Student Center | Instructor Center | Information Center | Home

Traditions and Encounters, 2/e

Jerry H. Bentley, University of Hawai'i
Herbert F. Ziegler, University of Hawai'i

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN EUROPE AND ASIA

Interactive Table of Contents

Foundations of the absolutist state
1. The gathering of the Russian land
  1. Ivan III (or Ivan the Great, reigned 1462-1505)
    1. Declared Russian independence from Mongol rule, 1480
    2. Adopted policy of "gathering the Russian land" through various means
    3. Incorporated the trading city Novgorod into Muscovite territory, 1470s
  2. Cossacks, class of free peasants, settled on newly conquered lands
    1. Recruited by Ivan, they extended Russian influence south into the steppes
    2. In the sixteenth century, they conquered Volga River valley, crossed Urals into Siberia
  3. The Third Rome: name given to Moscow in sixteenth century
    1. Ivan built strong centralized government modeled after the Byzantine empire
    2. Called himself tsar (after Greek title "caesar")
    3. Tsar head of both the state and Russian Orthodox church
2. The time of troubles
  1. Ivan IV (reigned 1533-1584), Ivan III's grandson
    1. Known as Ivan the Terrible; notorious for erratic, often violent rule
    2. Reshaped the Russian government
      1. Chosen Council--advisors chosen for merit
      2. "Assemblies of the land" were regional representatives
    3. Confiscated large estates and redistributed them to supporters, 1564
  2. Ivan IV's reign of terror
    1. Oprichniki: new aristocracy and a private army of supporters
    2. Used terror and cruelty to subdue civilian populations
    3. Ivan's eccentric behavior may be explained by his medical problems
  3. War and famine followed Ivan's death in 1598 without an heir
    1. Fifteen years (1598-1613) of turmoil followed
    2. Invasions by Poland and Sweden were repelled by Russian volunteer armies, 1610
    3. Mikhail Romanov chosen as new tsar in 1613 by representatives
    4. Founder of Romanov dynasty, lasted until 1917
Westernization and empire
1. A window on the west
  1. Peter I (reigned 1682-1725): known as Peter the Great
    1. Fascinated with technology he found in the foreign quarters of Moscow
    2. As tsar, imposed program of rapid modernization
      1. Russian industries to incorporate the most advanced science and technology
      2. Russians sent abroad to study
      3. Peter himself traveled to Europe to study government, military, and industry
  2. Peter's reforms: progressive but autocratic
    1. Military reform: to build powerful, modern army
      1. Offered better pay and modern weapons to peasants
      2. Aristocratic officers ordered to study mathematics and geometry
      3. Built largest European army; defeated Sweden in Great Northern War, 1700-1722
    2. Bureaucratic reform: to facilitate collection of taxes
      1. Only nobles educated to serve as government officials
      2. Table of Ranks allowed social mobility for civil servants by merit and service
    3. Social reform: challenged established customs
      1. Abolished the seclusion of women; encouraged social mixing of the sexes
      2. Ordered subjects to wear western clothing; ordered men to shave beards
  3. St. Petersburg, the "window on the west"
    1. New capital on the Baltic Sea built by Peter in 1703
    2. Headquarters for Russian navy, administrative center for government
2. The limits of westernization
  1. Catherine II (reigned 1762-1795)
    1. Married Peter's grandson, an unpopular tsar; replaced him as ruler
    2. Continued Peter's policies of westernization; appointed educated officials
    3. Attracted to the ideals of the Enlightenment; corresponded with philosophes
    4. Rejected any changes that would weaken her autocratic rule
  2. Pugachev's rebellion in Caucasus (1773-1774)
    1. Cossacks, exiles, peasants, and serfs, led by Emelian Pugachev, protesting taxes
    2. Killed thousands of nobles, officials, and priests; crushed by imperial army, 1774
  3. The end of Catherine's reforms
    1. Pugachev's rebellion and French Revolution soured Catherine on reform
    2. Reversed policy of westernization; tried to restrict foreign influence in Russia
3. The Russian empire in Europe
  1. Poland-Lithuania, a dual republican state; two societies, one king and parliament
    1. Poland-Lithuania was Roman Catholic, whereas Russia was Orthodox
    2. Slavic Orthodox minorities in Belarus and Ukraine
  2. Absorption of Ukraine
    1. Ukrainian peasants led by Bodhan Khmelnitsky sought union with Moscow
    2. Long revolt against Poland ended, 1667; Ukraine and Kiev absorbed into Russia
  3. The partition of Poland, 1790s
    1. Polish parliament ineffective and unstable; country poorly defended
    2. Polish-Lithuanian republic carved up between Austria, Prussia, and Russia
  4. Southern expansion of Russian empire into Ottoman territories
