1. Russia & the Republics

2. Russia & the Republics Human Geography

4. History Russia was a monarchy ruled by czars for centuries. The czars expanded Russia to its current size. Russia developed slower than Europe. Some czars did attempt to industrialize Russia. This caused life to get harder for workers. Eventually the working class of Russia got tired of the expensive wars and bad work conditions.

6. Communism As people became more upset over the conditions, more and more Russians joined the Communist movement. The idea was that everybody would share equally. That there would not be an extremely wealthy class. People were also supposed to have more rights. This involved establishing a government that would run everything and give everyone an equal share. Everyone was supposed to share the wealth.

8. Russian Revolution In 1917, an communist party led a revolution that ended the reign of the czars. They decided to create a new country and called it the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was also called the Soviet Union.

9. Russian Revolution cont. They also moved the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Originally, the USSR was led and established by Lenin. By 1939, Joseph Stalin had taken control.

11. USSR After World War II, the USSR controlled most of Eastern Europe. The Stalin used his armies to make sure that the governments he wanted were in control.

13. USSR cont. Once all the changes had been made the USSR had a Command Economy. The government had all the wealth and made all the business decisions. They even decided what type of products would be produced and what the prices would be. The USSR used collective farms to manage the country’s agriculture. These were large teams that worked together. People were moved to farms by thousands. Still people continued to starve.

15. USSR cont. Stalin changed the concept of Communism. In the USSR, it became like a dictatorship. They had secret police who would investigate the loyalty of citizens. There were a few wealthy people, but most of the country continued to live in poverty. The U.S. was concerned that Russia was going to try to expand again. This led to the Cold War. It was a standoff between two world powers.

17. Cold War The U.S. and USSR had many conflicts but never engaged in open warfare with each other, this led to the term cold war.

18. Cold War cont. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev gave the people in the USSR more freedom. The political freedom would led to the end of the USSR. By 1990-1991 the USSR had become Russia and the Republics.

20. Collapse of the Soviet Union In August 1991, there was a revolution against the USSR. The revolution was started by the Baltic states. Russia and the Republics had to restructure after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

21. The Soviet Union v. Modern Russia & the Republics

22. Modern Russia and the Republics People now have more freedoms. The cities are starting to look more westernized and modern. Russians still follow their banya tradition. This is a 200⁰F sauna followed by a plunge into a ice bath. There were many conflicts at the end of the USSR.

23. Russian Culture Russians mostly follow Orthodox Christianity. Other religions like Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism are also practiced. Art was strongly influenced by the religion. Russian writers made a big influence. Pushkin and Dostoyevsky were especially well known. Russian ballet is world famous. Communism restricted the arts, but it is coming back.

25. Modern Economics When the USSR collapsed it released the government control of the economy. Prices jumped 250% almost immediately. Russia used privatization to grow their economy. This is when the government sells their businesses to individuals or companies. Most were bought with vouchers.

26. Current Issues Caucasus (region of the Caucasus Mountains) has experienced a lot of violence and struggle. More than 100,000 people have died in the struggle over Chechnya.

28. Current Issues cont. Georgia has had several regions erupt in violence. Ossetia tried to get independence. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain region of Azerbaijan. Russia has had a rise in organized crime since the decline of the USSR. This has led to the Russian Mafia.