Russian History

Ivan the Terrible

Period: Jan 1, 1547 to Sep 14, 1584

Ivan didn’t immediately become known as Terrible. Born near Moscow on August 25, 1530, Ivan was the long-awaited son of Vasily III. His father died when the boy was only three and Ivan was proclaimed the Grand Prince of Moscow. At first, his mother Yelena Glinskaya acted as a regent, but she died when Ivan was eight years old. Ivan saw her replaced by a group of noblemen fiercely fighting for power. Treated with respect in public but neglected in private, he was growing up lonely and often humiliated by his mighty regents. Abuse, violence and murders were commonplace in the palace. It’s believed Ivan’s miserable childhood largely explains his hatred of the nobles and his later repressions against them. Smart and a keen reader, early on Ivan started dreaming of unlimited power. In 1547, aged 16, he was finally crowned Czar of all Russia, the first ruler to officially assume the title. The young ruler started out as a reformer, modernising and centralising the country. He revised the law code, created an elite standing army and introduced local self-management in rural regions. The first printing press was introduced in Russia and new trade routes opened up. Ivan also pressed to turn his country into a military heavyweight. Back then, the Tatar armies repeatedly devastated Russia’s northeast. In 1552 Ivan crushed the Tatar stronghold of Kazan and then another one – Astrakhan. These campaigns began Russia’s expansion into Siberia, annexing a large Muslim population and turning Russia into a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. One of Moscow’s most famous landmarks is a reminder of this drive to expand Russia’s borders. St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square was built by Ivan’s order to commemorate Kazan’s invasion and other key victories in the Tatar campaign. A popular legend has it that the work was done by two architects – Postnik and Barma. When Ivan saw the finished cathedral he liked it so much that he had the architects blinded to prevent them from building anything like it elsewhere.Soon though, Ivan’s life took a dramatic turn, strikingly changing his personality and his policies. In 1553 he suffered a near-fatal illness and several years later his beloved wife Anastasia died. Suspecting the nobles of poisoning Anastasia and plotting to remove him from the throne, Ivan embarked on a campaign of oppression and killings against the hereditary nobility. Suddenly, in the winter of 1564 Ivan secretly left Moscow declaring that he wanted to abdicate. The panicked population called for his return. After lengthy talks, Ivan agreed to come back but on his own terms, demanding absolute power to punish anyone he believed was disloyal. The next year, an instrument of his new rule was set up: a system called Oprichnina or “separate estate”. Certain territories and cities across Russia were separated from the rest of the realm, administered by Russia’s first police force, also called Oprichnina – from the obsolete oprich (“apart from”, “except of”). Handpicked by the Tsar, its members, called the oprichniki, became Ivan’s exclusive favourites and spread terror across the country. Dressed in black and riding black horses, they carried dog’s heads and brooms – a symbol of sniffing out treason and sweeping away the Tsar’s enemies. Known for their cruelty and use of torture, the Tsar’s loyal servants executed anyone who displeased Ivan, confiscating their lands and riches. The system dealt a mighty blow to the influence of the nobility while Russia’s monarchy grew stronger than ever. One of the most terrifying campaigns by the oprichniki was the 1570 massacre of the wealthy city of Novgorod. Suspecting its people of treason, Ivan personally led the troops. The city was ravaged and thousands murdered. While terror was unleashed at home, abroad Ivan’s ambitions grew sore. His seaward expansion to the West opposed him to the Swedes, the Poles and the Lithuanians. As warfare dragged on, with no land gained for Russia, the economy was put under a huge strain. In the 1560s heavy military losses combined with a severe drought, devastating famine and plague epidemics took their toll. Russia’s most prosperous areas grew deserted and Ivan’s military luck seemed to be running out as one blow followed another. First, the Tsar’s closest advisor, Prince Andrey Kurbsky, defected to the Lithuanians, headed their troops and devastated one of Russia’s regions – a betrayal that deeply hurt Ivan. Then, in 1571 the Crimean Tatars ravaged the unprotected towns and villages around Moscow and set fire to the capital. Ivan later managed to defeat their armies but in the West, the Russians could no longer cope. Peace was concluded, with Ivan having to concede some of the lands conquered earlier. Russia was left to wait for another century and a half to gain a foothold on the Baltic coast. Meanwhile, Ivan himself was becoming more erratic. Fits of rage were replaced by bouts of religious humility; drunken feasts were followed by frantic prayers and fasting in remote monasteries. In 1581, during a violent dispute Ivan accidentally killed his eldest son – the groomed and chosen heir – Ivan Ivanovich, hitting him with his pointed staff. Ivan’s love life also grew increasingly eccentric as he changed one wife after another, sometimes sending a yet another spouse to a convent shortly after marriage. It’s unclear how many wives he eventually had but most historians agree he could have married up to seven times. By the end of his life, Ivan was typically bad tempered and unpredictable. During his reign hardly a family of noble birth had not been affected by his murders. Miles of fertile land had been abandoned during the terror of the oprichniki. Ivan died on March 18, 1584.

