-
Period: 862 to 1240
Kievan Rus'
The successors at the time moved south and extended their authority to Kiev (it was previously dominated by the Khazars). The first East Slavic state, Rus', came in the 9th century along the Dnieper River valley. -
Period: 1533 to 1547
Ivan IV the Terrible
Ivan IV the terrible expanded Russia and built a legacy in land and architecture. He also acquired vast land and beat back the Mongols at Kazan. Ivan IV was known to be terrible for killing his son and leaving Russia with no heir during the times of trouble. -
Period: to
Peter the Great and Catherine the Great
Peter the Great brought back stability to Russia and was highly influenced by Europe and wanted Russia to be more like Europe. He built St. Petersburg which became an opening to the west. Also, Catherine the Great was a German princess and overthrew her husband. She captured the Crimean Peninsula from the Turks. Among the things she achieved as an heir she spoke about freeing the serfs but never accomplished it and built the Winter palace. -
Czar Nicholas II & Alexandra
Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra were both unpopular because they were seen as politically incompetent and mindless. They both relied on the Guidance of a mystic healer named Rasputin. Also, Nicholas II was the last Russian emperor, he was the first emperor to show interest in Asia. Was considered to be a poor leader causing the people of Russia to feel oppressed. -
Russia in WWI
Because of Russia being allies with Serbia, Russia supported them by them entering WWI. Russia during WWI suffered harsh defeats causing shortages of food and weapons. Alongside army life, Russian civilians were suffering at homes too. All the supplies and food went to the army and not the civilians. -
Rasputin
Rasputin was known as the “mad monk” and he wandered around Russia claiming to the people that he had special powers. He built up a bad reputation in St. Petersburg and did many things to help him become the most powerful man in Russia. While taking down the Romanov Family in Russia. It took about 3 tries for the death of Rasputin. He was an awful man. -
The Bolsheviks
The bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, was a radical revolutionary group in Russia that wanted a socialist society. -
The Provisional Government
The Provisional Government was a temporary central government in Russia after the Romanov dynasty ended. This government was led by Alexander Kerensky who saw the war effort as the first priority and had to deal with many problems. Such as, soldiers deserting, transportation problems, and low arms production.What led to its downfall was the government not pulling Russia out of war and did not enact any social reforms. -
The Russian Revolution
This revolution was also known as the Bolsheviks Revolution because they staged a coup d'etat in St. Petersburg and overthrew the provisional government. After this they claimed absolute power and started to build a socialist state. This meant that it ended private ownership property, distributed land among peasants and gave workers control of mines. In March 1918 they officially renamed the communist party.They wanted to spread the Communist revolution throughout the world. -
Pre-Revolutionary Russia into the March Revolution of 1917
During Pre- Revolutionary Russia, the absolute monarch tradition was continued. After unrest in Russia, it was changed to a Constitutional monarchy.
In the March Revolution of 1917 people organized strikes and protests demanding for food and fuel. The soldiers were sent to take down these protests but they ended up joining them instead. On March 15, 1917, Czar Nicholas II abdicated and that was the end of the 300-year Romanov dynasty in Russia. -
Peace with Germany
As Lenin came into power his first order was to get Russia out of WWI. He signed a peace treaty with Germany in March of 1918, but Russia ended up losing a lot of its western territory and ⅓ of its population. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War
This War was between communists and their political opponents which included royalists, liberal democrats, moderate socialists, landlords, etc. (people of a higher rank). The communists wore red and their opponents wore white. The whites were defeated. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War: The Terror
War communism was a policy imposed by Bolsheviks. It forced peasants to send food to the cities and took direct control over all the industries. This killed the imprisoned Czar and his family and set up a secret police force, the Cheka. The police force arrested anyone considered an “enemy of the revolution,” which often ended in being executed. The Russian Orthodox Church was placed on severe restrictions. Communists were anti-religion. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War Ends
Lenin ruled from 1921-1924 and in this time he and the Communists ended up with complete control of Russia. The state of Russia was horrible and during 1914-1921, 27 million Russians had died. The Economy was a mess and peasants were still starving. But, it allowed a little capitalism to kick start the economy and the plan soon ended. -
Trotsky vs Stalin
Although Trotsky was more well-known and was closer to Lenin that didn’t stop Stalin from outmaneuvering Trotsky politically. He had the motive to remove and appoint government officials so once he gained control, he banished Trotsky to Siberia in 1929. Stalin sent an assassin to Mexico City to kill Trotsky once he moved there. -
Period: to
Joseph Stalin
Stalin ruled as a dictator and expelled anyone in his path who were seen as a threat to the state. He invaded eastern Europe (Ukraine) where he starved the people there because they wanted their independence. 10 million people died because of this and this was the 2nd Genocide (Holodomor) of the century. -
Russia WWII
Until the Nazis attacked in 1941 it was neutral. Russia oriented with the Allies. Most of the Soviet Unions fighting took place on the Eastern Front. The Soviet Union invaded Iran in August of that year with the British. Then they entered the war against Japan four years later in August. When the Soviet Union invaded Japan it led to Japan surrendering, ending WWII. This was the greatest number of casualties losing more than 20 million citizens (a third of all WWII casualties). -
Iron Curtain
In March 1946, Winston Churchill declared that for an iron curtain to have fallen down across Europe. -
Containment policy vs World Revolution
The Soviets were determined to make Eastern Europe governments as much like the Soviet government as possible. The U.S created the concept of “containment” to stop the spread of communism. -
New Treaties and Organizations
During the 1900s there have been many new treaties developed:
1949- NATO (North Atlantic Treaty organization)
1955- WARSAW Pact
1954-1955- SEATO, CENTO -
Joseph Stalin
He wanted to be surrounded by “friendly” governments. Communist regimes were imposed (per Stalin's order). -
The Arms Race
In 1959 the Soviet tested their first ICBM capable of causing warhead delivery in the U.S. The U.S tested a similar missile and both nations realized the amount of power they had. -
Period: to
Detente and then a Colder War
In the era of Nixon and Brezhnev the crisis of the 1960s relationship between the superpowers improved. The U.S began selling excess grain to the Soviets. President Jimmy Carter’s halt to the grain shipments marked the official end of detente in 1979, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. -
Period: to
The Berlin Wall
In 1960 citizens from East Germany wanted to move to the West because in the West they lived a more prosperous democratic lifestyle. They set up barbed wire fences to prevent East Germans from going West. The wall divided the city from 1961-1989 until citizens from both sides tore the wall down. -
The Final Decades of the Cold War Era
Tension during the Cold War increased between Russia and the U.S. In 1980 , the U.S and the Soviets had about 12,000 missiles pointing at each other ready to be used even though the Soviets could not financially compete in the arms race. -
Period: to
The Thaw
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power he attempted to establish free enterprise in the economy. The Soviet Union and the US signed a new treaty called the INF treaty that placed restrictions on intermediate-range nuclear weapons. -
The End of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev's reform programs were an end to the economic support for the Soviet bloc countries. This resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall when the Soviet Union failed to intervene there. -
Victor Yanukovych: 2013/2014 Issue
In 2013, the Ukrainian government decided not to sign the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement. Instead, Viktor Yanukovych tied Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union closer. -
Russia fully invades Ukrain
This became the largest attack on a European country since WWII. Ukrain was finally taken over fully by Russia.