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Historical Geography
Slides for October 15, 2013
GEOG 433
Figure 6.1 Territorial Expansion, Blinnikov, p. 69.
Expansion of Russian Empire
(Lydolph)
Fig. 1.4 A macrogeography of
Russian imperialism
Fig. 1.12 European Russia:
changing frontiers to 1939,
sea access
Invaders 240-1945
Fig. 1.5 Territorial Expansion
of Moskovite & Russian states
Expansion by Centuries
Expansion of Russian Empire
Emperial “glues”
• Ostrogs as nucleation points for development
• Empire diffusion elements:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Political (tsarists) control
Bureaucracy
Religion
Language
Customs
These features served as core features of USSR’s claim to be
an Asian nation
Historical Geography #1
• Spatial diffusion processes –geopolitical gluing together of
Russia
• Geopolitical glue:
• a) military-political influence and control
• b) political and economic institutions
• c) transportation networks
• d) language
• e) culture
Historical Geography #2
Historical / Geographic Questions:
What were/are sources of the binding agents?
Why did spatial diffusion take certain directions rather than
others at certain times and not others?
How and why the political controls were established with
such diffusions?
What modifications were there in indigenous cultures and
sociopolitical institutions as a result of the successful
dissemination of new geopolitical control agents?
Historical Geography #3
early “pre-Rus / Russian” centers of civilization
1) Central Asia
2) Transcaucasia
3) around Black Sea littoral regions (Hellenic settlements)
First Russian State - around current location of Kiev
8th Century A.D. Slavic speaking, migrated from Dnieper, Volkhov and
upper Volga basins, eastward and northward from the Carpathian
regions.
Early 9th Century, invading Norse traders, or Varangians
began settling among the Slavs along Volkhov-Dnieper axis
both groups interested in trade and needed protection from marauding
steppe nomads
Rus (or Russia) with origin capital of Novgorod, replaced by Kiev in 882.
Waterways of
European
Russia/USSR
Historical Geography #4
Environmental settlement factors for Kiev:
1) high right bank of Dnieper
2) important strategic location from Baltic to Constantinople
3) trade in furs, amber, honey, salt, slaves to Byzantium,
4) return trade textiles, fruit, wine, gold
5) Kiev situated near forest - steppe boundary
6) Slavs first hunters, trappers, apiarists, then shifting
cultivation
7) cereal growing on steppes
8) location good for conquest,
9) confederation of loose, linear city-state principalities
10)penetration of Eastern Orthodox Christianity from
Constantinople was important “glue”
11) St. Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 AD
Growth
of the
Russian
(Europe
an)
Empire
Historical Geography #5
Rapid eclipse of Kiev after death of Vladimir’s successor Yaroslavl in 1054
Partition of Kiev among Yaroslav’s sons
Family feud led to independent political units - Vladimir,
Suzdal, Tver (Kalinin), and Moskovy (Moscow) of upper
Volga principality of Vladimir-Suzdal.
Novgorod obtained self-government from Kievan Russia in
997, complete independence in 1136.
Kiev - in 1169 raiding party from Suzdal sacked Kiev.
Problems for Kiev- Volga Bulgars to the east, marauding
Polovtsi to the south, Khazars and Pechenegs to the
southeast become increasingly troublesome
Historical Geography #6
13th Century – invasion of Mongols or Tatars – marked final eclipse of
Kievan Russia.
After Mongol conquest, indigenous population scattered basically along
2 exodus routes.
1)West and northwest to Poland and Lithuania
2)North and northwest to the headwaters of the Volga
First group successfully escaped subjugation of Tatars, but fell easy
victims to Lithuanian and Polish expansion after 1240.
Second group – safe from regular incursion by nomads, Upper Volga
region had extremely well-linked natural transportation network, Valday
Hills northwest of Moscow are the headwaters region for the rivers that
drain into the White, Baltic, Black, and Caspian areas,
Radial drainage pattern played no small part in Moscow’s rise to
prominence.
Historical Geography #7
Moscow, first mentioned in 1147 at a time that it was within the
principality of Vladimir-Suzdal,
Less congenial environment than Kiev – poorer soils, heavy forest
requiring clearing for agriculture, swampy land, much more severe
climate, BUT inhospitable environment ironically increased security of
the areas.
Possible, plausible reasons for Moscow rise to dominance
1) Moscow’s location near the hub of the radial drainage
network meant that it had a “High connectivity” value
2) it seems the early Moscow princes were strong and clever
politicians – a) they collected Tatar tribute from the other Russian cities
and principalities, thus Tatar Yoke rested lightly on Moscow.
3) having gained Mongol’s favor, Moscow princes were made
the sovereign princes of all Russia
4) the Metropolitan of the Orthodox church moved from
Vladimir to Moscow in 1310, this signaled the decline of one of
Moscow’s strongest rivals
Historical Geography #8
Important date – 1453, after the fall of Constantinople to
the Turks, Moscow became the Third Rome
Even though Moscow considered herself as belonging to
Europe, later events set Russia off on a very different
historical path.
i.e., various theological, philosophical, and intellectual
currents, often referred to as scholasticism, the
Renaissance, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation,
and Reason & Enlightenment – which greatly impacted
Europe drawing their Christianity from Rome, but only
touched the ruling elite of Russia, as orthodoxy and
autocracy went hand-in-hand until the Bolshevik revolution.
Question – could the fall of Constantinople perhaps be the
origin of many east-west dichotomies/conflicts?