Map of Russia

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Russia

Three eras of Russian history:

Tsarist Russia (13th century-1917)

Communist USSR (1920-1993 ish) Presidential Democracy ish (1993-

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Geography

• Europe or Asia? • 11 time zones

• Few natural boundaries • Not much arable land

• Difficulty in reaching the sea (warm water ports) • Isolated (more than just geographically)

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Early Russia

• Who are the Russians?

– Slovak, slavic: is this enough to unite a people?

– 13th Century: The Mongols

– Rise of the duchy of Moscow: Ivan the Terrible

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Slavs and ethnicity

• What problems do you think Russia will

encounter concerning ethnicity?

• How do you think Russia has dealt with

ethnic differences?

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The Russian monarchy

– Ivan had a secret police that would exile or execute those that opposed him (boyars) – Tradition of strong, ruthless leadership – Cyrillic alphabet, few educated

– Eastern Orthodox (the Third Rome) (tsars are the head of the church)

– 15th and 16th century: free peasants became

serfs?

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Peter: top down modernization

• Peter the Great: comes to power in 1682

• Little bit controlling (military, legislation,

war, technology)

• Built St. Petersburg

• Created provinces, counties and districts

• Conscription

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• Gun Powder empire- powerful in the

1700s

– Under Peter the Great and then Catherine the Great

• 1800s- they’re “backwards” because

they are not industrialized and are

considered weak

– Weakened by Napoleon’s invasion – and Crimean War

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You’ll notice…

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Reforms

_{eliminate serfdom but serfs get worst land for}

high prices, pay rent to the state instead of the nobles

_{Created local assemblies called zemstvos to}

address local issues, although they had little actual power

_{Worked to industrialize- created more railways}

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Alexander III

• 1881 Alexander III- father of Nicholas II

– Reverses reforms

– “Russification” program- targeted

non-Russians and relied on secret police to catch revolutionaries, also accepted pogroms-

attacks on Jews as forms of patriotism

– 1891 he refused to admit that there was a famine and allowed 500,000 peasants to die

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The Last Tsar

• Nicholas II-

– also used secret police

– continued to pull money out of the farms and invest in new industry  led to many strikes and discontent

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The Revolution: causes

• The upper class continues to hate the

monarch

• Peasants continue to not have land

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1905 Revolution

• “Bloody Sunday” – 150,000 workers went to the Winter Palace of the tsar with a petition of economic grievances

 tsar’s troops fired on them killing 40 (destroyed tsar’s religious image)  later that day outraged workers rioted throughout the streets, assaulting police officers, looting stores

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Road to Revolution

• During the 1905 revolution the people gave the government a list of reforms

– Stolypin becomes prime minister in 1905 but was known for harsh policies- revolutionaries were not happy

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Lenin

• Cult of personality? Can

one man drive a revolution?

• How did Lenin change

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The Revolution: what happened?

• 1905: Russo-Japanese war

• rioting/revolution/naval mutinies

• Tsar Nicholas allowed: freedom of speech,

press and assembly

• Nick wasn’t too smart though and refused

to give up power

• 1914: war makes people unhappy (it stinks

even more to be a peasant in war): no

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February Revolution

• Started with strikes- tens of thousands

of workers went on strike

• Met at Znamenskaya’s Square and

listened to anti-tsarist speakers

• Soldiers joined the mutiny

• Rioted throughout the streets-

destroying property, also robbing,

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• Tsar abdicates the throne

• Established the new provisional

government which shared power with

the soviets

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New government

• In reality provisional government had no

authority. Soviets were supported by workers and rank-and-file soldiers

• Provisional government allowed major

socialist leaders to return to Russia (Lenin) • Lenin comes back and is able to win many

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• 1917:

– March: a group of democratic moderates deposed the tsar

– Provisional government moving towards democracy

– Stayed in the war

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Lenin’s April Thesis

• Lenin speech laid out the Bolshevik platform

– calling to end the war

– a revolution of the workers

– Get rid of all of the police and put the power into the hands of the soviet workers

• “Peace, Bread, Land”

• Ordinary Russians were involved by listening to speeches at Znamenskaya’s Square, sang

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July Days

• Provisional government directed the army

to go on the offensive and lost 200,000

men and morale went to an all time low

• In July 500,00 men took to the streets and

rioted

• Kornilov, a military general supported by

the liberals tried to take over but failed



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October Revolution

• Bolsheviks gained popularity

– They refused to have anything to do with the provisional government

– Most people were sick of war

– Lenin was a very powerful speaker

• October 24th the Bolshevik takeover began

– Took over key government buildings and railroads in Petrograd

– Took over the Winter Palace

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– October: “Bread Land Peace”

– Storming of the Winter Palace

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Russian Revolution:

immediate impacts

• 1918-1920: Civil war

• Millions died of starvation

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Cult of Lenin

• Petrograd became Leningrad

• After his death, people in the party tried to

emphasize their relationship and

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1924- Transition of Power

• Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev were all fighting for power

• First they all allied against Trotsky- partly because Trotsky had not joined the Bolsheviks as early as they had; disagreed with Lenin before the revolution • After Trotsky was out of the picture Stalin attacked

Zinoviev and Kamenev as well

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Stalin

• Comes to power in 1927, rules until his death in 1953

• Five year plans (millions starved to death intentionally- Ukrainians)

• Consumer goods were ignored for militaristic goods

• WWII: were able to stave off German invasion although soldiers were poorly equipped

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• Stalin!

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Purges

• Stalin could erase human beings from existence

• A total of 10-15 million people died due to purges and collectivization

• Marxism-Leninism provided the legitimacy base for the party,.

• with its ideology of democratic centralism, or rule by a few for the benefit of the many

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Purges

• Like Lenin he executed or deported all

those who disagreed with him as a

continuation of the Red Terror

• Purges

– 10 million Soviet citizens died

• Many were executed but others were sent to work camps

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Events Stalin-Yeltsin

1934: USSR joins league of nations 36-38 Purges

41 Germany invades, WWII ensues 48 Take over Czechoslovakia

49 atomic bomb

55 Khrushchev takes power, Destalinization –

collective leadership after 1953, lowered Stalin’s power structure

57 sputnik

61 first man in space

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62 Cuban Missile Crisis

64: Brezhnev: slow economic growth and corruption

70s: Détente

75: Helsinki Accords 82 Brezhnev dies

82-84: Andropov: fights corruption and alcoholism 85-91 Gorbechav

86 Chernobyl disaster

88-89 Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan 89 Fall of communism

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Historical legacies

• Several legacies from Russian history

shape the modern political system:

– Absolute, centralized rule

– Extensive cultural heterogeneity

– Slavophile v. westernizer

– http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/ history/slavophiles-westernizers.html

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Continual issues in Russian history

• To Westernize or not to Westernize?

• Who’s a slav?

• Absolutist rule

• Few civil or human rights or tradition of

democracy