1. Eastern Europe and Russia
Large topographic and climatic diversity
Spans two continents (11 time zones)

2. Russia Former USSR or Soviet Union – largest nation in the world
25% of Russia is in Eastern Europe and 75% is in Asia

3. Russia Facts
Climate – weather varies dramatically (-30 is common, even colder in Siberia)
Coal, oil, iron ore, natural gas, manganese, gold, lead, etc. Siberia is large untapped area – hard to extract because of frozen conditions
Desire for warm ports has influenced Russia’s foreign policy to control the satellite nations surrounding Russia

4. Russian: The rise of the USSR
The Russian Revolution of ended the monarchy
Vladimir Lenin – Leader of the Bolshevik party was heavily influenced by Karl Marx
Lenin turned Russia to a communist state (USSR)
Communism would survive in Russia until the early 1990’s

5. Russia: The rise of the USSR
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote “The Communist Manifesto”
Communism – Theory that all people should own farms and factories, share in the work equally, and receive an equal share of rewards
Huge split between rich and poor at the time
Peasants supported because land was redistributed

6. Russian History
Dictator Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin in He sent many to Siberia prison camps that opposed his plans.
His people lived in terror as he set up the concept of collectivism, which many resisted. Million’s died of starvation.
Collectivism resulted in wide-spread food shortages

7. Collectivism
The practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
The theory and practice of the ownership of land and the means of production by the people or the state.

8. Russian History
Cold War – Extreme tension without an actual war from 1945 to 1991.
Eastern Europe forced into communism after WW II – cut off contact with the West
Tried to expand communism beyond Eastern Europe – The United States was determined to stop this
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 and its members agreed to protect one another from communist attack in Europe

9. Communist Bloc
The Communist Bloc, led by the Soviet Union, included countries after the end of World War II which became linked by adherence to the ideology and practice of communism.
Many Eastern European countries eventually broke away from Soviet control to include the following nations:
Poland, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Armenia, Latvia, and Estonia

10. Break-up of the Communist Bloc
Communist Bloc – Soviet Union and other communist nations of Eastern Europe
Berlin Wall – Built by the East Germans in 1961, sealed off East Berlin from West Berlin
November 1989 – East German leaders could no longer count on support from Soviet Union. Berlin Wall torn down and the country was reunified

11. Russian History – Times of Change
Mikhail Gorbachev – The last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the last head of state of the USSR. Served from

12. Boris Yeltsin – President after Gorbachev
Russian History
Boris Yeltsin – President after Gorbachev
Leader during transition from communist dictatorship to a democratic government and steered Russia toward a free market
Challenge - converting a command to a market economy
Industries and farms were privatized, but this created food shortages and unemployment
Without government control prices rose and crime increased
Poor Russians resented rich. They wanted stability and a return to communism

13. Recent History
Vladimir Putin – Former member of KGB. Praised for his economic reforms, but questioned for his human rights violations.