History of Russia

This article summarizes the Histoire of the Russia which is the vastest Pays in the world and which extends on two continents: the Europe and the Asia.

Antiquity

The first human trace on this large territory goes back to: 300000 years in central Siberia. Towards 4000 years before J. - C., in the steppes of Russia of the south and the Central Asia, develops the civilization of the Kourgane S. Towards 2000 years before J. - C., the septentrional Iranians, of the Indo-Europeans called Peuples of the Steppes or Cimmériens, occupy an immense territory between current Poland and current Western China. Towards 1000 before J. - C. of other septentrional Iranians, the Scythian S, create an empire which lasts until the 3rd century of our era between the Dniestr and the the Volga. Towards 200 before J.C the Sarmate S, them also Iranian septentrional, end up supplanting the Scythians.

Towards 400 after J.C, in fact the Goth S, this time of German come from North are established in current the Ukraine, while in Russia of Asia, a confederation the Turkish-speaking ones and of Finnish, the Huns, constitutes an immense empire, which extends on Europe under the reign from Attila. The Empire of Huns, too extended and badly organized does not resist dead of Attila, and the Avar S settle in their place and dominate the area until the 7th century, replaced in their turn by the Khazars of religion Jew. It is during the period corresponding to the dominations of Turkish-speaking Huns, Avars and Khazars that the Slaves, coming from the plains of current the Bielorussia, are established little by little on the territory of European Russia.

Origins of Russia to the fall of the empire of the Tsars in 1917

Chronology, to see chronological History of Russie#Des origins of Russia at 1917
See also: List of the monarchs of Russia

States of Riourikides

9th century (the Rus )

Varègues in the Eurasian steppe.

the Varègues discovered and explored the main roads of navigations; various rivers of the Russian and Ukrainian plain. They reached Azoz, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. They developed the trade, concluded from alliances and organized episodical warlike raids. In 859 of many Eurasiens people pour tribute to them, that is to say Tchoudes, the Slaves, Mériens and Krivitchs. Their influence develops and they are installed firmly on the " territories conquis" , they raise fortresses and found cities, counters, which will be the centers of their principalities to which they will give sometimes their names.

the Khazars which established a state in north the Caucasus have as a tributary Polianes, Sevarianes and Viatichs. The Magyars are also included in the State Khazars after having flees the Pétchénègues; they settle in the delta of the the Danube.

860, the Varègues reach Constantinople. The policy of Byzance mixes then with the Varègues businesses, the latter which in turn will be opposed or to be combined with " the Grec" Empire;.

862, Of the populations Slaves refuse to pay the tribute with the Varègues. Without " the Varègue" authority; , of the arguments and the internal quarrels burst in part of the country. Princes Varègues Rurik, Siénous and Trouvor go to Novgorod where the population seeks a prince to protect them and dissipate the disorders. Rurik (Riourik), the elder one, became Prince of Novgorod, one of the most powerful principalities of the Rus . Rurik appears semi legendary, will become the first " sovereign spirituel" from Russia and a Slavic unit under the supervision nevertheless foreign princes. Certain historians challenge nevertheless the validity of " caption Riourik " who is described in the chronic time of Formerly of Nestor of Kiev. In 879, Rurik dies. Oleg Wise the, his/her brother-in-law, takes again the title of Prince of Novgorod and is made protective Igor of Kiev, the son of Rurik.

882 prince Varègue, Oleg Wise the, of the principality of Igor moves its capital of Novgorod to Kiev after being seized Smolensk. The center of the Rus moves west in the east: Russia Kiévienne was born. Kiev will become the " mother of the russes" cities;.

10th century - 11th century Russia Kiévienne

In 862 the Varègues, people Viking of tradesmen and warriors come from the Scandinavian countries by borrowing the course of the rivers and carried out by their chief Riourik, found a state whose seat is initially with Novgorod (862) then with Kiev (882). This state, called Rus' of Kiev, gathers Slavic populations living in the area. The varègues main leaders cut principalities on the Slavic grounds and become thus the first Russian princes.

Under the impulse of Oleg Wise the, first prince of Kiev, Russia kiévienne develops trade route between the areas of the the Baltic and those of the Black Sea which use the river Dniepr. In 907 Oleg Wise the organizes a forwarding against Constantinople which is undoubtedly crowned success since it leads in 911 to a trade agreement with Byzance favorable to its interests. During the same period it gradually extends its influence on the Slavic tribes.

