History of Russia/the Soviet Union/Russia

Russia – 800-1300s

Modern Russians, decedents from the Slavic people , settled near present day Ukraine

Settled area called Kievan Rus Prospered trading between

Scandinavia and the Byzantines Converted to Eastern Orthodox in

A.D. 988 During the 1200s the Mongols lead

by Genghis Khan conquer basically all of Asia, and most of Europe, including Kievan Rus

Genghis Khan and his Empire

Russia 1300s - 1500s

Kiev lost most of its power, many Slavs moved north to get away from Mongols

They build a small trading post, Moscow and inside the new territory of Muscovy.

Ivan III, prince of Muscovy will begin to reject the Mongol’s rule, and declare independence

Ivan III (known as Ivan the Great) and his territory of Muscovy gains independence in 1480

Ivan III (Ivan the Great

Dark Green – Muscovy 1480Light Green – What Ivan took over during his reign

Russia 1500-1600s

Muscovy/Russia continues to grow after Ivan the Great

1547 – Ivan IV declares himself Czar, uses secret police to carry out his will, conquers neighboring territories, expands to the Caspian Sea and past the Ural Mountains.

Ivan IV (known as Ivan the Terrible) used violence, including killing his own son in an argument, used fear to gain and remain in power

Ivan the Terrible

Russia 1600s – 1800s

Russia continues to grow after Ivan the Terrible Late 1600s, “Peter the Great” expands Russia

westward towards Europe Moves capital to major port on European side Names it St. Petersburg (not after himself ),

mirrors it after European cities of trade Catherine the Great rules shortly after Peter,

continues building and expanding, soon Russia expands from Europe to the Pacific Ocean

During this time Muscovy changes name to Russia, albeit not abruptly

Dark Green– Ivan’s expansion during his 40 years in power

Light Green– Expansion under Peter the Great and later Catherine the Great

Peter the Great

St. Petersburg

Russia 1600s – 1800s

Despite its size and power, Russia did not go through the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, or any other ideological breakthroughs that Europe did.

For all tense and purposes, Russia was still stuck in the 13oos, even though it was in the early 1900s.

No industry, still used serfs/peasants Czars had absolute power, a European

idea that had was now all but extinct

Russia 1800s - 1917

Russian citizens remained poor and hungry Despite being backwards, had success

defeating Napoleon's French invasion by using its size

Joined WWI, but lost millions of soldiers and citizens starved as the country ran out of money and food

Russia pulls out of WWI in 1917, and revolted and forced Czar Nicholas II to step down

Russian Revolution, Rise of Communism

Vladimir Lenin leads a second revolution (shortly after the first), and establishes a communist state, where the government controls economy and society

Renames nation to Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which includes 15 different nations and ethnic groups.

Lenin’s goal, to make all citizens equal, he stated that the rich owned too much

Vladimir Lenin

Soviet Union 1920s (after revolution)

Soviet Union

After Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin takes over, and continues Lenin’s goals, only stricter and more violently, and from here until 1980s, all other dictators will take a violent approach, removing basic freedoms from its people (speech, press/media, ideas, etc).

Stalin used secret police to enforce his will

Banned religion and religious practices

Joseph StalinIn power from 1922 – 1952

Soviet Union under Stalin

WWII, Soviet Union sides with Allies (U.S., U.K., France) to fight Germany and Axis Powers after a “non-aggressive” pact with Hitler fails

Lost between 20-30 million soldiers/civilians (Stalin had many of his own civilians killed)

After WWII, Stalin kept Eastern Europe under his control, to prevent any future invasions into the main part of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union Under Stalin

Combined farms into a collectivization, which are large farms ruled by the government and it chooses what to grow

This allowed to have more people work in industry, to industrialize the nation, build factories quickly, and begin producing

Farms struggled without competition Industries succeeded, and Soviet Union will

become “Industrialized” but only because the amount of workers (still no competition, no motivation)

European Soviet Bloc Countries

Soviet Union

This struggle over Europe, caused the U.S. to become involved

The “Cold War” breaks out Cold War refers to when two or more countries have

major tensions, but are not fighting at the time, if they were, we would call it “hot”

Soviet Union controls the Soviet Bloc nations (Eastern Europe), called Warsaw Pact, up against the U.S.’s NATO (Western Europe, U.S., Canada)

Berlin Wall is dividing line, and is put up in Berlin Germany, becomes symbol of the Cold War

Berlin WallLiterally divides city in half, East Berlin is Soviet, West Berlin is NATO

Illegal to cross from East to West Berlin

Soviet Union

1940s-1990s – Cold War continues, small wars are fought, but not between each other directly, but instead through nations aligned with the Soviet Union and the U.S. (ex. Korean War, Vietnam War)

Nations almost go to nuclear war a couple of times, most notably Cuban Missile Crisis 1960s

U.S. and Soviet Union begin a space race, then later an arms race, building nuclear weapons

This causes the Soviet Union to go bankrupt, food shortages, oil shortages, gas shortages, etc.

Soviet Union Weakens

People become upset over shortages, and as media begins to leak into the Soviet Union, people begin to realize their lack of freedoms

Mikhail Gorbachev tries to change the Soviet Union

Glasnost – Soviets can say or write what they want without fear of punishment

Perestroika – Allowing owners more freedom to make economic decisions

People begin to doubt communism, protests begin throughout the Soviet Union, and communism falls in 1991 along with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall Falls

Communism Falls

European Eastern Bloc nations breakaway Gorbachev steps down, Boris Yeltsin takes

over and tries to reform Russia back into a democracy, giving people rights again

Communists try one last time to take over, but fails, the Soviet Union will be officially over in 1991

Yeltsin begins to build a market economy and privatization (where the people are in control)

Brief Russia Today

Yeltsin steps down, Vladimir Putin is elected in 2000, and has since put more control back into government

Putin was a former Soviet KGB, or secret police)

Ethnic groups continue to try and break away, only to have Russia fight back, leading to bloody conflicts (ex. Chechnya, Georgia-Ossetia, which is near Sochi)

1990s - Ethnic regions breakaway from Russia