Russian

  

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Russian

Definition: Russian

Russian

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to or characteristic of Russia or its people or culture or language; "Russian dancing".

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Russia.

2. The Slavic language that is the official language of Russia.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "Russian" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1594. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Russian

DomainDefinition

Satire

RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A Tartar Emetic. S. Source: Devil's Dictionary.

Geography

Inhabitant of Russia. Source: European Union. (references)

Literature

Russian The nickname of a Russian is "a Bear," or the "Northern Bear." Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Multilingual Slang

Ukrainian (katsap). (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Imperial Russia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of Russia series.
 Early Russian East Slavs
 Kievan Rus'
 Khazaria
 Muscovy
 Mongol invasion of Russia
 Imperial Russia and Russian Tsars
 Russian Revolution
 Russian Civil War

 Soviet Union
 Warsaw Pact
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Commonwealth of Independent States
 History of post-communist Russia
 List of famous Russians

The Russian Empire (or known as Imperial Russia) covers the period of Russian history from the expansion of the state of Muscovy under Peter the Great into the Russian Empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposition of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917.

This period is also regarded by many as the Russian Empire, however many also consider the Soviet Union to have been a continuation of the empire up until the fall of the Soviet government in 1991. Fixing the period of the Russian Empire is contentious, whereas fixing the period of Imperial Russia is more straightforward.

Early Imperial Russia

Ruling the Empire Transformation of Russia in the Nineteenth Century The Last Years of the Autocracy

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This article is part of History of Russia.

References

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Kievan Rus'

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of Russia series.
 Early Russian East Slavs
 Kievan Rus'
 Khazaria
 Muscovy
 Mongol invasion of Russia
 Imperial Russia and Russian Tsars
 Russian Revolution
 Russian Civil War
 History of the Soviet Union: Part I
 History of the Soviet Union: Part II
 Warsaw Pact
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Commonwealth of Independent States
 History of post-communist Russia
 List of famous Russians

Kievan Rus' was the early Russo-Scandinavian state dominated by the city of Kiev from about 860 to the middle of the 12th century. The reigns of St. Vladimir (980-1015) and his son Iaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity and the creation of the first Russian written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.

Early History of Kievan Rus'

According to the Primary Chronicle, the earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus', a Varangian (Viking) named Rurik first established himself in Novgorod, just south of modern-day St. Petersburg, in about 860 before moving south and extending his authority to Kiev. The chronicle cites the Scandinavian Rurik as the progenitor of a dynasty that ruled in Eastern Europe until 1598. Another Swede, Oleg (Helgi), who was a close relative of Rurik, moved south from Novgorod to expel the Khazars from Kiev and founded Kievan Rus' about 880. During the next thirty-five years, "Oleg" and his Viking and Slavic, warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic tribes. In 907, he led an attack against Constantinople, and in 911 he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire as an equal partner. The new Slavic Kievan state prospered because it controlled the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and because it had an abundant supply of furs, wax, honey, and slaves for export. Historians have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus'. Some Russian historians have stressed the Slavic influence in the development of the state. Although Slavic tribes had formed their own regional jurisdictions by 860, the Varangians initiated Kievan Rus' which was named after them (Rus' is etymologically identical to the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi, and is derived from the Old Norse root for "rowing" rods-, which is logical as the Russian rivers are more suitable for rowing than sailing). The Vikings however called the land Greater Sweden, Sweden the Cold or Gardarike (the land of cities). The Slavic people had as a majority settled down at that time, and they built many large and well-defended cities, which was a contrast to many barbaric peoples of the north. The fact that Vikings had some influence in Russia is also testified by loan words, such as jabetnik "complaining person" (from aembetsman "official") and gospodin "lord" (from husbondi "master"). Nordic names also became popularized, such as Oleg (Helgi), Olga (Helga) and Igor (Ingvar).

The Golden Age of Kiev

The region of Kiev dominated the state of Kievan Rus' for the next two centuries. The grand prince of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith of the state's power came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (r. 978-1015) and Prince Yaroslav (the Wise; r. 1019-1054). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus' that had begun under Oleg. To enhance their power, Vladimir married the sister of the Byzantine emperor. Yaroslav's granddaughter, his son Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev's daughter Eupraxia, was married to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor.Yaroslav arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary, and Norway. Vladimir's greatest achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus', a process that began in 988. He built the first great edifice of Kievan Rus', the Desyatinnaya Church in Kiev. Yaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Rus'ka pravda (Justice of Rus'); built cathedrals named for St. Sophia in Kiev and Novgorod; patronized local clergy and monasticism; and is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed Kiev's great Peshcherskiy monastyr' (Monastery of the Caves), which functioned in Kievan Rus' as an ecclesiastical academy.

The Russian annals state that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of the tradition idol-worship of the Slavs, he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. After visiting the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims, they finally arrived in Constantinople. There, they were so astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the lithurgical service held there, that they had made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that Orthodox Christianity was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged a marriage between himself and the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor.

Vladimir's choice of Eastern Orthodoxy may also have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the Dnepr River. Adherence to the Eastern Orthodox Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy written in Cyrillic (see Glossary) and a corpus of translations from the Greek that had been produced for the South Slavs. The existence of this literature facilitated the East Slavs' conversion to Christianity and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy, science, and historiography without the necessity of learning Greek. In contrast, educated people in medieval Western and Central Europe learned Latin. Because the East Slavs learned neither Greek nor Latin, they were isolated from Byzantine culture as well as from the European cultures of their neighbors to the west.

In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus'. Princely succession moved from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for the coveted throne of Kiev. In the 11th century and the 12th century, the princes and their retinues, which were a mixture of Slavic and Scandinavian elites, dominated the society of Kievan Rus'. Leading soldiers and officials received income and land from the princes in return for their political and military services. Kievan society lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns that were typical of West European feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchants, artisans, and laborers sometimes exercised political influence through a city assembly, the veche (council), which included all the adult males in the population. In some cases, the veche either made agreements with their rulers or expelled them and invited others to take their place. At the bottom of society was a small stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasants, who owed labor duty to the princes; the widespread personal serfdom characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus', however.

