Transcript 2014 CWI Russia

Russia
Rise of Russia
• Geography
• Very favorable geographic area (soil, rivers, etc)
• Today would be Ukraine and Western Russia
• Early Invaders
• Huns, Vikings, Slavs, etc..
• Early History
• Kiev: Rurik, leader of the Rus people, began ruling the area
in 862 AD.
• Yaroslav the Wise: 1019 AD…introduced Pravda Russika
(Russian Justice)
• Early Religion
• Began to follow the Eastern Orthodox Church
• Eventually tried to separate to form the Russian Orthodox
Church (after Rome and Constantinople had fallen)
Russia and the Mongols
• Attacks
• Kiev was attacked by Mongol invaders from 1169 to
1203 AD.
• Mongols came from east of the Ural Mountains
(Mongolia and Kazakhstan) and controlled until the late
1400s.
• Slavs (people that lived in the area) were allowed to be
free under the Mongols, as long as they paid taxes.
• Slavs did not get along will with anyone.
Rise of Russia
• Ivan III (Ivan the Great)
• Ivan III began to push for complete independence from the
Mongols (1480 AD).
• Ivan III’s rule began the long line of absolute monarchy
• Moscow became the major city of region
• Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
• Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible): Assumed the throne at 3, began
actually ruling at age 17.
• Took the title of czar (caesar) because he felt like he was the
rightful ruler of the Romans and Byzantines
• Exceptionally cruel…murdered many enemies, even killed his
oldest son.
• Did expand the Russia state (Ukraine to Siberia)
Russia Isolation and Growth
• Why Isolated?
• Alphabet and Religion
• Landlocked by other empires
• Michael Romanov
• Grandnephew of Ivan IV, became czar in 1613
• Romanov Czar’s would rule Russia for the next 300 yrs.
• Peter I (Peter the Great)
• Became Czar @ 10 yrs old, ruled until 1725.
• Thought Russia needed to be more like the rest of Europe
• Peter went to Western Europe to get help against the Ottoman
Empire..wanted a warm water port. (Went as a normal guy) He
learned many things about how Europe worked. (military strategy)
• Won wars against Sweden, got access to Baltic Sea, created a new
city and capital name St. Petersburg. Westernization!!!!
Russian Growth
• Peter the Great
• Followed the model of Louis XIV (France) and created a
government where he had absolute control.
• A lot of opposition from nobles, religious leaders, and serfs
because their lives got worse
• Peter was able to greatly expand the power of Russia.
• Catherine the Great
• Wife of Peter III (Peter the Great’s Grandson). Took crown
when nobles murdered Peter III. (1762-1796)
• People remained very poor.
• Won wars against Poland (disappeared until 1919) and the
Turks. Gained control of better sea access
• Also expanded East into Siberia and even to Alaska
Russian Empire
• Russian Unification
• Vast empire that included many different peoples who
had different ethnicities, languages, and religious views
• Made unification very difficult.
• Nicholas I: Russification, tried to make all people of
Russia follow the same language and religion. Done to
prevent nationalism from spreading.
• During the 1800s, Russia was having problems uniting
all the Slavic people and expanding due to losing the
Crimean War
Russian Empire
• Alexander II
• Realized his country was not as advanced as it needed
to be, decided to free the serfs (been forced to live and
work in certain areas).
• Emancipation Edict (1861) officially freed the serfs..not
100% successful (really similar to US and Slavery)
• Reformed elections and local governments (more
democratic) also courts, education and military.
• Not everyone liked these moves.
Russian Empire
• Opposition to Alexander’s Reform
• Many Radicals wanted more change. Wanted land
divided equally, etc
• Used terrorism to get some of those demands met.
• Eventually Alexander II was killed by a bomb, set off by
the People’s Will (Populist Revolutionary Party)
• After Alexander II’s death
• Rulers took away all freedom’s to stamp out liberalism
• More and more workers began to demand change
Russian Revolution--1905
• Cause
• Russia lost a war against Japan…humiliating
• Bloody Sunday
• Czar Nicolas II’s troops shot innocent people who were
striking. This led to conflicts all over Russia.
• The Revolutionary Forces failed to overthrow the Czar
• Reasons: Army was loyal, French helped, not all radical
groups were united.
• These would change later!!
Russian Revolution
• Basics
• Years of war, poverty, and class struggle brought an end
to the Czarist Regime in Russia. Revolution Time!
• WWI showed how weak Russia was. After the war, the
soldiers began to side with the demonstrators
• Lenin and Bolsheviks
• Soviets: Term meaning council…made up by groups
that supported Socialism (govt. control of industry)
• Bolsheviks: More radical group that won control of the
Soviets
• Vladimir Lenin: Leader of the Bolsheviks.
Russian Revolution
• Vladimir Lenin:
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Socialist…all government was turned over to the Soviets
Follower of Karl Marx.
“Peace, Bread, Land”
Would be a hero to all those wanting to lead communist
revolutions
• Communist Party
• Were able to gain full control of the government in 1917
• Dissolved the constitutional assembly (democracy)
• Civil War
• Russia dropped out of WWI and immediately entered into a
Civil War of their own (Communist vs other groups that
wanted to restore a monarchy…some of which were Socialist)
• By the end of 1922, the Communist Red Army had won and
Russia became the USSR.
USSR
• New Economic Policy (NEP)
• Major industries remained under govt. control
• Some smaller free enterprise
• Collective Farms: Land and labor being pooled together
• Progress??
