History of Russia: Difference between revisions

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In the early 17th century, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_Troubles Time of Troubles] led to the end of the Rurikid dynasty. The Polish Vasa dynasty attempted to claim the throne of Russia but were eventually expelled. The Romanovs were crowned as Tsars soon after and would rule Russia for three centuries.
 
== Early Romanov period (1613-1701) ==
 
== Late Romanov period (1701-1867) ==
The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws, established the first Russian feudal representative body, curbed the influence of the clergy, and introduced local self-management in rural regions. Ivan the Terrible doubled the already large Russian territory during his long reign by annexing the three Tatar khanates; Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia.
 
By the end of the 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains, transforming into a transcontinental empire. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonization of the vast territories of Siberia were primarily led by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes. By the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in the Far East.
 
====Colonization efforts in America====
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The Kurile Island Company was revived in 1841, termed the Second Kurile Company to distinguish it from the first. After a disappointing twenty years of operation, the company was dismantled again. In 1861, the [[Russian Pacific Company]] was established as a successor, financed by the imperial government as well as several Russian, French, and Japanese aristocrats. Four years later, it would come to become the main governing body of the colony of Alyeska.
 
== Kings ofThe Orange Reign (18681867-1923) ==
====The Great Game====
[[Russia]] and [[Britain]] began competing for influence in central Asia in the 1840s, a region situated between Russian Siberia and British India. The installation of the pro-British [[House of Dogra|Dogra dynasty]] in [[Tibet]] in 1840. After three decades of tensions and political maneuvering, the Great Game was concluded with the creation of the artificial buffer state of Serindia in the western [[Great Qing|Qing dynasty]] and the withdrawal of British and Russian troops from [[Afghanistan]].
 
==== Russian Succession Crisis ====
ShortlyThe before his demise,sickly Tsar [[Alexander III, appointedof Orange-NassauRussia|Alexander princeIII]] andappointed his Dutch nephew-in-law, [[Henry-Williams of Russia|Henry-Williams]], as hisa chiefGeneral-Admiral navalof the Imperial Navy in 1861 in order to reform and modernize the reformerfleet. Over the 1860s, Henry-Williams becamehad become wildlyextremely popular in Russia duein contrast to histhe successperceived indullness modernizingand lethargy of the navyRussian andimperial hisfamily. revitalisationAfter the long-awaited death of Russianthe culture.Tsar Hein was1867, avarious popularmembers topicof forthe Senate and the press,gentry hadwere strongsplit tieson who was to become the Russiannext elitesmonarch. The chronically ill Prince Ivan was heir presumptive, andnever assimilatedbeing intoformally societynamed, leading to a major governmental crisis.
 
Henry-Williams claimed the throne of Russia three days after the death of the Tsar. Eight months later, he was successfully crowned Tsar of Russia with the support of numerous members of the Russian media, the Netherlands, and his allies in the aristocracy. To appease the conservative and anti-Dutch factions of the gentry, Henry-Williams decided to officially co-rule with his Russian wife, Queen [[Anna Petrovna, Tsarevna of Russia|Anna Petrovna]]. In the press, they were commonly known by the epithet the 'Orthodox Monarchs of Russia', reflecting the grandeur and importance of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Monarchs_of_Spain Catholic Monarchs of Spain].
After the death of the Russian tsar Alexander III in 1867, the heir and eldest male prince, Ivan, was expected to inherit the Russian throne. At the time of his father's death, Ivan had been bedridden for over a year. He was extremely sick and was expected to be an incompetent leader, with Russian newspapers mocking his appearance and perceived inability to rule. Henry-Williams claimed the throne of Russia in opposition to Crown Prince Ivan, kicking off the Russian Succession Crisis.
 