912 Died of Oleg Wise the, which succeeds Igor of Kiev, wire of Rourik.

912-913 Russia kiévienne tries to increase its influence on new Slavic tribes of which the Drevlianes. Igor of Kiev organizes a campaign towards the Caspian Sea with 500 ships. The troop plunders Gillian, Tabaristan and Chirvan and takes large spoils. The troop of the prince of Kiev cepandant is pushed back thereafter by the Khazars. Igor must turn over to Kiev to reconstitute its forces.

915-916 the Pétchénègues, people of the steppe of origin Türke come from the east is established in the south of the territory of Russia Kiévienne. Their ability with horse and the combat are remarkable, during one century they will reign on the plain.

941 Igor of Kiev following the example Oleg Wise the, organizes a new forwarding against Byzance after having made peace with the Pétchènègues; it is pushed back by the Byzantines who use the Greek fires.

the 943-944-945 Rus combat successively people of the Caspian Sea and Byzance without marked profits. However peace is signed with Byzance on the the Danube.

945 Igor of Kiev is killed per Drevlianes with Iskorosten whereas it carried out a forwarding to perceive their tribute.

12th century

Decline of the State of Kiev. Incursions of Turkish-speaking Coumans (in Russian Polovtsi ) make flee the peasants towards the North-East. Creation of new city-principalities, among which Moscow in (1147).
Independence of the Republic of Novgorod.

13th century

1223 : Mongolian invasion (Khanat of the Horde of Gold). Among the Mongolian , Turkish-speaking Tatars occupies the Russian principalities.
1237 - 1239: destruction of Ryazan, Vladimir, Souzdal, Moscow, Rostov and other big cities Russian (except Novgorod) by Tatars.
1240 : destruction of Kiev.

The Russian princes become vassal and tributary ones of the Khan S tatars. Tatars push their punitive incursions and their plunderings in Russia until the end of the 15th century. Their scouts, charriers and let us maquignons, Rrôms come from septentrional India, accompany them. Other attacks come from the west, of the feudal Swedish catholics, German (Chevaliers teutonic) or Lithuanians who regard the orthodoxe Russians as heretics. The expansion of the knights teutonic is stopped with the Bataille of the lake Peïpous, but the Lithuanians extend towards the east, the Russian princes “taken between two fires” sometimes preferring the catholic domination with the domination tatare.

14th century

Constitution of a great State polono-Lithuanian which extends almost to the doors from Moscou.
Independence of the Republic of Pskov, which is detached from the République of Novgorod.

15th century

final Weakening of the power of Tatars.
Power growing of the princes of the small State of Moscow. The large prince Ivan III gains the rival city of Novgorod. After the fall of Constantinople, Moscow proclaims Third Rome and becomes de facto the political center of the orthodoxe Chrétienté.

16th century

the large prince Ivan IV “the Terrible one” (1530-1584) is the first to carry the title of Tsar.
It launches offensives against the Tatars of the Volga: it conquers Kazan (1552) (capital of current République of the Tatarstan) and Astrakhan (1556). This expansion offers to Russia its first outlet on a sea and makes it possible to trade with the Perse while passing by the Caspian Sea.
the war against Poland and Sweden (1558-1583) finishes by the defeat of Russia, which aimed at an outlet towards the Baltic. The Khanat of the Crimea constantly plunders the frontier grounds of Russia. In 1571, the khan of the Crimea burns Moscow, but at the following year Tatars of the Crimea are overcome not far from Moscow with the battle of Molodi (See the article Invasions of Tatars of the Crimea in Russia).
the extension of serfdom (lack of labor) causes the escape of the peasants towards the steps of the empire (one calls them Cosaques : Turkish word which wants to say " évadé"), which is organized in republic. Certain groups of Cossacks become riding and navigators. They are tolerated by the Tsars insofar as they are used the empire by conquering new grounds for the East. It is the conquest of Siberia by the ataman Ermak and its cossacks: they act there like a kind of trappers, followed by the tradesmen, then by the civils servant and officers of the Tsar.

