Download Russia Under the Mongols

Russia during
the Early Modern Age
1450-1750
Serfdom: The Major Source of the Russian Economy
• Had to pay extensive tribute to
Mongols until independent
• Trade and manufacturing
decreased
• Dependent on peasant labor
• Rise of serfdom
• Landlords could levy taxes
• Serfdom grew as Russia expanded
• Produced grain to be sold to the
West
*Act of 1649- fixed hereditary
status for serfs
Trading
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Trading connections with Asia
Ivan the IV allowed British merchants to create ports in Russia
Sold fur and other raw materials
Peter the Great visited the major manufacturing cities of the West
Established a port on the East coast of the Baltic sea
Produced grain to be sold to the West (greatest export)
Traded fur with Central Asia
Russia Under the Romanovs
Ivan the Great
Ivan III (a.k.a. Ivan the Great)
• Claimed succession from the Rurik dynasty and from the old Kievan
days
• Freed part of Russia after 1462
• Patronized Orthodox Christianity
• In 1480, freed Moscow from the Mongols and conquered the Polish
Lithuanian kingdom
• Labeled the empire as “tsar”
• Recruited peasants called Cossack to go to newly conquered land
Ivan the Great
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV (a.k.a. Ivan the
Terrible)
-Expansionism
-Emphasized
tsarist autocracy
-Killed boyars
(Russian nobles)
Peter the Great
• Built up tsarist control
• Expansionism
• Interested in altering the Russian
economy and culture with
Westernization
• Traveled to the West in order to seek
Western science and technology
• Allied with Western states against the
Turks in a crusade
• Specially trained military
• Chancery of Secret Police- stop
bureaucracy from corruption
• New capital at St. Petersburg
Achievements of Peter the Great
Selective Westernization!
Political:
a. stream line the bureaucratic system; Established senate; Got rid of Patriarchate
(noble councils)
b. improve army’s weapons; created army
c. Appointed provincial governors
d. Town councils & magistrates
e. Training institutes for the bureaucracy and officers
e. Codify Russian laws
*Westernization was only used to encourage the autocratic state and NOT to provide
new political ideas*
Economic: Internal self reliance (not for global trade)
1. Built metallurgical and mining industries
2. Iron holdings contributed to shipbuilding
Socially:
1. Gave more freedom to upper-class women
2. More education in math and technology
3. Western fashion and fads
4. Ballet was imported from the West and became a cultural icon in
Focus was on the upper class women and not the masses /peasantry class.
Catherine the Great
• Peter the Great died in 1724
• Army officers fought for power
• Peter III became the tsar and married Catherine, a German-born
princess
1. Put down peasant uprisings due to serfdom
2. Combined Enlightenment ideals with Russian aristocratic
ideas…despot???
3. Commissioned new laws that used Western ideas
4. Less severe punishments
Catherine the Great
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Gave nobles more control over their serfs
Patronized Western art and architecture
Sent children to schools in the West
Censored Russian intellectuals (Alexander
Radishev) who sought Western political
reforms
5. Campaigned against Ottomans and gained
the Crimea
6. Partition of Poland between Russia,
Prussia, and Austria
Exploration:
1. Gained territories in central Asia
2. Colonized Siberia
3. Gained Alaska
Russian Society
Boyars- Russian nobles
Russian landlords adopted Mongol dress and social habits
Women gained more freedom and were allowed to go to public events
The status of women remained unchanged among peasants because
they were not effected by westernization
• Male nobles had to shave their beards off because they were a sign of
Mongol domination
• Russians were urged to move to newly conquered lands, where they
formed their own regional administration
• Multicultural empire
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Russian Society
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Nobles gained more power over serfs
-Ennobled officials chosen by tsars
-Gained new power to punish their serfs
-Treat serfs like property (slaves?)
-Could levy taxes of money and goods
Pugachev Rebellion- peasant uprising that led to the extended
powers of central government into regional politics
• Serfdom became hereditary
• No artisan class (artists were imported from Western Europe)
• Small merchant groups because trade was mostly controlled by
Westerners
Pugachev Rebellion 1773-75
Led by Emelian Pugachev
Political dissatisfaction resulted in
rebellion.
Promised to:
1. end to serfdom
2. End taxation
3. End military conscript
4. Abolition of land aristocracy
Christianity under the Russians
1. Russian Orthodox still the primary religion
2. Catherine the Great converted to Russian Orthodox
3. Alexis Romanov gained new power over the church by getting rid of the
superstitions and problems created by the Mongols
4. State controlled Church
5. Religious conservatives called Old Believers sought religious freedom in Siberia
and Southern Russia
6. Christmas trees imported from Germany
• Muslim minority were observed by the government
• Muslims not forced to integrate into Russian culture
Theories and Education:
A Noble Practice
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“Seditious” writings of liberals or democrats were banned
Peter the Great built garrison schools for the children of soldiers
Peter the Great simplified the alphabet and changed the calendar
Catherine the Great built the Hermitage Museum
Statue for Schools- every town had some sort of schooling
Catherine the Great patronized the creation of a small-pox vaccine
Catherine the Great patronized the first College of Medicine
Western-inspired radicals
Arts and Architecture:
West and Russian Combined
Westernization began under Peter the Great
• Ballet imported from France
• Italian artists and architects build churches that combined Renaissance
styles with Russian architecture
• Ornate, onion-shaped domes
Catherine the Great patronized the art and architecture of the West
• Little motivation to improve technology because any excess was taken
by the landlord
• Traditional agricultural methods
Various Trademark Buildings
Hermitage Museum built
by Catherine the Great
Cathedral of St.
Basil built under
Ivan IV
Italian Architecture in Russia
Rococo Winter Palace and the Smolny Cathedral built by the Italian architect
Rastrelli
Bolognese Architecture in
Russia
Cathedral of the Dormition built by
Aristotle Fioravanti, an Italian
architect
Trading and Manufacturing:
On a Small Scale
• Peter the Great created companies that controlled factories and workshops
• Catherine the Great built the first School of Mines
1. Mined silver
2. Built and repaired roads and bridges
3. Primary exports: hemp, leather, furs, cloth, linen, timer, and iron
4. Imported silks, cottons, tea, silver, and tobacco from China
Serfdom: The Major Source of the Russian Economy
• Peasants paid high taxes
• Serfs owed labor for farming, mining, and manufacturing
• Sufficient revenue to support Russia
Catherine the Great sought new farmers in foreign newspapers
Catherine the Great encouraged new methods to breed sheep and cattle
Social unrest due to serfdom