 1598–1613).

Actual power went to Feodor's brother-in-law, the boyar Boris Godunov (who is credited with abolishing Yuri's Day, the only time of the year when serfs were free to move from one landowner to another).

Widespread crop failures caused the Russian famine of 1601–1603, and during the ensuing discontent, a man emerged who claimed to be Tsarevich Demetrius, Ivan IV's son who had died in 1591.

The boyars fought among themselves, the lower classes revolted blindly, and foreign armies occupied the Kremlin in Moscow, prompting many to accept Tsarist autocracy as a necessary means to restoring order and unity in Russia.

The Time of Troubles included a civil war in which a struggle over the throne was complicated by the machinations of rival boyar factions, the intervention of regional powers Poland and Sweden, and intense popular discontent, led by Ivan Bolotnikov.

False Dmitry II, allied with the Poles, appeared under the walls of Moscow and set up a mock court in the village of Tushino.

A group of Russian boyars signed in 1610 a treaty of peace, recognising Ladislaus IV of Poland, son of Polish king Sigismund III Vasa, as tsar.

The Polish–Muscovite War was ended with the Truce of Deulino in 1618, restoring temporarily Polish and Lithuanian rule over some territories, including Smolensk, lost by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1509.

Although the departments often had overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions, the central government, through provincial governors, was able to control and regulate all social groups, as well as trade, manufacturing, and even the Eastern Orthodox Church.

By chaining much of Russian society to specific domiciles, the legal code of 1649 curtailed movement and subordinated the people to the interests of the state.

Tsarist troops finally defeated the rebels after they had occupied major cities along the Volga in an operation whose panache captured the imaginations of later generations of Russians.

[citation needed] The Zaporozhian Cossacks, warriors organized in military formations, lived in the frontier areas bordering Poland, the Crimean Tatar lands.

In 1648, the peasants of what is now Eastern Ukraine joined the Cossacks in rebellion during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule.

In 1581, the Stroganov merchant family, interested in the fur trade, hired a Cossack leader, Yermak Timofeyevich, to lead an expedition into western Siberia.

By the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Russia ceded its claims to the Amur Valley, but it gained access to the region east of Lake Baikal and the trade route to Beijing.

Peter the Great (1672–1725), who became ruler in his own right in 1696, brought the Tsardom of Russia, which had little prior contact with Western Europe, into the mainstream of European culture and politics.

Peter began requiring the nobility to wear Western European clothing and shave off their beards, an action that the boyars protested bitterly.

These, along with his notorious cruelties (such as the torture murder of his own son for plotting a rebellion) and the immense human suffering that accompanied many of his projects, such as the construction of Saint Petersburg, led many pious Russians to believe that he was the Antichrist.

The Russian colonization of Siberia also continued, and war with Persia brought about the acquisition of territory in the Caucasus, although Russia surrendered those gains after Peter's death in 1725.