Download The Rise of Modern Russia

From Ivan III to Catherine the Great
The Rise of Russia

At the same time Western Europeans
were beginning to build their empires in
the Americas, the Russian Empire, which
eventually became the world’s largest
state, was beginning to take shape.
The Rise of Russia

When Columbus crossed the Atlantic, a
small Russian state, centered on the city of
Moscow, was emerging from two centuries of
Mongol rule.
 Russia
shared some expansionist
thinking with the West…both were
Christian, and although the
missionary spirit was less active than
in the West, Christianity may help
explain a common desire to achieve
new victories.
 But
Russia lagged behind the West
technologically and it remained
backward by Western standards well
into the 20th century.
 Russia
did have a large and growing
population and it occupied a strategic
location between Europe and Asia
with few natural barriers.
 This position proved Russia’s
vulnerability, which would help guide
Russian expansionism for several
centuries.
 That
state soon conquered a number of
neighboring Russian-speaking cities and
incorporated them into its expanding
territory.
 Located on the remote, cold, and heavily
forested eastern fringe of Christendom,
that small state was an unlikely
candidate for constructing one of the
great empires of the modern era.

Yet over the next three
centuries, that’s
exactly what it did,
extending Russian
domination over vast
tundra, forests, and
grasslands of northern
Asia that lay to the
south and east of
Moscow.
Russian links to Western Europe had been
lost between the 11th and 13th centuries.
 1. Crusaders sacked Constantinople
looking for gold (Constantinople was the
seat of Byzantine Orthodox Christianity that
Russians followed).
 2. Links lost as Mongols (Tatars) sacked
Kiev and established a Khanate (Golden
Horde). The Russian capital moved to
Moscow.

 Russia’s
emergence as a world power
depended on its winning freedom from
Mongol (Tatar) control.
 200+ years of Mongol influence had
not significantly reshaped Russian
institutions, although many Russians
had adopted Mongol styles of dress
and social habits.
 Most
Russians remained Orthodox
Christians; most maintained a separate
identity from that of the Mongols.
 Local Russian princes had continued to
rule as long as they paid tribute to the
Mongol military overlords.
The duchy of Moscow became the center of
tax/tribute collection for the Mongols…it
would become the center of the Russian
liberation effort (starting in the 14th century).
 Under Ivan III Vasilevich (the Great), Russia
would be freed of the Mongols and began to
re-establish links with more powerful and
more advanced Western Europe.

Ivan III (r 1462-1505) claimed legitimacy as
ruler because he was descended from the
Rurik dynasty of Kievan Russia.
 Ivan organized a powerful army, giving his
government a strong emphasis on military
strength.

He also capitalized on Russian and
Orthodox loyalties—blending nationalism
with religion—to win popular support for
his campaigns.
 By 1480, Russia had been freed from
Mongol control and acquired a vast
territory that ran from eastern Poland to
the Ural Mountains.

 Under
Ivan, Russian beliefs in an
imperial mission began to take shape.
 Ivan married Sophia—the niece of the
last Byzantine emperor. By doing this,
Ivan proclaimed himself the protector of
all Orthodox churches and that Russia
had succeeded Byzantium and was now
the new Roman Empire (the “Third
Rome”).
 As
the first national sovereign, Ivan
entitled himself tsar, or Caesar—the
“ruler of all the Russians.”
 The two-headed eagle of Byzantium
became part of Ivan’s coat of arms.
 Ivan
was said to be prudent and wise,
and Sophia introduced the customs of
the Byzantine court.
 Laws were codified, foreign artisans
were introduced, and Italian architects
erected churches, palaces, and
fortifications.
 Russia’s connection to Byzantium gave
Ivan and his country a pedigree and an
increased standing among nations.
Under Ivan III, Russian expansion (mostly
east and south but also west) began.
 Ivan III and his grandson Ivan IV (the
Terrible) encouraged some peasants to
migrate to the lands seized from the
retreating Mongols and other nomadic
groups.
 These peasant-adventurers, called
Cossacks, were true Russian pioneers.

