Download Rise of Russia

Rise of Russia
• Russian known as the 3rd Rome because of they claimed heritage
from Rome itself.
• Rome fell and the eastern part of the Roman Empire became
Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire was overthrown by the
Ottoman Turks (Muslims in 1453).
• Ivan III (Great) of Moscow then married the last niece of the
Byzantine Empire and claimed himself as Caesar (of course after
forming an alliance against the Mongols and fighting them off in
successful battles like the Battle of Kulikova! The Russian version of
Caesar = tsar and hence kings of Russian became known as tsars.
Moscow led the way of fighting off the Mongols and united the
Russian people.
• The Russians now also felt that they were a true Christian Empire
since they were fighting the Mongols and could claim their Christian
lineage via Rome.
• As stated previously, Moscow led the way to fight the Mongols. This
is because the princes of Moscow were the great tax collectors for
the Mongols and gained much power, prestige, money, and
contacts in this position. Remember Ivan’s nickname (Moneybags)!
The Russians proved victorious against the Mongols and the Golden
Horde driving them out of Russia after two centuries of paying
tribute! (1462)
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The Mongols left the government systems, religion, and culture in place so literally the
Russians picked up where they left. However scholarship, learning, economics and literacy
decreased during Mongol occupation.
Ivan III (Great) became tsar and moved to centralize his authority, to fight the Mongols,
and increase his lands via a strong military!
Ivan IV (Terrible) continued expansion and became more of a tsarist autocrat! He actually
was quite peaceful early (created the zemsky sobor, subjugated church authority again,
standing army, even created a law code) He did have a bad side: He killed many boyars
(Russian nobles) using his secret military/ police (Oprichnina) to weed out dissidence. He
also blamed the boyars for the death of his beloved wife and this fueled many of his
rampages! It was said as a boy that he tortured and killed small animals so you could
imagine he had a pretty sadistic streak!
Russia expanded into Central Asia and conquered the Mongols and many various Asian
groups making Russian an extremely diverse country (similar in diversity to the Mughal
Empire of India and the Ottoman Empire of the Middle East). The Russians were so
effective at expansions because of their military, effort, and of course lack of natural
barriers!
The Russian government sent peasants to migrate to the new lands to from. These
peasants are known as Cossacks (they are compared to American cowboys in the
expansion West)
The new lands provided new trade networks and more raw materials
Ivan III sent out diplomats from Russia to Western European countries and soon they were
trading raw materials like furs for manufactured goods. Ivan also sent for great European
artists and architects . They mixed Russian tradition and Renaissance style to form unique
Russian classical style with the domes that look like onions!
• Ivan IV died without an heir. He did have two sons, but the capable one
(Ivan) he killed one night over a dispute about his sons wife. After killing
his able son this only left his weak and mentally handicapped son to rule!
This created a succession conflict. At the same time of this conflict the
state was being attack by Poland (powerful at the time) and Sweden. The
forces were taking territory on the western border of the country and
getting close to Moscow so the boyars needed to act quickly to resolved
the problem. The zemsky sobor (council of nobles) elected Michael
Romanov as the tsar in 1613 and the Romanov family ruled Russia until
WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917!
• Michael Romanov was a great tsar because he beat the Poles and
expanded the state. He son, Alexis was also a great tsar because he
expanded the state, abolished noble assemblies to centralize power, and
gained more power over the church (uniformed church beliefs felt there
was too much of a Mongol presence. He made all dissidents or Old
Believers leave Russia and exiled them to the new lands)
Peter the Great (I)
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Peter I or Great was the son of Alexis. He was 6’8” and was known for his love of learning. He
traveled incognito across Europe and even worked as a carpenter on ships in Holland to
learn the skill to bring to Russia. He wanted to improved Russia and saw Westernizing the
country as the ticket. So he created Westernization policies.
Westernization Reforms of Peter the Great (1689-1725)
• Culture: western dress, cut beards, no more whips to men on marriage day given by brides
fathers, schools for noble boys, ballet from France and Christmas trees from Germany
• Capital: new capital on Baltic Sea named St. Petersburg (made nobles move like Qin dynasty)
• Economics: mining and encouragement of serf labor
• Table of Ranks: hierarchy of society with highest class based on military service. Upward
mobility via military!
• He ruled Russia as an autocrat! He knew that Russia had to prove itself to Europe as a power.
He was successful in the Great Northern War (Battle of Poltava) in 1721 against Sweden and
gained access to the Baltic sea for trade purposes.
