1. Russia

2. The 1 st Czar of Russia was Ivan the Terrible His actual coronation thrown

3. From 1547-1560 Ivan expanded the Russian Empire. He is called Ivan the Terrible because he formed a secret police that wore all black & rode black horses. The police executed many of his enemies. He also killed his own son in a violent quarrel.

4. Painting of the this incident.

5. St. Basils was constructed in Moscow under the rule of Ivan. After the construction he ordered the architect to be blinded so he could never construct something this beautiful again.

6. Why do many Russian buildings have onion domes?

7. The Onion domes shed snow and prevent the roofs from getting weighted down in Russias long cold winter.

8. Peter the Great 1672-1725

9. Most of Western Europe in the 1700-1800s moved from an agriculture society to what? To

10. Industrial Society The development of the steam engine started the industrial revolution in Great Britain.steam engine The steam engine was created to pump water from coal mines, enabling them to be deepened.

11. Because of this, Peter the Great wanted to make Russia more like Western Europe

12. He moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to the new city he built called St. Petersburg.

13. This allowed Russia to have closer ties with Western Europe and have a warm water port.

14. He also made Russian nobles shave their beards & dress like they do in Western Europe.

15. Where is the majority of Russias population located?

16. Being located in the West allows for better trade with Europe.

17. Catherine the Great was a Czar that made Russia the largest its ever been.

18. Russia stretched from Europe to Alaska and claimed lands in California.

19. Under her reign Russia was the largest Empire the world had ever known. It stretched from Europe to Asia.

20. Many Geographers consider the Ural Mountains to be the divide between Europe and Asia

21. Because of its hash climate not many people lived east of the Ural mountains.

22. Where is the Taiga?

23. Siberia The Taiga is a large coniferous forest region

24. Although Russia has a lot of land in its Empire, most of the people of Russia were poor serfs.

25. Nicholas II was the last Czar of Russia

26. Nicholas II got Russia involved in WWI. (1914-1918)

27. Millions of Russian died fighting the Germans and soldiers were ill equipped on the front lines.

28. Vladimir Lenin who lead the Bolsheviks wanted to overthrow the Czars government & end WWI

29. The Bolsheviks murdered the entire royal family and took over Russia. The girls called themselves OTMA.

30. Lenin wanted to create a communist state in Russia were all citizens would share the wealth. Their slogan was Peace, Land & Bread

31. They called this new nation the Soviet Union.

32. Who controlled industry in the Former Soviet Unions command Economy?

33. The central government in the Kremlin Made all of the economic decisions for the Soviet union. Kremlin Towers Birds eye view on Kremlin

34. Joseph Stalin took over the Soviet Union after Lenins death. Lenin has been in the mausoleum since his death in 1924.

35. Stalin was a ruthless dictator and is responsible for killing thousands of Russian citizens in his purges.

36. Soviet Communist Propaganda

37. After WWII the Soviet Union entered into a COLD WAR with the United States.

38. Soviets were the 1 st to put a satellite & later a man in space. Sputnik

39. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets & the US almost got involved in a nuclear war.

40. The US & the Soviet Union competed in everything.

41. The Soviet Government controlled all the factories so there was no one to oversee how they were doing, but the Government.

42. A meltdown and explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine on April 25 and 26 1986.

43. What is happening to the Aral Sea?

44. The Aral Sea is shrinking because its waters are being used for irrigation. Since 1960, when the Aral Sea was the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has lost 75% of its water volume. This loss is due to the agricultural diversion of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, the Aral's main sources of inflowing water. The Aral Sea is bounded by Kazakhstan on the north and Uzbekistan on the south.KazakhstanUzbekistan

45. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev announced a new policy known as glasnost (openness to the West)

46. In 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 different republics and the Cold War officially ended.