Russia: a brief history
Introduction
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9000 km from East to West and 5000 from North to South
Ural mountains divide Russia into a European and Asian part
Population of about 143 million (3/4 live in the European part)
Moscow is the capital and the largest city
Russian is official language but many others in component parts
President is Dmitry Medvedev
Geography of Russia
• Area: 17,025,200 square km. Around twice the
size of the U.S.
• Climate: ranging from sub-arctic in Siberia to
humid in much of European Russia.
• Terrain: Low hills, steppe, forest, arctic tundra,
mountains….
• Despite its size, much of the country is either
too cold or the soil is too dry for agriculture.
In the beginning……
First came the
Slavs who settled
along the rivers of
Southern Russia
and the Ukraine
in the 6th Century.
The Vikings
Then came the
Vikings who in the
9th century
established the large
and powerful state of
‘Kievan Russia.’
Kievan Russia
• Free peasant farmers
• City dwellers
• Small ruling class of nobles & princes
• some slaves
• Traded with the Byzantine Empire from which
Russians learnt : skills, culture & religion –
Orthodox Christianity.
• 988 AD it became the official religion.
The Mongols
Then came the Mongols….In 1236 a vast Mongol horde
successfully invaded the Russian city states. For the next
240 years, the Russians were forced to pay tribute to the
Mongol khans.
Moscow’s rise to power
Moscow grew in power as the
chief tax collector for the
Mongols.
In the 14th Century, Moscow’s
Grand Prince led several other
cities in a battle to overthrow
the Mongols.
They were successful and this
marks the beginning of a
united Russia.
Ivan the Terrible (1533-84): Russia’s first tsar
Mother was poisoned when he was
7yrs old. Ivan developed a
dangerous paranoia.
Would throw live animals from the
palace towers for fun.
After his wife, Anastasia died, Ivan
developed a really nasty streak –
sentenced thousands to death,
would give detailed instructions on
how to torture victims so as to
‘recreate hell’.
Killed his own son in a fit of rage.
Then came a period of remorse.
Became a monk towards the end of his
life and prayed for the souls of his
victims.
The Romanov Rulers
Peter the Great (1682-1725)
Determined to make Russia
a modern European state.
Just about 2.3m tall.
Built a new city on the
boggy banks of the River
Neva and named it St
Petersburg.
In 1712 he declared this city
the new capital of Russia.
Catherine the Great (1762-96)
Overthrew her feeble husband
Peter III (who soon afterwards
died ‘in an accident’) and took
over the throne with the help of
her lover.
Russia became even more
powerful and prestigious during
her reign, gaining more land.
Turned St. Petersburg into one of
the most impressive European
capitals.
Story of her death is shrouded in
myth and mystery. It definitely
did not involve a horse although
she may have been on the toilet.
Last of the Romanovs
Tsar Alexander II: a ‘great reformer’ although still
disliked by others. Abolished serfdom. Ended up
being blown up by a bomb.
Tsar Alexander III: tall, mean, liked a drink, and
drank himself to death.
Tsar Nicholas II, last Tsar, he and his family
executed in October Revolution, 1917.
Revolutionary Movements 1800s
• Mainly from western educated elite
• Various attempts to overthrow tsar failed –
severe punishment.
• 1840s & esp. after 1860: most revolutionaries
wanted a socialist govt.
• Economy in hands of the people
• Against constitutional democracy
• 1881 Tsar assassinated- no peasantry
involvement
1880s
• Ideas of Karl Marx:
• No socialist rev. until capitalism had
developed, industry built, so that a new
class of workers-factory workers =the
proletariat became the majority.
• 1890s. Organised small groups of
Marxists= Social Democrats
• 1903 national party: Mensheviks,
Bolsheviks
• Mensheviks- Russia should follow Western
European socialist parties(democratically
run party)
• Bolsheviks (followed tradition of Russian
revolutionaries): tightly run & organised
group of prof. revs. who would order the
proletariat, take charge of rev. Led by
Vladimir Ulyanov- Lenin.
1905 Revolution
• “ Bloody Sunday” Set off by peasants,
workers’ strikes, business people &
professionals, along with mutinies by the
armed forces
• St. Petersburg workers formed a council=
“soviet” to run the strike
• Oct. 30, 1905. Tsar Nicholas II relented, est. a
parliament Duma, first ever
• Basic civil rights for people & limited powers
to the parliament
• Then Tsar hunted down the revolutionariesfled overseas
Work of Duma
Legislation to improve people’s life:
Laws to protect factory workers
Education expanded
A progamme to improve peasants’ life; free to
move & aid to improve farms
• BUT TSAR still had a lot of power:
• 1. could appoint & fire all ministers
• 2. Control over foreign policy & military
budget
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Powers of the Tsar
• TSAR still had a lot of power:
• 1. could appoint & fire all ministers
• 2. Control over foreign policy & military
budget
• 3. Veto all legislation & manipulate
parliament with other powers he had
retained
• Most Russians very poor. Time needed for
reforms to be completed
1914 WWI
• Russia suffered , not able to withstand a
modern German army
• Late 1914-1917: > 8 million soldiers killed,
wounded, or captured
• Civilians could not find basic nec. for
survival
• MARCH 1917 demos. in Petrograd
supported by workers & soldiers
February 1917 Revolution
Started with protests about food shortages in St.
