Global Studies Review 3

Tsar/Czar

• Russian word for emperor

• Ultimate authority in Russia

Autocrat

• A ruler with unlimited and unchecked power

• Doesn’t have to answer to anyone or anything

Abdicate

• Renounce one’s throne

Feudalism

• System of political organization in Europe

  • The Tsar is at the top of the feudal hierarchy, granting land and privilege to noble and soldier

  • The Boyars (Russian Nobles) were granted land by the Tsar to look over and take care of (Middle)

  • The largest and poorest group in Russia were Serfs (Bottom)

Serfdom

• Lowest social class of the feudal system

• Laborers who were bound to the land

  • Essentially slaves to whoever owned the land

  • Landowners held property rights

Communism

• A way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc) and there is no privately owned property

Proletariat

• The labor class/industrial worker

Bourgeoisie

• The middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes

  • Property-owning capitalist class in conflict with the proletariat

Equity

• Everyone gets what they need

• True communism would be equitable

Equality

• Everyone gets the same

• This is often what people think communism is

USSR

• United Soviet Socialist Republic

• Consisted of 15 countries

Propaganda

• Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view

Cult of Personality

• A situation in which a public figure, especially a political leader, is presented as a great person who should be admired and loved

  • Result of an effort to create an idolized and heroic image of the leader through mass media, propaganda, fake news, and demonstrations

Politburo

• The principal policymaking committee of a communist party

Satellite States

• A country that is formally independent in the world but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country

  • A country that has its own ruled and laws (not part of the USSR) but the USSR controls them

Industrialization

• The development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale

Glasnost

• Openness

• More transparency in the government

• Lessening censorship admitting serious problems, letting non-Communists run for office

Perestroika

• Restructuring

• Trying to fix problems in the economy

• Move towards hybrid communist-capitalist model

• Allowing private business and foreign companies

Who were the Kievan Rus?  Where did they come from and where did they settle?

• Sometime between 800-900 CE, Vikings moved south from Scandinavia along natural waterways (mostly rivers)

• They became known as the “Russe”

• Their civilization becomes centered around the city of Kiev in modern day Ukraine

What are the significant things that Ivan IV is known for/achieved?

• First Tsar of Russia

• Acquired a lot of land

• Created a stronger and more organized national government

• Secret police waged war on nobles

• Made Russia more law centered

• Left leadership in a chaotic state for the next 100 years

What are the significant things that Peter the Great is known for/achieved?

• Built a western style navy

• Tried to modernize education

• Built the new capital at St. Petersburg

• Started to westernize Russia

  • Ex:

    • Wanted everyone to westernize clothing

    • Pushed for expanded women’s right

    • Lessened influence of the Russian Orthodox church

What are the significant things that Catherine the Great is known for/achieved?

• Enlightened monarchs

  • Valued of arts, human ideas, etc

• Expanded borders, built new towns

• Called for free schools, supported cultural projects, and the arts

• Continued the reforms and westernization began by Peter the Great

What are the significant things that Alexander II is known for/achieved?

• Alexander I’s son

• Officially freed the serfs

What are the significant things that Nicholas II is known for/achieved?

• Period of instability in Russia

• Very unpopular

  • bread riots

  • WWI- huge loss of life

• Forced to create lawmaking body (Duma)

• Last Tsar

• Chaos after his reign led to the Civil War and communist takeover

How did the Mongols impact Russia?

• 1242

  • The golden horde sacks the city of Kiev

• Local princes act as tax collectors

• Moscow princes become the most powerful

• Power of princes rises as power of khan declines

• By 1400, Moscow is the center of a unified Russia

Why did people not like Nicholas II? List at least 3 reasons

• He caused bread riots

• Huge loss of life in WWI

• Heavily taxed peasants

Explain Russia’s involvement in World War I including: the Russian people’s view, why they got involved, how it was going.

• The sequence of events began with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia, a Russian Ally

• In response, Russia issued an ultimatum to Vienna via St. Petersburg, warning Astria-Hungary against attacking Serbia

• Nicholas II committed an unprepared Russian army to war; the army was no match for the German machine guns

• As a result, the army suffered heavy losses and low moral

• Nicholas traveled to the frontline to inspire his troops leaving his wife (and Rasputin) in charge

• Eventually shortages in food and fuel as well as Nicholas II's refusal to leave the war, led to protests that escalated into the overthrow of the czar

• He could not meet the needs of the soldiers or the civilians

What is the difference between communism and socialism?

