Final answer:
The autocrats who ruled Russia from 1547 to 1917 were the hereditary Tsars, ending with Nicholas II whose reign terminated with the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Step-by-step explanation:
The autocrats who ruled Russia from 1547 to 1917 were the Tsars, a line of monarchs that began with Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) and ended with Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. Under the autocracy, the Tsars exercised absolute power over the state and the Church, resisting many of the modern political changes that swept through Europe, such as representative government. Up to his abdication in 1917, Nicholas II maintained the tradition of his predecessors, ruling with near-complete authority. The Tsar's inability to address the country's issues and the hardships caused by World War I eventually led to widespread discontent, culminating in the Russian Revolution of 1917. This revolution marked the end of Tsarist rule and paved the way for the Marxist socialism of Lenin and his Bolsheviks, signaling a profound shift in Russian society and government.
Trapped in an 'historical impasse', Russia was predominantly agrarian with late and limited industrialization. The social structure remained rigid, with the serfs being among the poorest and most oppressed. The Russian Orthodox Church supported the Tsarist regime, advocating for obedience to the Tsar. In the face of emerging socialist and Marxist ideologies, and a series of failures and crises, including the 1905 Revolution and the First World War, the longstanding Romanov dynasty and the autocratic system it upheld were eventually overthrown.