Petersburg. Russia was doing very badly in World
War I. Ended with the Tsar abdicating and the start
of a new Russian Parliament.
Problems
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Economy
Backwardness
What direction to take in the future
Shortage of FOOD!
General Institutions of Communist Regime
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Single Party State System
Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Central Planned Economy
Abolishment of Private Property Rights
Collectivisation
Universal Public Programs
Surveillance System
Strong Military Unit under Party Control
Provisional Government
Unable to control the armed forces
Thwarted by the Bolsheviks
Petrograd Soviet in charge
Lenin decided to overthrow Prov.
Govt.
• Autumn 1917: WWI still going onunpopular
• November 6-7, 1917 Bolsheviks
grabbed power
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October 1917 Revolution
Lenin and the Bolshevik
Party seized power after
storming the Winter
Palace.
Bolshevik Dictatorship:
Lenin
Trotski
Stalin
Nov. 8, 1917
• Land decree- confiscated landlords’ estates
& church lands to hand over to peasant
committees.
• Peace neg. with Germany- Treaty of
Litovsk: Russia had to cede a lot of
territory to Germany & left the Allies (GB,
Fr, US) to negotiate on their own with
Germany
Cheka: secret police. Arrests
& execution w/o trial.
After a long and bloody
civil war 1918-1920, the
Bolsheviks (now the
Communist Party) took
complete control of
Russia, or the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republic.
They were inspired by the
ideas of Karl Marx and
claimed that they would
establish a state in which
power and wealth would
be held by the masses and
not the few.
One party dictatorship- crushed all opponents, no nonBolsheviks in govt.
NEP: New Economic Policy
• Peasants allowed to sell food on
the open market
• Many factories & businesses
returned to private ownership
• Govt. controlled :factories, railroads, mines
• Widespread and rapid economic recovery
• Food supplies replenished in 2 years
Lenin’s Legacy 1917-1924
• Successfully
overthrew the
Tsar Empire, first
communist
country.
• Successfully
improved Russian
economy by
adopting New
Economic Policy
A popular joke set-up is Lenin interacting with the
head of the secret police, Dzerzhinsky in the Smolny
Institute, seat of the revolutionary communist
government in Petrograd, or with khodoki, peasants
that came to see Lenin.
During the famine of the
civil war, a delegation of
starving peasants comes to
the Smolny, wishing to file a
petition. "We have even
started eating the grass like
horses," says one peasant.
"Soon we will start neighing
like horses!" "Come on!
Don't worry!" says Lenin
reassuringly. "We are
drinking tea with honey
here, and we are not
buzzing like bees, are we?"
Lenin’s death
Lenin had a series of strokes and
died in 1924.
In his will, he warned of the
dangers of letting power fall
into the hands of one particular
man…
Josef Stalin (“Uncle Joe” to the
Americans)
Born Josef
Vissarionovich
Djugashvili.
During the
Revolution he
named
himself Stalin:
“man of steel”.
“A loveable rogue” who completely
transformed Russian life and was largely
responsible for the deaths of millions of
Russians.
Stalin’s purges
1922-1953
400, 000
Suspected critics or opponents (army officers,
revolutionaries, peasants, landowners, intelligentsia) ,
or anyone that Stalin didn’t like the look of were
systematically rounded up and executed.
Class
struggle
Social
unrest
Regional
conflicts
Or, if they were lucky, they were sent to a
Siberian labour camp for maybe 10 or 20
years.
Collective farming
Stalin’s policy was to organise farms into collective
units which would ‘feed the state’. This turned into a
disaster and he was responsible for one of the
biggest man-made famines in history.
Generalissimo Stalin
Stalin stayed in power
through a mixture of
propaganda, terror,
and genuine devotion
from some Russians.
He attained god-like
status particularly
after defeating the
Nazis in World War II.
Cult of Personality
Made Time Magazine’s Man
of the Year in 1942
for holding the Nazis at bay.
Although true this showed
how little Americans actually
knew of Stalin. They thought
his methods
tough but fair.
Stalin Joke
• "Comrade Stalin! This man is your exact
double!"
• "Shoot him!“
• "Maybe we should shave off his moustache?“
• "Good idea! Shave it off and then shoot
him!".
Stalin Joke no. 2
• Stalin reads his report to the Party
Congress. Suddenly someone sneezes.
