RUSSIA AND THE EURASIAN REPUBLICSIncludes Russia and the 14 other countries

that were part of the Soviet Union

Russia Ukraine Belarus Moldova Latvia -------- Lithuania ---- “The Baltic States” Estonia ------- Georgia ===== Armenia ===== “The Caucasus Region” Azerbaijan === Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

Former Soviet countries:

1917: Vladimir Lenin leads the Bolshevik Revolution that overthrows Czar Nicholas II.

The czar and his family are killed, even though he had offered to step down.

A history of the Soviet Union:

For years there were rumors that the czar’s daughter,

Anastasia, survived. She didn’t.

Secret graves were discovered in 1991 and 2007.

DNA testing concluded that the remains were those of the Romanov family.

One reason the Russian people turned against the Romanov

family was because of Tsarina Alexandra’s association with

“mad monk” Grigori Rasputin.

He was poisoned, stabbed, clubbed, shot, and drowned before he finally died.

As he was being cremated, he sat up (most likely because his tendons were not severed first).

Rasputin was really hard to kill.

Josef Stalin took power in 1922, and ruled until 1952.

Stalin instituted the policy of forced collectivization, meaning the government seized all property.

Stalin engineered a famine that cost the lives of 4 million Ukrainians in 2 years.

He also conducted executions of anyone who disagreed with his policies.

In addition, “undesirables” were either exterminated or deported under his rule.

By the end of Stalin’s rule, the death toll was 50 million.

The U.S. and Russia both fought the Nazis. It wasn’t until after World War II that the

Cold War began. The Cold War was a technology and arms

race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Much of the technology we use today is a

result of the Cold War.

In 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union.

Satellites and cell phone technology are good examples.

Another part of the Cold War was Olympic gymnastics competition.

The Soviets excelled at this sport.

Their gymnasts set records…

…and became celebrities.

THE RUSSIAN BALLET IS ALSO WORLD FAMOUS

This means they left their country (which was not allowed except under certain conditions, such as performing with the Olympics or Russian ballet) and did not return.

Sometimes they even defected.

In satellite countries, communist governments were in place, and people in those countries lived under similar conditions to the Soviet Union

Satellite countries were created in order to form a buffer between the Soviet Union and the free western

nations

East Germany Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Romania Bulgaria Poland Hungary Albania

Satellite countries included:

These countries were separated from the west by a series of walls and fences called the Iron Curtain

Western items such as blue jeans, Coca Cola, rock music, McDonalds, etc., were banned by the communist government.

Under communism, Soviet citizens had no rights or freedom

Nikita Khrushchev ruled from 1953-1964

Kruschev was in power during the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion

What he actually said was that the working class in capitalist countries would bury their

leaders eventually, as had occurred in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. His words were interpreted as a threat that he

would initiate nuclear war with free western nations. Of course, that never happened.

Khrushchev is best known for telling western nations “We will

bury you”.

The Cold War never turned “hot”. However, after the breakup of

the Soviet Union, many of their nuclear weapons went missing. They are called “loose nukes”.

In 1957, Sputnik, the first spacecraft to orbit the earth, was launched.

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the earth.

Of course, the U.S. beat the Russians to the moon.

Leonid Brezhnev ruled from 1964-1982

Yuri Andropov ruled from1982-1984

Konstantin Chernenko ruled from 1984-1985.

Under the Soviet system, government allowed abuse of the environment with little or no interference from the people.

The Aral Sea diminished greatly during the Soviet era, due to pollution and overuse.

In 1986, a nuclear power plant (Chernobyl, located near Kiev) had a meltdown which resulted in severe environmental problems that persist to this day.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

THE ARAL SEA

CHERNOBYL

Gorbachev contributed to the end of the communist era by instituting policies of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”).

Mikhail Gorbachev ruled from 1985-1991

The new freedoms under Gorbachev allowed Soviet states to break away and declare their

independence. In 1991, the Soviet Union officially broke up.

The Baltic republics were the first to break away and declare their

independence

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 officially marked the end of the Cold War

On June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first democratically

elected leader in Russia’s history.

Yeltsin continued Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika, but thought the changes should happen sooner.

When he resigned from the Communist Party, he became the first non-Communist leader of Russia in over 70 years.

In 1994, Yeltsin and U.S. president Bill Clinton signed history’s first detargeting agreement. Since then, no Russian missiles have been aimed at America, and ours are not aimed at them.

Boris Yeltsin ruled from 1991-1999

In 1994, a region of Russia known as Chechnya tried to break away and form an independent

state.

Boris Yeltsin died on April 23, 2007

Mikhail Gorbachev attended the funeral of Mr. Yeltsin. He is shown here with Yeltsin’s widow, Naina.

In 2014, Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops to take control of the Crimean Peninsula, which is

part of the Ukraine.