1. The Russian Empire
Wood, p

2. Timeline 988 – Kievan Rus adopts Christianity from Byzantines
1240 – Mongols conquer Kievan Rus and make it a tributary state (Khanate of the Golden Horde)
1480 – Mongols ousted, Russian princes re-assert control
– Russian Empire ruled by Tsars
1917 – Russian Revolution overthrows Tsars
– Soviet Union
Timeline

4. The Ivans Ivan III (“Ivan the Great”)
Refused to pay tribute to the Mongols
Claimed he was establishing the “Third Rome”
Ivan IV (“Ivan the Terrible”)
Centralized power by taking away land from the boyars (nobles)
Executes his son (the heir) and sets off the “Time of Trouble”
Boyars select Mikhail Romanov as the new tsar – the Romanov family will rule Russia until 1917
The Ivans

5.
“He looked to the West, saw the importance of controlling the oceans and seas, studied European methods of shipbuilding and engineering, applied all that his brilliant mind could put together, and pulled Russia by the bootstraps into its new role as an important player in global history.” (325)
Peter the Great

6. Absolute ruler – continued centralizing power around the tsar
Constantly threatened by the boyars, who did not like many of his reforms
Peter the Great

7. Expanded Russia so that they could gain access to warm water ports – why?
New capital on the shores of the Baltic Sea: St. Petersburg (often called his “Window on the West”)
St. Petersburg

8. Peter’s Military Reforms
Expanded the army by drafting peasants and increasing pay
Trained troops in the use of cannons and firearms
Built roads and bridges to improve transportation
Built a navy from scratch after consulting with European experts
Defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War – declared Russia an empire
Peter’s Military Reforms

9. Peter’s Social Reforms
Ordered boyars to dress like Europeans and shave their beards
Noblewomen appeared at social events, like European ladies of fashion
Decreed that young people should determine for themselves who to marry (instead of their parents)
Secularized the monarchy
Nobles had to send children abroad for school
Started a newspaper and Academy of Sciences
Peter’s Social Reforms

10. Peter’s Bureaucratic Reforms
Encouraged industrial production
More efficient tax collection
Replaced boyars with government officials selected according to his new Table of Ranks (positions determined by merit, not birth)
Eliminated many titles of nobility
Peter’s Bureaucratic Reforms

11. Peter’s Limitations Took little interest in Enlightenment ideas – why?
Did not see the need to build an international export-oriented economy; for Peter, economic development was only necessary to support a strong military
Peter’s Limitations

12. Impact of Peter the Great
Russia, which really should have been a backwater outpost forgotten by history, is on its way to becoming a modern, Western power.
Eternal conflict for Russians: Slavic tradition vs. Westernization – Are they East or West?
Impact of Peter the Great