SOCIAL SCIENCE
CRAM-VIEW
GEOGRAPHY
• Russia is the world’s largest country at 17.1
million square km
• Only about 7% of the Russian steppes in the
south is fertile
• Russia has many rivers but no natural ocean
ports, and many of its leaders have launched
wars to gain sea access
• It lacks natural borders, enabling many foreign
invasions
PRE-KIEVAN RUSSIA
• Norman Varangians first entered Slavic lands
around 800 C.E.
• In 862, the Slavs invited Rurik the Rus to rule
Novgorod
• Rurik’s son Oleg conquered the city of Kiev in
882
KIEVAN RUS
• Kiev gained power as a trade center along the
Dnieper River
• Prince Sviatoslav consolidated the city’s
control over the surrounding regions in the
late 10th century
• Prince Vladimir introduced Eastern Orthodoxy
as the official religion of the Kievan state in
988
KIEVAN RUS
• Prince Jaroslav
– introduced Russia’s first legal code and
– encouraged Russian art and architecture
• Kiev was divided into competing principalities
ruled by each of his sons after his death in
1054
• Kiev spent roughly the next 200 years in civil
turmoil before being conquered by the
Mongols in 1240
MONGOL RULE
• The Mongols administered Russia through the
Rurikov princes who collected tribute on their
behalf
• Under Moscow’s leadership, Russia earned its
independence from Mongol rule in 1480
MUSCOVITE RUSSIA
• Moscow first rose to power in the 14th century
under Prince Vasili I
• In 1326, Moscow became home to the seat of the
metropolitan, making it the religious capital of
Russia
• Prince Vasili II defeated a Mongol campaign to
depose him in 1452, making Moscow effectively
independent
• Prince Ivan III tripled the size of the Muscovite
state
IVAN THE TERRIBLE (R. 1547-1584)
• Ivan IV took the title ‘‘Tsar of All Russia’’ in
1547
• reformed the government and military,
reducing
– the nobility’s corruption and class privileges
• He imposed state oversight on the Orthodox
Church and
– reduced its wealth and power
IVAN THE TERRIBLE (R. 1547-1584)
• Ivan IV conquered khanates to Russia’s east
but failed to obtain Baltic access through
Livonia
• In 1565, he launched a bloody campaign of
political terror against the nobles known as
the Oprichnina
• Ivan IV was succeeded by Theodore
THE TIME OF TROUBLES (1598-1613)
• Theodore’s regent Boris Godunov effectively
controlled Russia during and after Theodore’s
reign
• The Rurikov line ended with Theodore, creating a
power vacuum and encouraging false heirs (False
Dimitris) supported by Poland
• Famine led to peasant uprisings and mass
emigration
• Of course, Poland and Sweden attacked!
• In 1613, a council of nobles elected
Michael Romanov tsar
PETER THE GREAT (R. 1689-1725)
• Imperial Russia cycled between periods of reform
and counter-reform
• Peter I assumed the throne after deposing his
half-sister and regent, Sophia
• Peter modernized Russian culture and
government after the model of Western Europe
• He reformed the military and expanded the navy,
allowing Russia to defeat Sweden in the
Great Northern War
CATHERINE THE GREAT (R. 1762-1796)
• Catherine II assumed the throne after nearly forty
years of political turmoil
• She was
– inspired by Enlightenment thinkers
– but did not substantially reform Russia’s laws
• After putting down Pugachev’s peasant rebellion,
Catherine reorganized Russia’s regional
governments
• Catherine divided and annexed Poland alongside
Prussia and Austria in 1772, 1794, and 1795
PAUL I (R. 1796-1801)
• Paul I sought to undo Catherine’s policies
• He implemented primogeniture
– where the ruler’s eldest son was heir to the
throne
• In 1801, Paul I was assassinated in a palace
coup
ALEXANDER I (R. 1801-1825)
• Alexander was shaped by both conservative
and liberal Influences
• Alexander I
– repealed his father’s more reactionary decisions
– but failed to implement reforms of serfdom and
Autocracy
• He repelled Napoleon’s invasion in May 1812
and began to pursue more conservative social
policies thereafter
NICHOLAS I (R. 1825-1855)
• Nicholas I crushed the liberal-minded Decembrist
Revolt
• He consolidated political power in the hands of
the tsar, bypassing the Council of State
• Russification policies were implemented in line
with the doctrine of ‘‘Official Nationality’’ -(orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality)
