Russia Unifies and Expands

After the Mongols… what did they do?

Looking East
Kievan 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
He was the prince of Moscow Ivan III aka
who overthrew the Mongols

He rebuilt the walls of the “Ivan the Great”

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 Took control of the khanates
of Kazan Astrakhan and
Terrible” 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 Romanovs
Russia 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
He was 6’ 9” TALL!!! Synod
 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
Reforms
Wanted 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 Not Russian borne (German) But
married Peter III, took over when he
Great (II) 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 Serfdom
Because 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
Rebellions
Cossack 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: 1750
Basically 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