Development of Russian
Political Culture
Impact of Geography,
Religion & History
Russian Geography
• Russia in the largest country in the world
– Even after losing several states following the 1991
collapse
Baltic Sea
Arctic Ocean
Europe
Pacific Ocean
Moscow
Black Sea
China
Middle East
Russian Geography
• Russia is the largest country in the world
– Even after losing several states following the 1991
collapse
• Culturally Very Diverse (Cultural Heterogeneity)
– 160 ethnic groups
– 100 languages (28 officially)
– 73% urban; 27% rural
– 141,927,297 total population – low density
Russian Religion
• 988 A.D. Russia adopted the Eastern
Orthodox (Christian) Religion
– Separated Russia from Western Europe
• Lack of shared values (individualism) created by
the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific
Revolution, & Enlightenment
• Russians valued a strong state, to protect them
from their geographic vulnerabilities
Russian Political History
Tsarist Russia
• Since the beginning Russian tsars were
autocratic, ruling with absolute power
– Supported due to the chaos caused by foreign invaders like the
Huns, Vikings, and Mongols invading Russian lands
• Tsars also headed the Russian Orthodox Church
– Political & Religious Leader
• “Slavophile” – lover of Slavs; pride in
Slavic/Russian customs & traditions that caused
Russia to resist outside influence
Slavophile vs. Westernizer
• Tsar Peter the Great &
Catherine the Great were
considered ‘Westernizers’ challenging the desire for
isolation
– Peter used western models
to modernize Russia’s
military, infrastructure, and
bureaucracy
– St. Petersburg example
– Catherine added a warm
water western port and
integrated some
Enlightenment ideas into her
rule
Peterhof Palace (Versailles copy?)
1917 Revolution
• Russian war struggles against Japan and during
WWI gave rise to civil unrest and a desire for a
new direction under a Marxist philosophy.
– Explain Marx’s view of history and vision of the future
described in the Communist Manifesto
1917 Revolution
• Lenin & the Bolsheviks
– Explain how Lenin altered Marxism
into Russian Communism
• Lenin argued for democratic
centralism – a vanguard
leadership group that would
lead the revolution in the
name of the people.
– Rule by a few for the good of
the many (dictatorship of the
proletariat)
– Group became called the
Bolsheviks
Joseph Stalin
• Joseph Stalin
succeeded Lenin and
created a totalitarian
state under the
Communist Party.
• Purges – Stalin
eliminated any and all
dissidents or potential
threats to his power
– Use of the Gulag
Joseph Stalin, General Secretary
(1927-1953)
General Secretary
Head of the Politburo, who assumed full power as dictator of
the country
Politburo
group of about 12 men who made the
decisions and ran the government
Central Committee
a group of 300 part leaders
Nomenklatura
Process of selecting
recruits within the party
Communist Party
(7% of the total Population)
Stalin’s Economy Policy
• Stalinism – two-pronged program
of collectivization and
industrialization
1. Collectivization – private land
ownership was eliminated and
replaced by state-run collective
farms
2. Industrialization – Stalin’s 5 Year
Plan set goals to develop Russian
heavy industry
• Stalinism was based on central
planning.
– What is central planning?
– What are 2 problems w/ central
planning?
Stalin’s Economy Policy
Khrushchev & deStalinization
• In 1953 Nikita Khrushchev began a process of
deStalinization – a process that led to loosening
of government; censorship of press,
decentralization of economic decision-making,
restructuring of collective farms
• Khrushchev also called for a peaceful
coexistence with the United States.
Russian leader Khrushchev and
then Vice President Richard
Nixon in Moscow in 1959.
Mikhail Gorbachev
• In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev
implemented further
reforms – to ‘save’ Russia
1) Glasnot – “openness”; it
allowed more open discussion
of political, social and
economic issues as well as
open criticism of the
government.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gen. Secretary 1985-1991
Russian President 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev
2) Democratization – introducing
a ‘little democracy’ into the
Soviet political system


New legislature with directly
elected representatives
A new President position
appointed by the legislature
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gen. Secretary 1985-1991
Russian President 1991
Mikhail Gorbachev
3) Perestroika – transferred many economic powers held
by the central government to private hands and the
market economy.
Mikhail
Gorbachev
Gen. Secretary 19851991
Russian President 1991
Revolution of 1991
• In August 1991, ‘conservatives’ attempted a coup
d'état to remove Gorbachev.
• The coup failed, popular protest led by Boris
Yeltsin broke out.
• In December 1991, 11 Russian Republics declared
their independence and Gorbachev announced
the end of the Soviet Union
The Russian Federation
• Under Boris Yeltsin, the Constitution of 1993
created a three-branch government with a
‘hybrid’ presidential-parliamentary system
– Duma – lower legislative house
– Constitutional Court
• Economically Yeltsin used ‘shock therapy’ – an
immediate market economy; to change the
Russian economy
Yeltsin’s forms put Russia on its current modern
path, however as a President his frequent illness
and alcohol ‘issues’ plagued his reign