• The tsar’s decision to enter the Crimean War
deprived Russia of its dominant position in the
peninsula
ALEXANDER II (R. 1855-1881)
• Alexander II was a liberal ruler who introduced
elected regional legislatures called zemstvos
• On March 3, 1861, he abolished serfdom in
Russia
• The radical Will of the People assassinated
him in 1881
ALEXANDER III
• Alexander III
– revived the doctrine of ‘‘Official Nationality’’
– and implemented reactionary policies
• His Russification policies discriminated against
non-Orthodox Russians
NICHOLAS II
• Nicholas II continued the programs and
Russification policies of his father
• He lost a war with Japan over Russian
influence in Manchuria
REVOLUTION OF 1905
• Liberals petitioned Nicholas II for reform while
Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries
pursued violence
• On January 22, 1905, guards shot into a crowd of
protesters in St. Petersburg, killing 130
on
Bloody Sunday
• Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto,
establishing an elected Duma that was
ineffective
REVOLUTIONS OF 1917
• Russians protested food shortages during
World War I
• Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, 1917
• The Provisional Government led Russia until
the Bolshevik coup on November 8
• Its authority was undermined by the
Petrograd Soviet and monarchist opponents
MARXISM-LENINISM
• Marx’s theory of historical materialism argues
that human society is determined by its
economic structure
• Communism is the highest stage of economic
development
• Unlike Marx, Lenin argued that an elite
vanguard had to lead the revolution and
oversee the state
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR (1918-1921)
• White army (conservatives) went to war with
the Bolsheviks
• War Communism was imposed to mobilize the
economy
• The Supreme Economic Council requisitioned
and rationed all consumer goods and
production
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR (1918-1921)
• The U.S.S.R. was established on December 30,
1922
. It consisted of:
– Russian,
– Ukrainian,
– Belorussian,
– and Transcaucasian Soviets
• The New Economy Policy was introduced in 1921
• It permitted limited free market activity to allow
Russia’s economy to recover after the civil war
JOSEPH STALIN (1927-1953)
• Stalin replaced the NEP with ‘‘five-year plans’’
setting production goals for the entire
economy
• The first three five-year plans industrialized
Russia and collectivized its agriculture at great
human cost
• In the 1930s, Stalin carried out a purge of
party leaders
• The NKVD secret police arrested 7 million
Soviet citizens
• Stalin introduced a new constitution in 1936
WORLD WAR II
• Stalin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with
Germany dividing Europe into spheres of influences
• The U.S.S.R. occupied parts of Poland, the Baltics and
Moldavia after Germany invaded Poland in 1939
• Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. on June 22, 1941
• Hitler’s forces launched two more offensives in 1942
and 1943 before being expelled from Soviet territory in
1944
• Allied leaders held conferences at Yalta and Potsdam
• Stalin won a sphere of influence in east-central Europe
POST-WAR
• Soviet troops occupied east-central Europe and
established Communist regimes there
• Comecon and Warsaw Pact formalized the Soviet
bloc
• Stalin persecuted Jews and intelligentsia
• The Soviet economy recovered from the war
quickly, aided by forced reparations from former
Axis countries
• After Stalin’s death in 1953, the Soviet elite
became focused on their self-interest rather than
ideology
THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA (1953-1964)
• Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s totalitarian rule
and initiated a brief cultural ‘thaw’
• He sent Soviet troops into Hungary in 1956 after
uprisings in Poland and Budapest
• The U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik I in October 1957
• Economic growth began to slow during the
sixth and seventh Five-Year Plans
• Khrushchev resigned under pressure from
Brezhnev
THE BREZHNEV ERA (1964-1982)
• Brezhnev
– reversed Khrushchev’s reforms
– and cracked down on public dissent & samizdat
• He passed the Third Soviet Constitution in 1977
• The economy experienced decline and consumer
