Russia Unifies and ExpandsAfter the Mongols… what did they do?

Looking EastKievan Rus modeled the government on Constantinople, and was adopted by Moscow with the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church, to unite the people behind the leadership

Never experienced the Renaissance, but were the main fur traders in Eurasia

Russia also traded caviar and honey with the rest of Europe

Finally, even though they looked east, they were still a product of Europe thanks to the Vikings and later on, looked west for technology

Ivan III aka “Ivan

the Great”

He was the prince of Moscow

who overthrew the Mongols

He rebuilt the walls of the

Kremlin, the central citadel

Made Moscow the center of

trade

Social status was static, you

couldn't change your status

Nobles were called boyars,

and practiced feudalism

Some Boyars of Novgorod

opposed Ivan’s expansionist

policies, so he attacked and

defeated them and moved

their families to Moscow

Ivan IV aka

“Ivan the

Terrible”

Took control of the khanates of Kazan Astrakhan and Siberia, helped with the use of gunpowder

Commissioned the building of St. Basil’s Cathedral, which was to remind the nation that the Tzar and the church were united

Allowed the major Russian landowners, the Stroganovs, to hire Cossacks, to fight the local tribes in Siberia

Continued to move east thanks to the profitable fur trade

More on Ivan IV

To control the boyars at

home, he established a

paramilitary forced loyal

to him called the

Oprichnina

Killed his son in a fit of

rage, leaving Russia

without a strong heir

Earned his nickname “The

Terrible” for not only killing

his son, but the

inhabitants of entire cities

Time of Troubles and the RomanovsRussia was without a autocrat or family in control so from 1603 till 1613 it was a state of anarchy

The Zemseky Sobor(assembly of the land) Chose Michael Romanov as the leader, initiating the Romanov Dynasty-lasting till 1917

Peter the Great Three main groups

trying to get power,

Church, Tzar, and

Boyars, but Peter won

by:

First defeating his

sister to gain the

title of Tzar for

himself- forcing her

into a convent

Abolished the

position of

patriarch, and

incorporating it into

the government by

establishing the

Holy Synod

He was 6’ 9” TALL!!!

He looks west <——

Visited Western Europe in

1697 to observe military

and naval tech, tried to

blend in… yea right

Hired German technicians

to build his military

Used the navy to gain St.

Petersburg, and move the

capital to Moscow

He designed St Petersburg

in a new rectangular grid

and built his in-town home:

the Winter Palace

More on Peter’s

ReformsWanted to mimic Western Europe in EVERYTING!

Increased the industry of shipbuilding, and promoted people according to merit rather than social class with a Table of Ranks

Reorganized Russian government into provinces

The effected the upper class, but the peasants sank deeper into serfdom thanks to increased taxes

Catherine the

Great (II)

Not Russian borne (German) But married Peter III, took over when he died

She was an enlightened despot who was pen-pals with Voltaire

Tried to pass reforms to help the peasants, but after their revolts (give a little freedom and they always want more) she allowed landowners to exert more control

She conquered parts of Poland, took the Crimean Peninsula from the Ottomans, and other parts of land as a protective barrier for its agricultural settlements

So here is where we stand

Other info on

Catherine

Established a school for girls

Expected smallpox

inoculations

Some believed in the idea of

Slavophilism, or the idea that

Russia should base it’s

development on its own

history

Created a territory in Poland

called Pale of Settlement,

where the Jews were forced

to live

Russian SerfdomBecause of the power of the

Nobility in Russia, serfdom never

went away as it did in Western

Europe

Also, because of high taxes from

the peasants, it forced more

into serfdom

It kept the peasants under

control, provided free labor, but

serfs could not leave the cities

This would end in 1861 by

decree of the Tzar in the

Emancipation Act

Cossacks and

Peasant RebellionsCossack warriors were nomadic descendants of the Mongols, and at odds with the central government

Yemelyan Pugachev, a Cossack initiated a peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great in 1774

This led to Catherine’s harsh crackdown on peasants and more support for the nobles (remember, give a little freedom, people want more)

France and Russia: 1750Basically compare the two

to in order to better understand Russia

Neither had a legislative body

Both wanted to expand

land at financial costs

Russia didn’t focus on the

Enlightenment like France did

This is why their revolutions would be

separated by over a

century