• Used western organization principles to mold his reforms: specialized bureaucratic
departments, improved weapons, created Navy, codified law codes and tax systems, new
academies and schools
• Peter the Great created a much stronger Russia, centralized his authority as tsar, created a
more efficient and effective government, better economics and education, social hierarchy
based on military service with the idea of upward mobility for all that were great military
leaders. He died in 1725 from his severe bladder problems (gangrene).
• Peter left no named heir and this led to a succession of very weak emperors and empresses.
Many had to give some type of power to the nobles to ensure their rule. Peter III (1761) was
one such weak tsar.
Peter the Great
Catherine the Great 1762-1796
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Sophia was her German name, Catherine II her Russian (changed name when she converted to the
Eastern Orthodox Church). After turning 16, in 1745, she was married to Peter who would become
Peter III tsar of Russia (in 1762). On their first meeting he told her it was just a marriage and he was in
love with his mistress!
She learned Russian and was very intelligent. Her husband was not so intelligent and actually gave
lands back to Prussia lost in the 7 Years’ War because of his love of the Prussian king Frederick the
Great!!!! This enraged many nobles…6 months after taking the throne Catherine along with
supporters usurped the throne from Peter III.
Peter III gave up the throne, but died soon after of massive gastro intestinal issues! Mmm….
Catherine was a great empresses because she returned to many of Peter the Greats policies and
centralized the power of the tsar more. She was also a great enlightenment supporter. She invited
thinkers to debate and read much of their work. Although she clearly disagreed when it came to
peasants/ serfs. She gave new powers to the nobles over serfs. In return for their service to the
government (Table of Ranks) she allowed the nobles to deal with local peasants and serfs as they saw
fit allowing nobles to use peasant labor, collect taxes from peasants, and even hand out punishments
to peasants for crimes!
Pugachev’s rebellion: He was a Cossack leader. Pugachev claimed to be Catherine’s dead husband and
sought to take back power from the Empress and become tsar. He promised the people an end to
serfdom, taxes, military conscription, and the landed aristocracy!! Many people were attracted to his
message and he became dangerously popular. He was captured and in 1775 in a public square in
Moscow he was cut into quarters as an example to others not to rebel!!!!
Catherine was known for her many lovers. Who she would elevate to high positions so long as they
agreed with her.
She encouraged education for both noble boys and girls and opened up schools in Moscow
She patronized the arts
She tried to control all dissent by murder, suppression, and closing borders. However, the sons of the
nobility educated in western Europe brought with them many radical intellectual ideas and son these
ideas were spreading across the country.
She helped to partition Poland  1772, 1793, and 1795 (no longer a state)
Catherine the Great
Serfdom
• Peasants became serfs because of a debt they owed. They couldn’t
pay so they were forced to give their labor to pay off the debt.
• This system satisfied nobles who needed serf labor and also
regulated the many peasants which the government simply
bureaucratically could not do! Laws were passed by tsar to support
serfdom and make it a larger labor system.
• 1649 law = if you are born to a serf then you are a serf for life!!!
Serfs could be bought or sold, gambled away, and even punished by
their masters! Sometimes whole villages were sold! It was said that
Catherine the Great gave away more than 400,000 people during
her reign. Serfs were not slaves though! Russia was unusual
because it looked internally for coercive labor instead of importing
labor like in Latin America.
• Serfs were not slaves and there still was local town councils but serf
rebellions did break out in communities against local landlord and
records were destroyed and lands seized.
• As you can imagine many serfs were unhappy and did rebel like
Pugachev! However, these were suppressed. 
Russia
• Composed of small cities and rural areas with 95% of the
population of Russia being rural!
• Small merchant class because many merchants were from
Western Europe and lived in port towns/ cities and
conducted the trade. Merchant activity was stiff lied
internally by the government out of fears of jealousy from
the riches gained (nobles).
• During the 18th century the population of Russia doubled to
36 million!!! This put pressure on the agricultural system.
However, it was still very tradition with little improvements
because of serf labor. Serfs were not motivated to be better
farmers and create/ import innovations because they
simple would not reap the benefits of their hard work.
Eastern Europe
• Eastern Europe dramatically changed due to Russia
becoming more powerful and entering the European stage
as a real power.
• The Mongols were kicked out of Europe!!!
• Poland lost its status as a state due to it meddling nobility.
Polish parliament would put weak kings into power in order
to control them and would argue about many things and
make no powerful decisions. They kept this up until the
partitioning of the country, but by that time is was too late!
• Poland went from one of the most powerful countries in
Europe to not existing!!!!
• Russia expanded and became incredibly diverse. Today
Russia covers 10 Time Zones!!!!
Works cited
• http://wwwtc.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/chechnya/i
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• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vaj
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