shortages
• The Brezhnev Doctrine declared Soviet intentions to
defend the Communist bloc by military force
• Brezhnev militarily suppressed the 1968 Prague Spring
• Dissident movements began to emerge in the Soviet
bloc
THE BREZHNEV ERA II
• The United States and USSR signed several
disarmament treaties from 1968 to 1979
during a period of détente
THE BREZHNEV ERA II
• HELSINKI ACCORDS (1975)
– 34 European and American signatories, including the
Soviet Union
– Set out basic human rights provisions
– Inspired movements such as
• Czech Charter 77
• and Polish Solidarity,
which demanded that their regimes honor the accords
• BUT …
Détente ended with the 1979 Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan
TRANSITIONAL LEADERSHIP
• Yuri Andropov
– died in office after 15 months
• Konstantin Chernenko
– died in office after 13 months
• Both leaders continued Brezhnev’s policies
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
• Gorbachev introduced
– demokratizatsiya,
– perestroika, and
– glasnost,
allowing some free market activity and democracy
• He also renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine of
upholding communism in eastern Europe
through military force
PERESTROIKA
• Perestroika loosened central control over the
political and economic system
• The Law on State Enterprise decentralized
state planning
• The Law on Cooperatives permitted limited
enterprise
• Foreign trade and investment was permitted
GLASNOST
• Glasnost increased party and state
transparency
• Censorship laws were relaxed, encouraging
media investigations into corruption and state
crimes
DEMOKRATIZATSIYA
• Demokratizatsiya increased party officials’
accountability
• Multicandidate elections were held and later
expanded to multiparty elections
THE COLLAPSE OF THE U.S.S.R.
• Gorbachev’s reforms hurt the Soviet economy
and undermined the party’s monopoly on
political power
• The summer and fall of 1989 brought a wave
of anticommunist revolts sweeping through
East-Central Europe
• Internal nationalist movements challenged
Soviet control
THE COLLAPSE OF THE U.S.S.R.
• Lithuania declared itself independent in March
1990
• Conservatives launched a coup in August 1991
but were defeated by popular opposition led by
Yeltsin
• After the coup failed, all remaining Soviet
Republics seceded from the U.S.S.R.-----including
Russia itself
• Gorbachev signed the Belavezha Accords
dissolving the Soviet Union in December 1991
LEVELS OF TRANSITION FROM
COMMUNISM (CLAUS OFFE)
• Designing policies to govern the use of
valuable resources
• Restructuring political and economic
government institutions
• Reformulating national identity following the
dissolution of Russia’s once multinational
state
POLITICAL TRANSITION
• Conflict between President Yeltsin and a
conservative Duma led to a constitutional
crisis in 1993
• Yeltsin won the standoff and passed a new
constitution in December with extensive
presidential powers
POLITICAL TRANSITION
• The constitution provided for a bicameral
legislature composed of the
– Federal Council and
– Duma
• Single-member Duma seats were eliminated in
2007 in favor of PR with a 7% threshold
• The Communists and hard-right Liberal
Democrats performed well electorally until 2000
• United Russia has dominated politics since 2000
SOCIAL TRANSITION
• Traditional gender roles have been revived
• Russian citizens remain apathetic towards
civil society and were dissatisfied with
democracy under Yeltsin
• The Russian military fought a separatist
movement in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996
• The second Chechen war began in 1999 and
has mainly taken the form of Islamic terrorist
attacks
ECONOMIC TRANSITION
• All economic institutions were rapidly
privatized under ‘‘shock therapy’’
• Most state-owned companies were bought by
powerful oligarchs
• Shock therapy resulted in hyperinflation, high
unemployment, and GDP contraction
• This was exacerbated by the 1998 financial
crisis
THE PUTIN ADMINISTRATION
• Russia’s economy recovered during Putin’s first
term
• Putin restricted press freedom and prosecuted
political opponents (like Mikhail Khordokovdky)
• He pursued tough measures against Chechen
terrorism
• Putin was reelected with over 70% of the vote in
2004