Prince Ivan passed away in March of 1868, most likely due to coronary artery disease brought on by familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition which possibly afflicted his father [[Alexander III of Russia|Alexander III]] as well. Tsar Henry-Williams used this fact to present his bloodline as pure and healthy, in contrast to the decaying line to which the Alexandrine monarchs had belonged to. On this note, Tsarina Anna Petrovna and her close friend [[Joseph Ivanovich Melukov]] are credited with beginning the [[Eugenics|eugenics movement]] in Russia, emphasizing the importance of pure bloodlines to the Russian people, to the detriment of Jews, Tatars, and others.
Henry-Williams, with support of the Netherlands, successfully became Tsar after eight months of fighting in 1868. He founded the dynastic branch, the [[House of Orange-Romanov]]. To gain additional legitimacy and appease conservative members of the royal family, Henry-Williams and his Russian wife became co-rulers. They became known as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Monarchs_of_Spain Orthodox Monarchs of Russia].
 
==== Early RomanovGenrican period (16131868-17011884) ====
Being a past naval reformer, Tsar Henry shifted his focus to the expansion of Russia's influence in the Pacific. He created a Trans-Siberian railway to connect Russia's European core to its territories in the Far East. In the 1870s, the Russian court carried out a series of land & economic reforms that took power away from the aristocracy.
 
{{Infobox military conflict
In the 1870s, the Russian court carried out a series of reforms.
| conflict ===== Russo-Ottoman War (1884-1885)=====
| place = Balkans, Crimea, the Caucasus
Russia realized the weakness of Ottoman control in the Balkans and Crimea. After a series of revolts in the Balkans were put down harshly by Ottoman forces, Russia pledged support to the independence movements in Serbia and Romania. This led to Russia bringing Crimea, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Serbia under their sphere. [[Austria|Austria,]] who joined the war late, annexed a small part of the Ottoman Empire - though it was less than Russia promised.
| width = 300px
====The Great Game====
| date = 1884 - 1885 (1 year, 23 days)
Beginning in the 1840's Russia and Britain started to compete for influence in Central Asia, with the British believing that without countering Russian ambitions in the region, the Raj could eventually be at risk of invasion. This led to a military build-up and increased conflict over alliances with Afghanistan, Persia, and the Chinese nations. By 1893 tensions had simmered down. The great game ended with the creation of [[Serindia]] as a buffer state between Russian and the British Raj, and the demilitarization of the border with the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
| result = Austro-Russian victory; Treaty of Angora
| territory = {{ unbulleted list | - Independence of [[Moldavia]], [[Wallachia]], and [[Illyria|Serbia]] </br> - [[Austria]] annexes Bosnia </br> - Russian annexation of eastern Moldavia and the Khanate of Crimea </br> - Creation of the Russian viceroyalties of [[Transpruthenia]] and [[Crimea]]}}
| image = Russo-Turkish War 1885.png
| image_size = 300px
| combatant1 = [[Ottoman Empire]] </br> [[Crimea|Khanate of Crimea]]
| combatant2 = [[Russia]] </br> [[Austria]] </br> Ottoman rebels
| combatant3 = [[Moldavia]] (from April 1885)
}}
 
==== Russo-Ottoman War ====
The part that they retained, Alyeska, was a mostly forgotten colony and a backwater for much of the 19th century, with a revolving door of colonization companies trying to find a way to profit from the region. Nevertheless, in the 1870s, after realizing the geopolitical importance of Alyeska to Russian interests, the Tsar founded and granted a monopolistic charter to the Russian Pacific Company to oversee the colonization and management of the territory. Since the company was state-funded, the Russian Pacific Company was able to pour more development into Alyeska than its private company predecessors. In the 1890s, gold was discovered in the Alyeskan territory. This resulted in an influx of immigrants from Russia and East Asia to Alyeska.
Due to the military and social reforms orchestrated under Tsar Henry-Williams, Russia's imperial ambitions in the south were greatly increased. A series of revolts in several [[Ottoman Sultanate|Ottoman]] possessions in Europe during the early 1880s alerted Russia to the fragility of Ottoman rule in the region.
Russia declared war in the April of 1884. After four months of war, Austria joined under the condition to annexing all Ottoman territories north of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drin_(river) Drin River]. This promise made by Russia was ultimately unfulfilled in the resulting Treaty of Angora, with Austria only being able to annex Bosnia. This later upset relations between the two empires, a grudge which would manifest itself in the [[Great War]], where Austria and Russia were on opposing sides.
 
