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Chapter 18
• The Rise of Russia
– I) Russia’s Expansionist Politics Under the Tsars
– II) Russia’s First Westernization, 1690-1790
– III) Themes in Early Modern Russian History
Chapter 18 Introduction
• The rise of the Russian Empire altered the balance of
power throughout Eurasia, although unlike the rise of
Western colonial empires involved only limited
commercial exchange
• Prior to the 15th century, Russia had been unimportant
in world affairs
• The Russians pushed eastward after freeing
themselves from Mongol domination in 1480
• Some extensions also occurred in Eastern Europe
where Lithuania and Poland were rivals in the 17th
century
• Russia then entered into new contacts with the West
without losing it’s cultural identity
I) Russia’s Expansionist Politics
under the Tsars
• Moscow took the lead in liberating Russia from
the Mongols in the 14th century.
• Ivan III succeeded by 1480 in creating a large
independent state.
• He gave his government a military focus and
used a blend of nationalism and the Orthodox
Christian religion.
a) The Need for Revival
• While the Mongols were content to leave local
administration in local hand, they did reduce the vigor
of cultural and economic life.
• Literacy declined and the economy became purely
agricultural and dependent on peasant labor.
• Ivan III asserted Russia had succeeded Byzantium as
the third Rome as he restored centralized rule, an
imperial mission and claimed supervision of all
Orthodox Churches.
• Ivan IV earned the name Ivan the Terrible by killing
many of the nobility (boyars).
b) Patterns of Expansion
• The Russians focused their territorial expansion on
Central Asia, moving across the vast plains to the
Caspian Sea, Ural mountains and into Western Asia
• Peasant adventurers (cossacks) were recruited to
occupy new lands and loyal nobles and bureaucrats
received land grants in the territories
• These conquests gave Russia increased agricultural
regions and labor sources
• Slavery existed until the 18th century, and Russia
opened important trading connections with neighbors
• Russia became a multicultural state and the large
Muslim population was not forced to assimilate to
Russian culture
c) Western Contact and Romanov
Policy
• The tsars began a policy of carefully managed contacts with the West
• Ivan III dispatched diplomatic missions to the leading western states and
Ivan IV established trading contract with British merchants.
• Ivan IV died without a heir which led to new power claims by the boyars and
Swedish and Polish attacks on Russian territory. After the Time of
Troubles, the boyars chose a member of the Romanov family, Michael as
Tsar. This family, the Romanov dynasty, was to rule Russia until the great
revolution of 1917.
• Michael restored internal order and secured part of Ukraine and pushed its
southern border to Ottoman lands.
• He increased the Tsar’s authority by abolishing the assemblies of nobles and
restoring state control over the church.
• Michael’s successor, Alexis Romanov, abolished the assemblies of nobles
and gained new powers over the Russian church.
• The government exiled religious conservatives, called “Old Believers” to
Siberia or southern Russia
II) Russia’s 1st Westernization,
1690 – 1790
• Russia was a great land empire by the end of
the 17th century, although it remained more of
an agricultural state
• Peter I initiated Western forms of the economy
and culture, the first effort in Russia history
• Peter traveled incognito to the West and
gained an interest in science and technology,
and many Western artisans returned to Russia
with him
a) Tsarist Autocracy of Peter the Great
• Peter was an autocratic ruler; reforms were initiated
through royal decree and any resistance was brutally
suppressed
• He formed a Western-type military force and recruited
bureaucrats from outside the aristocracy.
• A secret police was created to prevent dissent and
watch over the bureaucracy
• Hostilities with the Ottomans went on without gain, but
a successful war with Sweden gave Russia a window
on the Baltic Sea, allowing it to become a major factor
in European diplomatic and military affairs
• Peter moved the capital to the Baltic city of St.
Petersburg
b) What Westernization Meant
• Peter’s reforms influenced politics, economics, and cultural
change
• The military was reorganized, the first Russian navy was
created
• The council of nobles was eliminated and replaced by advisors
under his control
• In economic affairs, metallurgical and mining industries were
expanded and landlords were rewarded for using serfs in
manufacturing
• Cultural reforms aimed at bringing in Western patterns, nobles
had to shave their beards and wear Western clothes
• Peter attempted to increase education in math and technical
subjects, although Westernization meant to Peter the
encouragement of autocratic rule
• These changes brought resistance from all classes
c) Consolidation under Catherine the Great
• After several decades of weak rulers, significant change
resumed under the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
• Like Peter, strong royal authority was more important to her
than Westernization, but she did bring Enlightenment ideas to
Russia. She put down a vigorous peasant uprising called the
Pugachev rebellion, butchering leader Emelian Pugachev
herself.
