1450-1750
Originally created by Ms. Susan M. Pojer Horace
Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
Topography of Russia
Rich Soil of the Steppes
Chernozen Soil and Population Triangle
Three Themes
in Russian History
 The necessity of a strong,
central government. Why?
 Struggle to embrace or
scorn relations with West.
 Expansion by Conquest
Need for warm water
ports
History of Russia
• First East Slavic StateKievan Rus in 988
• Don, Dneiper, and the Volga
• Byzantine and Slavic mixture
• Mongol invasions in the
1230’s
• Rise of Novgorod and Pskov
to inherit cultural and
political legacy of Kievan
Rus
Early Russia
Early Byzantine Influences:
Orthodox Christianity
Early Byzantine Influences:
Orthodox Christianity
Early Byzantine Influences:
Cyrillic Alphabet
History of Russia timeline
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Volga Bulgaria 7th-13th c.
Kievan Rus 9th-12th c.
Novgorod Republic 12th -14th c.
Mongol Invasion 1220-1240’s
Golden Horde 1240’s -1480’s
Muscovy 1340-1547 (Tribute State)
Khanate of Kazan 1438-1552
Tsardom of russia 1547-1721
Russian Empire 1721-1917
Novgorod
Novgorod or “New City”
• City-State
• Control from Estonia
to Ural Mts.
• Shared power with
boyars
• Not sacked by Mongols
by tribute levied
• Remained vital until
Ivan III and became part
of Muscovy
• Sacked by Ivan IV and
thousands killed
• Famine decimated city
later
Russian Boyars
Russian Expansion
The Mongols Invade Russia
Rise of Muscovy
1340-1547
Grand Duchy
• Daniil Aleksandrovich,
youngest son of Alexander
Nevsky founded principality of
Moscow by “expelling” the
Tatars (Mongol) from Moscow
• Collected tribute from
Russian principalities
• By mid 14th C, power of
Mongols was declining and
Grand princes began to oppose
Mongol yoke
Ivan III
r. 1440-1505
Grand Prince of Moscow
and "Grand Prince of all
Rus”
Sometimes referred to as
the "gatherer of the Russian
lands”
tripled the territory of his
state, ended the dominance
of the Golden Horde over
the Rus
renovated the Moscow
Kremlin, and laid the
foundations of the Russian
state.
He was one of the longestreigning Russian rulers in
history
Ivan III, the Great (1462-1505)
• In the 15th C, grand princes of
Moscow continued to increase
land,population, and wealth
• Laid foundations of Russian
national state
• Fall of Constantinople and
emergence of New Rome and seat of
Orthodox Christianity
• Proclaimed his absolute
sovereignty over all Russian
princes and nobles
• Refused further tribute to Tatars
Ivan the Great (r. 1462-1505)
Ivan III Tearing the Great Khan’s Letter Requesting
More Tribute in 1480.
Ivan III, The Great
• Divided into khanates and hordes
• Manor system and creation of
expanding military control
• Ivan III forced lesser princes to
accept him and his successors as
unquestioned rulers over military,
judicial, and foreign affairs
• Gradually, Russian ruler emerged as
a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar
or Ceasar
Cathedral of the Assumption
• Rise of Orthodoxy
and cathedral to
Virgin Mary
• Pays off Tatars
• Third Rome
• Western built
technology
• Independent Russia
• Many churches in
Eastern Europe
built
The Rise of Russia
Ivan IV r.1533-1584*
• Ivan IV Vasilyevichthe Grand Prince
of Moscow from
1533 to 1547
• His long reign saw
the conquest of
Tartary and Siberia
and the subsequent
transformation of
Russia into a
multiethnic state.
Tsardom of Russia
• First Russian ruler
to officially
crown himself
“Tsar” was Ivan IV
(The Terrible)
• 1547-1584-Tzar
not Prince
• Subordination of
nobles, exiling
many, and executing
many
• Enduring legacies
both positive and
negative
Cathedral of the Intersession
• St. Basil’s
Cathedral
• Mark victory
over the Khazan
Khanate
• 8 days of battle
• Onion domes
• Expansion of
Russian power
Russia in the Late 1500s
Ivan “The
Terrible”
(r. 1533-1584)
Ivan IV r. 1533-1584
• complex personality; described as intelligent
and devout, yet given to rages and prone to
episodic outbreaks of mental illness.
