Russia: Difference between revisions

===Kievan Rus and the Grand Duchy of Moscow===

The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The medieval state of Rus' arose in the 9th century. In 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated until it was finally reunified by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century.

===Tsardom of Russia===

In development of the Third Rome ideas, the Grand Duke Ivan IV "the Terrible" was officially crowned first ''Tsar'' of Russia in 1547. 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. During his long reign, Ivan the Terrible nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of the disintegrated Golden Horde): Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga, and the Siberian Khanate in southwestern Siberia. Thus, by the end of the 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains, thus east of Europe, and into Asia, being transformed into a transcontinental state. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonization of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes, and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Russia was the first European power to explore and settle the far northeast of North America. In 1788, the private Kurile Island Company, originally founded to explore the business opportunities in the Kurile Islands, was given by the Russian Czar a permission to explore the region of what is now modern-day Alaska. A few years later, the czar proclaimed the Ukase of 1790, which detailed the initial 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, unsuccessfully, the settle Kolchak island in the south of their claimed land with the Port Alexander colony (1816 - 1832). Eventually the Russians relinquished much of their claimed land in North America in the the Russo-Dutch Treaty of 1832. The rest of their claimed Alyeskan land was a mostly forgotten about colony and a backwaters for much of the 19th century with a revolving door of colonization companies trying to find a way to make profit from the region. Then in the 1870s, after realizing the geopolitical importance of Alyeska to Russian interests, the Tsar 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.

After the death of the Russian tsar Alexander III in 1867 this heir and eldest male dynast Ivan was set to inherit the Russian throne. Ivan at the time of his father's death had been bedridden for over a year, was extremely sickly and known as an incompetent leader with Russian newspapers mocking appearance and perceived inability to rule. Previous to the death of the Czar, Alexander III, as a way to gain influence in the Kingdom of the Netherlands appointed a Dutch prince of House Oranje, Henry-Williams as his chief naval reformer (additionally the husband of the Czar's niece). Over the 1860's Henry-Williams (the cousin of the current Dutch King) became wildly popular in Russia because of his success in modernizing the navy as well as his adaptation and promotion of Russian culture. He was a frequent subject of interest in the press, had strong ties to the Russian elites and became a great patron of Russian literature. He studied the language and could speak in fluent Russian (as well as Ukrainian and Polish) and even converted to orthodox Christianity and was baptized with a Slavic name.

After being urged by his wife and other members of the Russian court, Henry-Williams claimed the throne which kicked off the Russian-Succession Crisis and a the Russian War of Succession. After only 8 months of fighting (with the Dutch supporting Henry-Williams clamancy) the war was over and Henry-Williams was declared Emperor and Czar of Russia. This was possible due to the Henry-Williams naval and military contacts in Russia, his support amongst the people and of course support in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As a way to gain additionally legitimacy and in order to appease conservative members of the royal family Henry-Williams and his wife (the niece of the late czar) both ruled as co-emperors and in 1868 the new czar and czarina start their reign.

Henry-Williams the new tsar, being a past naval reformer, shifted his focus to the expansion of Russia's influence in the pacific and the growing wealth and geostrategic position that could be found in a pacific empire. One of the early steps to a Russian pacific empire he believed, was to create a Trans-Siberian railway to connect the Muscovite region to the Russian Pacific ports.

During the late 19th century Russia slowly strengthened it's economic and military power due to the reforms in 1870's. In addition to this the Russian 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 for independence movements in Serbia and Romania. This led to Russia retaking Crimea, Wallachia, Moldavia, Serbia gaining independence. Austria, who joined the war late, also annexed the upper left tip of the ottoman territory (but were promised more but didn't receive it from Russia which started straining Russo-Austrian relations).

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 for invasion. This led to a military build up as well as increasing conflict over alliances with Afghanistan, Persia and the Chinese nations. By 1893 tensions have simmered down and the great game was 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.

In the 1920's the European Economic Crisis and it's lead up hit Russia especially hard. In 1922 a series of crop failures along with poor financial decisions made by the Russian imperial authorities caused a financial crisis known as the Russian depression (part of the extended European economic crisis of 1922 - 1928). During the depression massive famines in the Ukraine and the Don Kuban region sent thousands of refugees north towards urban centers such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev which led to food riots, strikes and crackdowns by imperial authorities. Around every large city in Russia large shanty towns informally known as "Czartowns" started popping up; these shantytowns were overcrowded and disease outbreaks were common in them. During this time period anti-elite, anti-czar and pro-republican sentiments started to grow 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 Czar 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 Czar, Czarina and nobilities lifestyles while so many of the lower classes starved.

On December 3rd the winter palace was surrounded by a bread riot that swept through Moscow and after 6 hours of rioting the Winter palace was stormed by the protestors. The nobility left the previous day to St. Petersburg (but after hearing of the storming of the palace left to Britain). After 2 days of further agitation and the break down of imperial civil control in Russia the Russian Republican Congress declared the first Russian Republic and the end of imperial rule. The imperial military after a week of tension with the new government reluctantly agreed to back the new government.

For the first month of it's existence the new Republic was struck in deadlock between the two major factions in government, the liberal republicans and the nationalist republicans. Additionally after the Czar 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 Nationalist Republicans walked out of congress and started to conspire to overthrow the liberal-republican dominated congress. The next 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 faction now known as the 'Russian National Congress' declared the Russian Republican Congress illegitimate.

The Russian Republican Congress reacted harshly to the National Congresses declaration and started to raise militias from loyalist cities and regions. By March of 1926 the country was spilt between the Liberal Russian Republic would relied on a decentralized system of militias with dubious loyalties and often recruited from rebellious national interest groups who feared that the Russian Nationalists would destroy the local autonomy given to them by the Czar'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 the southern Russian viceroys as well as regions in Northern Russia.

In contrast the Nationalists were able to take control quite rapidly of the core of Russian ethnic and industrial land in the Muscovite region and from there consolidate rule with a variety of social and work programs which alleviated the worst of the effects of the famines and economic crisis as well as the use of harsh authoritarian crackdowns on dissenters. The Russian Nationalists were able to push the Tricolor Republic army out of North Russia by the summer of 1926 and then slowly turn their attention to their core region of support in south Russia. Throughout 1927 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 and the tensions in the continent grew their was little desire of the powers of Europe to get involved in a civil war that seemed to be already lost and by the winter of 1927 the Liberal Republic realized their plight was doomed and so used their resources to provide an a exodus route for the leaders, military and businesspeople of the ill-fated republic. By February of 1928 there was only pockets of isolated fighting as the Nationalists swept in to Southern Russia and gain control and by March the last battle of the Russian Civil War was over.