Many boyars thought that these parties were rather ... Assembly at the court of Peter the Great,' 1858. Source: The State Russian museum, St. Petersburg. By the middle of the 19th century, balls ...

boyars (nobility), gentry, townspeople, and the free peasantry (but not serfs). After much noisy and contentious debate, Mikhail Romanov was selected to lead Russia into a new civilized era.

In part 10 of the Revolutions series, Dominic Alexander details the development of Russian history towards the 20th century, ...