7 Geo

13 January 2017 - Russia Timeline

Start of Class
Objectives: Students will
a. Identify significant events and time periods within
Russian history.
b. Revise their notes to highlight important information.

Bellwork: Get out your timelines in preparation for

Timeline Notes
Revise your notes as we go:
- Use color or shapes to highlight important
information that you already have in your notes.
- Add information that we discuss that you do not
have in your notes.
- Add questions or comments in the margins to help
you understand and remember the information we
discuss.

Russia - Timeline
Period: 1200s CE - Mongol warriors from Central Asia
conquer the Kievan Rus.
- The Rus resettled in Muscovy (modern Moscow).

1480 CE - Prince Ivan III of Muscovy rejects the Mongol

rule and declares independence.
- Ivan III is better known as Ivan the Great.

Ivan the Great

Russia - Timeline
1547 CE - Ivan IV declares himself the Czar.
- A czar is an emperor. Czar is the Cyrillic shortening
of Caesar (previous emperor of Rome). It may also
be spelled tsar in Russian.
- Ivan IV was known as Ivan the Terrible, because
he was a harsh ruler. He conquered neighboring
regions, expanding his empire south to the Caspian
Sea and east to the Ural Mountains.

Ivan the Terrible

Russia - Timeline
Period: Early 1700s - Ruler Peter the Great built a new
capital city called St. Petersburg.
- The Russian Empire reached the Pacific Ocean.
- Russia functioned like a monarchy, with the Czars as
kings, wealthy landowners and merchants making
up the upper class, and serfs (peasant farmers)
making up the lower class.

Russia - Timeline
1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte (France) invades Russia.
- Russians used a scorched-earth policy as they
retreated to Moscow and St. Petersburg, which
forced the French army to give up.
- Both the French and Russians died in the harsh
winter without resources.
1861 - Czar Alexander II freed Russias serfs (~40 million
people) and began to industrialize the country.
- Despite these economic developments, most
Russians remained poor, causing resentment among
the poor.

Russia - Timeline
1914 - Russia fought with France and Britain against
Germany and Austria in WWI.
- Many Russians died during the war, causing people
to blame Czar Nicholas II.
1917 - The proletariat (the lower class / working class
people) successfully revolted against the czar.
- A second revolt later that year put Vladimir Lenin in
power of the new communist state, the USSR.
- Communist state = a country whose government
controls the economy and most parts of society

Russia - Timeline
Communism - ends private ownership, particularly of
businesses and farms; they are owned by the state
(government), so that all resources can be equally
distributed to the people
1924 - Joseph Stalin takes over the USSR after the the
death of Lenin

Russia - Timeline
- Stalin used secret police to kill or imprison people
who disagreed with his policies.
- The government regulated what and how much
farms could grow and factories could create.
- Collectivization - the combination of small farms to
create larger factory-like farms that produce more
efficiently
- Efficient farms less need for farm hands more
people to work in factories increased
industrialization

Russia - Timeline
The results were mixed: inefficient farms/ factories, lack
of competition poor quality goods
1941 - The Soviet Union joins Britain and the US to fight
Germany when Germany invades the Soviet Union.
- 20-30 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died in
WWII battles.
- Before WWII ended, the USSR and the US began
competing for global influence.
Period: 1940s-1990 - Cold War - ongoing hostilities
between the USSR and US without direct combat

Russia - Timeline
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet leader.
- Glasnost = openness, freedom of speech without
fear of punishment
- Perestroika = restructuring, gives freedom back to
factory managers and allows small businesses to be
created; strengthens the economy
- These policies lead Soviets to begin questioning
communism.
1991 - All Communimst governments in the USSR have
fallen.

Russia - Timeline
1991 - Boris Yeltsin, the president of Russia, calls for the
people to stand against Communist hard-liners
attempting a coup. The coup fails.
- Yeltsin helps to build democracy and a market
economy in Russia.
- Vladimir Putin, the subsequent president, reverted
back to stronger government control, particularly
when dealing with crime and violence.

End of Class
Objectives: Students will
a. Identify significant events and time periods within
Russian history.
b. Revise their notes to highlight important information.

Homework: Fill in the Cultural Approach chart using Ch

14 sec 2.