Cossacks combined
agricultural skill with
military prowess on
horseback.
 During the 16th century,
they conquered the area
around the Caspian Sea
and moved across the
Ural Mountains into
Siberia.

 Russian
expansion happened despite
the setbacks to the Russian economy
and culture suffered under Mongol
rule.
 Russia had become almost entirely
agricultural, with its earlier
merchant/urban past virtually
forgotten.
 There
was little trade and only
localized manufacturing…subsistence
agriculture dominated.
 Peasants and nobles alike lived under
poor material conditions (especially
compared to Western Europe).
 Illiteracy
was extremely high (especially
for an agricultural society), and artistic
and literary production was practically
non-existent.
 Ivan III was eager to launch diplomatic
missions to leading Western states as a
symbol of Russia’s renewed
independence.
 During
the reign of Ivan IV, British
merchants established trading
relations with Russia, selling
manufactured products in exchange
for furs and raw materials.
 Soon, Western merchants were
established in Moscow and other
centers.
 Ivan
IV (r. 1533-1584)
ascended the throne
at the age of 3
(regents ruled for him
until he was 16).
 Tortured and
neglected as a child,
he grew into a
monster.
 As
a child, it was said he delighted in
torturing animals and throwing them
off the rooftops of the palace.
 As a young man, he had a habit of
beating and robbing the people of his
capital.
 He would ride his horse through
Moscow and slash his subjects in the
face with his whip.
 Shortly
after his coronation as tsar he
married Anastasia Romanov, and she
was believed to be the only one who
could control his bad temper.
 When she died, it was said the “good”
part of his reign ended.
 He
married six more
times and was extremely
cruel to them (one was
drowned, three were
imprisoned, two were
sent to nunneries).
Ivan followed his grandfather in pushing
Russia’s expansionist policy.
 Even though Ivan “The Great” had broken
the Mongol yoke, separate khanates
remained strong and menacing.
 At the age of 20, Ivan IV launched a drive
against the Mongols (he headed an army of
100,000 men) and opened the Russian
march into Asia by defeating the khanate of
Kazan.

Four years later, Ivan defeated the
khanate of Astrakan, pushing Russian
territory south of the Volga to the Caspian
Sea.
 These victories over the hated Tatars (or
Tartars) greatly endeared Ivan to his
people, with many of his atrocities
forgiven since they were mostly directed
against the wealthy.


Only the khanate of the Crimea in the
south was left to be conquered…Ivan’s
advisors urged an assault, but Ivan didn’t
want to provoke the Ottoman Turks (and
Suleiman).
So Ivan turned Europe and wanted to
expand his relationship there.
 In 1554, the English explorer Richard
Chancellor, searching for a northern trade
route to the Orient, sailed into the White
Sea and down the Dvina River to Moscow,
where he “discovered” Russia.


Englishmen, by the time
of the Elizabethan Age,
knew almost nothing
about Russia…
Englishmen believed that
Russians were cannibals
and that the country
was full of fantastic
creatures, like the
“vegetable lamb.”
Chancellor quickly realized the commercial
advantages of a treaty and Ivan was more
than willing to make one.
 The Czar became partial to the English,
and even engaged in a long distance
correspondence with Queen Elizabeth
(even proposing marriage…but she wasn’t
interested in someone known as “the
Terrible”).

Commercial relations with the English
blossomed (at one time ropes and cables from
Russia were considered the best in the world
and were used on most of the ships of the
English navy).
 Ivan’s ties with England reinforced his desire
to draw closer to the West, but he needed
warm water ports on the Baltic that were
blocked by the German Knights of the Sword
(Teutonic Knights) who controlled the region.

In 1558, Ivan attacked this region (called
Livonia) and was initially successful, but
soon Poland and Sweden entered against
him…it turned into a 25 year war that
ended in a Russian defeat.
 Russia attempted to establish and develop
commercial and cultural relations with the
West but were sealed off…Sweden and
Poland wanted to keep Russia isolated and
ignorant…and they succeeded.