Empire of Romanov

First Romanov (17th century)

New period of weakening: after four years sterile due to the eruptions of Laki and other volcanos of Iceland (of 1600 to 1603 the night temperatures of summer were often lower than zero and périclitèrent harvests) the economic and political disorganization ( Smouta ) starts. The Poles attack the Russia by the west (1605). They occupy even Moscow. Noble Russian then offers the crown of Russia to the son of king de Pologne, prince Vladisdas. But a popular insurrection drives out the Poles of Moscow, and Michel (Mikhaïl) Romanov becomes Tsar " of all Russies" (i.e. of all the Russian Principalities), and a dynasty founds which will remain until 1917.
a revolt Cosaque carried out by Stenka Razine in 1670 and 1671 takes place in the South of Russia. Saratov and Samara is taken, and the dissatisfied peasants unite Razine. Its rebellion was crushed in 1671 and ended in the setting with dead of Razine on the Red Place with Moscow.

Rectification and the expansion of Russia (18th century)

During the 18th century, Pierre Large the (1672-1725) carries out the rectification of Russia:

in the East it pushes back the Kazakh Tatars and the beyond the the Ural.
in the West it makes the war against the Swedes (for the access to the Baltic) with the assistance of Poland and founds Saint-Pétersbourg (1703), of which it makes his capital (1713): fenestrate on the Occident, the prosperous city thanks to the trade of the furs.

Remark : For the first time the Russians seize populated not-Russian territories from which the language, the religion, the social organization and economic, are different from their: Scandinavians, Pole, Germans of the Baltic States, catholic or Protestant.

One witnesses a reinforcement of the Russian military power.

The State controls increasingly vast territories: Catherine II and her successors extend the Russian domination:

in the Crimea, to the shore of the Sea of Azov, on populations tatares. Russian objective: to reach the Black Sea.
in Moldavie, on Rumanian populations. Russian objective: to control the mouths of the the Danube.
in Finland, taken with the Sweden, on Swedish and Finnish populations. Russian objective: to widen the access to the Baltic .
in Bielorussia and Lithuania, by the divisions of Poland (Republic of the Two Nations) between Russia, the Prussia and the Austria. Except for a short period under Napoleon, Poland disappears until in 1918. Russian objective: to gather the Belorusse and Ukrainian populations under the banner of the Tsar and to approach the center of Europe.

As from this moment the tsars practice a policy of Russianization, i.e. prohibition to speak another language that Russian in public, the prohibition to print in Latin characters, privileges granted to the Russian orthodoxe Église: this policy involves local national resentments not only among Finnish, the Baltic ones, the Poles and Roumanians, but even at the Ukrainians and the Belorusses.

The failure of the attempts at reform of Russia of the tsars 19th century - 1917

The objective of the tsars remained to reach “free” seas (i.e. free of ice the winter):

the the Mediterranean via the Black Sea
the Persian Gulf
the Indian Ocean
the Pacific Ocean

the Mediterranean: Russia helps the Slavic people of Balkans and encourages their nationalism against the Othoman Turks . The Tsar asserts Constantinople, as a guard of the orthodoxe Christians of the Ottoman Empire. The Crimean War (1853-1856) against the Turks is a failure because of the Franco-British intervention. This effort continues during all the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century (“justified” by the doctrines of the Panslavisme): question of the Straits i.e. the strait of the Dardanelles, controlled by the Turks, who allows the passage of the Black Sea the Mediterranean.
the Persian Gulf: at the end of 18th - beginning of the 19th century, Russia extends at the expense of Persia and Turkey: Georgia, Arménie and Azerbaïdjan. It took then almost a century to conquer the Caucasian mountain, populated Moslem tribes (Tchétchènes, Tcherkesse S, etc) (See the article Guerre of the Caucasus). Russia makes sure also provisional control of the north of Iran (British in the south).
the Indian Ocean: easier conquest by the cavalry cossack accustomed to the war against the wandering tribes.
the Pacific Ocean: exploration and colonization of Eastern Siberia (Kamchatka: exploration in 1648, then colonization). The Traité of Nertchinsk in 1689 offering Mandchourie to the China deprives a time the Russia of a free sea. The Traité of Aigun (transfer of Mandchourie in Russia) in 1858 offers a southernmost access to him.

1845 - 1880: conquest of the tribes kazakhes, Tachkent, Bukhara and the Turkménie. The British worry about see the Russians approaching the India: their larval conflict ends in the creation of a State-plug: the kingdom of Afghanistan (1907).
Dice the first wave of industrialization (1870), Russia knows strike movements being expressed mainly by the destruction of the machines on the work places. It is however necessary to await second thorough industrialization (1875) so that these spontaneous strikes reach a certain width.

