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.
Line of succession to the former Russian throne
At first, many members of the Imperial House either did not believe or were wary of acting on news of the demise of the immediate imperial family. However, camps started to be formed in the monarchist movement, where Paris was a focal location. Several monarchists grouped around Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, who was first in the line of succession by male primogeniture after the execution of Alexei Nikolaevich and Michael Alexandrovich. Many of Cyril's opponents grouped around a young grand duke, Dmitri Pavlovich, who was next in the line of succession if Cyril and his brothers, the Vladimirovichi, were ineligible (Paul Alexandrovich, who had been ahead of Dmitri, had been killed in 1919), though Dimitri himself refused these advances, supporting instead Grand Duke Cyril as emperor. Several grouped around the old Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, appreciating his career as general and former commander-in-chief, or his position as the oldest member of the imperial dynasty. On August 8, 1922, Nicholas was proclaimed as the emperor of all Russia by the "Zemsky Sobor" of the Priamursk region, convened in Vladivostok by General Mikhail Diterikhs. At the time, Grand Duke Nicholas was already living abroad and consequently was not present at the "Sobor". Two months later the Priamursk region fell to the Bolsheviks.