Russian Czars example essay topic

INTRODUCTION The history of the Russian people reflects an ever changing political environment that has taken twists and turns that have been bloody at times. The Russian government has evolved from various monarchies, to the empire of the Czars, to the brief democracy under the Duma, to revolutionary Communism, then finally a Post-Communism democracy. The interesting thing about the Russian model is that in all its forms it has been uniquely different then like models elsewhere. It is important to understand this one time super power and its ever evolving politics because how it evolves in the future will have an impact on the future of the world. THE SLAVS OF RUS The Slav people originated in central Asia and started to settle in European Russia in the 6th century along what is now the Ukraine River.

In the 10th the princes of the Slavic state called Rus united the Slavs in Russian European area which began the history of the Russian people. This monarchy had a structure of royalty and nobility similar to other monarchies in Europe. The Russians had rural farmers called serfs that were basically slaves of the land owner Nobel. The serfs played a big role you will see in the evolution of the Russian political structure. The other major thing to develop in this period was when Vladimir, the prince of Kievan Rus (the early Capital of Russia), forced his subjects to become baptized into the Eastern Orthodox Church (now called Russian Orthodox) in 988. This was a significant development because most of Europe was aligned with the Catholic Church and the Russian conversion to Eastern Orthodox aligned them with the Byzantine Empire which was at odds with the Catholics.

This development served to isolate Russia from Europe and influenced there political development which was influenced by the church to take a different track then Western Europe was taking. The Russian people continued to prosper until the Tatar people led by the Khan of the Golden Horde evaded in 1242. The Tatars occupied Russia for 250 years and in there brutal take over they burned the capital of Kiev to the ground. The capital was moved to Moscow. THE RISE OF THE CZARS The rise of the Czars started when the Russian Princes of Moscow defeated the Tatar government in 1380. Under the Czar regimes Russia grew from an inferior monarchy constantly threatened by its neighbors into an empire that continued to expand its borders.

Czar Ivan IV (the terrible) in 1547 was the most brutal of these conqueror's that helped expand the empire ruled his subjects in an iron fist. Czar Peter the Great helped Russia gain respect with western Europe both with his defeat of the Swedish Army and his continued annexation of more territories, but also with his success he used architects and builders from the western Europe to reshape cities like St Petersburg. Peters and then Catherine The Greats exploits further Europeanized the Russian culture; yet they were behind there western counterparts in developing towards democracy and thus to many in the west they were still considered backward in comparison. In 1812 Napoleon attacked Russian in hopes to take advantage of this supposed weaker neighbor. Napoleon miscalculated the grit and determination of the Russian people; he had Counted on being able to quickly overtake the Russians and use the crops and supplies of the Russian people to continue his campaign. The Russian people refused to be occupied again retreating from Moscow burning it to the ground before Napoleon could get there virtually cutting off supplies for the French.

Winter hit and without new supplies Napoleon was forced to retreat back to France losing 90% of his men in the process. "After driving out the French, Russia expanded southward into Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. In 1891, workers finished the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which connected Europe with Russia's eastern Asian territories. By the end of the 19th century, the Russian czars ruled one of the largest empires in the world". THE DUMA In the early 20th century the rule of the czar was in decline in part to a series of internal conflicts as well as Russia being drawn in to World War I for which they were unprepared. In 1905 a major violent demonstration in St Petersburg tipped the scales toward change and forced the Czar to consider sharing power with the people.

As a result Czar Nicolas II formed the first Duma (legislature) a step towards democracy that was badly needed. The Army got tied up with World War I in which the country suffered greatly and entered an economic downturn in which food became scarce. The food shortages and economic problems came to a head in 1917 "When government troops refused to fire on the demonstrators, the czarist government collapsed. Nicolas II abdicated (resigned), and the Duma took control of the empire". The Duma was only able to maintain control for a few months, due to the war and poor economy they had weak security and were over taken by the Communist Revolution in October 1917. COMMUNIST REVOLUTION The Communists were able to take advantage of the weak economy and weak Army at the most vulnerable time in the countries new democracy.