In the final weeks of the war, Russia moved their soldiers into the eastern part of [[Moldavia]], known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia Bessarabia], eventually annexing it. This greatly aggravated the newly liberated country, which turned against Russia and maintained close relations with Austria and the Ottoman Empire as a response.
== Double O period (1923-1944) ==
 
====The= Formation of the Russian Revolutionviceroyalties =====
The lands of the former Khanate of Crimea were transformed into the Crimean Viceroyalty. While the peninsula remained populated by indigenous Tatars, areas like Yedishkul, Oezue, and the Kuban were settled by Russians from the north. Many of these agricultural colonists left the Viceroyalty during the famines of the 1910s. Cities like Taganrog, Azov, Kazikermen, and Balisaray experienced rapid population growth, eclipsing nearby Russian settlements like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhzhia Alexandrovsk] and Sochi. Bessarabia, bearing the name Transpruthenia, would remain heavily populated by Vlachs and Bulgarians for the next several decades. A crucial Tatar minority of both Muslim and Christian faiths existed in the south, especially around the city of Akkerman.
In the 1920s, the [[European Economic Crisis]] and its effects hit Russia especially hard. In 1922, a series of crop failures and poor financial decisions by the Russian imperial authorities caused a financial crisis known as the Russian depression. During the depression, massive famines in Ukraine and the Don Kuban region sent thousands of refugees north towards urban centers such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev. This led to food riots, strikes, and crackdowns by imperial authorities.
 
During the Russian Revolution, Transpruthenia would be reannexed into the [[Moldavia|Moldavian National Republic]]. The Crimean Viceroyalty would be reconstructed as an autonomous national republic by 1930, with the Azov region being de-attached for strategic reasons.
Around every large city in Russia, large shantytowns started popping up; these shantytowns were overcrowded, and disease outbreaks were common in them. During this period, anti-elite, anti-tsar, and pro-republican sentiments grew throughout the Russian empire. In 1923, the Russian Republican Congress (the largest republican organization in Russia at the time, also known as the R.R.C.) had over a million members in the Muscovite region alone. By the winter of 1925, the situation in Russia rapidly deteriorated, with most citizens believing that the Tsar mishandled the economic crisis and exacerbated the famines in the rural south through poor economic policy. Additionally, there was an outrage at the continued opulence of the Tzar, Tsarina, and nobilities lifestyles the peasantry starved.
=====Storming of the Winter Palace=====
On December 3rd, the winter palace was surrounded by a bread riot that swept through Moscow, and after 6 hours of rioting, the protestors stormed the Winter Palace. The nobility left the previous day to St. Petersburg (but upon hearing of the storming of the palace, left for Britain). After two days of further agitation and the breakdown of imperial civil control in Russia, the Russian Republican Congress declared the first Russian Republic and the end of imperial rule. After a week of tension with the new government, the imperial military reluctantly agreed to back the new government.
 
== Russian Revolution (1922-1928) ==
For the first month of its existence, the new Republic was stuck in a deadlock between the two major factions in government, the liberal republicans and the nationalist republicans (more commonly known as the Vosstanists (from Russian восстановление, vosstanovlenie) . Additionally, after the Tsar fled, many non-Russian regions of the empire declared independence, while the Russian military acted mostly autonomously from the Republics congress. In February of 1926, after the first wave of elections was marred with controversy. The Vosstanists walked out of congress and started to conspire to overthrow the liberal-republican-dominated congress. The following week after a series of negotiations with the military (led by General Mikhail Orlov) and the leaders of the Cossacks, the newly reformed Nationalist Republican or Vosstanist faction now known as the 'Russian National Congress' declared the Russian Republican Congress illegitimate. On Feburary 19th the breakaway Russian National Congress elected the writer and revolutionary Anastaze "Ozero" Muromsky as the chairman of the Republic.
====Russian Civil War====
The Russian Republican Congress reacted harshly to the National Congresses declaration and raised militias from loyalist cities and regions. By March of 1926, the Liberal Russian Republic relied only on a decentralized system of militias with dubious loyalties and often recruited from rebellious national interest groups who feared that the Vosstanists would destroy the local autonomy given to them by the Tsar's Viceroy system. This faction was often known collectively on the battlefield as the Tricolor Army due to their use of the Russian white, blue & red tricolor flag. Initially, the Tricolor Army was able to hold on to land in southern Russian, the Baltics and regions in Northern Russia.
 
