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Russian HISTORY This

Russian HISTORY This enormous country has been through some extraordinarily turbulent times 104 EXPLORE MORE 2018

RUSSIA The first state of the Rus came into existence in 882, after migrations of Eastern Slavs formed the unified state of the Kievan Rus. This, along with other Russian states, existed alongside one another, sometimes warring, until they were almost wiped out by the Mongol invasion in 1237, culminating in the fall of Kiev in 1240. Muscovy became the dominant Rus state after that, as the others remained under Mongol control until the 15th century. The Grand Duchy of Muscovy annexed its main rival, Novgorod, in 1478, and broke from being a vassal of the Mongol Golden Horde in 1480, annexing Tver in 1485. Ivan III, who ruled from 1440 to 1505, also took land from Lithuania; under his rule, Muscovite territory was tripled, and the foundations of the Russian state were laid. During his reign, the Moscow Kremlin was renovated, and has since become one of the most iconic images of modern Russia. Ivan married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last (Byzantine) Roman Emperor, and laid the claim that Muscovy was the successor of Rome; the Third Rome, the culmination of Slavic-Byzantine synthesis which saw Orthodox Christianity become the dominant religion in Russia. Ivan’s successor, Vasili III, extended the borders to the Dnieper River, and his son, Ivan IV was crowned in 1547 as the Tsar of all Russia. That Ivan, who would be later known as Ivan the Terrible, would expand the Tsardom of Russia by an average of 35,000 km 2 per year (an area roughly the size of The Netherlands), and he ruled for 27 years, expanding eastward and turning Russia into a multi-ethnic empire. The Tsardom’s foreign policy was not as successful facing west as it was east, however, as their enemies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire often proved too great a foe. It was only after the ascension of Peter the Great in 1696 that the tables turned. Taking Facing page: Towers of the Kremlin in Moscow Below: A depiction of Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg inspiration from an incognito tour of Western Europe, he built a new capital, St. Petersburg, and, with victory over Poland-Lithuania, Sweden and the Ottomans in the Great Northern War, founded the Russian Empire in 1721. Under Peter the Great’s rule and that of his daughter, Elizabeth, Russia underwent sweeping social, political and cultural reforms that saw it transformed into a modern continental power. Catherine the Great, who ruled from 1762 to 1796, continued Russia’s expansion, but the elaborate palaces and military campaigns had a negative impact on a people that were still wholly illiterate and agricultural. There was no large scale industrial revolution across Russia’s vast steppes in the 19th century like there was in Western Europe; although Russia defeated Napoleon in 1812, its retention of serfdom meant its economic growth was limited. Its territory grew, with the acquiring of Congress Poland, but it was then defeated in 1855 in the Crimean War by a European coalition. Russian rulers did what they could but none of them were willing to implement reform on a huge scale, and discontent and radicalism grew. This came to a head on Bloody Sunday in 1905, following Russia’s disastrous defeat against Japan. This unrest, combined with the losses suffered by the Russian Empire in World War I, led to the February Revolution in 1917; the executions of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian royal family; and the October Revolution. The subsequent civil war and famine resulted in the deaths of millions. By 1923, the Soviet Union had emerged from the ashes. Now with an ideological tool, the masses were motivated to fight for mother Russia, and in 1940 Russia invaded the Baltic states, Poland, Romania and Finland. The German-led Axis invasion in June 1941 resulted in nearly four years of the most destructive warfare the world has seen, and Russia suffered losses of more than 20 million people. During the Cold War that followed World War II and for the next 50 years, the Soviet Union dominated in Eastern Europe and fought proxy wars against the US with millions of lives lost. Since the USSR’s collapse in 1991, modern Russia is smaller, its population declining and its foreign policy less aggressive. It suffers from internal and external issues. But the glittering cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg remain among the most impressive in the world, and throughout it all, Russia has retained its position as a global superpower. EXPLORE MORE 2018 105