• He changed electoral laws in 2007 to favor United
Russia
THE MEDVEDEV ADMINISTRATION
• Medvedev succeeded Putin in 2008 and
continued his focus on
– economic modernization and
– political stability
• He launched an anti-corruption campaign
PRESENT-DAY RUSSIA
• Russia enjoys decent GDP growth rates and
manageable unemployment levels
• Yeltsin’s 1993 constitution has stayed a central
pillar of Russian politics
• Democracy and post-materialism have gained
traction among citizens as Russia’s transition
further stabilizes
DATES TO REMEMBER
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
June 24, 1812
March 3, 1861
January 22, 1905
March 15, 1917
November 8, 1918
December 30, 1922
June 22, 1941
• November 4, 1956
• December 25, 1991
• December 12, 1993
• December 11, 1994
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Napoleon invades Russia
Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom
Bloody Sunday protests; start of 1905 revolution
Nicholas II abdicates
Bolsheviks overthrow the Provisional Government
Bolsheviks found the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Germany invades the Soviet Union in breach of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Soviet Union sends troops into Hungary to suppress
the Budapest uprising
The Soviet Council of Republics disbands; Soviet Union
is dissolved
New constitution approved in a national referendum
Yeltsin orders a military invasion of Chechnya
High Priority Political Groups
• Charter 77
– Czech dissident group formed to pressure the regime to
abide by the Helsinki Accords
• CPRF Communist Party of the Russian Federation
– advocates Soviet-era policies
• Decembrists
– Liberal army officers who launched a coup at Nicholas I’s
inauguration in 1825
• Fair Russia
– Liberal, pro-democracy political party in the current
Russian Duma
High Priority Political Groups
• LDPR Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
– ultranationalist political party
• League of Struggle
– Underground revolutionary organization founded by Lenin
in 1895
• Oppositionists
– Stalin’s term for Trotsky’s followers
• Social Democrats
– Marxist revolutionary group formed in 1898; split into
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
• Socialist Revolutionary Party
– Populist revolutionary group with links to the Will of the
People
High Priority Political Groups
• Solidarity
– Polish labor union led by Lech Walesa; overthrew the
Communist regime
• United Russia
– Russia’s center-right and dominant party
• Volunteer Army (White army)
– Conservative army that fought against the early
Bolshevik government
• Will of the People
– Assassinated Alexander II in 1881
11 IMPORTANT TERRITORIES
• Astrakhan
– Central Asian khanate acquired under Ivan IV
• Chechnya
– Caucasus region; site of two separatist wars against the
Russian Federation
• Crimea
– Peninsula to the north of the Black Sea contested by the
Ottomans and imperial Russia; site of Crimean War
• Dagestan
– Chechnya invaded this region in 1999, prompting the
Second Chechen War
11 IMPORTANT TERRITORIES
• Ingria
– Baltic territory acquired in the Great Northern War
• Karelia
– Baltic territory acquired in the Great Northern War
• Kazan
– Central Asian khanate acquired under Ivan IV
• Livonia
– Invaded by Ivan IV to gain Baltic sea access; acquired
in the Great Northern War
11 IMPORTANT TERRITORIES
• Manchuria
– Japan opposition to Russian influence in this
territory caused the 1905 Russo-Japanese War
• Moldavia
– Occupied by Soviet Union in 1940 under MolotovRibbentrop Pact; became a Soviet Republic
• Novgorod
– Russian principality that resisted political control
by Kievan and Muscovite princes
11 HIGH PRIORITY DOCUMENTS
• 1936 Constitution
– Soviet Union’s constitution created by Stalin and
replaced by 1978 Brezhnev Constitution
• Article 58
– Defined treasonous activities in the U.S.S.R.; legal
basis for the Great Purge
• Article Six
– Made the Communist Party the sole political authority
• Belavezha Accords
– Replaced the Soviet Union with the Commonwealth of
Independent States
11 HIGH PRIORITY DOCUMENTS
• Brezhnev Constitution
– Declared socialism achieved in the U.S.S.R. and
superficially honored the provisions of the Helsinki Accords
• Helsinki Accords
– Human rights treaty signed by the U.S.S.R.