• One notable outburst may have resulted in
the death of his groomed and chosen heir Ivan
Ivanovich, which led to the passing of the
Tsardom to the younger son: the weak and
possibly intellectually disabled Feodor
• Although his name is usually written in
English as Ivan the Terrible, its original
meaning is closer to "Redoubtable" or
"Severe" and carries connotations of might,
power and strictness rather than horror or
cruelty
The “Time of Troubles”
• Russian Inquisition left thousands dead
• Rampant famine, grass, cannibalism?
• Ivan IV murdered his son and daughter-inlaw who was carrying his grandson
• No true successor to crown
• Internal chaos attracts Polish-Lithuanian
intervention and installment of “tsars”
• Between 1598-1610, Six different “tsars”
• Vast lands acquired under Ivan III lost
• Who will unit the Lands of the Rus?
The Rise of the
Romanovs
1613-1917
The Romanovs
• New Dynasty must restore peace and
reclaim lost lands from PolishLithuanian commonwealth and Sweden
• Boyars fearing civil war and loss of
lands cooperated with the first
Romanovs
• Enserfment of peasants
• Great burden of taxation placed on
peasants
• All segments of population were
subject to military and special taxes
Michael Romanov
(r. 1613-1645)
c
The Romanov Dynasty is established in 1613
c
The only Russian royal family  lasted for 304 years!
Romanov Dynasty
(1613-1917)
Look
Familar?
Romanov Family Crest
Romanov Dynasty
(1613-1917)
The Romanovs
• Many peasant uprisings and
riots most notably the
Cossacks
• Peasants becomes serfs aka
slaves to the nobles for life
• Harsh centralization of state
• Tsar’s army crushed many of the
uprisings and “examples” were
made of those who rebelled
against the state
The Pendulum
of Russian History
Pro-West
For Progress & Change
Encourage New Ideas,
Technologies, etc.
Anti-West
Isolationist
Xenophobic
Ultra-Conservative
 A few Tsars
 Most Tsars
 Intellectual elites
 Russian Orthodox
Church
 Merchants/businessmen
 Young members of the
middle class.
 Military
 Boyars
 peasants
REFORM-MINDED
LEADER
DEMAGOGUE
Alexis r. 1645-1676
• son of Tsar
Michael
• committed to the
care of the boyar
Boris Morozov
• accessible to
Western ideas
• Salt riots of
1648
Alexis r. 1645-1676
• Pacificatory Practices
• Secured a truce with
Poland and carefully
avoided Ottoman Empire
• Domestic policy was fair
and aimed at relieving the
public burdens by
limiting the privileges of
foreign traders
• Abolished a great many
“useless and expensive”
court offices
Feodor III r. 1676-1682
• eldest surviving son of Tsar Alexis succeeded
his father on the throne
• Fine intellect and a noble disposition
• Received an excellent education, knew Polish,
and even Latin
• Horribly disfigured and half paralyzed by a
mysterious disease, supposed to be scurvy
• He spent most of the time with young nobles,
Yazykov and Likhachov, who would later
introduce the Russian court to Polish
ceremonies, dress, and language
Feodor III
• Fyodor married a
second time
Marfa Matveievna
Apraksina but
Feodor died
three months
after his new
wedding,
• News of his death
sparked the
Moscow Uprising
of 1682
Moscow Uprising of 1682
• Sophia Alekseyevna made
herself regent during
the minority of her
brothers, Peter the
Great and Ivan V
• Attempting to become a
Tsarevna
• Behind the uprising was
the rivalry between the
relatives of the two
wives of the late Tsar
Alexis I of Russia for the
dominant influence on
the politics of Muscovy
• Ivan V and Peter I were
half-brothers
Streltsy Mutiny
Young Peter watching
Uncle dragged away
Imperial Russia
Peter I to Nicholas II
1682-1917
Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725)
Co-tsar with
Ivan V from
1682-1696
Power wielded
By Ivan V’s
Elder Sister
Sophia Alekseyevna
Became sole ruler
Upon Ivan V’s death
At age 29
Peter I, the Great
• Consolidated autocracy in
Russia and brought country
into European state system
• Largest state in the world
from Baltic to Pacific Ocean
• Window to the sea and the
Great Northern War
• New Capital, St. Petersburg, a
window opened to Europe to
replace the cultural center of
Moscow
Russia Under Peter I
Peter Cuts the Beards of
His Boyars
Execution of the StreltsyRebellion of Western Reforms
Azov Wars against Turks
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Two Russian military campaigns
during the Russo-Turkish War
of 1686–1700, led by Peter
the Great and aimed at
capturing the Turkish fortress
of Azov (garrison - 7,000 men),
which had been blocking
Russia's access to the Azov Sea
and the Black Sea.