The Rise of Regional Centers

Kievan Rus' was not able to maintain its position as a powerful and prosperous state, in part because of the amalgamation of disparate lands under the control of a ruling clan. As the members of that clan became more numerous, they identified themselves with regional interests rather than with the larger patrimony. Thus, the princes fought among themselves, frequently forming alliances with outside groups such as the Polovtsians, Poles, and Hungarians. The Crusades brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus'. In 1204 the forces of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, making the Dnepr trade route marginal. As it declined, Kievan Rus' splintered into many principalities and several large regional centers. The inhabitants of those regional centers then evolved into three nationalities: Ukrainians in the southeast and southwest, Belorussians in the northwest, and Russians in the north and northeast.

In the north, the Republic of Novgorod prospered as part of Kievan Rus' because it controlled trade routes from the Volga River to the Baltic Sea. As Kievan Rus' declined, Novgorod became more independent. A local oligarchy ruled Novgorod; major government decisions were made by a town assembly, which also elected a prince as the city's military leader. In the 12th century, Novgorod acquired its own archbishop, a sign of increased importance and political independence. In its political structure and mercantile activities, Novgorod resembled the north European towns of the Hanseatic League, the prosperous alliance that dominated the commercial activity of the Baltic region between the 13th century and the 17th century, more than the other principalities of Kievan Rus'.

In the northeast, Slavs colonized the territory that eventually became Muscovy by conquering the Finno-Ugric tribes already occupying the area. The city of Rostov was the oldest center of the northeast, but it was supplanted first by Suzdal' and then by the city of Vladimir. By the 12th century, the combined principality of Vladimir-Suzdal' had become a major power in Kievan Rus'.

In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal' dealt a severe blow to the waning power of Kievan Rus' when his armies sacked the city of Kiev. Prince Andrey then installed his younger brother to rule in Kiev and continued to rule his realm from Suzdal'. Thus, political power shifted to the northeast, away from Kiev, in the second half of the twelfth century. In 1299, in the wake of the Mongol invasion, the metropolitan of the Orthodox Church moved to the city of Vladimir, and Vladimir-Suzdal' replaced Kievan Rus' as the religious center.

'To the southwest, the principality of Galicia-Volhynia had highly developed trade relations with its Polish, Hungarian, and Lithuanian neighbors and emerged as another successor to Kievan Rus'. In the early thirteenth century, Prince Roman Mstislavich united the two previously separate principalities, conquered Kiev, and assumed the title of grand duke of Kievan Rus'. His son, Prince Daniil (Danylo; r. 1238-1264) was the first ruler of Kievan Rus' to accept a crown from the Roman papacy, apparently doing so without breaking with Orthodoxy. Early in the 14th century, the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople granted the rulers of Galicia-Volhynia a metropolitan to compensate for the move of the Kievan metropolitan to Vladimir.

However, a long and unsuccessful struggle against the Mongols combined with internal opposition to the prince and foreign intervention to weaken Galicia-Volhynia. With the end of the Mstislavich Dynasty in the mid-fourteenth century, Galicia-Volhynia ceased to exist; Lithuania took Volhynia, and Poland annexed Galicia.

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This article is part of History of Russia.

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List of Russian language poets

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Poets who wrote much of their poetry in the Russian language.

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Muscovy

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of Russia series.
 Early Russian East Slavs
 Kievan Rus'
 Khazaria
 Muscovy
 Mongol invasion of Russia
 Imperial Russia and Russian Tsars
 Russian Revolution
 Russian Civil War

 Soviet Union
 Warsaw Pact
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Commonwealth of Independent States
 History of post-communist Russia
 List of famous Russians

Muscovy was the state of Russia from the 14th century to the 18th century which succeeded Kievan Rus' and preceded the Russian Empire. On old maps and texts it was named Moscovia, Moskovia, Moscoviae Pars. Muscovy saw the last of the Ruriks and the origin of the Russian Tsars.

The reign of the tsars started officially with Ivan the Terrible, the first monarch to be crowned Tsar of Russia, but in practice it started with the first to use the title of tsar, Ivan III of Russia (Ivan the Great), who unified Muscovy.

The development of the Russian state can be traced from Vladimir-Suzdal' through Muscovy to the Russian Empire. Muscovy drew people and wealth to the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus'; established trade links to the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, and the Caspian Sea and to Siberia; and created a highly centralized and autocratic political system. Muscovite political traditions, therefore, exerted a powerful influence on Russian society.

The Rise of Muscovy

When the Mongols invaded the lands of Kievan Rus', Moscow was an insignificant trading outpost in the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal'. The outpost's remote, forested location offered some security from Mongol attack and occupation, and a number of rivers provided access to the Baltic and Black Seas and to the Caucasus region. More important to Moscow's development in what became the state of Muscovy, however, was its rule by a series of princes who were ambitious, determined, and lucky. The first ruler of the principality of Muscovy, Daniil Aleksandrovich (d. 1303), secured the principality for his branch of the Rurik Dynasty. His son, Ivan I (r. 1325-1340), known as Ivan Kalita (Money Bags), obtained the title Grand Prince of Vladimir from his Mongol overlords. He cooperated closely with the Mongols and collected tribute from other Russian principalities on their behalf. This relationship enabled Ivan to gain regional ascendancy, particularly over Muscovy's chief rival, the northern city of Tver'. In 1327 the Orthodox metropolitan transferred his residency from Vladimir to Moscow, further enhancing the prestige of the new principality.

In the 14th century, the grand princes of Muscovy began gathering Russian lands to increase the population and wealth under their rule. The most successful practitioner of this process was Ivan III (the Great; r. 1462-1505), who conquered Novgorod in 1478 and Tver' in 1485. Muscovy gained full sovereignty over the ethnically Russian lands in 1480 when Mongol overlordship ended officially, and by the beginning of the 16th century virtually all those lands were united. Through inheritance, Ivan obtained part of the province of Ryazan', and the princes of Rostov and Yaroslavl' voluntarily subordinated themselves to him. The northwestern city of Pskov remained independent in this period, but Ivan's son, Vasiliy III (r. 1505-1533), later conquered it.