Ivan had invited scholars, technicians, and
advisors to Moscow, but all passages were
blocked.
 He even appealed to Queen Elizabeth for
help, but she did not intervene.
 With the war going badly and increased
pressure from his nobles, Ivan then
slipped into his “bad” period and became
a paranoid.

In 1564 (aged 34), Ivan did something so
strange, it stunned the people of Moscow.
 A great train of sleds appeared outside the
Kremlin and were loaded with his
treasures…these sleds were dragged 60
miles to a small town northeast of Moscow
where Ivan secluded himself.
 For over a month, no one heard from him.
 When he finally returned, few recognized
him.

 He
then created a personal militia (the
Oprichniki) to terrorize the country…they
became notorious for their violence
against anyone thought to be against
Ivan IV, they dressed all in black and
rode black horses (as the symbol of
death).
 Today, they would be considered
equivalent to secret police or “death
squads.”
Sometimes called the “Tsar’s Dogs”
because of their blind loyalty to him, they
had the symbols of the broom and a dog’s
head stitched to their saddles.
 The dog’s head signified their watchfulness
and their ability to sniff out treason while the
broom represented their mission to sweep
Russia clean of treason (meaning anyone
disloyal to Ivan IV).
 They had standing orders to execute
anyone believed to be disloyal to Ivan IV.


The Oprichniki (personal militia of Ivan IV).
When Ivan declared himself “the Hand of
God,” 300 of the Oprichniki were selected
to be his personal “brotherhood” and they
lived within the royal palace.
 Every night at 3 a.m., these Oprichniki
“monks” would attend a sermon given by
Ivan himself before the morning’s ritual
executions.
 They lived an aesthetic lifestyle, modeled
after monks in a monastery.
 They terrorized Russia for eight years.

 Ivan
IV became famous for torturing
and executing thousands of Russians
(most noted were the boyars and
church leaders who opposed him).
 Oddly, Ivan would then seclude
himself and pray for the souls of
those he had killed.
 In a fit of rage, he even killed his only
son (and heir) with an iron staff.
 When
Ivan died in 1584 (aged 54), it
led to a period known as the “Time of
Troubles” (1604-1613) .
 Without a legitimate heir on the
throne, boyars (nobles) jockeyed for
position and competed for power.
 Several
neighboring states (Sweden
and Poland among them) took
advantage of Russian weakness and
captured some Russian territory.
 The Time of Troubles ended when
nobles chose Michael Romanov
(related to Anastasia) to become tsar.
 The
dynasty he
founded, the
Romanovs, would
rule Russia until
1917.
 Michael
Romanov drove out the
foreign invaders and restored order.
 He was able to push Poland back and
even was able to annex the Ukraine
(including Kiev), extending the
enlarging empire’s borders south to
Ottoman lands around the Black Sea.

Michael’s son, Alexis,
(r. 1645-1676)
increased his power
at the expense of the
nobility and purged
the Orthodox Church
of many of the
superstitions that had
existed since Mongol
rule.
The Orthodox Church in Russia did not
develop any respect for learning or
education, so superstition was rampant.
 A bishop declared geometry was evil and a
sin.
 Arithmetic was barely understood…Arabic
numbers weren’t even used.
 Their calendar dated from the beginning of
the world, and the ability to predict an
eclipse was considered Black Magic.

 Unofficially
known as the “Quietest
One,” his reform movement
antagonized some Russians, who
were known as the “Old Believers.”
 Their resistance to church reforms
caused thousands of them to be
exiled to Siberia or southern Russia.
Peter the Great
 Alexis’
son Peter I
(b. 1672 r.16891725) greatly
expanded his
father’s work.
Peter the Great
 By
the time Peter I (the Great) arrived
on the throne at the age of 17, Russia
was still mostly a subsistence
agricultural economy, constantly
teetering on the brink of disaster.
 Russian agriculture was immobile and
there was no incentive to improve or
change things.
Peter the Great
 While
the Renaissance, Reformation,
and Scientific Revolution swept
through Western Europe, early
Russian tsars rejected westernization
and so Russia remained isolated from
modernization, essentially stuck in the
Dark Ages.
Peter the Great

It was said that as a
young man, Peter
preferred to spend time
in the German quarter
of Moscow (instead of
the palace), where he
learned stone masonry,
carpentry, horseshoeing, and how to
pull teeth.
Peter the Great
After Peter came to
the throne, he spent
nearly two years
traveling incognito
throughout Western
Europe (mostly in
England and
Holland).
 At 6’8”, he was hard
to miss.