• October Manifesto
– Created a constitutional monarchy under Nicholas II
following the 1905 revolution
• Table of Ranks
– Peter I’s hierarchy of civil service, military, and judicial
ranks
11 HIGH PRIORITY DOCUMENTS
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
– Ended Russian participation in World War I
• Treaty of Nystadt
– Formalized Sweden’s surrender in the Great
Northern War in 1721
• Treaty of Portsmouth
– Ended the Russo-Japanese War
11 Policies to Know
• Brezhnev Doctrine
– The Soviet Union’s policy of controlling its
satellites by military force if necessary
• Détente
– Period of reduced hostility and disarmament
between the United States and Soviet Union
• Glasnost
– Increased transparency and lifted censorship in
the Soviet Union under Gorbachev
11 Policies to Know
• New Economic Policy
– Allowed limited private industry following the Russian Civil
War
• Official Nationality
– Declared Russia’s core values to be ‘Orthodoxy, autocracy,
and nationality’
• Order Number 1
– Issued by the Petrograd Soviet; implemented democratic
decision-making in military
• Perestroika
– Permitted free market exchange in the Soviet Union;
decentralized state control
11 Policies to Know
• Sinatra Doctrine
– Gorbachev’s renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine
permitting reform in eastern Europe
• Socialism in One Country
– Stalin’s ideological perspective that focused solely on
the preservation of the Soviet Union
• Temporary Regulations
– A set of anti-terrorism laws passed by Alexander III
• War Communism
– State rationing and economic mobilization
implemented during the Russian Civil War
BATTLES and WARS
• Battle of Austerlitz
– (December 1805) Resulted in heavy losses for Russia and its
allies against Napoleon
• Battle of Narva
– (1700) Early Russian defeat in the Great Northern War in
1700
• Crimean War
– (1853-1855) Ended Russian domination of Black Sea
territories
• First Chechen War
– (1994-1996) Began as a result of Chechnya’s 1991
independence movement
BATTLES and WARS
• Patriotic War of 1812
– Napoleonic invasion of Russia resulting in heavy French
defeat
• Great Northern War
– (1700-1721) Secured Russian naval access to the Baltic
coast at Swedish expense
• Russian Civil War
– (1918-1921) Fighting between the newly-established
Bolshevik regime and the Whites
• Russo-Japanese War
– (1905-1906) Crippling defeat of Russia’s military by Japan;
loss of influence in Manchuria
BATTLES and WARS
• Second Chechen War
– (1999-) Triggered by Chechen invasion of
Dagestan; resulted in Islamic terrorist attacks
• World War I
– (1914-1918) Immediate cause of Russia’s 1917
Revolutions
• World War II
– (1939-1945) Enabled a Soviet sphere of influence
in eastern Europe
11 ADVISORS AND OFFICIALS
• Alexis Arakcheev
– Established strict settlements as part of Alexander I’s
conservative experiments
• Boris Godunov
– Effectively controlled Russia during Tsar Theodore’s reign;
usurped the throne
• Grigori Rasputin
– Influential peasant mystic and adviser to Tsar Nicholas II;
assassinated in 1916
• Lavrentiy Beria
– Chief of Stalin’s NKVD; arrested under executed under
Khrushchev
11 ADVISORS AND OFFICIALS
• Michael Speransky
– Liberal advisor of Alexander I who proposed a
constitutional monarchy
• Sergei Uvarov
– Nicholas I’s education minister; introduced the
doctrine of ‘‘Official Nationality’’
• Sergei Witte
– Close advisor to Alexander III and Nicholas II;
modernized Russia’s economy
11 ADVISORS AND OFFICIALS
• Viktor Chernomyrdin
– Conservative backed by the Duma to become Prime
Minister in 1992
• Vyacheslav Molotov
– Negotiated the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on behalf