Ivan III was the first Muscovite ruler to use the titles of tsar and "Ruler of all Rus'". Ivan competed with his powerful northwestern rival Lithuania for control over some of the semi-independent former principalities of Kievan Rus' in the upper Dnepr and Donets river basins. Through the defections of some princes, border skirmishes, and a long, inconclusive war with Lithuania that ended only in 1503, Ivan III was able to push westward, and Muscovy tripled in size under his rule.

The Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy

Internal consolidation accompanied outward expansion of the state. By the 15th century, the rulers of Muscovy considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes still claimed specific territories, but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Muscovy and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs.

Gradually, the Muscovite ruler emerged as a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. By assuming that title, the Muscovite prince underscored that he was a major ruler or emperor on a par with the emperor of the Byzantine Empire or the Mongol khan. Indeed, after Ivan III's marriage to Sophia Paleologue, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, the Muscovite court adopted Byzantine terms, rituals, titles, and emblems such as the double-headed eagle. They even began to refer to the city of Constantinople as "Tzargrad", making a goal to reclaim the city for Christianity. At first, the term autocrat connoted only the literal meaning of an independent ruler, but in the reign of Ivan IV (r. 1533-1584) it came to mean unlimited rule. Ivan IV was crowned tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Orthodox Church, as emperor. An Orthodox monk had claimed that, once Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Muscovite tsar was the only legitimate Orthodox ruler and that Moscow was the Third Rome because it was the final successor to Rome and Constantinople, the centers of Christianity in earlier periods. That concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries.

Ivan IV

The development of the tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he became known as the Terrible (his Russian epithet, groznyy , means threatening or dreaded). Ivan strengthened the position of the tsar to an unprecedented degree, demonstrating the risks of unbridled power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from bouts of paranoia and depression, and his rule was punctuated by acts of extreme violence.

Ivan IV became grand prince of Muscovy in 1533 at the age of three. Various factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547. Reflecting Muscovy's new imperial claims, Ivan's coronation as tsar was an elaborate ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms. In the 1550s, he promulgated a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare.

During the late 1550s, Ivan developed a hostility toward his advisers, the government, and the boyars. Historians have not determined whether policy differences, personal animosities, or mental imbalance cause his wrath. In 1565 he divided Muscovy into two parts: his private domain and the public realm. For his private domain, Ivan chose some of the most prosperous and important districts of Muscovy. In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions. Thus began a decade of terror in Muscovy. As a result of this policy, called the oprichnina, Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Muscovy and were the most capable of administering it. Trade diminished, and peasants, faced with mounting taxes and threats of violence, began to leave Muscovy. Efforts to curtail the mobility of the peasants by tying them to their land brought Muscovy closer to legal serfdom. In 1572 Ivan finally abandoned the practices of the oprichnina.

Despite the domestic turmoil of Ivan's late period, Muscovy continued to wage wars and to expand. Ivan defeated and annexed the Kazan' Khanate on the middle Volga in 1552 and later the Astrakhan' Khanate, where the Volga meets the Caspian Sea. These victories gave Muscovy access to the entire Volga River and to Central Asia. Muscovy's eastward expansion encountered relatively little resistance. In 1581 the Stroganov merchant family, interested in fur trade, hired a Cossack leader, Yermak, to lead an expedition into western Siberia. Yermak defeated the Siberian Khanate and claimed the territories west of the Ob' and Irtysh rivers for Muscovy (see fig. 3).

Expanding to the northwest toward the Baltic Sea proved to be much more difficult. In 1558 Ivan invaded Livonia, eventually embroiling him in a twenty-five-year war against Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, and Denmark. Despite occasional successes, Ivan's army was pushed back, and Muscovy failed to secure a coveted position on the Baltic Sea. The war drained Muscovy. Some historians believe that Ivan initiated the oprichnina to mobilize resources for the war and to quell opposition to it. Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Muscovy, and they led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the so-called Time of Troubles (Smutnoye vremya, 1598-1613).

The Time of Troubles

Ivan IV was succeeded by his son Fedor, who was mentally deficient. Actual power went to Fedor's brother-in-law, the boyar Boris Godunov. Perhaps the most important event of Fedor's reign was the proclamation of the patriarchate of Moscow in 1589. The creation of the patriarchate climaxed the evolution of a separate and totally independent Russian Orthodox Church. In 1598 Fedor died without an heir, ending the Rurik Dynasty. Boris Godunov then convened a zemskiy sobor , a national assembly of boyars, church officials, and commoners, which proclaimed him tsar, although various boyar factions refused to recognize the decision. Widespread crop failures caused a famine between 1601 and 1603, and during the ensuing discontent, a man emerged who claimed to be Dmitriy, Ivan IV's son who had died in 1591. This pretender to the throne, who came to be known as the first False Dmitriy, gained support in Poland and marched to Moscow, gathering followers among the boyars and other elements as he went. Historians speculate that Godunov would have weathered this crisis, but he died in 1605. As a result, the first False Dmitriy entered Moscow and was crowned tsar that year, following the murder of Tsar Fedor II, Godunov's son.

Subsequently, Muscovy entered a period of continuous chaos. The Time of Troubles included a civil war in which a struggle over the throne was complicated by the machinations of rival boyar factions, the intervention of regional powers Poland and Sweden, and intense popular discontent. The first False Dmitriy and his Polish garrison were overthrown, and a boyar, Vasiliy Shuyskiy, was proclaimed tsar in 1606. In his attempt to retain the throne, Shuyskiy allied himself with the Swedes. A second False Dmitriy, allied with the Poles, appeared. In 1610 that heir apparent was proclaimed tsar, and the Poles occupied Moscow. The Polish presence led to a patriotic revival among the Russians, and a new army, financed by northern merchants and blessed by the Orthodox Church, drove the Poles out. In 1613 a new zemskiy sobor proclaimed the boyar Mikhail Romanov as tsar, beginning the 300-year reign of the Romanov family.

