Coronations in Russia involved a highly developed religious ceremony in which the
Emperor of Russia (generally referred to as the
Tsar) was
crowned and invested with
regalia, then
anointed with
chrism and formally blessed by the
church to commence his reign. Although rulers of
Muscovy had been crowned prior to the reign of
Ivan III, their coronation rituals assumed overt
Byzantine overtones as the result of the influence of Ivan's wife
Sophia Paleologue, and the imperial ambitions of his grandson,
Ivan IV. These elements remained, as Muscovy was transformed first into the
Tsardom of Russia and then into the Russian Empire, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1917. Since czarist Russia claimed to be the "
Third Rome" and the replacement of Byzantium as the true Christian state, the Russian rite was designed to link its rulers and prerogatives to those of the so-called "
Second Rome" (
Constantinople).