• She gave new power over the serfs to the nobles, yet continued
her patronage of Western art and architecture.
• The French Revolution caused her to ban foreign and domestic
political writings, and Russia’s expansionist policies continued
• Territories were gained in central Asia from the Ottomans,
including the Crimea on the Black Sea. Russian explorers went
down the North American coast to Northern California, and
claimed Alaska.
• Catherine joined Prussia and Austria in the partition of Poland
and end its independence. By the time of her death Russia had
completed a transformation into a strong central state ruling
over the world’s largest land mass
III) Themes in Early Modern
Russian History
• Russian society was very different from that of
the West
• Serfdom and a deep rooted peasant culture did
not mesh with Westernization efforts
• Russian nobility, through state service,
remained a vital position
• A minority of great landholders lived in major
cities and provided important cultural patronage
• Incompletely Westernized landowners were
smaller and lived less opulent lives
a) Serfdom: The Life of east
Europe's Masses
• Russia’s peasantry had been relatively free before the Mongol
conquest
• The government encouraged serfdom as a means of extending
state control over the peasants, laws tied serfs to the land,
made serfdom hereditary and augmented the legal rights of
landlords
• Serfs were almost like slaves, they were bought, sold, and
punished by owners
• Peasant conditions in Eastern Europe were similar, they
labored on large estates to produce grain for sale to the West,
which merchants exchanged for luxury goods.
• Most peasants remained poor and illiterate, paying high taxes
and performing extensive labor in agriculture, mining and
manufacturing, their condition deteriorating throughout the 18th
century
b) Trade and Economic
Dependence
• 95% of the Russian population lived in rural areas,
there were few artisans or large cities, manufacturing
was agriculturally based.
• Peter the Great’s reforms increased trade, but most
trade was handled by Westerners. Nobility prevented
the emergence of a strong commercial class.
• Russia’s social and economic system had its
strengths, it produced adequate revenue for the
expanding empire, supported the aristocracy, and
allowed significant population growth.
• There were important limitations, agricultural methods
were traditional, peasants lacked incentives to
increase production, and manufacturing suffered
similar constraints.
c) Social Unrest
• Russian reformers were criticizing their nation’s
backwardness by the end of the 18th century
and urging the abolition of serfdom.
• Peasant dissent was more significant, they
remained loyal to the tsar, but blamed landlords
for the harshness of their lives.
• Periodic rebellions took place from the 17th
century, peaking with the Pugachev uprising
in1770.
• The tsar and nobility triumphed, but peasant
discontent remained a problem.
d) In Depth: Multinational Empires
• Russia created a long lasting multinational empire
during the early modern period, while the Mughal,
Ottoman and Habsburgs all disappeared
• Special characteristics of the Russian Empire was the
presence of a large core of ethnic groups prepared to
spread widely and establish new settlements, and
Russian ability to adopt Western techniques
• Such states included minority ethnicities but
developed methods to achieve national unity
• There have been serious clashes between national
loyalties and multinational empires from the 19th
century onward, with most of the empires collapsing.
e) Russia and Eastern Europe
• Regions west of Russia formed a fluctuating borderland
between western and eastern European interests.
• In the Ottoman Balkans, trade with the west spread
Enlightenment concepts, and Poland and the Czech Slovak
area were part of the Western cultural orbit.
• Some Eastern regions participated in the Protestant
reformation, but Poland was linked to the West by shared
Roman Catholicism.
• Polish aristocrats weakened the central government and
exploited peasants by 1600, and the kingdom was partitioned
by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
• Many smaller states also lost political autonomy, Hungary and
Bohemia were incorporated into the Habsburg Empire.
f) Global Connections: Russia and
the World
• Russia’s emergence as a key player in both Europe
and Asia was a crucial development in the early
modern era
• Today Russia spans 10 time zones and much of this
territory had been acquired by the late 18th century
• Russia had gained a direct hold on central Asia, and
was affecting diplomatic and military developments in
Europe, the Middle East and east Asia
• Russia’s spread to Alaska and expeditions to Hawaii
suggested even a larger role
• This was a different kind of empire from those the
West was building, but it had a huge impact.