Russia and the CIS Human Geography

Birth of an Empire In the 800’s Vikings came and settled in the region with the Slavic peoples and the region began to expand. Invaders from Mongolia controlled the region from 1200 – 1500 and expansion was stopped.

Often called Ivan the Terrible This prince of Moscow put an end to the Mongol rule in the 1500’s Was the first Tsar/Csar (King) United Russia & expanded their territory (conqueror) Ivan the Great

St. Basil’s Cathedral- in Moscow, Russia Legend is that Ivan the Terrible had the architects’ eyes put out after they built this so that they could never build anything more beautiful somewhere else. Wasn’t he terrible?

Peter the Great ( ) Peter the Great was crowned czar of Russia at the age of 10. Peter tried to modernize Russia and bring it up to speed with the rest of Europe.

He built St. Petersburg in 1703 as his “Window on the West“ to be close to Europe. He made it the new capital.

Catherine the Great Catherine the Great is remembered as one of the greatest reformers of Russia. Pushed education During her reign, Catherine continued the reforms begun by Peter the Great that ultimately led to the emergence of Russia onto the worldwide stage of politics.

During Catherine's reign, Russia also achieved great military success and gained large tracts of land, including access to the Black Sea. Palace of Catherine the Great

Industrial Revolution When the Industrial Revolution came to Russia, it resulted in harsh working conditions and low wages. People began to be angry at the czars who ruled Russia.

Nicholas & Alexandra In 1917, the Russian Revolution led by Marx and Lenin, had the last Czar and his family all killed. Lenin took control of the government. The Communist party took control of the economy.

Russian revolution-1917

Lenin speaking to crowd

The Rise of the Soviet Union In 1922, the Communist party organized the different peoples from Russia’s expansion into the Soviet Union. The leaders ruled from their new capital, Moscow.

MOSCOW ( now the capital) St Basil’s cathedral Kremlin (Gov’t HQ)

Expansion

Cold War Stalin had taken over leadership by WWII After the war, he imposed Communist governments in Eastern Europe. The United States feared a new age of expansion and spreading of communism throughout the world. Tensions between the US and USSR led to the Cold War.

Communism Communism was inspired by Karl Marx who believed that citizens should own property together and everyone would share in the wealth. Soviet leaders adopted a command economy, where the central government makes all the important economic decisions. The government also took control of all sources of the nation’s wealth, including land, mines, factories, banks, transportation.

In reality, only a small number of individuals benefited from the changes Many people protested but Stalin’s forces punished swiftly. Estimates say that Stalin was responsible for 14 million deaths.

Fall of the Soviet Union A new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, started to give more economic and political freedom to the Soviet people. This led to the collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

15 Republics The region was divided into 15 independent republics with Russia being the largest and most powerful.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev