Russia: a brief

history

Introduction
9000 km from East to West and 5000 from
North to South
Ural mountains divide Russia into a European
and Asian part
Population of about 143 million (3/4 live in the
European part)
Moscow is the capital and the largest city
Russian is official language but many others in
component parts
President is Dmitry Medvedev

Geography of Russia

 Area: 17,025,200 square km. Around

twice the size of the U.S.
Climate: ranging from sub-arctic in
Siberia to humid in much of
European Russia.
Terrain: Low hills, steppe, forest,
arctic tundra, mountains.
Despite its size, much of the country
is either too cold or the soil is too dry
for agriculture.

In the beginning
First came the
Slavs who
settled along
the rivers of
Southern
Russia and the
Ukraine in the
6th Century.

The Vikings
Then came the
Vikings who in the
9th century
established the
large and powerful
state of Kievan
Russia.

Kievan Russia

Free peasant farmers

City dwellers
Small ruling class of nobles & princes
some slaves
Traded with the Byzantine Empire from
which
Russians learnt : skills, culture & religion
Orthodox Christianity.
988 AD it became the official religion.

The Mongols
Then came the Mongols.In 1236 a vast Mongol
horde successfully invaded the Russian city
states. For the next 240 years, the Russians were
forced to pay tribute to the Mongol khans.

Moscows rise to power

Moscow grew in power as
the chief tax collector for
the Mongols.
In the 14th Century,
Moscows Grand Prince
led several other cities in
a battle to overthrow the
Mongols.
They were successful and
this marks the beginning
of a united Russia.

Ivan the Terrible (1533-84): Russias first tsar

Mother was poisoned when he
was 7yrs old. Ivan developed a
dangerous paranoia.
Would throw live animals from
the palace towers for fun.
After his wife, Anastasia died,
Ivan developed a really nasty
streak sentenced thousands
to death, would give detailed
instructions on how to torture
victims so as to recreate hell.
Killed his own son in a fit of
rage. Then came a period of
remorse.
Became a monk towards the
end of his life and prayed for
the souls of his victims.

The Romanov Rulers

Peter the Great (1682-1725)
Determined to make
Russia a modern European
state.
Just about 2.3m tall.
Built a new city on the
boggy banks of the River
Neva and named it St
Petersburg.
In 1712 he declared this
city the new capital of
Russia.

Catherine the Great (1762-96)

Overthrew her feeble husband
Peter III (who soon afterwards
died in an accident) and took
over the throne with the help of
her lover.
Russia became even more
powerful and prestigious during
her reign, gaining more land.
Turned St. Petersburg into one
of the most impressive
European capitals.
Story of her death is shrouded
in myth and mystery. It
definitely did not involve a
horse although she may have
been on the toilet.

Last of the Romanovs

Tsar Alexander II: a great reformer
although still disliked by others. Abolished
serfdom. Ended up being blown up by a
bomb.

Tsar Alexander III: tall, mean, liked a drink,

and drank himself to death.

Tsar Nicholas II, last Tsar, he and his family

executed in October Revolution, 1917.

Revolutionary Movements 1800s

Mainly from western educated elite
Various attempts to overthrow tsar failed
severe punishment.
1840s & esp. after 1860: most
revolutionaries wanted a socialist govt.
Economy in hands of the people
Against constitutional democracy
1881 Tsar assassinated- no peasantry
involvement

1880s
Ideas of Karl Marx:
No socialist rev. until capitalism had
developed, industry built, so that a new
class of workers-factory workers =the
proletariat became the majority.
1890s. Organised small groups of
Marxists= Social Democrats
1903 national party: Mensheviks,
Bolsheviks

 Mensheviks- Russia should follow

Western European socialist
parties(democratically run party)
Bolsheviks (followed tradition of
Russian revolutionaries): tightly run
& organised group of prof. revs. who
would order the proletariat, take
charge of rev. Led by Vladimir
Ulyanov- Lenin.

1905 Revolution
Bloody Sunday Set off by peasants,
workers strikes, business people &
professionals, along with mutinies by the
armed forces
St. Petersburg workers formed a council=
soviet to run the strike
Oct. 30, 1905. Tsar Nicholas II relented, est.
a parliament Duma, first ever
Basic civil rights for people & limited powers
to the parliament
Then Tsar hunted down the revolutionariesfled overseas

Work of Duma

Legislation to improve peoples life:

Laws to protect factory workers
Education expanded
A progamme to improve peasants life;
free to move & aid to improve farms
BUT TSAR still had a lot of power:
1. could appoint & fire all ministers
2. Control over foreign policy & military
budget

Powers of the Tsar

TSAR still had a lot of power:
1. could appoint & fire all ministers
2. Control over foreign policy & military
budget
3. Veto all legislation & manipulate
parliament with other powers he had
retained
Most Russians very poor. Time needed
for reforms to be completed

1914 WWI
Russia suffered , not able to
withstand a modern German army
Late 1914-1917: > 8 million soldiers
killed, wounded, or captured
Civilians could not find basic nec. for
survival
MARCH 1917 demos. in Petrograd
supported by workers & soldiers

February 1917 Revolution

Started with protests about food shortages in

St. Petersburg. Russia was doing very badly
in World War I. Ended with the Tsar
abdicating and the start of a new Russian

Problems
Economy
Backwardness
What direction to take in the
future
Shortage of FOOD!

General Institutions of Communist

Regime

Single Party State System

Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Central Planned Economy
Abolishment of Private Property
Rights
Collectivisation
Universal Public Programs
Surveillance System
Strong Military Unit under Party
Control

Provisional Government

Unable to control the armed forces

Thwarted by the Bolsheviks
Petrograd Soviet in charge
Lenin decided to overthrow Prov.
Govt.
Autumn 1917: WWI still going onunpopular
November 6-7, 1917 Bolsheviks
grabbed power

October 1917 Revolution

Lenin and the

Bolshevik Party seized
power after storming
the Winter Palace.
Bolshevik
Dictatorship:
Lenin
Trotski
Stalin

Nov. 8, 1917
Land decree- confiscated landlords
estates & church lands to hand over
to peasant committees.
Peace neg. with Germany- Treaty of
Litovsk: Russia had to cede a lot of
territory to Germany & left the Allies
(GB, Fr, US) to negotiate on their own
with Germany

Cheka: secret police.

Arrests & execution w/o
trial.

After a long and bloody

civil war 1918-1920, the
Bolsheviks (now the
Communist Party) took
complete control of
Russia, or the Union of
Soviet Socialist
Republic.
They were inspired by
the ideas of Karl Marx
and claimed that they
would establish a state
in which power and
wealth would be held by
the masses and not the
few.

One party dictatorship- crushed all opponents, no

non-Bolsheviks in govt.

NEP: New Economic Policy

Peasants allowed to sell food on
the open market
Many factories & businesses
returned to private ownership
Govt. controlled :factories, railroads,
mines
Widespread and rapid economic
recovery
Food supplies replenished in 2 years

Lenins Legacy 1917-1924

Successfully
overthrew the
Tsar Empire,
first communist
country.
Successfully
improved
Russian
economy by
adopting New
Economic Policy

A popular joke set-up is Lenin interacting

with the head of the secret police,
Dzerzhinsky in the Smolny Institute, seat of
the revolutionary communist government in
Petrograd, or with khodoki, peasants that
came to see Lenin.

During the famine of

the civil war, a
delegation of starving
peasants comes to the
Smolny, wishing to file a
petition. "We have even
started eating the grass
like horses," says one
peasant. "Soon we will
start neighing like
horses!" "Come on!
Don't worry!" says Lenin
reassuringly. "We are
drinking tea with honey
here, and we are not

Lenins death
Lenin had a series of
strokes and died in 1924.
In his will, he warned of the
dangers of letting power
fall into the hands of one
particular man

Josef Stalin (Uncle Joe to the Americans)

Born Josef
Vissarionovi
ch
Djugashvili.
During the
Revolution
he named
himself
Stalin:
man of
A loveable rogue who completely
steel.

transformed Russian life and was largely

responsible for the deaths of millions of
Russians.

Stalins purges
400, 000

1922-1953

Suspected critics or opponents (army officers,

revolutionaries, peasants, landowners,
intelligentsia) , or anyone that Stalin didnt like the
look of were systematically rounded up and executed .

Class
strugg
le
Regional
conflicts

Socia
l
unre
st

Or, if they were lucky, they were sent to

a Siberian labour camp for maybe 10 or
20 years.

Collective farming

Stalins policy was to organise farms into

collective units which would feed the state.
This turned into a disaster and he was
responsible for one of the biggest man-made
famines in history.

Generalissimo Stalin
Stalin stayed in
power through a
mixture of
propaganda, terror,
and genuine
devotion from some
Russians.
He attained god-like
status particularly
after defeating the
Nazis in World War II.

Cult of Personality

Made Time Magazines

Man of the Year in 1942
for holding the Nazis at
bay.
Although true this
showed how little
Americans actually knew
of Stalin. They thought
his methods
tough but fair.

Stalin Joke
"Comrade Stalin! This man is your
exact double!"
"Shoot him!
"Maybe we should shave off his
moustache?
"Good idea! Shave it off and then
shoot him!".