Muscovy was in chaos for more than a decade, but the institution of the autocracy remained intact. Despite the tsar's persecution of the boyars, the townspeople's dissatisfaction, and the gradual enserfment of the peasantry, efforts at restricting the power of the tsar were only halfhearted. Finding no institutional alternative to the autocracy, discontented Russians rallied behind various pretenders to the throne. During that period, the goal of political activity was to gain influence over the sitting autocrat or to place one's own candidate on the throne. The boyars fought among themselves, the lower classes revolted blindly, and foreign armies occupied the Kremlin in Moscow, prompting many to accept tsarist absolutism as a necessary means to restoring order and unity in Muscovy.

The Romanovs

The immediate task of the new dynasty was to restore order. Fortunately for Muscovy, its major enemies, Poland and Sweden, were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Muscovy the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with Poland in 1619. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the city of Smolensk from Poland in 1632, Muscovy made peace with Poland in 1634. Polish king Wladyslaw IV, whose father and predecessor Sigismund III had manipulated his nominal selection as tsar of Muscovy during the Time of Troubles, renounced all claims to the title as a condition of the peace treaty.

The early Romanovs were weak rulers. Under Mikhail, state affairs were in the hands of the tsar's father, Filaret, who in 1619 became patriarch of the Orthodox Church. Later, Mikhail's son Aleksey (r. 1645-1676) relied on a boyar, Boris Morozov, to run his government. Morozov abused his position by exploiting the populace, and in 1648 Aleksey dismissed him in the wake of a popular uprising in Moscow.

The autocracy survived the Time of Troubles and the rule of weak or corrupt tsars because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or the boyar faction controlling the throne. In the 17th century century, the bureaucracy expanded dramatically. The number of government departments (prikazy ; sing., prikaz ) increased from twenty-two in 1613 to eighty by mid-century. Although the departments often had overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions, the central government, through provincial governors, was able to control and regulate all social groups, as well as trade, manufacturing, and even the Orthodox Church.

The comprehensive legal code introduced in 1649 illustrates the extent of state control over Russian society. By that time, the boyars had largely merged with the elite bureaucracy, who were obligatory servitors of the state, to form a new nobility, the dvoryanstvo . The state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return, they received land and peasants. In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another; the 1649 code officially attached peasants to their domicile. The state fully sanctioned serfdom, and runaway peasants became state fugitives. Landlords had complete power over their peasants and bought, sold, traded, and mortgaged them. Peasants living on state-owned land, however, were not considered serfs. They were organized into communes, which were responsible for taxes and other obligations. Like serfs, however, state peasants were attached to the land they farmed. Middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and, like the serfs, they were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and to special taxes. By chaining much of Muscovite society to specific domiciles, the legal code of 1649 curtailed movement and subordinated the people to the interests of the state.

Under this code, increased state taxes and regulations exacerbated the social discontent that had been simmering since the Time of Troubles. In the 1650s and 1660s, the number of peasant escapes increased dramatically. A favorite refuge was the Don River region, domain of the Don Cossacks. A major uprising occurred in the Volga region in 1670 and 1671. Stenka Razin, a Cossack who was from the Don River region, led a revolt that drew together wealthy Cossacks who were well established in the region and escaped serfs seeking free land. The unexpected uprising swept up the Volga River valley and even threatened Moscow. Tsarist troops finally defeated the rebels after they had occupied major cities along the Volga in an operation whose panache captured the imaginations of later generations of Russians. Razin was publicly tortured and executed.

Expansion and Westernization

Muscovy continued its territorial growth through the 17th century. In the southwest, it acquired eastern Ukraine, which had been under Polish rule. The Ukrainian Cossacks, warriors organized in military formations, lived in the frontier areas bordering Poland, the Tatar lands, and Muscovy. Although they had served in the Polish army as mercenaries, the Ukrainian Cossacks remained fiercely independent and staged a number of uprisings against the Poles. In 1648 most of Ukrainian society joined the Cossacks in a revolt because of the political, social, religious, and ethnic oppression suffered under Polish rule. After the Ukrainians had thrown off Polish rule, they needed military help to maintain their position. In 1654 the Ukrainian leader, Bogdan Khmel'nitskiy (Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyy), offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Muscovite tsar, Aleksey I, rather than under the Polish king. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer, which was ratified in the Treaty of Pereyaslavl', led to a protracted war between Poland and Muscovy. The Treaty of Andrusovo, which ended the war in 1667, split Ukraine along the Dnepr River, reuniting the western sector with Poland and leaving the eastern sector self-governing under the suzerainty of the tsar.

In the east, Muscovy had obtained western Siberia in the sixteenth century. From this base, merchants, traders, and explorers pushed eastward from the Ob' River to the Yenisey River, then to the Lena River. By the middle of the 17th century, Muscovites had reached the Amur River and the outskirts of the Chinese Empire. After a period of conflict with the Manchu Dynasty, Muscovy made peace with China in 1689. By the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Muscovy ceded its claims to the Amur Valley, but it gained access to the region east of Lake Baikal and the trade route to Beijing. Peace with China consolidated the initial breakthrough to the Pacific that had been made in the middle of the century.

Muscovy's southwestern expansion, particularly its incorporation of eastern Ukraine, had unintended consequences. Most Ukrainians were Orthodox, but their close contact with the Roman Catholic Polish Counter-Reformation also brought them Western intellectual currents. Through Kiev, Muscovy gained links to Polish and Central European influences and to the wider Orthodox world. Although the Ukrainian link stimulated creativity in many areas, it also undermined traditional Russian religious practices and culture. The Russian Orthodox Church discovered that its isolation from Constantinople had caused variations to creep into its liturgical books and practices. The Russian Orthodox patriarch, Nikon, was determined to bring the Russian texts back into conformity with the Greek originals. But Nikon encountered fierce opposition among the many Russians who viewed the corrections as improper foreign intrusions, or perhaps the work of the devil. When the Orthodox Church forced Nikon's reforms, a schism resulted in 1667. Those who did not accept the reforms came to be called the Old Believers (starovery ); they were officially pronounced heretics and were persecuted by the church and the state. The chief opposition figure, the archpriest Avvakum, was burned at the stake. The split subsequently became permanent, and many merchants and peasants joined the Old Believers.

