NEVER
4GET-
QUESTION: Do you think that UK and allies could win the
WW2 without the help of Russia?
ANSWER: Definitely not. if Russia had been over run
the additional natural resources and slave labour available to the Nazis would
have cleared europe and non japanese asia (Turkey through the gulf etc) in a
year (yanks or no yanks) and the USA would have been left like a big aircraft
carrier between atlantic and pacific slowly starving of oil.
The race for the nuke would have decided
everything after that and to be honest, with the nazi superiority in rocket
propulsion and america having no land bases to launch shorter range aircract
delivery systems from think the white house would have been under a swastika in
under 10 years.
Thanks comrades , see you next time an evil
empire threatens to monopolise the world ;-)
ANSWER:
I
doubt it somehow.Quite apart from the fact that the Russians showed incredible
courage,ingenuity and resourcefulness,the German supply line was stretched too
far,which, I believe,was compounded by the fact that Hitler's Stores backup
procedures were poor to say the very least.
He seemed to make the same mistake as
Napoleon,in that he failed to take into account the very severe Russian winter.
Basically,Hitler was juggling with too many
balls.
--------------
OH
LORD..... WE ARE BACK PLAYING IN OUR BELOVED RUSSIA (1974)..... OH CANADA.....
BRING IT ON BABY!!!
Predictions
For Canada's 2014 Olympic Mens Hockey Roster
Published
on Apr 1, 2013
Predictions
For Canada's 2014 Olympic Mens Hockey Roster
Music
or No Music?
Previous
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlFzY...
Like,
Favorite, Comment, Subscribe
Follow
me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CellyHardHcky
NHL
Video: http://www.youtube.com/user/nhlvideo?...
-----------------
Projected
Team Canada 2014 Olympic Roster and Lines
With
the 2014 Winter Olympics just over a year away I have researched and looked at
the top 30 Canadian players, I have narrowed it down to a 23 man roster which I
believe is Canada's best chance at defending gold in 2014. Based on their
abilities and history, each player was chosen for a reason. The depth chart
(lines) I personally put together based on the team here, I can definitely see
the lines change. Remember with a team as skilled as this one there is no
difference between the first line and the fourth line, all lines will probably
get equal minutes. Lines are really just for chemistry between the players,
which is extremely hard to tell now, especially with a projected roster. Please
leave comments below.
--------------
The
XXII Olympic Winter Games (Sochi) 2014 begins on
Friday,
February 7
and
ends on
Sunday,
February 23
beautiful...beautiful..beautiful....
OMG... COUNTRY MUSIC'S GONNA LOVE THESE GUYS...OMG
Sochi
2014 Theme Song
The
theme song for the 2014 Winter Olympics which are being held in Sochi, Russia.
The video features artist such as Dima Bilan and Julia Savicheva.
---------------
REMEMBER-
RUSSIAN- NEED TRANSLATION.... BUT IT'S BEAUTIFUL JUST 2 WATCH... and we all
love 2 get lost in translations don't we
:-)
Presentation
of the Sochi 2014 Olympic mascots
?????
????????? ????-2014
?????
??????? (Polar Bear),
?????????
? ???????? (Man and Snowflake),
???????
(Dolphin),
??????
(Sun),
???
????? (Ded Moroz),
?????
??????? (Brown Bear),
????????
(Matryoshki),
???????
(Bullfinch),
???????
(Leopard),
????
(Hare).
--------------
First
Russian Carries the Olympic Flame for Sochi 2014
The
journey of the longest torch relay for any Winter Games - with NHL player Alex
Ovechkin becoming the first Russian to carry the Olympic flame. (Photo: AP)
Click
here to subscribe to our channel:
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us on Facebook:
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us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WSJLive
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----------------
Discover
Sochi Russia
The
International Olympic Committee has chosen Sochi to be the host city of the
2014 Winter Games; the first time Russia has hosted the Winter Games. With a
population 329,481, Sochi is one of the smallest cities to ever host the Winter
Games. Sochi is 930 miles south of Moscow in Krasnodarsky Krai, just north of
the Russia's southern border. It stretches along the shore of the Black Sea
against the backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus Mountains, where
Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, stands 18,500 feet high. France's
Mont Blanc is a mere 15,700 feet.
