Vast and varied
• Tundra in the North
• Vast Forests in North
and Siberia
• Steppe- Vast acres of
grassland
• Desert in the South
• Mountain ranges like
the Urals
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What issues would be created around communication and Government?
Huge- difficult to communicate over such
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Which other countries did the Empire include that we'd now consider sovereign states?
• Georgia
• Azerbaijan
• Finland
• Poland
• Ukraine
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What was the dominant language and culture and why?
Russian- this was the nationality of the ruling dynasty,the Romanovs and the ruling elite
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Define nationalism
Ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests.
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Big Issues
A major crisis was due and had to
happen? Inevitability...
• Russia was a fundamentally unfair
society and was ready for social,
economic and political reform.
• Russia was very different from
other 19th century European
countries
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How was Western Europe different from Russia?
Most of Western Europe had been through Industrial Revolutions.
• Some had been through political Revolutions.
• Some had Constitutional Monarchies.
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Western Europe contd.
• Some Western European countries were becoming democratic.
• Some middle-class Russians had visited or read about Western Europe.
• Some had read the political philosophy coming out of Western Europe...like Karl Marx
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Russian Social Groups
• 84.9% Serfs- subsistence peasant farmers who were not politicised
• Industrial workers- small but significant 3.7%
1.1% nobility
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How did many Russians worship the Tsar?
• They called him the 'Little Father'
• Many peasants had a picture of him on the wall of their hut.
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Who were the Tsars 1855- 1917
• His word was law
• He appointed his ministers
• But did not have to listen to them
• AND could ‘hire and fire’ them at will
• He was a true autocrat (all-powerful)
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Aristocracy
• The wealthiest landowning classes and only 1.1% of the population
• Owned huge amounts of land and essentially owned Serfs
• Often absent from the land they owned
• Often Courtiers and Army officers
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Middle classes
• Due to the relative lack of economic
development there was a relatively
small number of Middle Classes
• Sometimes educated and aware of developments in Western Europe
• This meant that although there were
limited numbers, they were politically influent
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Industrial and Urban Workers
• Russia had grown industrially but was patchy
and concentrated in Western part of Empire
• Horrendous living & working conditions
• Average working day was 14 hours
• Trade unions banned, but some strikes occurred
• Potential for hotbed of political unre
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What percentage of Russians were Serfs?
83%
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What percentage were illiterate?
60+%
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What was the life expectancy?
Less than 40
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How was land owned and managed?
• Low tech and low investment farming
• Land ownership very rare
• Land owned by Mir (Peasant Commune)
• It also organised taxes and allotted strips of land to each household.
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Peasants contd.
• Serfs could not leave the commune without
the consent of the elders, they were the property of their landowners
• Discipline and punishments harsh – even to exile in Siberia
• Drought and crop failure common
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Peasants contd.
• 1891 = famine + cholera and typhus =
400,000 dead
• 1890 – 64 % of peasants called up for military service were declared unfit.
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Positives of life for peasants
• Some did prosper and it was generally
the shortage of land rather than
shortage of food that was the irritant.
• Rural population grew but land owned
by peasants and land size failed to keep
pace.
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Peasants contd.
• Faith in Tsar remained strong
• BUT hunger for land would grow.
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Religion: Orthodox Christianity
• There were significant Jewish and Muslim minorities in the Russian Empire.
• The country was overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian.
• Mutually supportive of the authority of the Tsar.
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Orthodox Church contd.
• The authority of the church was
unquestioned.
• From local priests to the highest
ranking Orthodox Priests, the
Church had a disproportionate influence on people's lives.
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A Very Brief History of the Russian Empire
• Before the 18th century Russia was seen as a slightly mysterious, under-developed and peripheral country on the fringes of Eastern Europe.
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A Very Brief History of the Russian Empire contd.
• The ruling dynasty was the Romanovs
who ruled Russia for 300 years, they
oversaw the expansion of the Empire,
Russia’s modernisation and were the last royal family to rule Russia
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When did Peter the Great rule?
1682-1725
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What did Peter the Great do?
• First ‘modernising’ Tsar
• Visited Western Europe in the late 17th century and brought back new scientific, ship-building and state- building ideas.
• Expanded power of the Romanovs, Empire and status of Russia.
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When did Catherine the Great rule?
1762-1796
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What did Catherine the Great do?
• Reigned for 34 years
• As empress, Catherine westernized Russia. She led her country into full participation in the political and cultural life of Europe
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Catherine the Great contd.
• She championed the arts and culture
• She also further expanded the Russian Empire.
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When did the Napoleonic Invasion occur?
1812
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Napoleonic Invasion
• Key factor in building a sense of Russian nationalism
• Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with a massive army
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Napoleonic Invasion contd.
• Took Moscow but could not
conquer Russia and forced
into a disastrous retreat
• Key reference point in what
the Russians call ‘The Great Patriotic War' (WW2
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What issues would be created around communication and Government?
Back
Huge- difficult to communicate over such
Card 3
Front
Which other countries did the Empire include that we'd now consider sovereign states?
Back
Card 4
Front
What was the dominant language and culture and why?
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