The tsar's court also felt the impact of Ukraine and the West. Kiev was a major transmitter of new ideas and insight through the famed scholarly academy that Metropolitan Mogila (Mohyla) founded there in 1631. Among the results of this infusion of ideas into Muscovy were baroque architecture, literature, and icon painting. Other more direct channels to the West opened as international trade increased and more foreigners came to Muscovy. The tsar's court was interested in the West's more advanced technology, particularly when military applications were involved. By the end of the 17th century, Ukrainian, Polish, and West European penetration had undermined the Muscovite cultural synthesis--at least among the elite--and had prepared the way for an even more radical transformation.

Early Imperial Russia

In the 18th century, Muscovy was transformed from a static, somewhat isolated, traditional state into the more dynamic, partially Westernized, and secularized Russian Empire. This transformation was in no small measure a result of the vision, energy, and determination of Peter the Great. Historians disagree about the extent to which Peter himself transformed Russia, but they generally concur that he laid the foundations for empire building over the next two centuries. The era that Peter initiated signaled the advent of Russia as a major European power. But, although the Russian Empire would play a leading political role in the next century, its retention of serfdom precluded economic progress of any significant degree. As West European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial Revolution, which had begun in the second half of the eighteenth century, Russia began to lag ever farther behind, creating new problems for the empire as a great power.

Western European knowledge of Muscovy

Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549. This provided a comprehensive view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state.

Related Articles

This article is part of History of Russia.

References

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Russia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Russian Federation is the largest country by area in the world, covering over 17 million square kilometers (and, providing perpective, the five next-largest countries, even including their respective dependencies, are each 42% to 55% smaller). It also spans eleven time zones in both Europe and Asia.

Nearly all of Russia is a contiguous piece that shares borders with the following countries (starting in the far northwest and proceeding counter-clockwise): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. (The other piece, the Kaliningrad Oblast, shares borders with Lithuania to its north and east, and Poland to its south, and has a northwest coast on the Baltic Sea.) Its extensive coastline stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the North Pacific Ocean, as well as to the inland (but international) Black and Caspian Seas, and two coasts with the Baltic Sea (including in one case St. Petersburg and in the other Kaliningrad). Despite Russian and international attention to the decline of Russia from the role of dominating one of the world's two superpowers, Russian influence within the Commonwealth of Independent States and international affairs worldwide remains quite notable.

Российская Федерация 
Rossijskaya Federatsiya
(In Detail)
National motto: None
Official languageRussian (among many others in political subdivisions)
Official scriptCyrillic alphabet
CapitalMoscow
PresidentVladimir Putin
Prime MinisterMikhail Kasyanov
Area
 - Total
 - % water		Ranked 1st
17,075,200 km²
0.5%
Population
 - Total (2002)
 - Density		Ranked 7th
145,537,200
8.5/km²
Independence
 - Date		From the Soviet Union
August 24, 1991
CurrencyRuble (RUR)
Time zoneUTC +2 to +12
National anthemHymn of the Russian Federation

Internet TLD.RU
Calling Code7

History

Main article: History of Russia

The earliest state in the region was that of the Kievan Rus. In the later Middle Ages it was the Muscovy principality that developed into an empire that from the 15th century onward slowly grew eastward into Asia. Under the tsars, Russia then became a major European power as Imperial Russia modernised and expanded westward from the 18th century onward. However, at the start of the 20th century Russia's power was declining and growing dissatisfaction amongst the population, combined with the military failure during World War I led to the Russian Revolution in 1917 that was followed by the proclamation of the Soviet Union under Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, and the Russian Civil War, in which the Communist or Red forces defeated the Czarist or White forces.

Lenin suffered a series of debilitating strokes which lead to his death in 1924. After a brief power struggle, leadership of the Soviet Union was consolidated by the dictator Joseph Stalin. Stalin's brutal reign would claim millions of lives, as known or suspected political opponents and military officers were executed or exiled to Siberia during the Great Purges of the 1930s, also known in Russia as Ezhovschina.

Following the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II, the Soviet Union would also develop into a dominant world power during the Cold War, functioning as the main ideological adversary to the United States. The two engaged in a lengthy geopolitical struggle by proxy for control of the hearts and minds of the Third World following the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Soviets created the Warsaw Pact to oppose NATO, and the two sides engaged in a lengthy and expensive arms race to stockpile more nuclear weapons than the other had. In the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev nearly triggered a war with the United States when he placed offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. The Soviets also ignited the space race by launching Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, and Col. Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit the Earth.

By the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev implemented reforms such as glasnost and perestroika, but these measures were unable to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union after a failed military coup in 1991. The Russian Soviet Federal Republic declared its independence on August 24 of that year as the Russian Federation. Russia, as the Soviet Union's primary successor state, has since sought to maintain its global influence, but has been hampered by economic difficulties.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Russia

The Russian Federation is a federative democracy with a president, directly elected for a four-year term, who holds considerable executive power. The president, who resides in the Kremlin, nominates the highest state officials, including the prime minister, who must be approved by parliament. The president can pass decrees without consent from parliament and is also head of the armed forces and of the national security council.

Russia's bicameral parliament, the Federative Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of an upper house known as the Federative Council (Soviet Federatsii), composed of 178 delegates serving a four-year term (two are appointed from each of the 89 subdivisions), and a lower house known as the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), comprised of 450 deputies also serving a four-year term, of which 225 are elected by direct popular vote from single member constituencies and 225 are elected by proportional representation from nation-wide party lists.

