1790 in Russia

• Monarch – Catherine II

• Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)
  • May 17–18: Battle of Andros (1790)
  • July 19: Battle of Kerch Strait (1790)
  • September 8–9: Battle of Tendra
  • December 22: Conclusion of Siege of Izmail
• Russo-Swedish War (1788–90)
  • April 29: Battle of Valkeala
  • April 30: Battle of Pardakoski–Kärnakoski
  • May 13: Battle of Reval
  • May 15: Battle of Fredrikshamn
  • May 19–20: Battle of Keltis
  • June 3: Battle of Savitaipal
  • June 3–4: Battle of Kronstadt
  • June 16: Battle of Uransari
  • July 2–3: Battle of Björkösund
  • July 4: Battle of Vyborg Bay (1790)
  • July 9–10: Battle of Svensksund
  • August 14: Treaty of Värälä
• Church of the Ascension (Chaltyr) founded
• Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra completed
• Kokushkin Bridge built
• Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Alexander Radishchev published

• Sima Babovich, Hakham of the Crimean Karaites
• Dmitry Buturlin, general, historian, censor
• Pyotr Yegorovich Chistyakov, explorer, admiral, fifth governor of Russian America
• Matvey Dmitriev-Mamonov, nobleman, writer, and general
• Pyotr Gorchakov, general
• Ivan Liprandi, spy, general, memoirist
• Anastasia Novitskaya, ballerina
• Fedor Panyutin, general
• Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, education minister (1850-1853)
• Mirza Jafar Topchubashev, Russian orientalist and poet from Azerbaijan
• Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, military officer and Decembrist organizer
• Alexander von Lüders, general
• Kapiton Zelentsov, artist and illustrator

• Ivan Ivanovich Möller-Sakomelsky, general
• Mikhail Ivanovich Popov, writer, poet, dramatist, librettist
• Mikhail Shcherbatov, historian, writer, philosopher, statesman
• Grigory Spiridov, admiral

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