==== Background ====
In contrast, the Vosstanists were able to rapidly take control of the core of Russian ethnic and industrial land in the Muscovite region. They consolidated their rule with a variety of social and work programs, which alleviated the worst of the effects of the famines and economic crisis and the use of harsh authoritarian crackdowns on dissenters. The Vosstanists were able to push the Tricolor Republic Army out of North Russia by the summer of 1926. They then slowly turned their attention to their core region of support in south Russia. Throughout 1927, opponents from the Liberal Republic would try desperately to gain a foreign backer, first from the British and then the Ottomans, but as the European Economic Crisis raged, there was little desire from the other powers of Europe to get involved in a civil war that seemed to be already lost. However, they were able to find an ally in the Finnish Nationalist Republican insurgents that launched the Finnish revolution a year prior (1925).
In the 1920s, the [[European Economic Crisis]] and its effects hit Russia especially hard. InAlready plagued by famines 1922in the 1910s, a series of crop failures and poor financial decisions by the Russian imperial authorities caused a financial crisis known as the Russian depressionDepression. During the depression,A massive faminesexodus inof Ukrainerural andpeasantry thetowards Donurban Kubancenters regionoccurred, sentwith thousands of refugeespeople north towards urban centers such asentering Moscow, St.seeking Petersburg,work and Kievhousing. This led to fooda riots,strict strikes,and apathetic crackdown and crackdownsdirectly bycaused imperialsubsequent authoritiesviolence.
 
Several ghettos that formed in cities became hotbeds of republicanism and anti-elite sentiment, rejecting the notion of 'enlightened despotism' brought upon by Tsar Henry-Williams decades prior. By 1923, the underground political organization the Russian Republican Congress had accumulated over a million members and affiliates, with several million more being sympathizers. By the winter of 1925, the situation rapidly deteriorated, with violence now being targeted against the imperial family and the highest officials of state.
By the winter of 1927, the Liberals realized their plight was doomed and so used their resources to provide an exodus route for the leaders, military, and businesspeople of the ill-fated republic. By February of 1928, there were only pockets of isolated fighting as the Vosstanists swept into Southern Russia and gained control. By March, the last battle of the Russian Civil War was over.
 
===== Storming of the Winter Palace= ====
== Kiselev family rule (1944-) ==
On December 3rd, the winter palace was surrounded by protestors who had originally congregated in the area to participate in a bread riot. The Russian aristocracy, including the Tsar himself, had fled for other cities and their holiday homes days prior and were unharmed. After two days of riots, the protestors broke into the Winter Palace and declared the end of the Romanov monarchy. Days before Christmas, the Russian Republican Congress declared the first Russian republic and the end of imperial rule. After a week of tensions, most soldiers of the former Imperial Military agreed to serve the new republican administration.
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Russian Civil War
| place = [[Russia]]
| width = 300px
| date = 1926 - 1928 (2 years, 12 days)
| result = - Russian National Congress victory, establishment of the Russian National Republic
| combatant1 = Parliament of the Republic </br> Tricolour Army </br> Finnish rebels
| combatant2 = Russian National Congress </br> Cossacks
| commander2 = General [[Mikhail Orlov]] </br> [[Ozero]]
}}
 
==== Russian Civil War ====
The newly formed Parliament of the Republic was deadlocked a month after the Storming of the Winter Palace. The liberal republicans, inspired by the ideals of Dutch republicanism and British liberalism, strongly opposed the national republicans, more commonly known as the Vosstanists (from Russian восстановление). Several frontier regions of Russia further heightened the urgency of the situation. One of these movements eventually became successful, creating the nation of [[Turkestan]] a decade later.
 