Subdivisions

Main articles: Subdivisions of Russia, Republics of Russia, Oblasts of Russia

The Russian Federation consists of a great number of different political subdivisions, making a total of 89 consituent components. There are 21 republics within the federation that enjoy a high degree of autonomy on most issues and these correspond to some of Russia's ethnic minorities. The remaining territory consists of 49 provinces known as oblasts and 6 regions (krays), in which are found 10 autonomous districts and 1 autonomous oblast. Beyond these there are two federal cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Recently, seven extensive federal districts (four in Europe, three in Asia) have been added as a new layer between the above subdivisions and the national level. All are listed here by these federal districts, with the republics marked by a *:

Provisional list, see Talk:Russia for more.
Central Russia:
(actually in the extreme west)
  • Belgorod Oblast
  • Bryansk Oblast
  • Ivanovo Oblast
  • Kaluga Oblast
  • Kostroma Oblast
  • Kursk Oblast
  • Lipetsk Oblast
  • Moscow
  • Moscow Oblast
  • Oryol Oblast
  • Ryasan Oblast
  • Smolensk Oblast
  • Tambov Oblast
  • Tver Oblast
  • Tula Oblast
  • Vladimir Oblast
  • Voronesh Oblast
  • Yaroslavl Oblast

Russian Far East:
  • Amur Oblast
    • Jewish Autonomous Oblast
      (Jewish Autonomous Republic)
  • Kamchatka Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Koryaks
  • Khabarovsk Region (Khabarovsk Krai)
  • Magadan Oblast
    • Autonomous district of Chukota
  • Maritime Province (Primorsky Krai)
  • Sakha *
  • Sakhalin Oblast

Urals Federal District:
(north of Kazakhstan)
  • Kurgan Oblast
  • Sverdlovsk Oblast
  • Tyumen Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Khants and Manses
    • Autonomous district of the Yamal-Nenzes
  • Chelyabinsk Oblast

Privolzhsky District (Wolga District):
(northwest of Kazakhstan)
  • Bashkortostan *
  • Chuvashia *
  • Kirov Oblast
  • Mari El *
  • Mordovia *
  • Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
  • Orenburg Oblast
  • Pensa Oblast
  • Perm Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Komi-Permyaks
  • Samara Oblast
  • Saratov Oblast
  • Tatarstan *
  • Udmurtia *
  • Ulyanovsk Oblast

Northern Caucasus:

(in the extreme southwest, between Ukrain and Kazakhstan)
  • Adygeya *
  • Astrakhan Oblast
  • Chechnya (declared independence in 1991; 2 wars with Russia, 1994-1996 and 1999-present. Most countries do not recognize Chechen independence. c.f.) *
  • Dagestan *
  • Ingushetia *
  • Kabardino-Balkaria *
  • Kalmykia *
  • Karachay-Cherkessia *
  • Krasnodar Region
  • North Ossetia-Alania *
  • Stavropol Region
  • Rostov Oblast
  • Volgograd Oblast

Northwestern Russia:
  • Arkhangelsk Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Nenzes
  • Kaliningrad Oblast
  • Leningrad Oblast
  • Karelia *
  • Komi *
  • Murmansk Oblast
  • Novgorod Oblast
  • Pskov Oblast
  • Saint Petersburg
  • Vologda Oblast

Siberian Federal District:
(west of the Far East)
  • Altay *
  • Altai Region
  • Buryatia *
  • Chita Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Agin Buryats
  • Irkutsk Oblast
    • Autonomous district of the Ust-Ordinsk Buryats
  • Khakassia *
  • Kemerovo Oblast
  • Krasnoyarsk Region (Krasnoyarsk Krai)
    • Autonomous district of the Taimyrs
    • Autonomous district of the Evenks
  • Novosibirsk Oblast
  • Omsk Oblast
  • Tomsk Oblast
  • Tuva *

Geography

Main article: Geography of Russia

The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the supercontinent Eurasia and as such knows a great variety of landscapes and climates. Most of the landscape consists of vast plains, both in the European part and the Asian part that is largely known as Siberia. These plains are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, Russia's highest point at 5,633 m) and the Altai, and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes on Kamchatka. Notable are the more central Ural Mountains that form the primary divide between Europe and Asia.

Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 km along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as inland seas such as the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas. Smaller bodies of water are part of the oceans; the Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are part of the Arctic, whereas the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan belong to the Pacific Ocean. Major islands found in them include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz-Josef Land, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel, the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin.

Many great rivers flow across the plains into the oceans and seas. In Europe these are the Volga, Don, Kama, Oka and the Northern Dvina, while several other rivers originate in Russia but flow into other countries, such as the Dniepr and the Western Dvina. In Asia are found the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Angara, Lena and Amur rivers. Major lakes include Lake Baikal, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Russia

A decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia is still struggling to establish a modern market economy and achieve strong economic growth. Russia saw its economy contract for five years, as the executive and legislature dithered over the implementation of reforms and Russia's industrial base faced a serious decline.

Russia achieved a slight recovery in 1997. The 1998 financial crisis culminated in the August depreciation of the ruble, a debt default by the government, and a sharp deterioration in living standards for most of the population. The economy subsequently has rebounded, growing by an average of more than 6% annually in 1999-2002 on the back of higher oil prices and a weak ruble.

This recovery, along with a renewed government effort in 2000 and 2001 to advance lagging structural reforms, have raised business and investor confidence over Russia's prospects in its second decade of transition. Russia remains heavily dependent on exports of commodities, particularly oil, natural gas, metals, and timber, which account for over 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices.

The greatest challenge facing the Russian economy is how to encourage the development of SME (small and medium sized enterprises) in a business climate dominated by oligarchs and a large dysfunctional banking system. Many of Russia's banks are owned by entrepreneurs or oligarchs, who often use the deposits to lend to their own businesses.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have attempted to kick-start normal banking practices by making equity and debt investments in a number of banks, but with very limited success.

The recent arrest of Russia's most successful businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of fraud and corruption in relation to the large-scale privatisations organised under President Yeltsin has caused many foreign investors to worry about the stability of the Russian economy. Most of the large fortunes currently prevailing in Russia seem to be the product of either acquiring government assets particularly cheaply or gaining concessions from government cheaply. The United States Government has expressed concern at the "selective" application of the law against individual businessmen.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Russia

Russia is fairly sparsely populated due to its enormous size; population is densest in the European part of Russia, in the Ural Mountains area, and in the south-eastern part of Siberia. The Russian Federation is home to many different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. Over 80% of the population is ethnically Russian; the remainder includes Bashkirs, Chechens, Chuvashes, Cossacks, Evenkis, Germans, Ingushes, Inuit, Jews, Kalmyks, Karelians, Koreans, Mordvins, Ossetians, Taimyrs, Tatars, Tuvans, Yakuts and still others.

