Russia in Eurasia

A Three-Dimensional View

Interstate relations - relations between the Russian state and other states

Russia’s internal conditions – social development and transformation, social structure, ethnic composition, available resources, state-society relations, political consciousness, balance of political forces, etc.

Transnational relations Russia has been involved in – movement of people, goods, information, technology, money; ethnic, cultural (including religious), political ties

To understand Russia’s international behaviour, we will view it through this three-dimensional prism, looking for historically-specific combinations – and interactions –

of interstate,

internal,

and transnational factors at work

Russia’s world status: geopolitics vs. market power

The Eurasian Context

Eurasia: a supercontinent consisting of two continents Unity and divisions of the supercontinent The Coastlands and the Heartland. The Heartland and

the Rimland Land Rivers Seas Winds Temperature

Human migration routes*

*The time frames are highly approximate

Human settlement patterns Search and struggle for resources Potential for development Degree of security

http://stort.unep-wcmc.org/imaps/gb2002/book/viewer.htm

Security-development interactions Costs of development and security: four basic

modes of interaction

D-costs high, S-costs high (Russia) D-costs low, S-costs low (USA, Canada) D-costs high, S-costs low (Scandinavia) D-costs low, S-costs high (?)

Eurasia’s political integration: historical phases

EURASIA, 116 C.E.

EURASIA, 8TH CENTURY

EURASIA, 1288

Europe’s Eastern frontier The belt between the Baltic and the Adriatic East European state-forming nations:

Greeks Germans Slavs

• Eastern: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians• Western: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks• Southern: Serbs, Croatians, Slovenians, Macedonians,

Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Bulgarians Hungarians (Magyars) Finns Balts (Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians) Romanians (19th-century name) Albanians Turks Tatars

Russia

Russia is 1,200 years old It has existed in 6 historical forms:

Kiev Rus (9th-13th centuries) Domain of the Tatar-Mongol empire

(13th-15th centuries) Moscovy (15th-17th centuries) The Russian Empire (18th century-1917) The Soviet Union (1917-1991) The Russian Federation (1991- today)

EUROPE 0001

EUROPE 1000

EUROPE 1600

NATION-STATES VS. EMPIRES A 3-way conflict of civilizations for control of Eastern

Europe. Objects of the struggle: Resources Trade routes Security

THE RISE OF EMPIRES Western Christian (German) – “successors” to the Western

Roman Empire, “Holy Roman Empire”, later the Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary) and the Hohenzollern Empire (Germany)

Orthodox Christian (Russian) – “successor” to Eastern Roman Empire (The Romanov Empire)

Muslim (Turkish) – “successor” to the Arab Caliphate (The Ottoman Empire)

EUROPE 1900

In the Modern Age, Russia expanded to take control of most of the Eurasian Heartland

Gradually, it filled much of the space first integrated by the Mongols

Expansion was driven by: Struggle for independence and security Struggle for control of resources and trade routes Human settlement Imperial inertia and the internal interests maintaining

it

Chengiz Khan

Batu-Khan, son of Chengiz, conqueror of Kiev Rus

The Battle of Kulikovo Pole, 1380: Russians defeat Tatars

Moscow: a Kremlin wall

The Red Square

Kremlin, Tsar Cannon

The Church of Ivan the Great, Moscow Kremlin

The Virgin of St. Vladimir

(13th century)

The Saviour Golden Hair

(13th century)

St. George the Victorious

Russian countryside

THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM:

The state was huge, costly, militarized Society (especially the peasantry) was heavily exploited

and closely controlled by the state The political system was autocratic-patrimonial, with the

monarch being the sole source of sovereignty The church was subservient to the state Individual rights and liberties were severely curbed Market economy had very limited potential for development When reforms became overdue, the state acted as the

main agent of change, usually with limited effect Society had no legal means of influencing government

policies – the people had an impact on the state either by obedience to it or by resistance to it (passive or active)

What kept the system going was its

“battle order”:

NO CITIZENS – JUST SOLDIERS, OFFICERS, AND WORKERS WHO FED THE ARMY

The system was designed primarily for war.

Successful wars kept it going.

Failed wars undermined it.

“Tsar Ivan The Terrible Kills His Son” (from Ilya Repin’s painting)

Cossacks are writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan

Russia under Polish rule: False Dimitry and Marina Mnishek (1609)

Kuz’ma Minin and Prince Pozharsky: leaders of the anti-Polish revolution (1609)

Tsar Mikhail, Founder of the Romanov Dynasty (reign 1613-1645)

Tsar Peter the Great, Founder of the Russian Empire

(reign 1682-1725)

The Battle of Poltava, 1709: Russia defeats Sweden

St. Petersburg

Poseidon over St. Peterburg

Emperor Alexander I (reign 1801-1825)

Napoleon at the Battle of Borodino: Sept. 7, 1812

The Battle of Borodino

Borodino

Moscow on Fire

Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, winter of 1812

An Imperial Russian Army officer, 1812

St. Petersburg, December 18, 1825: A military rebellion against autocracy

Tsar Nicholas I (reign 1825-1855)

“The Russian octopus” – a British 1850s cartoon

British cavalry in the Crimean War, 1855

Emperor Alexander II (reign 1855-1881)

Emperor Alexander III

(reign 1881-1894)

Nicholas II, the last Tsar, Emperor of all Russias

(reign 1894-1917)

Grain production in Russia, late 19th century*:

1/3 of the German level 1/7 of the British level ½ of the French and Austrian levels*Richard Pipes, Russia Under the old Regime. Penguin Books, 1974, p.8

The issue of the surplus.

The costs of security and development

Deceptive appearances of Russia:

The image of stability vs.The potential for revolution

Lenin’s conversation with a police investigator: “Yes, it is a wall, but it is all rotten: just push it, and it will fall down”

REFORM VS. REVOLUTION: IS THE SYSTEM REFORMABLE?

RUSSIA’S REBELS Cossack uprisings of 17th and 18th centuries (Razin, Bolotnikov, Pugachev) The Decembrists – 1825 The Revolutionary Democrats (Chernyshevsky, Herzen) The Populists The Anarchists (Kropotkin, Bakunin) The Social Democrats (Plekhanov, Lenin)

Russia’s 19th century

The apex of expansion – and the lag behind the West From the triumph of 1812 (victory over Napoleon) to the

disaster of 1855 (defeat in the Crimean War) The pressures for change The reforms of Alexander II Development of capitalism vs. Political modernizationCapitalism was creating new classes, new issues, new

conflicts – and the state was expected to evolve to be able to deal with them.

But the Russian state was not up to the task.It was not part of the solution, it was the source of

additional problems

By the end of the 19th century, the flaws of the Russian system become manifest

The gap between Europe and Russia widens fast, the Russian system is too inefficient, too rigid, resistant to reform

The 1904-05 war with Japan and then World War I exhaust the Russian state and expose its flaws

1905-1917: 12 YEARS OF UPHEAVAL WHICH DESTROYED THE RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY AND EMPIRE