In February of 1926, the first elections were marred with controversy. The Vosstanists walked out of Parliament, declaring their formal opposition to the liberal republicans. After a series of negotiations with military and Cossack leaders, including General [[Mikhail Orlov]], the national republicans formed the Russian National Congress, accusing the Parliament of being an illegitimate institution. On the nineteenth, the Congress elected the revolutionary author and politician [[Ozero|Anastaze 'Ozero' Muromsky]] as Chairman of the National Republic.
 
In response, Parliament gathered their sparse military regiments and militias into what became known as the Tricolour Army. Several regional leaders sided with Parliament, fearing that Congress would centralise the state and deprieve the former viceroyalties of their autonomy. The Black Sea region, the Baltics, and several other regions populated by ethnic and religious minorities provided men for the Tricolour Army.
 
The Vossatanists consolidated their power by enacting several social, martial, and economic programs, alleviating the worst effects of the famine and the economic crisis. Using authoritarian methods against dissenters and insurgents, they managed to confine the Parliamentarians to southern Russia by the summer of 1926. The Parliamentarians appealed to the Ottomans and the United Kingdom for assistance, but were given no response except for Finnish revolutionaries in the far north. By the winter of 1927, notable figures of Parliament left the country. By March of 1928, all major insurgencies had ceased.
 
== National-Republican era (1928-19xx) ==
In 1932, Russia, along with [[Japan]] and [[China]], [[Russo-Corean War|declared war]] against the burgeoning empire of Corea. Ending in 1935, the war resulted in the annexation of [[Poeja]] and an assertion of Russian influence in northeast Asia. The same year, Russia entered the [[Great War]] in the spring of 1935 when the [[Ottoman Empire]] declared war against them. Russia joined the [[United Kingdom]], [[Portugal]], and others in forming the [[Factions of the Great War#Cordial%20League|Cordial League]]. In 1936, Tripartite League forces laid siege to the city of Kiev for months. Chairman Ozero was forced to sign the Treaty of Akmolinsk in 1937, granting independence to the new Orkhonist state of [[Turkestan]]. Also in 1937, the Russo-Ottoman Compromise created the [[Rumelia|Rumelian National Republic]] and made Constantinople a Russo-Rumelian condominium. Russia's claims were formally acknowledged in the [[The Great War#Aftermath|Congress of Amsterdam]].
 
Ozero, leader of the country for nearly two decades, dies in 1943 and is temporarily succeeded by pragmatist [[Mikhail Orlov]].
 
=Imperialism=
=== Russian colonization of Alyeska ===
{{Main|Alyeska}}
Russia was the first European power to explore and settle the far northeast of North America. In 1788, the private Kurile Island Company, founded initially to explore the business opportunities in the Kurile Islands, was given by the Russian Tsar permission to explore the region of what is now modern-day [[Alyeska]]. A few years later, the tsar proclaimed the Ukase of 1790, which detailed the claims of Russia on the American continent. The Kurile Island Company was given a charter to the Aleutian Islands and eventually other parts of Alaska. Russians tried to settle Kolchak island in the south of their claimed land with the Port Alexander colony (1816 - 1832). However, the Russians eventually relinquished much of their claims in North America in the Russo-Dutch Treaty of 1832.
 
The part that they retained, Alyeska, was a mostly forgotten colony and a backwater for much of the 19th century, with a revolving door of colonization companies trying to find a way to profit from the region. Nevertheless, in the 1870s, after realizing the geopolitical importance of Alyeska to Russian interests, the Tsar founded and granted a monopolistic charter to the Russian Pacific Company to oversee the colonization and management of the territory. Since the company was state-funded, the Russian Pacific Company was able to pour more development into Alyeska than its private company predecessors. In the 1890s, gold was discovered in the Alyeskan territory. This resulted in an influx of immigrants from Russia and East Asia to Alyeska.
 
== See also ==
 
* [[Russia]]
Bureaucrats, rtl-contributors, Administrators
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