    1. Tsarist forces pushed into Balkans, welcomed by Greek Orthodox minorities
    2. Further expansion halted by England and France
4. The Russian empire in Asia
  1. By late eighteenth century Russia controlled Volga River to Caspian Sea
    1. Georgia: Orthodox Christians; absorbed into Russian empire, 1783
    2. Armenia and Azerbaijan also annexed
  2. Siberia less hospitable, but rich in resources, especially furs
    1. Conquest began in 1581 when cossacks crossed the Ural Mountains
    2. Local peoples forced to pay tribute in furs at Russian forts
  3. Native peoples of Siberia lived by hunting, fishing, or herding reindeer
    1. Some groups welcomed Russian trade
    2. Yakut people resisted and were brutally crushed; 70 percent of population killed
    3. Smallpox reduced more than half of total Siberian population
    4. Few Siberians converted to Christianity
  4. By 1763 population of Siberia doubled with addition of trappers, soldiers, serfs
  5. American and Pacific explorations
    1. Vitus Bering led two maritime expeditions across Asia to the Pacific Ocean
    2. Other Russian explorers pushed further into Alaska and west Canada
A society in tension
1. Muscovite society before westernization
  1. Rural life centered on peasant villages
    1. Extended families; male heads of households determined village affairs
    2. Women had property rights, took responsibility for arranging marriages
  2. Russian serfdom more flexible before seventeenth century
    1. Peasants mostly free in Siberia, as payment for settling there
    2. In European Russia, serfs bound to land of nobles, the crown, and monasteries
  3. Law Code of 1649 placed serfs under strict control of landlords
    1. Serfs were not slaves but could be sold as private property
    2. Also fixed occupational castes; sons forced into trades of their fathers
  4. Catherine gave nobility greater control over lands and serfs
    1. Nobles supported her reforms in exchange
    2. Most Russians were now subject to harsh and arbitrary rule of noble landlords
2. The growth of trade and industry
  1. European trade with Russia began in mid-sixteenth century
    1. At Archangel on White Sea, Europeans bought Russian furs, leather, and grain
    2. Russians bought western European armaments, textiles, paper, and silver
  2. Asian trade increased with expansion to south and east
    1. Astrakhan on Volga delta provided access to Islamic empires
    2. Merchants came to Caspian Sea from as far away as India
  3. Russian merchants demanded restrictions on more competitive foreign merchants
  4. Industrial development was primary goal of Peter the Great
    1. Invited one thousand engineers, shipbuilders, officers, teachers, technicians to Russia
    2. About two hundred new industrial plants opened: iron, arms, textiles, glass, paper
    3. No urban working class; factory owners allowed to draft serfs
  5. Population doubled in the eighteenth century from 15 to 30 million, in cities and country
Cultural clashes
1. Crisis in the church
  1. Efforts to reform the Russian Orthodox Church led to schism
    1. Mid-seventeenth century, Patriarch Nikon of Moscow promoted reform
      1. to standardize Orthodox rituals
      2. to promote religious instruction in Greek and Latin
    2. Although backed by tsars, Nikon's reforms denounced by conservatives
  2. Avvakum, Orthodox priest and leader of religious conservatives
    1. Old Believers refused to accept reforms of Nikon
    2. Also attacked government policies of serfdom and taxation
    3. Old Belief outlawed by tsar; Avvakum executed for treason
    4. Old Believers were not wiped out, but split into different sects thereafter
  3. Tsarist control over the church tightened between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries
    1. State control over church strengthened by the religious schism
    2. Peter the Great made the Orthodox church a state department
2. Westernization and the Enlightenment in Russia
  1. Peter's westernization included art (e.g., ballet), literature, and ideas
  2. Peter recognized the role of education in western progress
    1. Created the first secular education system; elementary schools in capital cities
    2. Founded academy of sciences
    3. Catherine expanded elementary schools to all children except serfs, even girls
  3. Catherine introduced the ideas of the Enlightenment to Russia
    1. Introduced western literature; promoted Russian literature
    2. Promoted inoculation against smallpox
  4. The intelligentsia, a new unofficial social class of intellectuals
    1. Compiled and published in "Thick journals" latest ideas in science and arts
    2. Encouraged by Catherine, but always subject to government censors
  5. Intellectual and cultural experimentation ended after the French Revolution of 1789

2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.