Rosina Beckman - The History of Russia ( only text)

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First Edition

Britannica Educational Publishing

J.E. Luebering: Executive Director, Core Editorial

Andrea R. Field: Managing Editor, Compton’s by Britannica

Rosen Publishing

Amelie von Zumbusch: Editor

Nelson Sá: Art Director

Brian Garvey: Series Designer/Book Layout

Cindy Reiman: Photography Manager

Nicole Baker: Photo Researcher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beckman, Rosina, editor.

Title: The history of Russia to 1801 / edited by Rosina Beckman.

Description: New York : Britannica Educational Publishing, in Association with Rosen Educational Services, 2019. | Series: Societies and cultures : Russia |

Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Grades 7–12.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017047204| ISBN 9781538301845 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Russia—History.

Classification: LCC DK39 .H57 2019 | DDC 947—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047204

Manufactured in the United States of America

Photo credits: Cover, pp. 3, 20, 32, 38-39, 67, 89, 107 Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images; cover and interior pages (flag) fckncg/Shutterstock.com; cover and interior pages (emblem) N-sky/iStock/Thinkstock; p. 9 © Photos.com/Thinkstock; p. 14 Time & Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; pp. 17, 102 © Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.; pp. 24, 73, 82 Heritage Images/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 29 Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; p. 41 © Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum. Photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.; p. 44 © The National Museum of Denmark, Department of Ethnography; p. 47 DEA/A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images; p. 53 Franz Marc Frei/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images; pp. 57, 100 Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; pp. 60, 110 © Courtesy of the State Historical Museum, Moscow; p. 71 © Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum. Object no. SK-A-116; p. 77 Print Collector/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 86 DEA/W. Buss/De Agostini/Getty Images; p. 91 Art Gallery, Twer, Russia/Bridgeman Images; p. 93 Universal Images Group/Getty Images; p. 97 Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A-1929); p. 114 Fine Art Images/SuperStock/Getty Images.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

THE EARLY RUS AND THE MONGOL PERIOD

The Rise of the Rus

Kiev

The Decline of Kiev

Social and Political Institutions

The Lands of Rus

Novgorod

The Northwest

The Northeast

The Southwest

The Mongol Period

Tatar Rule

The Rise of Muscovy

Cultural Life and the “Tatar Influence”

CHAPTER TWO

RURIKID MUSCOVY

Ivan III

Vasily III

Ivan IV (the Terrible)

The Oprichnina

Boris Godunov

The Time of Troubles

Social and Economic Conditions

Cultural Trends

CHAPTER THREE

ROMANOV MUSCOVY

Michael

Alexis

Trends in the 17th Century

Cultural Life

The Great Schism

CHAPTER FOUR

PETER THE GREAT AND HIS SUCCESSORS

Peter’s Youth and Early Reign

The Petrine State

The Roles of Different Social Classes

Peter I’s successors

Anna

Elizabeth

CHAPTER FIVE

CATHERINE THE GREAT

Expansion of the Empire

An Increasingly Diverse Russia

Government Administration Under Catherine

Education and Social Change in the 18th Century

CONCLUSION

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

The land that is now Russia has been inhabited since the second millennium BCE. Slavic peoples originally lived over a large area of eastern Europe that included parts of what are now Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the 5th and 6th centuries CE the Slavs spread south and east, some of them into southern Russia.

In about 830 traders from Scandinavia moved into the north Volga region. These traders were known as the Rus—the source of the name Russia. Soon the Rus and other Scandinavian groups—together called the Varangians—extended their raiding down the main river routes toward the Middle East.

According to tradition, the Slavs of Novgorod, tired of political turmoil, invited the Varangian prince Rurik to rule the city. Rurik’s successor Oleg added Kiev to his domains, making it his capital. This was the beginning of Kievan Rus, the first East Slavic state. In time Kievan Rus was crushed by the onslaught of the Mongols. Asian customs became a part of Russian culture, but as long as they paid tribute the Russians were free to practice their religion and native customs.

Mongol rule was eventually undercut by internal discord. The principality of Muscovy (Moscow), nestled deep in the forest at the hub of the major trade routes, developed at the expense of the Mongols as their power declined. As descendants of the Rurik line, Muscovite princes came to be regarded by the people as justified leaders of all Russians. The best-known ruler of Rurikid Muscovy is Ivan IV, called “the Terrible” because of his savage cruelty. He was followed first by his mentally unfit son Fyodor and then by Fyodor’s brother-in-law Boris Godunov. After Godunov’s death in 1605, Russia descended into civil war. This unsettled period ended with Michael Romanov’s election as tsar in 1613, launching the Romanov Dynasty.

Peter the Great disguised himself as a ship’s carpenter while traveling through western Europe in 1697–98. What he learned helped his efforts to make Russia a modern power in the western European world.

The Russian Empire—and with it the beginning of modern Russian history—dates from the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725). Peter defeated Sweden in the Second Northern War (Great Northern War) and gained an outlet to the Baltic Sea. He founded a navy, introduced factories, reformed the administrative machinery, and organized a modern army. He forced education upon his officers and members of his