The objective of the tsars, i.e. to secure an access to free seas, was not achieved, but leads to the creation of an immense colonial empire and to the emergence of a continental great power.

The Soviet Russia (1917-1991)

See also: Chronology of the USSR

As of the 19th century, Russia tsarist knows a revolutionary agitation which is worsening after a revolution missed by 1905 and the Russian defeat within the framework of the Guerre Russo-Japanese woman. The popular discontent culminates beginning 1917 following the shortages caused by the First World War and leads to the fall of the imperial government and the abdication of Nicolas II in March 1917 following the Révolution of February.

In spite of the installation of a government with democratic aimings, dissatisfaction continued because this government intended to respect Russian engagements with respect to the Allies and to continue the war against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Councils of soldiers, Russian workmen and peasants (: Soviet S ) is formed. The Bolsheviks, carried out by Lénine, organized the Révolution of October, which reversed the provisional government on October 25th 1917 (according to old the Calendrier Julien). This takeover, sometimes qualified “coup d'etat”, involved the arrest of the deputies of the Duma and the members of the government. The slogan which ignited the masses in October was simple and percussion: “ Factories with the workmen, grounds with the peasants, peaces with the people! ”, which meant nationalization and armistice.

In debt with respect to the Germany, the Bolsheviks left Russia the First World War by delivering to Kaiser the principal potato and grain-bearing lands of Russia: Baltic States, Bielorussia and the Ukraine (where, in any event, they had mesh to leave with the local freedom fighters). An armistice signed in December 1917 leads to the Traité of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 which yielded to Germany the Ukraine, the Bielorussia, the Baltic States, the Finland and the Poland (half of Bielorussia and two thirds of the Ukraine will be briefly recovered after the German defeat, then again lost vis-a-vis the Allies and with the white Russians during the civil war, definitively to join the Soviet Russia only in 1922).

In addition, the industrial and financial private property was removed and the factories and the banks, nationalized. In the place, a property of State was founded on the near total of means of production, except agricultural. Lénine also cancelled Russian engagements on the debentures contracted by the government tsarist to finance the war.

The young Russian Soviet socialist republic (RSFSR) obtained a federalistic constitution, but the capacity of the Soviets had become fictitious after prohibition by the Bolsheviks of the other revolutionary currents in 1918. Instituting the principle of the sole party, whose principle of governorship was the " centralism démocratique" based in theory on the capacity of the “Soviet S of the workmen and the peasants”, the Bolsheviks in practice obeyed only the political office (in Russian Politburo) formed by Lénine, Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev, Krestinsky, and some others. Whoever was warned to dispute them within a Soviet, was shot at once by Tchéka (political police, ancestor of the KGB) for “treason of the interests of the proletariat”. In this system the legislative body was the Supreme Soviet, but this one did nothing but ratify the decisions of Politiburo, because a deputy of the Supreme Soviet which would have disputed the decisions of Politburo underwent the same fate as an ordinary member of Soviet, but at the end of a lawsuit where it was to confess (after tortures) to have acted as a spy or an agent of the imperialism. Vladimir Oulianov Lénine was the true leader of the system, and thus a Head of State, even if it did not have the title of it.

The requisitions and terror threw whole areas in the civil war, where the Russian white (tsarists or republicans), the freedom fighters of various nationalities, the formed Czechoslovakian legion former prisoners of Austro-Hungarian war, the anarchists of Makhno and the armies of the France and the United Kingdom, were opposed to the Red Army installation by Trotsky until in 1921. The latter carried it, on the one hand because some of its adversaries also fought between them, on the other hand because it profited from the support of the Germany, which, disarmed by the Treaty of Versailles, had offered to the Bolsheviks part of his armament and military advisers. The civil war pushed the Politburo to issue the “Communism of war”, whose essential measurements are:

Nationalization of small industries, the craft industry and the trade
planned Production in a way centralized by the government
Strict discipline for the workers (the strikers could be shot)
obligatory Travail of the peasants
Interdiction of any form of private company
Réquisition of the agricultural production, often beyond the vital minimum for the peasants (famines)
Rationnement and centralization of the distribution of food.

