THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Liberation from Mongols• Pre-1500, the history of Russians was dominated by steppe nomads

– Golden Horde (Mongols) ruled Russians & neighbors from 1240s-1480– Moscow became most important Russian city

• Princes of Muscovy led movement against golden Horde & annexed territories of Novgorod in 1478

• Muscovy princes made themselves masters of all Golden Horde territories & then a greater empire– Ivan IV (r.1533-1584) pushed conquests south & east into Khanates of Kazan &

Astrakhan– Russians ruled largest state in Europe & largest territories on Asian side of Ural

Mountains as well by end of 16th century• Rulers took title tsar after 1547• Russian church promoted idea of Moscow as the third Rome, successor

to Constantinople which fell to Ottoman Turks in 1453

Russian Problems ~1600• Poor, backward landlocked empire• Only one seaport connected to world’s oceans• Crimean Turks sacked Moscow 1571• No warm water port = limited trade

– Ottoman Empire controlled access to Black Seea– Safavid rulers dominated trade of southern Central Asia– Sweden & Poland-Lithuania blocked access to Baltic Sea

• Route to expansion = Siberia– Valuable animal pelts– Strogonov family led early Russian exploration of Siberia– Used rifles to destroy Khanate of Sibir in 1582– Crossed into Alaska in 1600s– Siberia used as a penal colony for criminals & political prisoners

Society & Politics to 1725• Expansion involved demographic changes & new relations between tsar and

elites• Empire incorporated people with different languages, religions, and ethnic

identities– Efforts by Orthodox missionaries to Christianize peoples of Siberia– Russians tended to live as farmers, builders, hunters, scribes, or merchants, but new

peoples were herders, caravan workers, or soldiers– Individual & group identities became complex

• Cossacks – lived in steppes between Moscovy & Capisan sea; terrified villages & authorities; provided most soldiers & settlers employed by Strogonovs; founded towns in Siberia

• Cultural groups defined less by blood ties than by ways in which they lived

• Swedish & Polish forces briefly occupied Moscow in early 17th century (“Time of Troubles”)– Marked end of old line of Muscovite Rulers– Boyars – aristocrats – promoted Mikhail Romanov to inaugurate a new dynasty

• Represented conflicts between Slavic Russians & Turkic steppe peoples

Serfs• Freedom of peasants who tilled land in Russia fell• Muscovy rulers rewarded nobles with grants of lands that obliged peasants to

work for lords• Law & custom permitted peasants to change masters during a 2-week period

each year, encouraging lords to treat peasants well– But, rising commercialization of agriculture raised value of labor obligations

• Long periods of war disrupted life & caused many to flee to the Cossacks or across Ural Mountains– Sold themselves into slavery to avoid starvation

• Law change in 1649 finally transformed peasants into serfs by eliminating period when they could change masters & ordering runaways returned

• Hereditary status• Comprised over half the population by 1795

– Landowners only 2%– Similar to the Caribbean

The Romanovs • Ruled from 1613 to March 15, 1917 with abdication of Nicholas II

– Direct male line had already ended with Peter II in 1730– Mikhail Alexei Dynastic struggle– Peter the Great 1682-1725– Empress Catherine (wife) Peter II died 1730

• Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Line Notables – Catherine the Great r.1762-1796 “Golden Age” & supported Peter the Great’s

modernization efforts– Paul I – Catherine’s son; murdered in his palace in St Petersburg in 1801– Alexander I – succeeded Paul, but left no heir – Nicholas I – succeeded Alexander I (brothers) after major competition with other

brother Constantine– Alexander II (1855-1881) – Crimean War + freed serfs in 1861; assassinated by hand-

made bomb in 1881– Alexander III – conservative reforms; strengthened autocratic rule– Nicholas II (1894-1917) assassinated by Bolsheviks

Peter the Great, r.1689-1725• Greatest of the Romanovs• Reduced Russian isolation• Increased empire’s size & power• Implemented Western reforms

– “westernization” or “modernization” to compete with Europe & be considered part of Europe– Studied in Europe + had military officers trained there– No beards– Western dress– Required officials, military officers, & merchants to bring wives to social gatherings to end seclusion of upper-class women– Promoted education of officials’ children– Reduced traditional roles of boyars in government– Promoted officers in military based on merit– Brought Russian Orthodox Church under his control– Built factories and iron & copper foundries

• Commissioned construction of warm-water port: St. Petersburg– Seized land along Baltic Sea in the Great Northern War v. Sweden 1770-1721– Became the capital in 1712– ‘Window to the West’– Built in baroque style fashionable in France

• The not-so-good– Absolute ruler (but of same sort as in Western Europe at the time)– Increased burdens of taxes & forced labor on serfs