NOTES: RUSSIA’S HISTORY &

GOVERNMENT

LG: How has

Russia’s history

and government

shaped who they

are today?

1. THE RISE OF RUSSIAA. Slavs settled near the Moskva River and founded

the city of Moscow

B. Moscow was the center of the territory known as

Muscovy

C. Muscovy was ruled by princes who kept peace with

neighboring Mongols (an enemy) for about 200 years

D. Prince Ivan III (Ivan the Great) started expanding the

kingdom and began what is known as Russia.

E. After Ivan III’s death his grandson Ivan IV took over in

1547. He was the first absolute, supreme ruler known as

the Czar (like King).

F. He expanded Russia and crushed all opposition. He

was known for being a cruel ruler. He gained the

nickname Ivan the Terrible.

G. He started the Romanov Dynasty (family)

2. THE ROMANOV CZARS

A. In the late 1600s, Czar Peter the Great realized

his country was outdated compared to Europe.

B. Peter modernized Russia, enlarged Russia’s

territory, built a stronger military and began

trading with Europe

C. Peter also created a new Capital city- St. Petersburg.

This gave them year-round port access to the Baltic Sea.

The rest of Russia’s ports were frozen half of the year.

D. Later Romanov’s expanded the empire

E. During the reign of Alexander II, they also poorly

treated the serfs (lowest class people who did the

hard labor). Many were starving and had no money.

3. RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

A. Czar Nicholas II had a lot of problems in

Russia going on during his rule (early 1900s).

i. The Serfs were struggling to survive and moving

to cities to work horrible jobs that paid almost

nothing

ii. Non-Russians were being discriminated against

iii. World War I created more starving people

B. The divide between rich and poor was growing and

people didn’t like that.

C. Karl Marx (a philosopher) had a popular idea that the

public should own everything and everyone should be

equal in everything. This was basically the start of

Communism.

D. With all the struggles going on in Russia, this

lead to a revolution

E. People removed the Czar (Nicholas II) from

power and had him and his family killed.

(Story/movie of Anastasia comes from this)

F. This revolution brought communism to Russia

4. THE SOVIET ERA

A. After the Czar was removed in 1917, the

government was taken over by Vladimir Lenin.

B. Lenin was a Bolshevik- a group that liked Karl

Marx’s communist ideas and embraced it.

C. Lenin and his followers took complete

control over businesses.

i. Industries/factories, food distribution

D. Many people didn’t like the changes Lenin brought to

Russia

E. This started a civil war between the Bolshevik Red

Army and the anti-Bolshevik White Army

F. The Red Army won and communism was

established under the new government called:

“Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”

i. Also Known as: U.S.S.R or the Soviet Union.

G. After Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin become the

leader in the USSR.

H. Stalin was a cruel leader: Millions of people died from

starvation or from him killing them.

I. Stalin lead the USSR through World War II

5. SUPER POWER

A. After WWII, Russia gained Super Power

status like the United States.

B. Hostilities between the US and the Soviets

grew after the war split Europe into

Communist Vs. Capitalists. This sparked

“The Cold War”

C. The Cold War- a 4 decades long hostility between the

USSR and U.S. There was political and military tension

and the fear that nuclear war could break out at any time

***(DON’T WRITE-Think back to our Cuba article and

the possible nuclear war there in the Cuban Missile

Crisis)

6. FALL OF THE SOVIETS

A. Starting in 1989-1991 the USSR started falling

apart. The economy was weak and people were

increasingly unhappy.

i. Government workers had “the good life” and average

people were living in poverty(this goes against the

communist principles).

B. Many of the countries who were controlled by the

USSR started declaring independence.

C. By the end of 1991 the Soviet Union had fallen

apart.

7. A NEW RUSSIA

A. The USSR emerged as a Russian republic.

People could vote for their leaders now.

B. The Russians become more capitalistic and left

communism.

C. The economy finally started to recover and

Russia become what it is today.