The Russian language is the only official state language, but the individual republics have often made their native language co-official next to Russian. Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script, which means that these languages must be written in Cyrillic in official texts. The Russian Orthodox Church is the dominant Christian religion in the Federation; other religions include Islam, various Protestant faiths, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism and Judaism.

See also: Demographic crisis of Russia

Culture

Main article: Culture of Russia

Miscellaneous topics

External links

Countries of the world  |  Europe  |  Asia
nds:Russland

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Russia."

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Russian

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The term Russian can refer to:

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Russian."

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Russian colonization of the Americas

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

After the discovery of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in 1741 during the Russian exploration conducted by Vitus Bering and Aleksiei Chirikov, it took over forty years until the founding of the first Russian colony in Alaska in 1784 by Gregory Shelekov. The Russian-American Company was formed in 1799 for the purpose of hunting sea otters for their fur.

Subsequently, Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, British Columbia, Washington (state), Oregon and as far south as Fort Ross in northern California. Fort Ross, some 50 miles north of San Francisco was founded in 1812 and closed in 1841.

The peak population of the Russian colonies was about 40,000 although most of these were aborigines.

The colony was never very profitable, because of the costs of transportation. At the instigation of Secretary of State William Seward, the United States Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 on April 9, 1867.

In 1818, Dr. Schaeffer, a Russian entrepreneur occupied Kauai and negotiated a treaty of protection with King Kaumualii of Hawaii but the Russian emperor refused to ratify the treaty.

Since the start of Perestroika in Russia there has been speculation in the Russian mass media that Alaska was not, in fact, sold, but was instead leased to the USA for 99 or 150 years and has to be returned to Russia.

See History of Russia and European colonization of the Americas.

External Link

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Russian language

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Russian (Russian Русский язык) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages.

It is primarily spoken in Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union, and was also widely taught in schools in member countries of the Warsaw Pact. In Soviet times, Russian was often strongly promoted to the detriment of other local languages. While many of the countries of the former Soviet Union are now promoting their local languages rather than Russian, Russian remains widely spoken in these areas and is often used for intercommunication between these countries.

Russian is one of the official languages of the United Nations.

Russian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Russenorsk is a pidgin language combining Russian and Norwegian.

See also: Common phrases in different languages
CapitalSmallNameSoundtypical SAMPA value¹
АаAah/a/
БбBeb/b/
ВвVev/v/
ГгGheg/g/
ДдDed/d/
ЕеYeyeh/jE/
ЁёYoyoh/jO/
ЖжZhezh/Z/
ЗзZez/z/
ИиIee/i/
ЙйShort Iy/j/
КкKak/k/
ЛлEll/l/
МмEmm/m/
НнEnn/n/
ОоOo/o/
ПпPep/p/
РрErr/r/
СсEss/s/
ТтTet/t/
УуUoo/u/
ФфEff/f/
ХхHakh/x/
ЦцTsets/ts/
ЧчChech/tS/
ШшShash/S/
ЩщShchashsh /Sj/
ЪъHard SignN/A² neutralizes palatalization
of preceding consonant
ЫыYeryui(IPA i with stroke)
ЬьSoft SignN/A² /j/ - palatalization
ЭэEeh/E/
ЮюYuyoo/ju/
ЯяYayah/ja/

  1. These are only approximate indicators. While Russian is by and large a phonemic orthography, there are occasional exceptions - most notably "ЕГО" (his), which is pronounced /jevo/.
  2. Note on Hard Sign and Soft Sign: When a iotated vowel (one whose sound begins with /j/) follows a consonant, the consonant will become palatalised (the /j/ sound will mix with the consonant). The Hard Sign will indicate that this does not happen, and the /j/ sound will appear only in front of the vowel. On the other hand, the Soft Sign will indicate this palatalization does happen, even though the following vowel has no /j/ sound.

See also: Languages of China --

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Russian language."

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Russian Orthodox Church

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Russian Orthodox Church is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In this way Russian Orthodox believers are in communion with all other Eastern Orthodox believers.

History

The Russian Orthodox Church dates to the year 988, when Prince Vladimir I officially adopted Eastern Orthodoxy as the state religion of the fledgling Russian state. Thus, in 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated its millennial anniversary. It therefore traces its apostolic succession through the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Church was originally a subsidiary of the Byzantine Orthodox Church, and the Byzantine patriarch appointed the metropolitan who governed the Russian Church. The Metropolitan moved from Kiev to Moscow in 1325 after Kiev's devastation by the Mongols. The Mongol period was a good one for the church, however. The Mongols supported the church and provided it with new lands and tax exempt status.

In 1439 at the Council of Florence, a meeting of the Catholic and Orthodox Church leaders agreed upon terms of reunification of the two branches of Christianity. The Russian people, however, rejected the concessions to the Catholics and Metropolitan Isidore was expelled from his position. The Russian Church remains independent of the Vatican.

In 1448, the Russian Church became independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Metropolitan Jonas, installed by the Council of Russian bishops in 1448, was given the title of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia. This was just five years before the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

After the end of the Mongol control of Russia, a movement grew up demanding that the Church give up its large land holdings and wealth, as these detracted from its holiness. Ivan II decided, however, that the church could keep its land.

In 1589, Metropolitan Job of Moscow became the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; making the Russian Church autocephalous. The other Eastern patriarchs recognized the Moscow patriarchate as fifth in honor.

In 1652, Patriarch Nikon attempted to centralize power that had been distributed locally while conforming Russian Orthodox rites and rituals to those of the Greek Orthodox Church. For instance he insisted that Russians cross themselves with three fingers, rather than the traditional two. This aroused great antipathy among a large section of the population who saw the changed rites both as heresy and as a pretext for Nikon's usurpation of power. This group became known as the Old Believers and they reject the teachings of the new Patriarch. Tsar Aleksey (who was simultaneously centralizing political power) upheld Nikon's changes, however, and the Old Believers were persecuted until the reign of Peter the Great who agreed to let them practice their modified verson of Orthodoxy.