Certain elements of the Soviet mode are also set up at that time:

the soldiers of the Red Army , recruited initially on the basis of premium, undergo then the conscription
Installation of an political police and emergency courts, charged stopping and with judging the enemies of the mode and the “white” (but even an old Bolshevik could be issued enemy)
the Communist party becomes sole party
the Censure of the press and of the radio, which fall to the hands from the party
the 3rd International one (or Komintern) becomes the instrument of the capacity. The foreign Communist parties must be pledged with Moscow and obey blindly. Revolutions of 1919 in Germany and Hungary, as well as the strikes in the majority of the European countries make think of Soviet who the Revolution becomes world. But the crushing of the Spartakiste S and the resignation of Bela Kun put an end to these hopes.

Thanks to the Communism of war, Lénine and the Communist party manage to be maintained with the capacity. They gain the civil war and the danger of a monarchical restoration is isolated. However, the policy of expropriation of goods of the peasants in order to nourish the soldiers of the Red Army causes an enormous famine with its million deaths, especially in Ukraine.

Russia is traumatisée by the experiment of the civil war: the production crumbles, the majority of the engineers, technicians, officers, lawyers, well-read men, teachers are shot or exile themselves, and those which remain, by fear of passing for “enemies”, do not dare more to express even an technical opinion. The recourse to the terror as average of government spreads. The autocracy tsarist moved back slowly and the Russian company opened with modernity: from now on, it is closed: any foreign influence is perceived like vermin. Only some artists, writers and scientists succeeded in during this period (see chronological Histoire of Russie#L' Soviet era) making hear the voice of Russia, but the majority of them were regarded as dissidents. Following the collapse of the Soviet system, the gangster networks became the models of success, while the human rights, the culture, art, science and the social action pass for crazes of intellectuals pauper, in a context where nationalism and integrism are used by populist leaders, to replace Soviet Communism like dominant ideologies.

The Federation of independent Russia

Chronology, to see: Chronology of Russia: Modern Russia

The creation of independent a Russia news

In 1991, Boris Eltsine creates the current institutions of the Russian State. The same year, it launches the wild privatization of the national goods and the grounds. Those benefit with an small group from people, who, thanks to the corruption of the civils servant and even of the entourage of the president, manage to build colossal fortunes (Boris Abramovitch, Boris Berezovski, Mikhail Khodorkovski, Rem Viakhirev, chairman of the group Gazprom). Unslung privatization does not benefit the Russian economy. From 1991 to 1995, Russia saw black years: inflation of: 1000%, exponential unemployment, closing of the old Russian factories. The sector of defense is forsaken. Strategic military bases close, the weapons disappear suddenly from the warehouses to be sold. At the same time, Russia must manage two wars tchetchenes, launched by Djokhar Doudaïev, which thanks to its aggressiveness against Russia, the hereditary enemy of Tchétchènes manages to federate its people against “the Russian occupant”.

In 1994, the Russian army in deliquescence enters as Chetchnia, then again in 1996. Eltsine needed a fulgurating and victorious war to prove with its people which Russia was still a super power and to thus sit his authority the day before the presidential elections. But instead of a spectacular blitz, the war proved to be a military and humane failure for Russia which met a wild resistance combatants of different nationalities, using very modern heavy weapons.

The corruption of the Russian generals and the traffics in all kinds, coupled with the effective techniques of resistance of the “boïeviks” (warlike) tchetchenes finishes in victory de facto for Tchétchènes. It is a true massacre of Russian soldiers. For nothing. The Russian media, corrupted by the tchetchenes chiefs, are focused on the rare exactions made by exceeded Russian soldiers and make true dramas of them.

In 1995, Russia starts to join again with prosperity. But the domination of the “oligarchs” constitutes a brake with the development of the country. Decline of the strategic sector (armed, natural resources) continuous. In the juicy contracts signed by the majors testify international, American or English in particular (ex: Shell with Sakhaline). One sells to the Americans Russian military credits. These last transactions end up bursting under the hostility of the popular opinion.

December 31st, 1999, Boris Eltsine abdicates in a long discourse diffused on NTV (chain of the Goussinski oligarch) and ORT (chain of the Berezovski oligarch). It makes a mea culpa of its management and is erased with the profit of its successor Vladimir Poutine, old of the KGB, an unknown of the policy, whose rapid rise is orchestrated by the Bérézovski clan.

The return of strong Russia

August 1st

See too

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