Land of
the Rus
St. Petersburg (est. 1703)
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B.C. – Early Slavic peoples occupied area from
St. Petersburg to Kiev
http://youtu.be/9r_WXKto268
Russia Land of the Czars 1 – 10 mis.
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9th. Century – Vikings conquered Novgorod and
Kiev, creating State of Rus
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11th. Century – Heavy trade with Constantinople (Istanbul); Byzantine culture and
Christianity introduced
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12th. Century – Moscow established, capital of Moscovy principality
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City assemblies – the veche – were the primary bodies of government.
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Princes were not all-powerful
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Decisions were made democratically by heads of families
http://youtu.be/haXaD6kuPSU
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Russia Land of the Czars 2 – 10 mis.
13th. Century – Mongols overrun Rus
 Animated map of the Mongol Empire
14th. Century – Kahn appoints Prince Ivan I of Moscovy (Moscow) Grandprince, to dominate and collect tribute from other areas
14th. Century – Prince Ivan II builds army against Mongols
 Son, Dmitry I, enjoys victories
 Mongols splinter info factions
15th. Century – Prince Ivan III defeats last of the Mongols
 By then the Rus – Russia – has split into three parts:
▪ Southeast – Pagan Lithuanians, eventually captured by Poland
▪ Northwest – Novgorod. Politically Kievan until overrun by Moscow
▪ Northeast – Dominated by Moscovy (Moscow)
http://youtu.be/R_MLYEQEkFI
Russia Land of the Czars 3 – 10 mis.
Ivan III takes on the unofficial title of Czar –
meaning Caesar
 Moscow becomes capital of Holy Russian Empire
 Moscow rebuilt, splendid churches and palaces
 Greater control exercised over serfs – limits placed on leaving for a new noble
 16th. Century – struggle in the Kremlin for supremacy
 1547, Ivan III’s grandson, Ivan IV crowned as Czar, a new official title
 Gains total power: conquers principalities, confiscates properties of nobles
 Moscovy expands, wages war, becomes an empire by conquest
 Ivan IV feels he is being betrayed, turns on top advisors, imprisons, tortures
and kills them. His reign of terror earns him the name “Ivan the Terrible.”
 Reign of terror costs many lives, weakens Russians, enables Mongols to sack
Moscow
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16th.
http://youtu.be/9ggZzZWVXzw
Late
Century – Russia loses Northern
Russia Land of the Czars 6 – 10 mis.
territories and access to Baltics in war with
Sweden
Famines, disease, widespread unrest; Moscovy in political/economic ruin
 Crown passes from one man to another, all are killed or deposed
17th. Century – In 1610 Sweden and Poland invade. Poles capture Moscow.
 Two years later a Russian militia of nobles and peasants retakes the city
 In 1613 Mikhail Romanov, 16, a distant relative of Ivan IV, is selected as the
new Czar
 Romanov family became a successful dynasty that lasts three centuries
Serfdom becomes part of social structure
 Lesser nobility – the “gentry” – fought the wars. It needs cheap labor
 Laws passed that bind peasants to their “masters” creates a class of slaves
Russia begins trading with the West, expands through conquest to the Pacific
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After succession of rulers, Peter I (Peter the Great)
becomes Czar
Self-image as a reformer, not a religious figure
Looks to West, not East.
 Introduces Western culture
 Wants commerce with the West and its technology
But Russia virtually landlocked
 To the North: Sweden and Poland block the Baltic
 To the South: Ottoman Empire (Turks) holds the
warm waters of the Black Sea
Forms armies, large-scale shipbuilding, creates Navy
Captures outlets to the Black seas, then the Baltic
Builds a new capital – St. Petersburg (1711)
Asserts self over Orthodox Church, becomes Emperor
Dies without naming an heir
http://youtu.be/Zfhe4BTp2-g
http://youtu.be/0k0O-zsJgrc
http://youtu.be/nD_I2nBB5RE
Russia Land of the Czars 7- 9 – 30 mis.
