Russia

The Russian Federation ({{lang-ru|??????????? ??????????}}, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: ???????, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,400 km² (6,595,600 mi²), it is the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It ranks eighth in the world in population. It shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (only through Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with the United States, Canada and Japan.

History

Ancient Rus

The vast lands of present Russia were home to disunited tribes who were variously overwhelmed by invading Goths, Huns, and Turkish Avars between the third and sixth centuries CE. The Iranian Scythians populated the southern steppes, and a Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the western portion of these lands through the 8th century. They in turn were displaced by a group of Scandinavians, the Varangians, who established a capital at the Slavic city of Novgorod and gradually merged with Slavs. The Slavs constituted the bulk of the population from the 8th century onwards and slowly assimilated both the Scandinavians as well as native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera.

Related Topics:
Tribe - Goths - Huns - Turkish Avars - Scythian - Steppe - Khazars - 8th century - Varangians - Capital - Novgorod - Slavs - Finno-Ugric - Merya - Muromian - Meshchera

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The Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and moved the capital to Kiev in 1169 A.D. In this era the term "Rhos", or "Russ", first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and was quite prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia.

Related Topics:
Orthodox church - Kiev - 1169 - Russ - 10th - 11th centuries - Kievan Rus

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In the 13th century the area suffered from internal disputes and was overrun by eastern invaders, the Golden Horde of the pagan Mongols and Muslim Turkic-speaking nomads who pillaged the Russian principalities for over three centuries. Also known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while its western zone was largely incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. The political dissolution of Kievan Rus divided the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west.

Related Topics:
13th century - Golden Horde - Mongols - Principalities - Tatars - Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Poland - Russian people - Belarusians - Ukrainians

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The northern part of Russia together with Novgorod retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Nevertheless it had to fight the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonize the region.

Related Topics:
Novgorod - Mongol

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Like in the Balkans and Asia Minor long-lasting nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. Asian autocratic influences degraded many of the country's democratic institutions and affected its culture and economy in a very negative way.

Related Topics:
Balkans - Asia Minor - Nomadic - Autocratic

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In spite of this, unlike its spiritual leader, the Byzantine Empire, Russia was able to revive, and organized its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Related Topics:
Byzantine Empire - Fall of Constantinople - 1453 - Eastern Roman Empire

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Imperial Russia

While still nominally under the domain of the Mongols, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence, and eventually tossed off the control of the invaders late in the 14th century. Ivan the Terrible, the first leader designated Tsar (from the Roman Caesar, also written Czar) of Russia, finalized this process, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion, and annexed the vast expanses of Siberia. The Russian Empire was born.

Related Topics:
Duchy of Moscow - 14th century - Ivan the Terrible - Tsar - Caesar - Siberia - Russian Empire

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Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great, who ruled from 1689 to 1725, succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a Russia which had been affected by primitive nomadic cultures. Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, enhanced this effort, establishing Russia not just as an Asian power, but on an equal footing with Britain, France, and Germany in Europe. Unrest of the downtrodden serfs and suppression of the growing Intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the Romanovs.

Related Topics:
Romanov dynasty - Michael Romanov - 1613 - Peter the Great - Catherine the Great - Intelligentsia - Continuing problems - World War I - Nicholas II - Russian Empire - 1917

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At the close of this Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik wing of the Communist Party under Vladimir Lenin seized power and formed the USSR. Rule of Joseph Stalin forced rapid industrialization of the largely rural country and collectivization of its agriculture at the cost of millions of lives. Stalin also strengthened Russian dominance within the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
Russian Revolution of 1917 - Bolshevik - Communist Party - Vladimir Lenin - USSR - Joseph Stalin - Industrialization - Collectivization

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Russia as part of Soviet Union

In 1928 Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. The Soviet Union became a major industrial power; but the plan's implementation produced widespread misery for some segments of the population. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s, when Stalin began a purge of the party (see Great Purges); out of this process grew a campaign of terror that led to the execution of thousands and imprisonment of millions from all walks of life (see Gulag). Yet despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II.

Related Topics:
1928 - Five-Year Plan - 1930s - Great Purges - Gulag - World War II

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Although Stalin tried to avert war with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in 1939, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The Red Army stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged great power.

Related Topics:
Germany - Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact - 1939 - 1941 - Red Army - Nazi - Battle of Stalingrad - 1943 - Eastern Europe - Berlin - 1945 - Great Patriotic War

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During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe (see Eastern bloc), and sought to expand its influence elsewhere in the world. This active foreign policy helped bring about the Cold War, which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into foes.

Related Topics:
Eastern bloc - Cold War - United Kingdom - United States

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Stalin died in 1953, and in the absence of an acceptable successor, Stalin's closest associates opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly. After a protracted power struggle, General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the undisputed leader of the USSR. During this period the Soviet Union launched the first satellite Sputnik 1 and man Yuri Gagarin into orbit. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses. Khrushchev's colleagues in the leadership removed him from power in 1964.

Related Topics:
1953 - General Secretary - Nikita Khrushchev - Sputnik 1 - Yuri Gagarin - 1964

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Following the ouster of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change.

Related Topics:
Leonid Brezhnev - 1970s - 1982

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In the mid and late 1980s, the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism. His initiatives inadvertently unleashed forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the Soviet era.

Related Topics:
Mikhail Gorbachev - Glasnost - Perestroika - Inadvertently unleashed forces - 1991

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Post-Soviet Russia

Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct presidential election in Russian history. In October 1991, as Russia was on the verge of independence, Yeltsin announced that Russia would proceed with radical market-oriented reform along the lines of Poland's "big bang," also known as "shock therapy."

Related Topics:
Boris Yeltsin - Poland - "shock therapy."

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Russia's Congress of People's Deputies attempted to impeach Yeltsin on 1993-03-26. Yeltsin's opponents gathered more than 600 votes for impeachment, but fell 72 votes short. On 1993-09-21, Yeltsin disbanded the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies by decree, which was illegal under the constitution. On September 21 there was a military showdown, the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993. With military help, Yeltsin held control. The conflict that resulted in a number of civilian casualties was resolved in Yeltsin's favor and elections were held on 1993-12-12.

Related Topics:
Congress of People's Deputies - 1993-03-26 - 1993-09-21 - Supreme Soviet - September 21 - Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 - 1993-12-12

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Since the separatist republic Chechnya declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war (First Chechen War, Second Chechen War) has been fought between disparate Chechen groups and the Russian military. Some of these groups have become increasingly Islamist over the course of the struggle. It is estimated that over 200,000 people have died in this conflict. Minor conflicts also exist in North Ossetia and Ingushetia.

Related Topics:
Chechnya - Guerrilla war - First Chechen War - Second Chechen War - Islamist - North Ossetia - Ingushetia

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After Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990s, Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000. Under Putin, the increased state control of the Russian media has raised Western concerns about human rights in Russia.

Related Topics:
Vladimir Putin - 2000 - Media - Human rights in Russia

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