The Russian Empire
In Russia…
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There are:
– 90 different ethnic or cultural groups
– 80 different languages spoken
– 11 different time zones
– Coasts on three oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and
Arctic)
Russia’s Geography
Geographically the largest country in the
world
 Ural Mountains in the west
 Siberian Plains (sleeping land)
 Few bodies of warm water
 Frozen tundra near Arctic Circle
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Russia
Siberian Plains
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Taiga is the Russian word
for forest
The average temperature
is below freezing for six
months out of the year.
The winter temperature
range is -65 to 30° F.
Temperature range in the
summer gets as low as 20° F. The high in
summer can be 70° F.
Siberian Plains
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Covers 75% of Russia’s
land mass
Most of Siberia is covered
by permafrost or taiga
and is uninhabitable (2/3
of the population lives in
Western Russia)
Includes Lake Baikal, the
deepest and cleanest lake
in the world
Siberian Plains
Climate
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Largely a continental climate
– Hot summers
– Cold winters
– Little rainfall
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European Russia is more maritimecontinental under the influence of the
Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, and the
Black Sea
The Russian Empire
Mongols from eastern Asia conquered and ruled
Russia from the 13th to the 15th centuries
 In 1547 a 16-year-old, Ivan IV, was named czar;
he became known as Ivan the Terrible
 During Ivan the Terrible’s reign, as well as
following czars, Russia had an unlimited
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government
– Form of government in which a single ruler
holds all the power
Conflicts at Home
The Russian czars were often in conflict
with Russian nobles
 Nobles possessed much land and wealth
 Czars viewed the nobles as a threat to
their control
 Ivan the Terrible ordered his soldiers to
murder Russian nobles and church leaders
who opposed him
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The Expansion of Russia
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Peter the Great
– Ruled from 1682 to 1725
– Defeated Sweden and won
land along the Baltic Sea
– Built a port city: St.
Petersburg
– Used ideas and innovations
of the Industrial Revolution
to modernize and
strengthen Russia
– Did not improve life for
peasants
The Expansion of Russia
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Catherine the Great
– Ruled from 1762 to 1796
– Added new lands, including
present-day Ukraine and
Belarus
– Started new schools and
encouraged art, science,
and literature
– Lives of peasants continued
to be unpleasant and when
the rebelled in the 1770s
Catherine crushed their
uprising
A Divided Russia
In the 19th century most people were poor
and most wealth belonged to the nobles,
dividing the country
 Led to conflict and eventually political
revolution

The Nobles
Sent their children to
be educated in
Germany and France
 Were army officers or
government officials
 Supported the czar
and were proud of
Russia’s growing
power
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The Serfs
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Had no land or money of their
own
Worked on farms owned by
others and received little
government help
In 1861, Alexander II decided
to end serfdom, hoping this
would help his country
compete with Western Europe
Had to pay heavy taxes and
the land they were given the
land given to them was not
good for farming
Bloody Sunday
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University students,
artists, and writers
believed that the
treatment of the serfs
was unfair
Workers in Russian cities
complained about low
pay and poor working
conditions
These groups banded
together and tried to
overthrow the
government
Bloody Sunday
In 1905 a group of workers marched to
the royal palace in St. Petersburg with a
list of demands
 Government troops shot many of them
 As news of this spread across Russia,
citizens became even angrier with the
government and czar
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The End of the Russian Empire
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In 1914 World War I
began
Nicholas II tried to avoid
joining the war, but failed
Russia’s allies included
the U.K. and France
suffered terrible losses
while fighting Germany
and its allies
During the war there
were food shortages in
the cities and workers
went on strike
The End of the Russian Empire
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Workers went on strike
Russian revolutionaries
organized the workers
against the czar
Even the army turned
against the czar, and in
1917 Nicholas was forced
to give up power
The overturning of the
Russian monarchy is
known as the Russian
Revolution
The End of the Russian Empire
Nicholas II and the royal family were
imprisoned by the revolutionaries
 On July 17, 1918 they were executed
 This ended more than 300 years of rule by
the Romanov family and nearly 400 years
of the czarist rule
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