We
invite you to submit your tourism, travel or destination site for publication,
its free, at http://www.Travelindex.com
- Publish and distribute your Travel News and Press Releases at http://www.TravelCommunication.Net
More
travel and tourism information and travel videos at:
and
more
NBC
Sochi 2014
----------------
FROM
CANADA 2 OUR RUSSIA- THIS IS JUST
SOOOOOO THRILLING..... SOCHI OLYMPICS/PARALYMICS 2014- SOCHI
Olympic
Torch Relay: RT's Special Coverage (Promo)
Published
on Sep 29, 2013
Olympic
torch is on its epic journey to Sochi. 123 days through 2900 towns and cities
of Russia relayed by 14000 people for 65000 km in a record-setting trip by
land, air, sea and other space. Olympic torch relay: Special Coverage on RT on
6th of October, 1:00 pm GMT.
RT
LIVE http://rt.com/on-air
Subscribe
to RT! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...
Like
us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
Follow
us on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
Follow
us on Instagram http://instagram.com/rt
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us on Google+ http://plus.google.com/+RT
RT
(Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington
studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views
benchmark.
---------
OH SOCHI- CHECK OUT THOSE MEDALS 4 OLYMPIANS AND PARALYMPIANS- 2014 SOCHI
CANADA- GETTING READY 4 SOCHI WINTER
OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS 2014 RUSSIA
Oh
Lordy.... takes our breath away.... a peace of incredible Russia folks.....
Russia..... OMG>>>>
(translated....
lot of translation going 2 be happening folks... and HELL..YEAH... that's what
they said about us in Canada with our French and English :-)
Sochi
2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games medals
The
Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic medals are unique and feature the Sochi 2014
"Patchwork Quilt" -- a mosaic of national designs from the various
cultures and ethnicities of the Russian Federation. The medals have been
carefully crafted to depict the landscape of Sochi from the sun's rays
reflecting through the snowy mountain tops onto the sandy beaches of the Black
Sea coast. These contrasts in Russia's natural landscape are embodied in the
medals and will be an everlasting souvenir for the champions. The unusual
combination of metal and polycarbonate lends to the medals a sense of lightness
and distinctive beauty.
--------------
POSTED/POSTED/ BLOG- WE LOVE UR GAY BROTHERS N SISTERS- BUT DO NOT F**K AROUND WITH OUR OLYMPIC/PARALYMPIC WINTER GAMES OF OUR WORLD'S CHILDREN- IT'S ABOUT THE ATHLETES- PEACE- FRIENDSHIP OF SPORTS- THE BEST OF THE BEST- PERIOD
CANADA
MILITARY NEWS: UPDATED AUG 23- luv u gay bros and sistas-but DO NOT HIJACK
winter olympics/paralympics- we'll NEV'A 4give ya/Nova Scotia News/AGAHANISTAN
UP2DATE NEWS/BULLYCIDE N BULLYS GET LAW NOVA SCOTIA STYLE
------------
Sochi
2014 Brand and Look of the Games
TV
host, professor and Sochi 2014 Ambassador Yuri Vyazemskiy will tell us about
Sochi 2014 Brand and Look of the Games
-------------
CHINA'S
SUMMER OLYMPICS HAD US IN TEARS ROUND THE WORLD- sooooo awesome- and China's
equality of women- especially serving their nation, education, progression
etc.... and maybe Russia needs 2 catch up- but if our kids want Sochi- DAMM IT
THEY ...GET... SOCHI....
-it's up 2 all the athletes who have put 4
years of guts and garters in2 being the best on the planet
WINTER
OLYMPICS 2014- don't spoil this world 4 our global 4yr hardworking athletes and
the billions that watch.... seriously... AND WE LOVE OUR RUSSIAN BEAR-
Sochi
2014 - "Gateway To The Future"
AND...