of the U.S.S.R
• Yegor Gaidar
– Served as Yeltsin’s first Prime Minister; advised Yeltsin on
the economic transition
• Yevgeny Primakov
– Became Prime Minister in 1998; oversaw Russia’s recovery
from a financial crisis
ALLIANCES
• Commonwealth of Independent States
– Largely symbolic alliance formed in 1993 by Russia, Belorussia,
and Ukraine; several other former Soviet republics joined later
• Comecon
– Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; economic alliance of
the Soviet bloc
• Confederation of Europe
– Formed after the defeat of Napoleon to defend the European
status quo
• European Union
– Organization whose expansion met with opposition from Putin
ALLIANCES
• Fourth Coalition
– Anti-Napoleonic alliance of Russia, Saxony,
Prussia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
• Holy Alliance
– Alliance between Russia, Prussia, and Austria
formed in 1815
• NATO
– Cold War military alliance among Western
democracies
ALLIANCES
• Quadruple Alliance
– The Holy Alliance plus Great Britain
• Three Emperors League
– Mutual non-aggression pact between Russia,
Germany, and Austria-Hungary during the reign of
Alexander III
• Warsaw Pact
– Military alliance among the Soviet bloc states
LOW PRIORITY ROYALTY
• Alexander Nevsky
– Novgorod ruler who cooperated with the Mongols
against foreign invaders
• Alexei
– Peter I’s conservative son; sentenced to death for
treason
• Anastasia Romanova
– Ivan IV’s wife; died under mysterious circumstances in
1560
• Alexandra Romanova
– Nicholas II’s wife; promoted Rasputin at court
LOW PRIORITY ROYALTY
• Catherine I
– Peter I’s Lithuanian wife and successor
• Oleg
– Rurik the Rus’ son; conquered Kiev
• Peter II
– Last direct descendant of male Romanov line;
reigned 1727 to 1730
• Peter III
– Catherine III’s husband; reigned briefly in 1762
LOW PRIORITY ROYALTY
• Theodore
– Mary Miloslavskaia’s eldest son; died soon after
taking the throne in 1676
• Vasili Shuisky
– Deposed false heir during Time of Troubles; ruled
1606 to 1613
• Yuri
– Vasili I’s brother; contested Vasili I’s rule of
Moscow
12 Practices
• Appanage
– Distribution of smaller landholdings to princes who
did not inherit the throne
• Crop rotation
– Introduced in early Kievan Rus; increased crop yield
• Cyrillic
– Russia’s written language
• Dekulakization
– Stalin’s campaign to exterminate the kulaks
12 Practices
• Head tax
– A flat tax on citizens; introduced by Peter I
• Pocketbook voting
– Voting according to one’s economic wellbeing; helped
Putin win re-election
• Pogroms
– Anti-Semitic riots tolerated by the Russian state under
Alexander III
• Primogeniture
– Inheritance by the deceased’s eldest son
12 Practices
• Proportional representation
– Distribution of legislature seats according to party’s
share of the popular vote
• Rota system
– Gave royal siblings precedence over children in
matters of succession
• Russification
– Tsarist-era policy against non-Russians, forcing them
to adopt Russian culture
• Serfdom
– Bondage of peasants to feudal landowners
12 Lower Priority Officials
• Alexander Dubcek
– Czech party secretary; introduced reforms known as
Prague Spring in 1968
• Alexander Golitsyn
– Restricted freedom of thought and secularism in
universities under Alexander I
• Alexander Kerensky
– Succeeded Prince George Lvov as head of the
Provisional Government in 1917
• Anatoly Sobchak
– Mayor of St. Petersburg in the early 1990s
12 Lower Priority Officials
• Gustav Husak
– Czech leader after Soviet suppression of Prague
Spring; implemented normalization
• Lavr Kornilov
– Led an unsuccessful conservative coup against the
Provisional Government
• Lech Wałesa
– Leader of the Polish labor union Solidarity