"Who sneezed?" (Silence.) "First row! On
your feet! Shoot them!" (Applause.) "Who
sneezed?" (Silence.) "Second row! On your
feet! Shoot them!" (Long, loud applause.)
"Who sneezed?" (Silence.) ... A dejected
voice in the back: "It was me" (Sobs.) Stalin
leans forward: "Bless you, comrade!"
Nikita Khrushchev1958-1964
After his death,
Khrushchev, his successor,
denounced some of
Stalin’s policies at a
communist party
congress.
Revisionist Khrushchev 1953-1964
• Labeled Stalin as Cult of Personality,
began de-Stalinisation *
• Could not attempt reform without
opposition
• As he didn’t have a power base like Stalin
De-Stalinisation
• 1954 Released labour camp prisoners
• 1956-7: closed labour camps, more release of
prisoners
• Eased censorships for writers & artists
• Raised standard of living by increasing food
supply; new housing
• Improved relations with the West & US, toured
1959
• 1955 Withdrew occupation forces from Austria
• 1963 Signed agreement with US banning above
ground nuclear testing
Krushchev
(cont.)
• But in 1961 Berlin
Wall built
• 1962 Cuban Missile
Crisis
Krushchev (cont.)
• Space Race:
1957 Sputnik I, first artificial satellite
first man to orbit Earth
first man to spacewalk
first woman in space
first rocket to hit the moon
First man in Space: Yuri Gagarin
Krushchev’s failures & the end of
reforms
• 1. impatience
• 2. commitment to Soviet’s policies, eg,
collectivisation
• 3. failures in F.P. (Foreign Policy)
• 4. Opposition from those who would lose their
positions if K. continued his reforms. (1962- K.
wanted to reorganise the C.P. but many
opposed this.)
Krushchev (cont.)
• He failed to reform Stalin’s institutions
• Left economy tightly controlled by the govt. &
inefficient
• Secret police was still part of daily life, KGB
• These problems would be left unaddressed for
2 decades.
Why was Khrushchev deseated? —
Because of the Seven "C"s: Cult of
personality, Communism, China,
Cuban Crisis, Corn, and Cuzka's
mother
In Russian this is the seven "K"s. To "show
somebody Kuzka's mother" is a Russian idiom
meaning "to give somebody a hard time".
Khrushchev had used this phrase during a
speech at the United Nations General Assembly
referring to the Tsar Bomba test over Novaya
Zemlya.
Leonid Brezhnev 1964-1982
• Stabilty & Stagnation
Technocrat Brezhnev 1964-1982
• The “happiest time” for Russians in the
20th century.
• Russia peaked its highest status in
international game.
• Lack of reforms also symbolised this
decade. It seeds the decline of the Empire.
• Brezhnev Doctrine: labeled the revival of
Soviet Power and its hostility toward the
international society (and its own decline)
Brezhnev
• Clamp down on intellectuals
• Raised std. of living
• Strengthened USSR’s security by catching
up with US in arms race, & reduced tension
with US. Mid-1970s relations with US
good.
• Reforms failed as party élite were left
untouched
Brezhnev
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1979
Relations with US down, arms build up .
Invasion of Afghanistan
Dissidents
Economy stalled
Brezhnev died Nov. 1982
Photograph by: Wally McNamee, 1973
Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev eyes actress Jill
St. John at a poolside reception hosted by President Nixon
in California.
Leonid Brezhnev and Erich
Honecker
Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker
After the Wall fell in 1989
One of the greatest kisses in History is the
one that took place between communist
leaders Erich Honneker from East Germany,
and Brezhnev from Soviet Union, during the
30th Anniversary of the GDR in June 1979.
Despite the controversy and ridicule arisen in
the West, this was actually a common sign of
socialist solidarity, very used since
Khrushchev era. It seems, moreover, that
both leaders were very keen on kissing.
Andropov 1982-1983
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Chernenko
from 1983 to 1985.
• "What is the main difference of succession
under tsarist regime and under socialism?"
"Under tsarist regime the power transferred
from father to a son, and under socialism from one grandfather to another." (A
wordplay: 'grandfather' in Russian is
traditionally used in a sense of 'old man')
Gorbachev 1985-1991
The final 50 years in
a nutshell
Russia remained part of a
huge ‘Communist empire’
ruling large parts of Eastern
Europe during the cold war.
By the late 1980’s the cracks
were beginning to show and
in 1991 the Communist
system collapsed, bringing
in a new era of capitalism to
Russia.
Rise of a Superpower
Leaders
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Lenin 1917-1924
Stalin 1924-1953
Khrushchev 1953-1964
Brezhnev 1964-1982
Andropov 1982-1984
Chernenko 1984-1985
Gorbachev 1985-1991
Yelstin 1991-2000
Putin 2000-2008
Medvedev 2008- present
Putin again??