• Under communism, most property and economic resources are owned and controlled by the state (rather than individualized citizens)

• Under socialism, all citizens share equally in economic resources are allocated by a democratically- elected government

What is the difference between communism and capitalism?

• Capitalism is based on private ownership and free market where individuals can own the means of production and produce goods and serves to make a profit

• Communism is based on collective ownership and planned economy, where the government owns the means of production and controls the production and distribution of goods and services

Who is considered to be the father of communist theory?

• Karl Marx is known as the father of communist theory

What are Marx’s beliefs about communism?

• Communism should happen naturally

• The proletariat must overpower the bourgeoisie

• Communism should, would, and must spread around the world

• Once bourgeoisie have disappeared, government does not need to exist

What are Lenin’s beliefs about communism?

• Communism should be guided by professional revolutionaries

• The proletariat must overpower the bourgeoise

• Communism should, would, and must spread around the world

• Once bourgeoisie have disappeared, government does not need to exist

• State needs to be run by a single party with disciplined centrally direct administrators to ensure its goals

What are Stalin’s beliefs about communism?

• Communism should be guided by professional revolutionaries

• The proletariat must overpower the bourgeoise

• Violence was necessary to rid enemies

• State needs to be run by a single party with disciplined centrally direct administrators to ensure its goals

• Proletariat would always need to be guided even with the elimination of the bourgeoisie

Why doesn’t communism exist in practice?

• In Communism, there are no governments and we have governments as of now

• It is not possible to have no government; without government, society would be out of order and not be able to function

What party started the Russian Revolution?  Who was their leader?

• The Bolsheviks started the Russian Revolution

• Lenin was their leader

Who was Leon Trotsky?  What happened to him?

• A revolutionary leader who organized the October (Second) Revolution and the Red Guard (Civil War)

• He was a popular and capable leader but people feared he would rule as a dictator

• He was assassinated in Mexico by an assassin acting on Stalin’s orders

What were the two sides of the Russian Civil War called?  What was each side fighting to achieve?

• The two sides of the Russian Civil War were the Bolsheviks (red) and Nationalists (White)

• They were both fighting for control of Russia

  • The Bolsheviks wanted communism

  • The Nationalists wanted to put the Tsar back on the throne

Who was Grigori Rasputin?  Why is he important to the Russian Revolution?

• Spiritual mystic from Siberia

• Introduced to royal family in 1906

• Using his healing powers over Alexi

• Very close to Alexandra (Nichola’s wife)

• Greatly influenced the Tsar

• Rasputin’s assassination:

  • Planned by Prince Felix Yusupov

  • Saw him as a threat to the empire and too influential over the royal family

  • Invited him to his home, where he had set up the assassination

• People thought he had spiritual and mystic gifts

• The peasants thought of him as one of them and others thought he was a threat to the monarchy

• He was shot in the head and died after many failed attempts

Who was the first leader of the Soviet Union?

• The first leader of the Soviet Union was Vladamir Lenin

What did Lenin think about Stalin becoming leader after him?

• Lenin did not like that Stalin took over after him

• He thought Stalin was too power hungry

What was Stalin’s economic plan called?  Was it successful?

• Stalin’s plan was called "The 5 year Plan”

  • It was a plan to have Russia catch up to Europe economically, socially, and technologically

  • He wanted Russia to be as advanced and modern as Europe was

• Set very high quotas on steel, coal, and electricity that the country would produce

  • To reach quotas, resources had to be pulled from agriculture and other consumer goods

  • Industrial output did increase by 25% but growth was not uniform across society as Soviet people were incredibly stretched

• The 5 year Plan was successful because USSR was industrialized and industries such as coal and electricity grew rapidly

• Some things took longer the change than others

• The plan saved Russia from being defeated by Hitler

Explain the Holodomor: what was it, where was it, why is it important.

• 1932-1933 in Ukraine

• A Ukrainian famine under Joseph Stalin’s reign

  • Stalin wanted to replace Ukraine’s small farms with bigger state run farms

  • Stalin effectively starves the Ukrainians by raising food quotas so the collective farms provide more food for the government

  • Quotas are so high that peasants cannot feed themselves

• This was important as people got displaced if the government took over their farms

  • 7 million people starve to death

• Known as Ukrainian genocide

What is a cult of personality?  Describe how Stalin created his cult of personality using at least 3 aspects.

• A cult of personality is when a political figure is show in good light and is the result of an effort to create an idolized and heroic image of the leader through mass media, propaganda, fake news, and demonstrations

• Stalin created a cult of personality by:

  • Allowing himself to be seen with children

  • He engaged with children from different ethnic backgrounds and got the nickname “father”

  • Newspapers also showed Stalin connecting with the “common” people by farmers meeting him and saying good things about him

What were the prison camps used by Stalin called?  Where were they located and why were they located there?