CHINA
SUMMER OLYMPICS- THE JOY.. THE JOY... Bejing won our hearts completely and
honestly- and allowed us to honour a beautiful nation- we love our China Dragon
baby!
Opening
Ceremony - Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games
----------------------------
THE
BEST- CHECK OUT ALL BEING DONE 4 PARALYMPICS FOLKS.... OH GLORY....
Sochi
2014 Winter Olympics, Russia - Venue Preview - Unravel Travel
Sochi
2014 staged in Russia will be the most compact Winter Games in the history of
the Olympic Movement. It will be possible to get from one venue to another in
just a matter of minutes and all Olympic and Paralympic competition will take
place in the same venues. It is for this reason that all athletic facilities
for the Sochi 2014 Games are being built with the needs of disabled people in
mind. Eleven athletic venues will be built for the Sochi 2014 Games, which will
be divided into two clusters - mountain and coastal. The clusters will be
located within 48km of each other, which is less than a 30 minute ride along a
new railway.
Each
cluster will contain an Olympic Village. The travel time from the Olympic
Village to a competition venue in the coastal cluster will be no more than five
minutes. Additionally, travel time from the Olympic Village to a competition
venue in the mountain cluster is less than 15 minutes. The central focus of the
coastal cluster will be the Olympic Park. It will connect up all competition
venues, the parking zone and the infrastructure elements. For the first time in
the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, all ice arenas will be within
walking distance of one other. The Olympic Park will be able to accommodate
about 70,000 visitors when full. The Mountain Cluster will include Biathlon and
Ski Complexes, a Bobsleigh Track, a Ski Center, a Ski Jump Complex, as well as
a Snowboard Park and Freestyle Center.
5,500
Olympic athletes, 1,350 Paralympic athletes, 25,000 volunteers, and 13,000
members of the press will come to the Games in Sochi. Sports venues in the
Olympic Park will be visited daily by more than 75,000 people, and the Games'
television audience will be approximately 3 billion viewers! In addition,
residents of Russia's major cities will be able to watch a live television
broadcast of the Olympic events at specially equipped Olympic sites called Live
Sites. The Live Sites will be traditional celebration sites in city centers
which will be equipped with big screens, sound, light, and a stage for people
to watch the Games together, experience the atmosphere, and celebrate the
victories of Russian athletes. It is expected that a total of up to 30 million
people will visit the Live Sites, so almost every family in Russia will be able
to be part of the Games in Sochi.
Sochi
2014 http://www.sochi2014.com/en
Live
broadcast Unravel Travel TV http://www.unraveltraveltv.com
Unravel
Travel TV Twitter http://www.twitter.com/UnravelTravelTV?
Unravel
Travel TV on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/UnravelTravelTV
Unravel
Travel TV http://www.unraveltravel.eu
BEST
COMMENT:
No
one is going to boycott the Olympics especially the USA, its not fair to the
majority of the Olympians who have been training their whole lives for a chance
to win a gold metal for their country. You can't hate a country just because
they don't have they same morals or ideals? as you. Sorry if you don't like
Russia's policy then don't be a flamboyant faggot! Win a gold for your country
to embarrass them! Just like when Jesse Owens beat the nazi's during the 1936
summer Olympics!
---------------
C-A-N-A-D-A
Luge
team finds sponsor
CALGARY
(CP) — The Canadian luge team’s “For Sale" campaign has begun to bear
fruit, or beef in this cas e.
The
Canadian Luge Association has scheduled a news conference Monday at an Alberta
cattle ranch southwest of Calgary to announce a corporate sponsorship of the national
team .
The
lugers launched a search for a new team sponsor earlier this week because a
relationship with their previous title sponsor ended last year.
The
luge team is poised to win Canada’s first Olympic medal in the sport at the
2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Alex
Gough from Calgary won a pair of world championship medals.
The
lugers slapped “For Sale" stickers on their helmets and invited the media
to their first training slides of the season at Canada Olympic Park on Tuesday.
AND..