• Soviets tried to fix social issues like women’s rights and
education….mixed results
• Power Struggle
• Lenin died, power struggle between Leon Trotsky (founder of Red
Army) and Joseph Stalin (head of political party)
• Different views: Trotsky (communism should spread all over the
world..more Marxist) vs Stalin (communism should be dominant
in one country before spreading around the world)
• By 1928, Stalin gained control of Party…Trotsky was murdered in
Mexico
USSR
• Stalin Economics
• Stalin got rid of the NEP and created a command
economy (where the government controls everything)
• 5 Year Plan: Stalin’s plan to significantly increase the
amount of things produced within the USSR.
• Farmers did not want to give up land to collective
farms..millions of people starved to death b/c of lack of
food production.
• Other parts of economy grew rapidly
Stalin’s Dictatorship
• Communist Control
• Used fear to control the lives of the people
• People were killed if they complained
• Religion and art were eliminated from Soviet society
• Government
• Politburo: Political Bureau of Communist Party. Small
group that made decisions that was controlled by Stalin
• Purge: Large scale eliminations of communist party
members that he thought were disloyal to him.
• 5 million Soviets either arrested, deported or killed by
1939.
WWII
• WWII
• Stalin negotiated with both GB and Germany. Wanted to
keep the Soviet Union’s options open
• Soviet-German Non Aggression Pact: USSR and Germany
agreed to split up Poland.
• USSR and Middle East had a ton of oil that Germany
desperately needed. The USSR was getting mad at Germany
attacking areas that they thought were under Soviet control.
• In June of 1941, Hitler decided to invade the USSR
• The Soviets were on their heels for awhile, rebounded and
held off the German attacks on Moscow and Stalingrad
• Results
WWII
• Stalingrad was a huge Soviet victory and a turning point
in WWII.
• Soviets held the Germans off and eventually began to
push their Army back into Germany.
• Over 20 million Soviets died as a result of WWII
• USSR became increasingly upset at the lack of urgency
displayed by the USA and GB to open a 2nd front against
Germany. Also mad about the creation and secrecy of
USA with atomic bomb.
• Soviets were allowed to capture the city of Berlin.
• Yalta Conference: Leaders met to divide up Germany
• Soviets killed and controlled the people of the land they
advanced in during WWII.
Cold War
• Cold War
• War of ideas and different beliefs between the USA and USSR.
• Truman Doctrine: US would support any country in fighting
against the spread of communism. Contain communism from
spreading!
• Cominform: Soviet response to Truman Doctrine . Alliance
between all communist countries…not as successful as they
hoped.
• Soviets were very concerned about Central and Eastern
Europe. Germany was split in half
• Berlin Blockade: Don’t let anything come into from the West.
This led to the Berlin Airlift….the USSR eventually gave up the
boycott.
Cold War
• Cold War
• Warsaw Pact: Military alliance between countries under the Soviet
Bloc…in response to NATO
• Significantly more numbers with Warsaw Pact…that’s why USA was so
reliant on nuclear threats.
• Continued to compete with the United States in a variety of other ways
(athletics, space, education, etc)
• Nikita Khrushchev
• Took over when Stalin died in 1953
• Tried to eliminate a lot of the restrictions that Stalin had placed on all
aspects of life.
• Gave some control back to local farmers/workers to meet production
quotas.
• Major problem: Soviets were spending too much money on heavy
industry and military.
• Besides Sputnik (first satellite)…Soviet technology was behind USA
• Berlin Wall (1961) and Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)…weakened
relationship between USA and USSR
Cold War
• Effects on Eastern Europe
• Soviet Union controlled the governments of Eastern
European countries in the Soviet Bloc (control)
• Five-Year Plan to rebuild…some success
• Just like in the USSR, farming struggled (collective
farms) were no popular and consumer goods were
rarely produced. Focused too much on military
• Many revolts (Hungary, Poland)…violently put down
Fall of Communism
• Leonid Brezhnev
• Powerful leader, invaded Czech to put down protest
• Brezhnev Doctrine: USSR would intervene with any
satellite nation that appeared to be straying from
communism
• Restricted basic human rights
• Strained relationship with the USA when the USSR
invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
• By Brezhnev’s death in 1982, USSR was struggling with
agriculture, transportation and technology
Fall of Communism
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Became the new leader of USSR in 1985
• Perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness)
• He relaxed government control on a lot of things, reduced
military spending, and got out of Afghanistan.
• Much better relations with USA
• Opposition to his plans from Communist Party…led to a
failed military coup on Gorbachev in 1991. Gorbachev
resigned at the end of 1991
• Foreign Problems under Gorbachev
• Freedom of Speech led to conflicts (Azerbaijan vs Armenia)
• Baltic states began to demand independence (Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia)
Fall of Communism
• Boris Yeltsin
• Soviet Union fell apart by the start of 1992.
• Became the new leader, began to slowly turn Russia
into a democracy.
• A LOT of problems getting along with different factions
of new Russian government.
• Problems
• Organized crime rose dramatically!
• People wanted independence from Russia (Chechnya)
• Yeltsin was replaced by Vladimir Putin in 1999
Post Communist Problems
• Problems Created
• Czechoslovakia: Split into two countries, Czech Republic and
Slovakia.
• Yugoslavia: Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians, and
Albanians all lived there. All shared same language but
different religions (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and
Muslims). Croatia and Serbia broke apart in 1991.
• Bosnia: Declared independence in 1992. Problem, 1/3 of
population claimed they were Serbs who wanted to remain
part of Serbian dominated Yugoslavia.
• Ethnic Cleansing…attempt to get rid of Muslims in the area
where the Bosnia Serbs wanted to control. US troops had to
get involved.