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Climate, agriculture and rural culture
Repression and use of force against the peasantry
Creation of a class of serfs
Expansionism, securing access to Baltic and Black seas
Militarism
Feelings of backwardness
Drive to advance culturally & economically
Czars’ paranoia and use of terror against top aides
Subjugation of Orthodox Church
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Consider how these and other factors, and their interplay, might have affected the
sociopolitical climate and set the stage for the 1917 Russian Revolution that
overthrew the Monarchy and installed a Communist regime
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As the term progresses, compare and contrast the behavior of the Czars with that of
Communist leaders
Throne wound up with an infant
 1741 – Elizabeth, Peter’s daughter, takes over in a coup
 Brings over German prince as heir-presumptive (Peter III)
 Brings over his second cousin, Sofia, 15, to be his wife
 Elizabeth dies in 1761; replaced by Peter III, pro-Prussian
http://youtu.be/Y7l08ARss4s
 One year later Sofia, renamed Catherine, seizes power
http://youtu.be/MSycdFcog5s
 Expands territory all the way to Alaska
Russia Land of the Czars 11, 12 – 20 mis.
 Golden Age – art, culture, science
 Reform – rule based on law, strengthen local governments, expand education
 Champions Age of Enlightenment, where reason rules
 Greatly welcomed by the elite, who saw her as one of them
 But “unity of culture” broken; gap between wealthy/educated and the peasantry
 Russia depends on slave labor – conflicts with newfangled notions of human
rights
 Catherine depends on nobility – the landowners, the aristocrats – to support
her military adventures, does not free the slaves
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http://youtu.be/8KVnYjamJmY
In the provinces the serfs grow restless
Russia Land of the Czars 13 – 10 mis.
 Demand end to taxation, military conscription
 Want to divide up land among themselves
Catherine forcibly puts down a major serf revolt
Russian expansion continues. Catherine captures Black Sea coast from the
Ottoman Empire (Turks), takes whole of Crimea in 1784
 Rule eventually stretches from Poland to Alaska
French Revolution of 1789 stirs up Europe; 1793, Louis XVI executed
Catherine realized the Enlightenment may be more than what she bargained
for.
 1796 – Catherine dies, son Paul I takes over. Is erratic and paranoid.
 1801 Paul I is assassinated. His son Alexander I takes over over.
1812 war with Bonaparte of France. Moscow burns, French retreat. 1814
Russia and European allies vanquish Bonaparte, enter Paris.
http://youtu.be/Izw29EJvv-g
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1825 – Alexander I dies, brother Nicholas takes over
Russia Land of the Czars 15 – 10 mis.
 Insists on an absolute monarchy.
Immediate revolt by military officers, “Decembrists,” who demand a Constitutional
Monarchy
 Nicholas I forcibly puts down the revolt, uses secret police to quell dissent
Russian elite embarrassed by material and political backwardness.
 Russia left out of industrial revolution
1853 – Crimean War - Russia attacks Ottoman Empire to control the Balkans and
Turkey
 England and France side with the Turks
 Modern tactics and technology –steamship, railroad, advanced arms – defeat the
Russians
1855 – Nicholas I dies. His son, Alexander II takes over.
http://youtu.be/8PFQ7Th_rAs
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Russia Land of the Czars 17 – 10 mis.
A realist, he concedes defeat in Crimea
Sets out to modernize Russian society, its economy and Army
 Creates Constitutional assembly, makes plans to share power through a
Parliament,
 Encourages trade, private property, commerce
 1861 – goes against the mobility to emancipate the serfs
Reforms legal codes (Act of 1864)
 Separation of powers
 Public trials
 Trial by jury
 Presentation of evidence
 Defense counsel
 Juries for nonpolitical offenses
Cont’d
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Despite Alexander II’s reforms, the economy
keeps deteriorating
 Serfs go into debt to buy land
“The People’s Will”
 Agricultural production plummets
 Poverty worsens
Conditions strengthen the hand of the Czar’s opponents
 More permissive security climate works to the regime’s disadvantage
1881 – “People’s Will”, a cell of educated terrorists, murders Alexander II in a
suicide bombing
Alexander’s son, Alexander III promptly hangs perpetrators, dials back
reforms
 abolishes plan for legislature, institutes repressions, relocates Jews to Pale
of Settlement
1887 – Discovery of plot against Alexander III leads to more hangings. One of
the executed is the brother of a youth who would later be known as Lenin.