LOVING
THIS...... CANADA'S 'HERE'S THE BEEF'- gets sponsorship... God bless Canada
Canada's
luge team lands un-'herd' of sponsorship deal - Yahoo ...
2
days ago - From Yahoo News Canada: Just days after the Canadian Luge team went
public with ... A Vancouver woman is pleading with Westjet to find one of her
two cats, after the ... The best news photos of the day for October 2, 2013.
--------------------
The
flame lit, Olympic Torch Relay begins
September
29, 2013
By
Asif Hossain
The
Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece on Sunday, marking the start of the
Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay.
-----------------------
FROM CANADA 2 RUSSIA- WE LOVE U AND WILL SEE U THERE- HERE'S CANADA'S CLASSIFIED- WITH THE YOUTH VERSION OF O CANADA...
CANADA
The
Race is on for Tickets to Sochi 2014
“For
Canadians, 2014 is going to be particularly exciting Games because we’re
building on the huge momentum that we developed in Vancouver in 2010,” said
Christopher Overholt, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee. “So for every
Canadian who holds a torch for our Olympic Team, we recommend getting their
tickets quickly because Sochi is sure to be the event of a lifetime and the
reality is that availability is not going to last.”
Sochi
2014 Packages Ready to Reserve in Time for Christmas
December
14, 2012
By
cdnolympicteam
TORONTO
– Canadian Olympic Team fans looking to give the sporting gift of a lifetime
will be able to place reservations for hotel and holiday packages to the 2014
Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced
today.
Starting
at noon EST Friday December 14th, reservations for packages can be made
exclusively through cosport.com, where fans will also be able to express
interest in individual tickets to the Games.
“For
an Olympic fan, a package like this is truly the ultimate gift,” said
Christopher Overholt, Secretary General and CEO of the Canadian Olympic
Committee. “What could be more amazing than receiving an Olympic experience
where the Canadian Olympic Team is striving for a first-place overall finish?”
CoSport,
the official hospitality supplier for the Canadian Olympic Team, as well as for
seven other national Olympic committees, has extensive experience ensuring that
the Olympic ticketing process is smooth, effective and efficient. Additionally,
CoSport, along with its sister company Jet Set Sports has been appointed the
Official Hospitality Supplier for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games offering
Canadian fans the exceptional opportunities to secure authentic event ticketing
and enjoy proven customer service.
“We’re
pleased to once again partner with CoSport to ensure that Canadians looking to
secure an amazing Games experience will be well taken care of,” continued
Overholt. “It’s very important to have an experienced organization who can
liaise with the local Olympic Organizing committee to ensure that Canadian fans
and ticketholders are well taken care of.”
For
more information, to reserve packages, or to express interest in individual
tickets for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, fans can visit
cosport.com.
NOTE:
The initial stage of the process for sourcing Individual Tickets is set in
three steps: The Expression of Interest, the confirmation of availability, and
the actual purchase. Only if CoSport can
confirm enough available tickets in Canada to satisfy submitted Expressions of Interest — and the
Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee releases ticket prices — will the account
holder be able to purchase those tickets.
Participating in the Expression of Interest process offers account
holders the fullest opportunity to secure individual tickets in anticipation of
CoSport’s initial Sochi 2014 individual ticket live sales.
-------------
Sochi
2014 Winter Olympics - Olympic Tickets, Schedules, Games ...
Official
website of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics happening Feb 7-23, 2014 in Sochi,
Russia: Get your Olympic schedules, tickets, news, photos, & videos.
------------------
Mother Russia
Russia facts:
Fast Facts
- Population:
- 143,025,000
- Capital:
- Moscow; 10,672,000
- Area:
- 17,075,400 square kilometers (6,592,850 square miles)
- Language:
- Russian
- Religion:
- Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other
- Currency:
- Russian ruble
- Life Expectancy:
- 65
- GDP per Capita:
- U.S. $9,700
- Literacy Percent:
- 100
History
of Russia
W ith the dissolution
of the Soviet Union there has been an enormous resurgence of interest in
Russia's pre-Soviet past, as well as a great deal of debate and reconsideration
of the Soviet era itself. This shift has not resulted in a simple vilification
of everything Soviet or a naive embrace of all that preceded it, but it has
spurred an unprecedented effort to regain the ancient Russian national
heritage. Churches are being restored all across the country, great Russian
writers and artists whose works were banned are once again being honored, and
the individual character of ancient cities and communities is once again
becoming established. Next year, the city of Moscow is celebrating its 850th
Anniversary, a celebration that will mark the recovery, as well as the
commemoration, of its glorious past.