• The prison camps used by Stalin were called Gulags

  • Gulags were located in Siberia, Arctic, the Far East, and Central Asia

  • Gulags were located where the prisoners could work the land

    • Ex: Mine, forestry, or building infrastructure like reads

Nikita Khrushchev is best known for De-Stalinization.  What does that mean?

• The policy of eradicating the memory or influence of Joseph Stalin and Stalinism, especially after 1956

What important world event did Khrushchev lead the USSR through in the 1960s?

• Khrushchev led the USSR through the Cuban Missile Crisis

• The USSR had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, leading to intense tensions with the US

• The crisis was resolved through negotiations but it brought the world to the brink of nuclear war

Leonid Brezhnev created the Brezhnev Doctrine.  What did it give him the power to do?  What organization did it create?  What organization did it oppose?

• The Brezhnev doctrine was a soviet foreign policy in 1968

  • The Brezhnev doctrine called for the use of the Warsaw Pact but Russia dominated troops Intereve in any eastern bloc nation which was seen to compromise communist rule and soviet domination

What is Brezhnev’s Stagnation?

• During Brezhnev’s reign, there was a period of economic, political, and social stagnation

  • There was a lack of activity and no progress was being made

Explain Glasnost and Perestroika as well as explain why they didn’t work.

• Glasnost was lessening censorship admitting serious problems, letting non-Communists run for office

• Perestroika was trying to fix problems in the economy Move towards hybrid communist-capitalist model

• Glasnost didn’t work people were afraid of speaking up as laws were harsh

• Perestroika didn’t work because when capitalism was introduced, people didn’t want communism

What invisible division was the fall of the Berlin Wall the end of?

• The division between East and West Berlin

Why is Gorbachev considered to be so unpopular in Russia?

• Gorbachev was considered to be unpopular because he left society and the government in bad shape after his reign was over

• His attempts at reconstructing the economy faced resistance from those who believed he was moving too fast

• He introduced Glasnost and Perestroika but they did not work in the end

Who is Boris Yeltsin and what is he known for?

• The “Champion of Democracy

• Adapted well to the new system

• Natural politician

• First elected president of Russia

• Champion of Democracy?

  • Allows corruption and mob violence

  • Rules like an autocrat

  • Tries to dissolve parliament and calls out the military to shell “The White House”

  • Pushes through a Constitution that expands presidential power

  • Names Putin as his successor and resigns in his favor

Explain Putin’s time in power.  What positions has he held and why?

• Putin was mayor of St. Petersburg

  • Helped to give KGB members information and power

• He rose as prime minister of Russia and once an attacked happened, he promised to avenge Russia

  • Everyone followed him

• Putin became president when Boris resigned

  • He rewards those who follow him while punishing those who don’t

• He makes ties with the US President and is always shown in good light in the newsw

Why is Russia trying to take over Ukraine?

• Russia is trying to take over Ukraine for their land

• Russia wants Ukraine to be a part of Russia and Ukraine does not want to

• Ukraine wants to be a part of NATO and Russia does not want them to join as they are not a part of NATO themselves

  • If Ukraine is a part of NATO, then NATO can protect them which Russia does not want to happen

Who is the leader of Ukraine currently?

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the leader of Ukraine

Who is Alexei Navalny and where is he now?

• Alexei Navalny was a Russian lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and politician

• He advocated for rights and spoke up against the government and Putin being in power

• He was hated by government officials and got arrested and detained multiple times

• He had an attempted assassination; he was on a flight and was in pain and cried out

  • The plane landed in an emergency landing and he was rushed to the hospital

  • The doctors worked with the government and most likely didn’t actual care for Navalny and weren’t treating him

• Navalny recovered and investigated with his team about who could have possibly poisoned him

• He continued to advocate through social media outside of Russia

• He went back to Russia and was arrested once he landed

• He was sentenced to 32 years in jail but recently died in jail

What have many people been arrested for in the past 2 years in Russia?

• People have been arrested for:

  • Alcoholism

  • Criminal activity

  • Protesting

What is Russia’s main export?  How is the Ukraine war impacting their economy?

• Russia’s main exports are:

  • Natural gas

  • Oil

  • Coal

  • Precious Metals

• The Ukraine war is impacting the economy by:

  • Slowing down economic recovery after COVID

  • Most of the investments the government makes are towards the war; billions of dollars have been spent

  • Europe has stopped buying gas from Russia; making Russia lose some business