The people were open to revolt especially the serfs because the Czar did little to change there slave like life and the Duma did not have control long enough to make any noticeable difference. The leader of the revolt Vladimir Lenin took control at the right time, but believed that to retain control he had to silence the opposition. The royal family was put under house arrest and then later killed with the Communists then hiding the evidence. The Communists disbanded the Duma in its current form and created its new government with one party only.

Opposition was not permitted as newspapers and other forms of media were silenced making room for only acceptable view, the Communist Party view. The Russian Communists then sought to export the Communism to its other regions in forming the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) in 1922; this included along with Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussian, and the Caucasus to name a few. In 1924 Lenin died and Joseph Stalin his right arm in handling the party dirty work took over as the leader. Communism under Stalin was even more unforgiving to those who oppose the party then at any time in the history of the Communist reign in Russia. Stalin became increasingly paranoid much like one of his allies Hitler who he signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 a non-aggression agreement between Russia and Germany. Stalin put focus on agriculture collectives as well as the building of several factories to industrialize Russia Which new growth was needed as the first decade of Communism had produced very little economic growth.

The expansion of industry was also needed to modernize the Russian Army for which Stalin foresaw the threat of war on the horizon. The agreement with Hitler did not hold up and he attacked Russia two years later. The early part of World War II once Russia was in it was difficult as the Germans advanced rapidly. Russia learned from there battle with Napoleon so as the Germans advanced the burned crops and villages so as not to provide supplies to the advancing Germans.

This strategy proved valid for Stalin as Germany adventually had withdraw in part to being cut off from supplies like Napoleon as well as the Germans were fighting on more then one front. The Russians lost 20 million in four years of war, but in the end it gave the Russians a chance for growth in the end as the plunders of war gave then control over countries in eastern Europe. The Soviet Union along with the countries the controlled after the war began what became known as the Warsaw Pact which included with the Soviet Union countries like Poland, East Germany, Czechslavakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. This spread of Communism could be seen as a growth of Communism, yet this expansion spread through totalitarian practices.

COMMUNISM IN DECLINE The imperialist expansion that started with Stalin put The Soviet Union and its satellite countries in the Warsaw Pact at polar opposites with Democracy which started what came to be known as the Cold War. Many policies started by Stalin weakened there economy which the official party view was in denial that anything was wrong. After Stalin was gone Khrushchev took the lead and attempted to liberalize some of the economic policies that threatened secure jobs of powerful Communist officials which adventually led to his resignation in 1964. The next leader Brezhnev did nothing to change things because he saw what happened before and was afraid that change would threaten his control on the party. The reality of what was happening in the Communism system was hidden from the world for many years. "With guaranteed employment, Russians had little reason to work hard.

Farmers left crops to rot in the fields, and food became scarce in the cities. Russians abundant resources-including natural gas, oil, diamonds, and gold-were sold abroad so that food could be bought from foreign countries. By the time Brezhnev died in 1982, the USSR was nearly bankrupt". ROAD TO REFORM FROM COMMUNISM When Gorbachev took control in 1985 the Soviet Union was broke and he knew that drastic change must happen for the benefit of the country. He established a policy of Perestroika, which was economic reform that started privatization of business and the opportunity to own property. The other policy that he installed was glasnost which meant that they could criticize openly.

These first steps of capitalism and freedom of speech planted seeds that grew that changed Russia forever. The Berlin Wall came down and then they had there first free elections with Yeltsin taking the lead of Russia on the road to democracy. Things were painful in those early days as the economy was unstable. Under Yeltsin the USSR changed into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) which gave regions like the Ukraine more autonomy. The current leader Putin has not been as liberal as Yeltsin, but the reform from Communism in Russia is complete. CONCLUSION The example of Russia under Revolutionary Communism is a prime example how total control by one party no matter what the intent is leads to a domination that is detrimental to the country.

Heady described Communist domination as "The party does not recognize the legitimacy of open opposition, because it 'seeks to dominate every sphere of live and to annul every center of previously independent authority. ' Mobilization of the masses is diligently sought, but only for participation in approved activities; participation will be secured to the extent necessary by coercion or the threat of coercion". The Russians may have learned from there history by now, but the important thing for the rest of us is to make sure we do not underestimate them in the future. Any political system can fail the people the key to success is to ensure rights like freedom of speech are guaranteed for it is when we hear the voices of others that we can have a bright future.