Peter the Great
Peter knew his empire was technologically
behind the West, so he wanted to observe
European technology and customs.
 He was fascinated by the sea and took
lessons in navigation from English and
Dutch sea captains.
 He even worked for a time as a ship’s
carpenter.

Peter the Great
Peter spent hours talking with political and
business leaders on ways of bringing Western
organization and technology to Russia.
 He visited mines, workshops, hospitals, and
forts.
 He lived with soldiers in Germany, learning
about weaponry and ballistics (when he
returned to Russia, he formed a small army
out of his servants and used them in live
ammunition firing war games).

Peter the Great
Peter’s entourage, known as the “Grand
Embassy,” also tried to gain European
support to attack the Ottomans (no one was
interested).
 Most European monarchs/aristocrats found
Peter to be an uncouth barbarian because he
showed neither refinement nor pretension.
 He mixed easily with workmen, dressed
cheaply and carelessly, and he loved
horseplay and crude practical jokes (he used
to have burping and flatulence contests).

Peter the Great
Peter’s European trip was
cut short because his older
half sister Sophia was trying
to stage a coup d’ etat.
 When he returned to
Moscow, he brutally put
down the rebellion,
personally killing five of the
rebel leaders with his bare
hands.

Peter the Great
Peter hung the bodies of the rebel leaders
he personally killed outside his half sister’s
window and she went mad.
 Peter then had her committed to a
nunnery.
 Based on what he had seen in the West,
Peter began making changes in Russia to
try to counter its backwardness.

Peter the Great
 One
of the first
things he did when
he returned was
create Russia’s
first navy.
 It was based in the
warm water of the
Sea of Azov (off
the Black Sea).
Peter the Great
Peter also increased the size of the army
by drafting peasants and increasing pay.
 He hired over 1,000 western military
advisors to train his soldiers in western
tactics, and in the use of firearms and
cannons.
 He ordered the building of roads and
bridges to more easily transport men and
material across the countryside.

Peter the Great

He outfitted his
army and navy in
Western style
uniforms and built
factories to make
muskets and
artillery (so they
wouldn’t have to be
imported).
Peter the Great
Peter also demanded his
nobles (the boyars) look
Western in appearance
and not like the Mongols.
 Boyars were told to shave
their beards or they’d
have to pay a fine.
 All Russian nobles and
bureaucrats had to learn
math.

Peter the Great

Wives and daughters of the
boyars usually wore veils
(Byzantine tradition)…that
tradition ended.
 Elite Women were to wear
Western style dresses and
hair.
 Elite women were now
allowed to attend theater
and ballet (be seen in
public).
Peter the Great

Russia began the custom (imported from
Germany) of Christmas trees.
 Peter decreed that young people would determine
who they would marry, not their parents.
 Peter also ended the Russian tradition of a father
of-the-bride giving the groom a horse whip
(symbolizing the transfer of male power over
women).
Peter the Great
 But
Peter’s reforms didn’t work to
develop a large merchant class or have
Russia become a major player in the
world economy…
 Russia had to import not only technology
but artistic items.
 It paid for imports with raw materials
(especially furs) and grain.
Peter the Great
Peter didn’t really care
about Western Europe
except as a means to
an end…increasing his
personal power.
 Peter wanted internal
and external control; he
“borrowed” selectively
what he wanted.

