Russia

Ousting the Mongols & Centralizing Power

● Under Ivan III, prince of Moscow, Russia begins to oust Mongol rule

● Ivan III unifies Russia under the power of the princes of Moscow

Centralization & Expansion under Ivan IV:

Ivan the Terrible

● Ivan IV is crowned the first tsar/czar of Russia (1547)

● Begins dynastic rule of Russia - Rurik Dynasty

○ Responsible for building the centralized Russian state

○ Expanded Russia to include non-Slavic territories

■ Took control of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia through the use of gunpowder

● Creates arquebusier cavalry

■ Wants to expand fur trade eastward

● Allows Stroganovs (major landowners) to hire cossacks to fight local tribes and Siberian khan to gain control of the Volga River and its outlet to the Caspian Sea

The Volga River

● Provides access to the Caspian Sea

● Connects Russia to trade with Persia

Continued Expansion

● Russia continues to expand east After Ivan IV

● Reaches the Pacific by 1639

● By 1741, Russia has sent explorers and fur traders as far as Alaska and down the coast of California by 1814

● A Russian trading company was formed that traded very valuable pelts

Centralizing Government

● Bringing all of the Russian states under the control of one rule began with Ivan IV (The Terrible)

● Ivan used brutal and militaristic means to develop and maintain control of the Russian state

○ Many boyars resisted Ivanʼs expansion, and their lands were confiscated and they were moved to Moscow near the ruler

○ Built a bureaucracy by moving the boyars to his court in Moscow and having them work for him

■ Appointments were based on loyalty

○ Created a loyal secret police force called the oprichnina

● Ivan IV develops absolute power of the tsar in Russia

○ Has total power over all parts of government ○ Often allied with the Orthodox Church to rationalize their power

Centralizing Power: Peter the Great

● Romanov Dynasty begins in 1613 and maintain power until the end of the monarchy in 1917

● Peter the Great (1689) led Russia during a time when competing centers of power sought dominance

○ The Russian Orthodox Church sought to maintain traditional religious beliefs and values

■ Peter the Great, “Defender of Orthodoxy” allied himself with the church but also sought to control it

○ Boyars wanted to gain influence

■ Peter divided his empire into 8 provinces and over 50 administrative divisions to match the influence of the boyars to match the power of landowners

■ Provincial officials were salaried, creating a bureaucratic class loyal to the king

○ The royal family wanted to control the state, the boyars, and the church

■ Peter had to defeat his sister and her military corps, the Streltsy before taking power. Later the Streltsy rebelled

● Peter creates a Senate to advise government officials when Peter is away

Religion & Art to Legitimize Power: Russia

● Peter brought French Ballet to Russia, illustrating his attempts at Westernization

● Just as Louis XIV built Versailles as a symbol of power, other monarchs built monumental architecture to demonstrate their influence

● Peter the Great sought a “warm water port” where he could trade with the west all year. He achieved this by seizing lands along the Baltic to create St. Petersburg

○ Moved the capital here

○ Oversaw boyars who he perceived as a threat

○ City built by Carlo Rossi and Domenico Trazzini built the city using grid streets and a new style that came to be known as Petrine Baroque

■ Built by peasants and Swedish POWs

■ Designed in western European style rather than Byzantine style

Centralizing Power: Taxation

● Peter the Great established new industries owned by the state

○ Shipyards in St. Petersburg ○ Iron Mines in Ural Mountains

● Encouraged growth of the private industry

○ Metallurgy

○ Paper

○ Shipbuilding

● Raised taxes

● Forced peasants to work in shipyards

● In 1718 land tax replaced tax on individuals (tax on heads), and peasants became more

oppressed

Centralizing Power: Religion

● The Russian Orthodox church had been used

to unify the Russian people

● Tsars claimed to rule by divine right

● Peter the Great sought to unify Church and state by abolishing the patriarch, the spiritual head of the church

○ Created the Holy Synod which was led by a secular official who answered to the tsar

● Peter raised the age that men could become monks to 50, requiring the young to serve as his soldiers