Stalin Joke no. 2

Stalin reads his report to the Party
Congress. Suddenly someone
sneezes. "Who sneezed?" (Silence.)
"First row! On your feet! Shoot
them!" (Applause.) "Who sneezed?"
(Silence.) "Second row! On your feet!
Shoot them!" (Long, loud applause.)
"Who sneezed?" (Silence.) ... A
dejected voice in the back: "It was
me" (Sobs.) Stalin leans forward:

Nikita Khrushchev1958-1964
After his death,
Khrushchev, his
successor, denounced
some of Stalins
policies at a
communist party
congress.

Revisionist Khrushchev 19531964

Labeled Stalin as Cult of
Personality, began de-Stalinisation

*
Could not attempt reform without
opposition
As he didnt have a power base like
Stalin

De-Stalinisation
1954 Released labour camp prisoners
1956-7: closed labour camps, more release
of prisoners
Eased censorships for writers & artists
Raised standard of living by increasing food
supply; new housing
Improved relations with the West & US,
toured 1959
1955 Withdrew occupation forces from
Austria
1963 Signed agreement with US banning
above ground nuclear testing

 But in 1961 Berlin

Wall built
1962 Cuban Missile
Crisis

Krushchev (cont.)
Space Race:
1957 Sputnik I, first artificial satellite
first man to orbit Earth
first man to spacewalk
first woman in space
first rocket to hit the moon

First man in Space: Yuri

Gagarin

Krushchevs failures & the end of

reforms
1. impatience
2. commitment to Soviets policies,
eg, collectivisation
3. failures in F.P. (Foreign Policy)
4. Opposition from those who would
lose their positions if K. continued his
reforms. (1962- K. wanted to
reorganise the C.P. but many
opposed this.)

Krushchev (cont.)
He failed to reform Stalins
institutions
Left economy tightly controlled by
the govt. & inefficient
Secret police was still part of daily
life, KGB
These problems would be left
unaddressed for 2 decades.

Why was Khrushchev

deseated? Because of the
Seven "C"s: Cult of personality,
Communism, China, Cuban
Crisis, Corn, and Cuzka's
mother
In Russian this is the seven "K"s. To
"show somebody Kuzka's mother" is a
Russian idiom meaning "to give
somebody a hard time". Khrushchev had
used this phrase during a speech at the
United Nations General Assembly
referring to the Tsar Bomba test over
Novaya Zemlya.

Leonid Brezhnev 1964-1982

Stabilty & Stagnation

Technocrat Brezhnev 19641982

The happiest time for Russians in

the 20th century.
Russia peaked its highest status in
international game.
Lack of reforms also symbolised this
decade. It seeds the decline of the
Empire.
Brezhnev Doctrine: labeled the
revival of Soviet Power and its
hostility toward the international
society (and its own decline)

Brezhnev
Clamp down on intellectuals
Raised std. of living
Strengthened USSRs security by
catching up with US in arms race, &
reduced tension with US. Mid-1970s
relations with US good.
Reforms failed as party lite were left
untouched

Brezhnev
1979
Relations with US down, arms build
up .
Invasion of Afghanistan
Dissidents
Economy stalled
Brezhnev died Nov. 1982

Photograph by: Wally McNamee, 1973

Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev eyes actress Jill St. John at a
poolside reception hosted by President Nixon in California.

Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker

Leonid Brezhnev and Erich

Honecker

After the Wall fell in 1989

One of the greatest kisses in History is

the one that took place between
communist leaders Erich Honneker from
East Germany, and Brezhnev from Soviet
Union, during the 30th Anniversary of the
GDR in June 1979. Despite the
controversy and ridicule arisen in the
West, this was actually a common sign of
socialist solidarity, very used since
Khrushchev era. It seems, moreover, that
both leaders were very keen on kissing.

Andropov 1982-1983

Chernenko
from 1983 to 1985.

 "What is the main difference of

succession under tsarist regime and
under socialism?" "Under tsarist
regime the power transferred from
father to a son, and under socialism from one grandfather to another."
(A wordplay: 'grandfather' in Russian
is traditionally used in a sense of 'old
man')

Gorbachev 1985-1991

The final 50
years in a
nutshell
Russia remained part
of a huge Communist
empire ruling large
parts of Eastern
Europe during the cold
war.
By the late 1980s the
cracks were beginning
to show and in 1991
the Communist
system collapsed,
bringing in a new era
of capitalism to Russia.

Rise of a Superpower

Leaders

Lenin 1917-1924
Stalin 1924-1953
Khrushchev 1953-1964
Brezhnev 1964-1982
Andropov 1982-1984
Chernenko 1984-1985
Gorbachev 1985-1991
Yelstin 1991-2000
Putin 2000-2008
Medvedev 2008- present
Putin again??