Peter the Great
 He
wanted a powerful, autocratic
state to protect his power and expand
Russia’s borders.
 Peter was known to deal brutally and
harshly with any dissent or peasant
rebellion.
 His secret police was to eliminate
dissent and watch over the
bureaucracy.
Peter the Great
As the old Kremlin symbolized Russian
unification, Peter’s new capital, St.
Petersburg, reflected Peter the Great’s
determination to open Russia to the West.
 Built on a broad marsh near the western
frontier, Peter in 1703 set about building a
European city with the help of an Italian
architect, conscripted Russian laborers and
his own demonic energy.

Peter the Great
To finance his project, Peter imposed
brutal taxes; to get building materials he
ordered that everyone entering the city
bring a building stone.
 No 18th Century city grew so quickly, or at
such cost. Transforming the pestilential
marsh cost the lives of over 200,000
laborers, who died from fever and
exposure.

Peter the Great
 Peter’s
son (and future heir to the
throne) Alexis became an outspoken
critic of his father’s policies.
 In 1716, Alexis fled to Vienna and
renounced his right to succession.
 Peter suspected his son of plotting
against him with foreigners.
Peter the Great
Peter persuaded Alexis
to return to the capital
(St. Petersburg) and
had him immediately
arrested and tried for
treason.
 In 1718, Alexis was
sentenced to death, but
he died before his
execution from injuries
sustained during torture.

Peter the Great
Peter’s Russia will be the first
underdeveloped, non-Western country that
tries to gain power and prosperity by
copying the West (WESTERNIZATION).
 But no attempt was made to create an
exporting industrial economy, so Russia
will continue to lag behind the West.

Siberia
Russia’s absolute monarchs needed a
place to exile both criminals and political
opponents for long periods of time.
 Few places were better than the arctic
region of Siberia.
 Far from everything Russian, it had an
extremely inhospitable climate (average in
winter -59 F).

Siberia
There was no chance of escape and little
chance of survival alone in the vast, frozen,
sparsely populated region.
 10-15% of the exiles never made it to
Siberia…they died along the way.
 In the early 1600’s only a few people were
sent a year. By the early 1800’s that
increased to over 2,000. After a revolt in
1825, the tsar sent over 150,000 to their
frozen fate.

Siberia

Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great, who
ruled as Empress of Russia
from 1762-1796, is one of
those catalyzing forces in
history who, through hard
experience, unbounded
intelligence, and
overwhelming practicality,
changed the face of a country
against overwhelming odds.
Catherine the Great
She was a German (Prussian) princess born
to an impoverished prince.
 Her real name was Sophie, not Catherine.
 At 16, she was married to Grand Duke
Peter (the future Peter III), a nephew of
Elizabeth (the youngest daughter of Peter
the Great), after he was named heir to the
throne.
 After her marriage, she converted from
Lutheran to Orthodoxy and began learning
the Russian language.

Catherine the Great
Auntie Elizabeth never
liked (or trusted)
Catherine, so Catherine
always had to be aware
of constant threats
against her.
 As the future Empress,
her main job was to
produce an heir…she did
but was it her husband’s
son?

Catherine the Great
Peter III was generally
considered to be insane
or mentally
incompetent; he was
certainly weak and
sadistic.
 Catherine suffered
greatly in this loveless
marriage, and probably
suffered abuse as well.

Catherine the Great

During her long,
painful years in the
Romanov court, with a
mad husband, a son
she didn’t like, and a
dangerous aunt as
Empress, Catherine
spent her time reading
the works of the
French philosophe.
Catherine the Great
She avidly consumed all the new
“enlightened” ideas coming from France
and other parts of Europe.
 Her background as a German princess, as
well as her education in philosophe
literature, led her to believe that Russia was
a barbaric and backward country; she
would dedicate her monarchy to bringing
Russia into the modern, European age.

Catherine the Great

She often had French philosophers (like
Voltaire—whom she had correspondence
with until his death in 1778—he called her
“The Star of the North”) visit St.
Petersburg, and she established
commissions to discuss new legal codes
and other Western-style reforms
(including reducing traditionally severe
punishments).
Catherine the Great
Catherine patronized Western-style art and
architecture and encouraged leading
nobles to tour the West and even send
their children to European schools.
 She also encouraged the upper-class to be
educated, especially in the arts and
literature.
 Catherine established the Smolny Institute,
the first state-financed higher education
institution in Europe.

