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Kiev – established by Vikings
Strong Byzantine influences
Conquered by Mongols in late 1230’s
Princes of Muscovy worked with
Mongols to gain power
• Ivan III (the Great) stopped tribute to
Mongols in 1480
• Ivan III established strong centralized
government
• Married niece of last Byzantine emperor –
took title of Czar (Tsar)
• Adopted Byzantine double-headed eagle
as state emblem
• Adopted pomp and ceremony of Byzantine
court – called Russia “Third Rome”
• Ivan III absorbed independent Novgorod
(tied to Poland-Lithuania) into new state
• To settle new territories, Ivan III used free
peasant pioneers (Cossacks)
• Cossacks played large role in the
expansion of Russia
• Focus of expansion was to the east - Furs
The Cossacks
The Growth
of Russia
from 1300
to 1584
• Russia- Early Contact with the West
Western merchants established trade
contacts
Italian artists & architects imported for
royal and church buildings
Russia looked to the West as example
for court life
Russia selectively copied Western
culture / commerce
• Competition with
nobility (Boyars)
for power
• Czar took on role
as head of church
• Struggle with
Boyars reached
climax under rule
of Ivan IV
Ivan IV
• Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
Began rule at age 16
Married into Romanov Boyar clan
Suspected Boyars of killing his wife
Threatened to abdicate unless given
power to deal with Boyars and gain land
called Oprichnina (“land apart”)
• Ivan IV broke up estates of Boyars
• Created new aristocratic class called
Oprichniki
• Used Oprichniki to terrorize
population
• Depredations made Russia weak –
open to outside invasions
• Ivan turned on Oprichniki
• Ivan IV died (1584) leaving no heir
• Civil War ensued along with outside
invasions
• Mikhail Romanov elected Czar in
1613
• Romanovs would rule to 1917
Ivan cradles his dead son
• Peter the Great
 Peter developed
fascination for Western
technology
 Took throne in 1689
 Established a policy of
rapid and forced
modernization and
Westernization
 Copied many aspects
of Western military
Peter the Great
 Established the “Table of Ranks,”
permitting nobles to move ahead based on
merit
 Abolished the Terem, the Russian
equivalent of the harem
 Encouraged the mixing of the sexes in
towns and cities
 1703 - built new capital on the Baltic Sea,
St. Petersburg
• Russia and the West
Peter adopted only that which did not
interfere with the autocratic state
Westernization caused hostility on part
of the populace
Russia would continue love-hate
relationship with the West
• Catherine the Great
 Married Peter III
 Peter murdered –
Catherine succeeded to
throne as Catherine II
(1762 – 1796)
 Ruled with support of
nobility and military
 Selective
Westernization –
interested in the
Enlightenment
Catherine II (the Great)
Continued expansion of Russia into
the Crimea and Siberia
Partitioned Poland – Poland not free
again until 1918
Absorbed large Jewish population
Enacted harsh policies on treatment
of serfs
Russian Expansion 1700 to 1741
• Expansion east brought contact with
Ottomans and Safavids
• Took control of Georgia, Azerbaijan,
and Armenia
• Cossacks conducted campaign
against ethnic peoples of Siberia
(American west?)
Russia COT 1450-1750
• In Russia 1450-1750, the centralization
against the Mongols led to the development
of the absolutist monarchy of the tsars and
the “Westernization” campaign of gaining
territory including the essential warm water
ports. Feudalism, however, would be
increasingly cemented by Russian forces to
gain furthered agricultural productivity.
• Labor
 Serfs could be bought and sold
 A law code in 1649 imposed rigid caste-like
structure over Russia’s labor force
 It restricted both their occupational and their
geographical mobility
 Artisans and merchants had to register their
children into their father’s occupation
 It also established a hierarchy of nobles,
making 52 Boyar families the top class
Industrialization began under Peter
the Great
Factory owners could buy serfs,
prostitutes, beggars, criminals, and
orphans
Despite the emphasis put on
industry, Russia’s factories never
rivaled those of Europe
Russia COT 1450-1750
Changes
Continuities
St. Petersburg (Window to the West)
warm water port
Tsars centralized Absolute authority
Women interacting with men in cities,
removal of Tarem, Catherine
enlightened despot
Westernization campaign- removal
beards, development of gunpowder
weaponry, table of ranks, first navy
Campaign of “eastward” imperialism by
Cossaks led to destruction of indigenous
populations
Moscow still politically, economically
and culturally important
Role of Orthodox church
Still patriarchal
Harsh punishment of serfs
Jews in pogroms
feudalism persitsed
Still predominantly agricultural
Furs still important revenue