Beginnig of Romanov Dynasty

Jan 1, 1613

Romanov family gained influence during the Great Interregnum generated by the death of Ivan IV (1584). In 1613, an assembly of nobles chose the nephew of Tsar Ivan: Michael I of Russia, with which the dynasty begun. Michael Romanov took the title “Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia” he became known as the Tsar who imposed autocratic rule (government by one man). Unlike other European countries, the Tsars of Russia didn’t take advice from an elected parliament.

Peter the Great's birth

Jun 4, 1672

He was born the 4 of june of 1672, in Moscow. Peter was a grandson of Tsar Michael Romanov.

Peter The Great Crowning

Apr 27, 1682

He was crowned Tsar of Russia on April 27, 1682, when he was 10. But, there were problems between different political forces in the country, so he was forced to rule along with his brother Ivan, under the patronage of their sister Sofia

Sofia's overthown

Jan 1, 1689

In 1689, after a failed putsch, Sofia was overthrown and exiled to a convent

Tsar Ivan death

Jan 1, 1696

When Tsar Ivan died in 1696, Peter remained monarch and made a series of reforms that put Russia among the major European powers:
• He invited the best European engineers, shipbuilders, architects, craftsmen and merchants to come to Russia and modernize it.
• He sent a lots of Russians to Europe so they could receive the best education.

Northern War beginning

Jan 1, 1700

One of Peter's principal objectives was to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Baltic trade. In 1700 he started the Northern War with Sweden, which he won. He founded St. Petersburg city on the delta of the Neva River, which became a major sea port.

Northern War end

Jan 1, 1721

When the Northern War ended in 1721 Russia was declared an Empire and Peter the Great became the Emperor. Peter continued his political and economic reforms: he reorganized the government (10-semi ministers); he established the poll tax (to active foreign policy and to impulse national manufacturing and trade); he organized the Russian Regular Army and founded the Russian Navy.

Peter the Great's Death

Feb 8, 1725

He died the 8 of February of 1725, in St. Petersburg,

Catherine the Great's Birth

Apr 21, 1729

She was born on April 21, 1729 in Szczecin, Pomerania

Catherine the Great's marriage

Jan 1, 1745

In 1745 she married Prince Carl Peter Ulrich (the future Emperor Peter III). She joined the Russian Orthodox Church, learned the Russian language and acquired a brilliant education (correspondent of enlightenment thinkers).

Catherine the Great's rise

Jun 1, 1762

In June 1762, Catherine participated in a putsch against her husband who was overthrown and later killed, so she became Russia’s autocratic ruler. She made some reforms: extended the Russian Empire by acquiring territories in Southern Ukraine and the Crimea; extended the rights and privileges granted to Russian nobility, which won Catherine popularity among the Russian social elite .Also, she constructed the momument: The Horseman, to honor Peter the great.

Catherine the Great's Death

Nov 17, 1796

She died on November 17, 1796 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia.

Start of Russian Revolution

Jan 1, 1905

The russian army fired on thousands of protesters calling for more pay and shorter working hours in factories. That led to strikes in many cities, including one in St. Petersburg. The protesters demanded a free and universal contitución, and also a tax reform. The Tsar accepted and made a constitution instituting a Duma or parliament, but the strikes and disorders continued.

The Russian Empire gets in the First World War

Jan 1, 1914

Nicolas II takes the direction of Russian Armed Forces

Aug 1, 1915

Abdication of Nicolas II

Mar 1, 1917

In 1917, the Russian Army had lost more that 5 million soldiers in the First World War. There were other disturbs in St. Petersburg, forcing the abdication of the Tsar in March 1917 and the formation of a liberal government (called provisional).

Russia Declared a Republic

Sep 1, 1917

In september, the Provisional Government declared Russia a Republic.