Since the Crimean campaigns of
1687 and 1689 had failed
because of the difficulty of
moving a large army across the
steppe, Peter decided to try a
river approach
Birth of Russian Navy
First of Many Russo-Turkish
Wars
Battle of Poltava (1709)
Victory over
Swedish
Forces
Great
Northern
War
Beginning of
Swedish
Decline
Dneiper River
In modernday
Ukraine
Russia & Sweden After the
Great Northern War
Peter I
• Soon after peace was made with Sweden, he
was officially proclaimed Emperor of All
Russia. Some proposed that he take the title
Emperor of the East
• Peter's imperial title was recognized by
Augustus II of Poland, Frederick William I of
Prussia, and Frederick I of Sweden, but not by
the other European monarchs.
• In the minds of many, the word emperor
connoted superiority or pre-eminence over
kings. Several rulers feared that Peter
would claim authority over them, just as the
Holy Roman Emperor had claimed over all
Christian nations
Succession Line
• Peter the Great had two wives, with whom he had
fourteen children; three of them survived to
adulthood.
• His eldest child and heir, Alexei, was suspected of
being involved in a plot to overthrow the Emperor.
Alexei was tried and confessed under torture during
questioning conducted by a secular court.
• He was convicted and sentenced to be executed. The
sentence could be carried out only with Peter's signed
authorization, and Alexei died in prison, as Peter
hesitated before making the decision. Alexei's death
most likely resulted from injuries suffered during his
torture
Peter I
• New taxes to fund
improvements in Saint
Petersburg
• Abolished the land tax and
household tax, and
replaced them with a poll
tax
• Compulsory educationdictated that all Russian
10- to 15-year-old children
of the nobility, government
clerks, and lesser-ranked
officials, must learn basic
mathematics and geometry,
and should be tested on it
at the end of their studies
Russian Empire
• Peter I took the title of emperor and tsar
and the Russian Tsardom officially became
the Russian Empire in 1721
• Government organized on Western models
• Died in 1725 and led to succession battle
that would eventually end with a German
Princess who married the German heir to
the Russian throne, Catherine II aka The
Great (r. 1762-1796)
• 1725Peterhof is completed outside St.
Petersburg
Peterhof
• 1725
construction of
Peterhof was
completed
• Dutch for
"Peter's Court”
was a grand
residence,
becoming known
as the "Russian
Versailles”
Peterhof
Succession to the Throne
• Many of the Russian heirs as well
as other monarchs are
intertwined with each other
• Russian, Prussian, Serbian,
Austro-Hungarian, Romanian,
Spanish, etc.
• In Russia’s case, intrigue,
assassinations, and heirs to be are
common.
Catherine I
r. 1725-1727
• Second wife of
Peter the Great,
reigned as Empress
of Russia from 1725
until her death
• Lithuanian peasant
of Polish origin,
most likely a
Catholic
• Succeeded by last
male heir of Peter
the Great
Peter II
r. 1727-1730
• Only son of
Tsarevich Alexei
Petrovich, son of
Peter I
• Only male-line son
of Peter the Great
• With Peter II's death,
the direct male line
of the Romanov
Dynasty ended.
Anna
r. 1730-1740
• Daughter of Ivan V
and niece to Peter I
• Reinstituted Secret
Police
• Gave power to
Baltic Germans and
not Russian Nobles
• Exiled 30,000 “Old
Believers” to Siberia
Boyarina Morozova by
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov
Russian Orthodox Schisms Continue...
Elizabeth I
r. 1741-1762
• Empress of Russia
• War of Austrian
Succession (17401748)
• Seven Year’s War
(1756-1763
• Russia spanned over
4,000,000,000 acres
• Daughter of Peter I
Peter III r. 1462
• Emperor of Russia
for six months in
1762
• very pro-Prussian,
which made him an
unpopular leader.
• assassinated as a
result of a
conspiracy led by his
wife, who succeeded
him to the throne as
Catherine II aka
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great r. 17621796
• Golden Age of the Russian
Empire and the Russian
nobility
• freed Russian nobles from
compulsory military or
state service.
Construction of many
mansions of the nobility
• Enlightened despot, a
correspondent of Voltaire
• Russian Enlightenment,
when the Smolny Institute,
the first state-financed
higher education
institution for women in
Europe, was established