1. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Bentley & Ziegler, TRADITIONS AND ENCOUNTERS, 2/e
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia

2. Today’s Big Questions
What were the aspirations of the Tsars when they attempted to ‘westernize’ Russia?
Why did the attempts to westernize Russia fail?
What were the long-term consequences of that failure? Can we directly attribute the Russian Revolution of 1917 to it?

3. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Foundations of the Absolutist State

4. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Foundations of the Absolutist State
The Time of Troubles
Ivan IV

5. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Foundations of the Absolutist State
The Time of Troubles
Ivan IV
Ivan’s Reign of Terror

6. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
The Absolutist State
The Gathering of the Russian Land
Ivan III
Cossacks
The Third Rome
The Time of Troubles
Ivan IV
Ivan’s Reign of Terror
War and Famine

7. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Westernization and Empire
The Limits of Westernization
Catherine II
“You write on paper, but I have to write on human skin, which is far more ticklish.” Catherine the Great

8. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Westernization and Empire
A Window on the West
Peter I
Peter’s Program of Westernization
Military Reform
Bureaucratic Reform
Social Reform
St. Petersburg
The Limits of Westernization
Catherine II
Pugachev’s Rebellion
The End of Reform

9. Imperial Russia in the 18th century

10. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
A Society in Tension
Muscovite Society Before Westernization
Rural Life
Serfdom (the law of 1649)
Catherine and the Nobility
The Growth of Trade and Industry
European Trade
Asian Trade
Industrial Development
Population Growth

11. Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Russian Empire in Europe and Asia
Cultural Clashes
Crisis in the Church
Church Reform
Patriarch Nikon
Avvakum and Old Belief
Tsarist Control Over
the Church
Westernization and the Enlightenment in Russia
Education
Enlightenment Issues
The Intelligentsia
The End of Experimentation

12. Today’s Big Questions Revisited
What were the aspirations of the Tsars when they attempted to ‘westernize’ Russia?
This was probably a sincere effort to transform Russia to resemble “advanced” European societies, although it did contradict the personal power of the Tsars
Why did the attempts to westernize Russia fail?
Probably a better question would be, “could it ever have succeeded?” The obstacles were too great, as (a) the power of the monarchs was built upon the structure of the nobility, (b) there were too deeply entrenched conservative interests, and (c) the Tsars were threatened by the specter of the French Revolution
What were the long-term consequences of that failure? Can we directly attribute the Russian Revolution of 1917 to it?
Yes! Yes! Yes! The Emancipation of the Serfs was too little too late, and, combined with a large and growing working class, the system could not restrain growing popular discontent

13. We finished, again!