Continuity and Change in Russia

• Mongol Invasions   * 862     * The first major East Slavic state, Kievan Rus, is founded and led by the Viking Oleg of Novgorod     * Kiev becomes the capital 20 years later   * 980-1015     * Prince Vladimir the Great converts to Orthodox Christianity, rules the Rurik Dynasty, and spreads new religion     * His son, Yaroslav the Wise, reigns from 1019-1054 and establishes a written code of law     * Kiev becomes a center of politics and culture in Eastern Europe   * 1237-1240     * Mongols invade Kievan Rus, destroying cities including Kiev and Moscow     * The Khan of the Golden Horde rules Russia until 1480   * 1480-1505     * Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great, rules, freeing Russia from the Mongols, and consolidating Muscovite rule   * 1547-1584     * Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, become the first tsar of Russia     * Expands the Muscovite territory into Siberia, while institution a reign of terror against nobility using military rule
• Romanov Dynasty   * 1613     * Mikhail Romanov is coronated as tsar at age 16, ending a long period of instability   * 1689-1725     * Peter the Great introduces Western European culture and builds a new capital in St. Petersburg, modernizes the military, founds the Russian navy, and reorganizes the government   * 1762     * Catherine the Great takes power in a bloodless coup and her reign marks Russia’s era of enlightenment     * A champion of the arts, her 30-plus-year rule also extends Russia’s border   * 1853-1856     * Stemming from Russian pressure on Turkey and religious tensions, the Ottoman Empire, along with the British and French forces, fights Russia and tsar Nicholas I in the Crimean War. Russia is crippled in its defeat   * 1861     * Tsar Alexander II issues his Emancipation Reform, abolishing serfdom and allowing peasants to purchase land   * 1914     * Russia enters WWI against Austria-Hungary in defense of Serbia

\