Lenin's Putsch

Oct 1, 1917

Lenin was one of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, who masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917, and was the architect and first head of the USSR.Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk on the Volga River on 22 April 1870 into a well-educated family. He excelled at school and went on to study law. At university, he was exposed to radical thinking, and his views were also influenced by the execution of his elder brother, a member of a revolutionary group.Expelled from university for his radical policies, Lenin completed his law degree as an external student in 1891. He moved to St Petersburg and became a professional revolutionary. Like many of his contemporaries, he was arrested and exiled to Siberia, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya. After his Siberian exile, Lenin - the pseudonym he adopted in 1901 - spent most of the subsequent decade and a half in western Europe, where he emerged as a prominent figure in the international revolutionary movement and became the leader of the 'Bolshevik' faction of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party.In 1917, exhausted by World War One, Russia was ripe for change. Assisted by the Germans, who hoped that he would undermine the Russian war effort, Lenin returned home and started working against the provisional government that had overthrown the tsarist regime. He eventually led what was soon to be known as the October Revolution, but was effectively a coup d'etat. Almost three years of civil war followed. The Bolsheviks were victorious and assumed total control of the country. During this period of revolution, war and famine, Lenin demonstrated a chilling disregard for the sufferings of his fellow countrymen and mercilessly crushed any opposition.Although Lenin was ruthless he was also pragmatic. When his efforts to transform the Russian economy to a socialist model stalled, he introduced the New Economic Policy, where a measure of private enterprise was again permitted, a policy that continued for several years after his death. In 1918, Lenin narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but was severely wounded. His long term health was affected, and in 1922 he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. In his declining years, he worried about the bureaucratisation of the regime and also expressed concern over the increasing power of his eventual successor Joseph Stalin. Lenin died on 24 January 1924. His corpse was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square.However, Lenin's Bolshevik party opposed and in October, Lenin organized a putsch, took the Winter Palace and put the Bolshevikes in the power.

Civil War

Period: Jan 1, 1918 to Dec 31, 1921

civil war against the opposition of new policies of the recently signed treaty.

Peace Treaty with Germany

Mar 1, 1918

In this treaty Russia gave some territories to Germany.

Romanov's Murder

Jul 1, 1918

The Ztar (Nicolas II) and his whole family were murdered by the revolutionaries.

Creation of the USSR

Jan 1, 1922

Creation of the Union of Sovietic Socialist Republics (USSR). It was constituted by 15 republics under a political system ruled by the communist party.

Power stuggle between Salin and Trotski

Period: Jan 1, 1924 to Jan 1, 1929

Trotsky was a key figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, second only to Vladimir Lenin in the early stages of Soviet communist rule. But he lost out to Joseph Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death, and was assassinated while in exile.Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, Ukraine, then part of Russia. His father was a prosperous Jewish farmer. Trotsky became involved in underground activities as a teenager. He was soon arrested, jailed and exiled to Siberia where he joined the Social Democratic Party. Eventually, he escaped Siberia and spent the majority of the next 15 years abroad, including a spell in London.In 1903, the Social Democrats split. While Lenin assumed leadership of the 'Bolshevik' (minority) faction, Trotsky became a member of the 'Menshevik' (majority) faction and developed his theory of 'permanent revolution'. After the outbreak of revolution in Petrograd in February 1917, he made his way back to Russia. Despite previous disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and played a decisive role in the communist take-over of power in the same year. His first post in the new government was as foreign commissar, where he found himself negotiating peace terms with Germany. He was then made war commissar and in this capacity, built up the Red Army which prevailed against the White Russian forces in the civil war. Thus Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive. He saw himself as Lenin's heir-apparent, but his intellectual arrogance made him few friends, and his Jewish heritage may also have worked against him. When Lenin fell ill and died, Trotsky was easily outmanoeuvred by Stalin. In 1927, he was thrown out of the party. Internal and then foreign exile followed, but Trotsky continued to write and to criticise Stalin.Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1936. On 20 August 1940, an assassin called Ramon Mercader, acting on Stalin's orders, stabbed Trotsky with an ice pick, fatally wounding him. He died the next day.