Catherine the Great

The world famous Hermitage Museum,
which now occupies the entire Winter
Palace, began as Catherine’s personal
collection.
Catherine the Great
She wrote comedies, fiction, and memoirs,
and was instrumental in establishing the
Free Economic Society in 1765 (designed
to promote advanced farming methods
and estate management seen in Europe).
 She wrote a manual for the education of
young children drawing on the ideas of
John Locke.

Catherine the Great

When Empress Elizabeth died in 1762, Peter
succeeded her as Tsar Peter III.
Catherine the Great
He served only a few months
before palace guards, on
orders from key nobles (and
perhaps Catherine, too),
kidnapped him and threw him
into the palace dungeon.
 He was murdered in prison
and Catherine was made
Empress, with the blessings
of the palace guards and
nobles.

Catherine the Great
Like Peter the Great,
Catherine was a “selective”
westernizer, actively
defending the powers of her
monarchy.
 Despite her “enlightened”
rhetoric, her goals were the
same as her predecessors: to
increase her personal,
centralized power and extend
Russia’s borders further
outward.

Catherine the Great
In 1767, she called a Legislative Commission
to revise the law and government of Russia.
 She wrote the commission a document called
the Instructions of 1767; the general tone
and most of the ideas of this document were
derived from philosophe literature and
philosophy…but this reform commission and
others did virtually nothing…no substantive
changes were made.

Catherine the Great

She put down the
famous Pugachev
peasant rebellion
(1773-74), and used
it as an excuse to
extend the powers
of the central
government into
regional affairs.
Catherine the Great
Pugachev was a Cossack (and ex-army
lieutenant) who attracted supporters by
appealing to the popular belief that Peter
III was still alive.
 Claiming to be Peter III himself (he
apparently looked a little like him),
Pugachev led a peasant revolt that
threatened Catherine’s power by promising
to end serfdom.

Catherine the Great
When the revolt was put down, Pugachev
was brutally executed as an example to
others (publicly decapitated then drawn
and quartered).
 She reaffirmed the boyar’s (nobles)
control of the land (at the expense of the
serfs), and she launched campaign’s
against the Ottomans (capturing more of
the Crimea).

Catherine the Great
Peter the Great had only been able to get
a small toehold in the Crimea, but
Catherine completed the conquest.
 She made Russia the dominant power in
south-eastern Europe after the Russians
defeated the Ottomans (which saw some
of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history
1768-74).
 Russia was now able to incorporate the
southern Ukraine.

Catherine the Great
She also moved against Poland, dividing (or
partitioning) it with Austria and Prussia,
eliminating Poland as an independent state
(it wouldn’t become independent again until
after WWI).
 All told, she was able to add over 200,000
sq miles to Russian territory (about 4.5
times the size of Pennsylvania).

Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great
She increased colonization in Siberia and
encouraged further Russian exploration
eastward…claiming the territory of Alaska.
 Russian explorers moved down the Pacific
coast reaching into northern California.
 But when the French Revolution began
(1789), she condemned the
revolutionaries and banned any
French/foreign literature from entering
Russia.

Catherine the Great

By the time of her
death in 1796 (of
apoplexy—a stroke at
age 67), Russia had
passed through 3
centuries of
extraordinary
development.
Catherine the Great

Under Catherine, Russia’s population
doubled; 11 of Russia’s 50 provinces were
added; the size of the Russian army
doubled and the Russian fleet tripled; the
Russians won 78 land/sea victories (mostly
against the Ottomans and Poles);
merchant activity and trade was
encouraged and made less restrictive; and
undeveloped/sparsely populated areas
were developed.
Catherine the Great

From Ivan III to Catherine the Great,
Russia had freed itself of foreign rule; had
constructed a strong central state; and
probably most importantly, had extended
control over the largest land empire in the
world.