Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
Russia Today
Former Soviet Region
Compared in Latitude & Area
with the United States
Russia’s Time Zones
Topography of Russia
Rich Soil of the Steppes
Chernozen Soil
Siberia  “Permafrost”
 A former “gulag”
Soviet prison camp.
 Average temperatures of January
vary from 0 to -50°C, and in
July from 1 to 25°C
 150,000,000 population.
Themes
in Russian History
 Expansion by conquest.
Need for warm-water
ports.
 The necessity of a strong,
central government.
Early Russia
Early Byzantine Influences:
Orthodox Christianity
Early Byzantine Influences:
Orthodox Christianity
Early Byzantine Influences:
Cyrillic Alphabet
Novgorod
Russian Boyars
Russian Expansion
Alexander Nevsky: 1220-1263
Battle on the Ice
(Neva River)
Against the
Swedes
Teutonic
Knight
The Mongols Invade Russia
Ivan the Great (r. 1462-1505)
Ivan III Tearing the Great Khan’s Letter Requesting
More Tribute in 1480.
The Rise of Russia
Russia in the Late 1500s
Ivan “The
Terrible”
(r. 1533-1584)
Michael Romanov
(r. 1613-1645)
c
The Romanov dynasty is established.
c
The only Russian royal family  lasted for 304 years!
Romanov Dynasty
(1613-1917)
Romanov Family Crest
Romanov Dynasty
(1613-1917)
The Pendulum
of Russian History
Pro-West
For Progress & Change
Encourage New Ideas,
Technologies, etc.
Anti-West
Isolationist
Xenophobic
Ultra-Conservative
 A few Tsars
 Most Tsars
 Intellectual elites
 Russian Orthodox
Church
 Merchants/businessmen
 Young members of the
middle class.
 Military
 Boyars
 peasants
REFORM-MINDED
LEADER
DEMAGOGUE
Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725)
Peter Cuts the Beards of His
Boyars
Execution of the Streltsy
Battle of Poltava (1709)
Russia & Sweden After the
Great Northern War
Russia Under Peter I