In 1700 following Patriarch Adrian's death, Peter the Great prevented a successor from being named, and in 1721 he established the Holy and Supreme Synod to govern the church instead of a single primate. This was the situation until shortly after the Russian Revolution in 1917, at which time the bishops elected a new patriarch, Patriarch Tikhon.

Modern Condition

Today, the Russian Orthodox Church is probably still the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches. There are some who argue that, as in Catholic Latin America, being the nominal state church, the Russian Orthodox Church inflates its membership figures to equal its estimate of all believers situated within the borders of Russia. Estimates of actual church attendance, according to this point of view, show that about 10% of those who consider themselves Russian Orthodox, actually attend or participate in the church regularly. Thus, official membership numbers appear to approximate the number of people baptized as infants into the church, rather than the number of those who participate regularly. See pedobaptism.

Since 2002 there is considerable friction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican, when Patriarch Alexey II condemned the Vatican's creation of a Catholic diocesean structure for Russian territory. This is seen by the leadership of the Russian church as a throwback to prior attempts by the Vatican to proselytize Russian Orthodox Church faithful to become Roman Catholic. This point of view is based upon the stance of the Russian Orthodox Church (and the Eastern Orthodox Church) that the Church of Rome is but one of many equal Christian churches, and that as such, it is straying into the territory "belonging" to another co-equal church.

The issue of enroachment by other Christian denominations into Russia is a particularly sensitive one to some in the Russian Orthodox Church, since the church has only recently come out from under considerable persecution during the regime of the Soviet Union. Prior to the Russian Revolution, there were some 54,000 functioning parishes and over 150 bishops. By 1939, there were less than 100 functioning parishes and only two bishops.

Those holding this point of view in the Russian Orthodox Church, see the proselytizing by Catholic and Protestant denominations as taking unfair advantage of the still-recovering condition of the Russian Church, having just come out of 70 years of Communist oppression.

The Russian Orthodox Church should not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), which was founded by Russian communities outside of Russia, which refused to recognize the authority of the then-Communist-dominated Russian church.

See also

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Russian Revolution

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of Russia series.
 Early Russian East Slavs
 Kievan Rus'
 Khazaria
 Muscovy
 Mongol invasion of Russia
 Imperial Russia and Russian Tsars
 Russian Revolution
 Russian Civil War

 History of the Soviet Union: Part I
 History of the Soviet Union: Part II
 Warsaw Pact
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Commonwealth of Independent States
 History of post-communist Russia
 List of famous Russians

The Russian Revolution (the final stage also known as October Revolution) was a political movement in Russia that climaxed in 1917 with the overthrow of the provisional government that had replaced the Russian Tsar system and led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, which lasted until 1991. This movement was led by Vladimir Lenin based upon the ideas of Karl Marx and marked the beginning of the spread of communism in the twentieth century.

On November 7, 1917, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin led his leftist revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so period references show a October 25 date).

Brief Chronology leading to Revolution of 1917

Dates are correct for the Julian calendar, which was used in Russia until 1918. It was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar during the 19th century and a day further behind during the 20th century.

January - Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg.
June - Potemkin uprising at Odessa on the Black Sea
October - general strike, St Petersburg Soviet formed
- Imperial agreement on elections to the State Duma - October Manifesto

More detailed but still brief chronology of Revolution of 1917

January

Strikes and unrest in Petrograd

February

The February Revolution
26th -- 50 demonstrators killed in Znamenskaya Square
27th -- Troops refuse to fire on demonstrators, desertions. Prison, court and
Okhrana buildings set on fire. Garrison joins revolutionaries.
Petrograd Soviet formed.

March

1st -- Order No.1 of the Petrograd Soviet
2nd -- Nicholas II abdicates. Provisional Government formed, Prince Lvov PM

April

3rd -- Return of Lenin to Russia. He publishes his April Theses.
20th -- Miliukov's note published. Provisional Government falls

May

5th -- New Provisional Government formed. Kerensky minister of war and navy

June

3rd -- First All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd. Closed on 24th
16th -- Kerensky orders offensive against Austro-Hungarian forces. Initial success

July

2nd -- Russian offensive ends. Trotsky joins Bolsheviks
4th -- Anti-government demonstrations in Petrograd
6th -- German and Austro-Hungarian counter-attack. Russians retreat in panic, sacking the town of Tarnopol. Arrest of Bolshevik leaders ordered
7th -- Lvov resigns. Kerensky is new PM
22nd -- Trotsky and Lunacharskii arrested

August

26th -- Second coalition government ends
27th -- General Lavr Kornilov failed coup. Kornilov arrested and imprisoned

September

1st -- Russia declared a republic
4th -- Trotsky and others freed. Trotsky becomes head of Petrograd Soviet
25th -- Third coalition government formed

October


Vladimir Lenin, leader of the October Bolshevik Revolution

10th -- Bolshevik Central Committee meeting approves armed uprising
11th -- Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region, until 13th
20th -- First meeting of the Military Revolutionary Committee of Petrograd
25th -- MRC directs armed workers and soldiers to capture key buidings in Petrograd. Winter Palace attacked at 9.40pm. Kerensky flees Petrograd
26th -- Second Congress of Soviets. Mensheviks and right SR delegates walk-out in protest at coup. Decrees on peace and land reform. Soviet government declared - the Council of People's Commissars; Bolshevik dominated with Lenin as chairman



INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Usage: Modern
4. Usage: Commercial 		5. Images: Slideshow
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Images: Digital Art
8. Sounds 		9. Quotations: Familiar
10. Quotations: Historic
11. Quotations: Fiction
12. Quotations: Non-fiction 		13. Quotations: Speeches
14. Usage Frequency
15. Names: Frequency
16. Expressions 		17. Expressions: Internet
18. Translations: Modern
19. Abbreviations
20. Acronyms 		21. Derivations
22. Rhymes
23. Anagrams
24. Bibliography


  

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