• Nicholas Bukharin
– Moderate Bolshevik who supported continuing the
NEP after Lenin’s death
12 Lower Priority Officials
• Stanislaw Poniatowski
– King of Poland under whom Poland was partitioned
• Vaclav Havel
– Founded Czechoslovakia’s Charter 77 dissident
movement
• Vladimir Zhironovsky
– Founder of the Russian Federation’s Liberal
Democratic Party
• Władysław Gomulka
– Polish party secretary; suppressed protests in October
1956 without Soviet intervention
10 Uprisings to Know
• February 1917 Revolution
– Overthrow of the Russian monarchy; formation of
Provisional Government
• Confederation of Bar
– (1768) Polish revolt led by the nobility; provided
pretext for first partition of Poland
• Hungarian Revolution
– (1956) Protests against Soviet control; suppressed by
Soviet military
• July Days
• (1917) Failed popular uprising against the Provisional
Government
10 Uprisings to Know
• Nationalist movements
– (1917) Uprisings against new Bolshevik government; Finland and Baltic
states won independence
• October 1917 Revolution
– Overthrow of the Provisional Government
• Prague Spring
– (1968) Brief period of Czech liberalization under Alexander Dubcek;
ended by Soviet military
• Pugachev’s Rebellion
– (1773) Last major peasant uprising in Russia; led by Emelian Pugachev
• Revolution of 1905
– Popular protests that led to creation of a constitutional monarchy
• Revolutions of 1989
– Popular uprisings that overthrew communist regimes in eastern
Europe
12 RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS
• Anti-Corruption Council
– Medvedev initiative to prevent corrupt ties between businesses
and the state
• Central Planning Commission
– Gosplan; set production goals for Soviet Five-Year Plans
• Communist International
– Comintern; promoted international socialist revolution
• Federation Council
– Upper chamber of the Federal Assembly
• Holy Synod
– Established by Peter I; subordinated church to state oversight
• People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs
– NKVD; Stalin’s secret police that carried out the Great Purge
12 RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS
• Petrograd Soviet
– Workers’ council; undermined Provisional Government’s
authority
• State Duma
– Lower chamber of the Federal Assembly
• Soviet of Nationalities
– Upper house of the Soviet legislature
• Union Soviet
– Lower house of the Soviet legislature
• zemskii sobor
– Early Russian parliament; elected Michael Romanov as tsar in
1613
• Zemstvos
– Elected regional legislatures established by Alexander II
Important International Agreements
• Congress of Vienna
– (1814-15) Redrew European borders and preserved balance of
power after Napoleon’s defeat
• Cuban Missile Crisis
– (1962) Standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union
over Soviet missiles in Cuba
• Hague Peace Conference
– (1899) Established International Court of Justice; no progress on
European disarmament
• Marshall Plan
– (1947) American plan to aid post-war Europe; prompted Soviet
formation of Comecon
• Partition of Poland
– (1774-96) Agreement between Russia, Prussia, and Austria to
divide and annex Poland
Important International Agreements
• Strategic Arms Limitations Talks I
– (1969) Soviet-American negotiations reducing deployment
of missile launchers
• Strategic Arms Limitations Talks II
– (1979) Soviet-American negotiations reducing total nuclear
arsenals; never ratified
• Yalta Conference
– (February 1945) Allied leaders conference; Stalin granted
sphere of influence in eastern Europe
• Potsdam Conference
– (July 1945) Allied leaders conference; Soviet Union
demanded reparations from Axis powers