Russia in Eurasia

7/28/2019 Russia in Eurasia

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Russia in Eurasia


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A Three-Dimensional View

Interstaterelations - relations between the Russian state

and other states

Russias internal conditions social development and

transformation, social structure, ethnic composition,available resources, state-society relations, political

consciousness, balance of political forces, etc.

Transnationalrelations Russia has been involved in

movement of people, goods, information, technology,

money; ethnic, cultural (including religious), political ties


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To understand Russias international behaviour, wewill view it through this three-dimensional prism,

looking forhistorically-specific combinations and

interactions

of interstate,

internal,

and transnational factors at work


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Russias world status: geopoliticsvs. market power


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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

WindsTemperature


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Human migration routes*

*The time frames are highly approximate


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Human settlement patterns

Search and struggle for resources

Potential for development Degree of security

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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 (?)


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Eurasias political integration: historical phases


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EURASIA, 116 C.E.


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EURASIA, 8TH

CENTURY


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EURASIA, 1288


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Europes 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


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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)


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EUROPE 0001


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EUROPE 1000


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EUROPE 1600


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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 EasternRoman Empire (The Romanov Empire)

Muslim (Turkish)successor to the Arab Caliphate (The

Ottoman Empire)


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EUROPE 1900


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

Gradually, it filled much ofthe space firstintegrated by the Mongols

Expansion was driven by:

Struggle forindependence and security

Struggle for control ofresources and trade routes

Human settlement Imperial inertia and the internal interests maintaining

it


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ChengizKhan


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Batu-

Khan, son

of

Chengiz,conqueror

of Kiev

Rus


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The Battle of Kulikovo Pole, 1380: Russians defeat Tatars


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Moscow: a Kremlin wall


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The Red Square


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Kremlin,

Tsar

Cannon


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The Church of Ivan the Great,

Moscow Kremlin


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The

Virgin of

St.

Vladimir

(13th

century)


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The

Saviour

GoldenHair

(13th

century)


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St. George

theVictorious


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Russian countryside


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THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM:

The state was huge, costly, militarized

Society (especially the peasantry) was heavily exploitedand closely controlled by the state

The political system was autocratic-patrimonial, with themonarch 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 themain agent of change, usually with limited effect

Society had no legal means of influencing governmentpolicies the people had an impact on the state either byobedience to it or by resistance to it (passive or active)


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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.


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Tsar Ivan The Terrible Kills His Son (from Ilya Repins

painting)


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Cossacks are writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan


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Russia

under Polish

rule: FalseDimitry and

Marina

Mnishek

(1609)


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Kuzma Minin and Prince Pozharsky: leaders of the anti-

Polish revolution (1609)


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Tsar Mikhail, Founder of the Romanov Dynasty

(reign 1613-1645)


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Tsar Peter the Great,

Founder of the

Russian Empire

(reign 1682-1725)


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The Battle of Poltava, 1709: Russia defeats Sweden


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St. Petersburg


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Poseidon over St. Peterburg


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Emperor Alexander I (reign 1801-1825)


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


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The Battle of Borodino


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Borodino


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Moscow on Fire


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Napoleons retreat from Russia, winter of 1812


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An Imperial Russian Army officer, 1812


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


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Tsar Nicholas I (reign 1825-1855)


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The Russian octopus a British 1850s cartoon


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British cavalry in the Crimean War, 1855


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Emperor Alexander II (reign 1855-1881)


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Emperor

Alexander III

(reign 1881-

1894)


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Nicholas II,

the last Tsar,Emperor of

all Russias

(reign 1894-

1917)


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Grain production in Russia, late 19th century*:

1/3 of the German level

1/7 of the British level

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 ofsecurity and development


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Deceptive appearances of Russia:

The image ofstability vs.

The potential forrevolution

Lenins 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?

RUSSIAS 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)

R i 19th t


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Russias 19th century

The apex of expansion and the lag behind the West

From the triumph of 1812 (victory over Napoleon) to thedisaster of 1855 (defeat in the Crimean War)

The pressures for change

The reforms of Alexander II

Development of capitalism

vs. Political modernization

Capitalism was creating new classes, new issues, newconflicts and the state was expected to evolve to beable 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 ofadditional problems

By the end of the 19th century the flaws of the


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By the end of the 19th century, the flaws of theRussian 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

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Russia in Eurasia