Lenin's death

Jan 24, 1924

Stalin Rise

Jan 1, 1929

One of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history, Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. His regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions, but he also oversaw the war machine that played a key role in the defeat of Nazism.Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was born on 18 December 1879 in Gori, Georgia, which was then part of the Russian empire. His father was a cobbler and Stalin grew up in modest circumstances. He studied at a theological seminary where he began to read Marxist literature. He never graduated, instead devoting his time to the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. He spent the next 15 years as an activist and on a number of occasions was arrested and exiled to Siberia. Stalin was not one of the decisive players in the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, but he soon rose through the ranks of the party. In 1922, he was made general secretary of the Communist Party, a post not considered particularly significant at the time but which gave him control over appointments and thus allowed him to build up a base of support. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin promoted himself as his political heir and gradually outmanoeuvred his rivals. By the late 1920s, Stalin was effectively the dictator of the Soviet Union.His forced collectivisation of agriculture cost millions of lives, while his programme of rapid industrialisation achieved huge increases in Soviet productivity and economic growth but at great cost. Moreover, the population suffered immensely during the Great Terror of the 1930s, during which Stalin purged the party of 'enemies of the people', resulting in the execution of thousands and the exile of millions to the gulag system of slave labour camps.These purges severely depleted the Red Army, and despite repeated warnings, Stalin was ill prepared for Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. His political future, and that of the Soviet Union, hung in the balance, but Stalin recovered to lead his country to victory. The human cost was enormous, but was not a consideration for him.After World War Two, the Soviet Union entered the nuclear age and ruled over an empire which included most of eastern Europe. Increasingly paranoid, Stalin died of a stroke on 5 March 1953.He was recognized as the leader of the country. He induced the country into industrialization, with a centralized economy and political repression.

Germany Surrenders

Period: Jan 1, 1941 to Jan 1, 1943

In the Stalingrado battle, the USSR beats Germany.Then, Soviet forces advanced to Berlin forcing Germany to surrender.

The USSR was invaded by Germany

Jul 22, 1941

The Cold War

Jan 1, 1949

Conflict between USSR and the United States. Began the division between communist countries and those who were not. There was a tension between these two countries because of the fabrication of nuclear weapons.

Fron Stalin to Kruschov

Period: Mar 1, 1953 to Jan 1, 1957

In march of 1953 Stalin dies. Then there is a large conflict for the power until 1957 with the triumph of Kruschov. He relaxed the politics, and was a period of technological and cientific advance.

Khrushchev revelations

Jan 1, 1957

Khrushchev is forced to admit that there was another pediod of collective leadership, led by Leonid Brezhnev, who promulgated a new constitution

The USSR invades Afganistan

Sep 9, 1979

The Moscow Olympics were boycotted by the United States

Jan 1, 1980

Brezhnev death

Jan 1, 1982

Brezhnev died in late 1982 and its successors died in less than two years (Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernonko).

Gorbachov Rise

Mar 1, 1985

He becomes general secretary of the Communist Party, and introduces glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Berlin wall

Jan 1, 1989

The are held the first democratic elections. The revolutions erupted throughout the Soviet bloc, these lead the Berlin Wall fell.

USSR dissolution

Period: Jun 1, 1991 to Dec 1, 1991

The Soviet Union collapsed back in the 80s and although there is more than just one cause responsible for the downfall of the Union, the main reason was undoubtedly the economic condition of the USSR at that moment. The collapse of the Soviet Union became unavoidable once the West started to win the “Cold War” by getting ahead in the arms race against the East. Perhaps the biggest reason behind the United States of America’s booming economy and the USSR’s declining economy was in their ideology. The socialist government of the Soviet Union could not match up with the wealthy capitalist government of the USA, and thus they not only lost the arms race, but also lost even the means to hold the Union together any longer. The citizens themselves started to depend on foreign imports for almost anything, be it clothes or electronics because everything that was made domestically was being used by the military. An event that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union was the Chernobyl Disaster. After that event, the Russians began to lose faith in the government and a countrywide sense of depression settled within the minds of the citizens. The economic condition and the Chernobyl disaster had already had a very negative effect on the mind of the citizens, but the failure of the Afghan war policy further worsened the situation. The turmoil was heightened when the rift between the government and the people widened because of the lack of independent news agencies. The Samizdat, a paper independent of the Union government and run by rebels, also contributed to the negative apprehensions and doubts in the minds of the people against their secretive government. Even the departments within the government were so detached from each other that it hindered smooth functioning of the state as a whole. As almost nobody knew about the poor economic conditions of the Soviet Union until the government had to admit it in 1988, it was impossible to recover from that point. The ill-treatment of the people with free thoughts and the sending of anybody who tried to inform the people of the intentions of the government to the labor camps made it clear that the government would do anything to keep their intentions and policies secret. It was only natural for the citizens to be afraid of the government and feel alienated from the institution after realizing this. Political, economical and strategic mistakes by the government were responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union and after observing the condition of the USSR at that time and analyzing the reasons as to why the communist government failed so miserably in the end, it can now be said that certain aspects of the socialist system as applied by the USSR must be changed if ever there has to be any hope for a successful communist nation.Citizens of Leningrad voted to restore the name of St. Petersburg. Yeltsin outlaws Communist Party. Tthe USSR dissolves and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created in December.