Russian Empire
Though the Empire was only officially proclaimed by Tsar Peter I following the Treaty of Nystad (1721), some historians would argue that it was truly born either when Ivan III of Russia conquered Veliky Novgorod in 1478, or when Ivan the Terrible conquered the Khanate of Kazan in 1552. According to another point of view, the term "Tsardom", which was used after the coronation of Ivan IV in 1547, was already a contemporary Russian word for empire.
Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople
The Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople () was founded in 1895 and led by two distinguished Russian Byzantinists, Fyodor Uspensky and Nikodim Kondakov. The institute carried out excavations and studies across the entire Ottoman Empire, carrying off large numbers of relics, manuscripts and other finds to Russia. Aside from its research role, the institute was from the outset intended as a statement of foreign policy, following the Russian Empire's claim to be the inheritor of the Byzantine Empire as the "Third Rome", and its long-standing ambition to conquer Constantinople from the Ottoman Empire. The institute continued to function until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.