For most
western visitors, the bulk of Russia's history is nothing more than a
compendium of hazy legends and sensationalist rumors--from scurrilous stories
about Catherine the Great to tabloid television reports of the miraculous
survival of the children of Nicholas II. However, the factual history of the
country is no less compelling than its fabulous history, and even a brief
introduction to the great and not-so-great figures of its past make a visit far
more rewarding.
Ancient Russia | The Mongols & the Emergence of
Moscow | The
Romanovs |
Napoleon's Invasion | The Path to Revolution | The Soviet Era
Napoleon's Invasion | The Path to Revolution | The Soviet Era
ANCIENT
RUSSIA
The
early history of Russia, like those of many countries, is one of migrating
peoples and ancient kingdoms. In fact, early Russia was not exactly
"Russia," but a collection of cities that gradually coalesced into an
empire. I n the early part of the ninth century, as part of the same great
movement that brough the Danes to England and the Norsemen to Western Europe, a
Scandanavian people known as the Varangians crossed the Baltic Sea and landed
in Eastern Europe. The leader of the Varangians was the semilegendary warrior
Rurik, who led his people in 862 to the city of Novgorod on the Volkhov River.
Whether Rurik took the city by force or was invited to rule there, he certainly
invested the city. From Novgorod, Rurik's successor Oleg extended the power of
the city southward. In 882, he gained control of Kiev, a Slavic city that had
arisen along the Dnepr River around the 5th century. Oleg's attainment of rule
over Kiev marked the first establishment of a unified, dynastic state in the
region. Kiev became the center of a trade route between Scandinavia and
Constantinople, and Kievan Rus', as the empire came to be known, flourished for
the next three hundred years.
By
989, Oleg's great-grandson Vladimir I was ruler of a kingdom that extended to
as far south as the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the lower reaches of
the Volga River. Having decided to establish a state religion, Vladimir
carefully considered a number of available faiths and decided upon Greek
Orthodoxy, thus allying himself with Constantinople and the West. It is said
that Vladimir decided against Islam partly because of his belief that his
people could not live under a religion that prohibits hard liquor. Vladimir was
succeeded by Yaroslav the Wise, whose reign marked the apogee of Kievan Rus'.
Yaroslav codified laws, made shrewd alliances with other states, encouraged the
arts, and all the other sorts of things that wise kings do. Unfortunately, he
decided in the end to act like Lear, dividing his kingdom among his children
and bidding them to cooperate and flourish. Of course, they did nothing of the
sort.
Within
a few decades of Yaroslav's death (in 1054), Kievan Rus' was rife with
internecine strife and had broken up into regional power centers. Internal
divisions were made worse by the depradations of the invading Cumans (better
known as the Kipchaks). It was during this time (in 1147 to be exact) that Yuri
Dolgorukiy, one of the regional princes, held a feast at his hunting lodge atop
a hill overlooking the confluence of the Moskva and Neglina Rivers. A
chronicler recorded the party, thus providing us with the earliest mention of
Moscow, the small settlement that would soon become the pre-eminent city in
Russia.
The
Mongols and the Emergence of Moscow
Kievan
Rus' struggled on into the 13th century, but was decisively destroyed by the
arrival of a new invader--the Mongols. In 1237 Batu Khan, a grandson of Jenghiz
Khan, launched an invasion into Kievan Rus' from his capital on the lower Volga
(at present-day Kazan). Over the next three years the Mongols (or Tatars)
destroyed all of the major cities of Kievan Rus' with the exceptions of
Novgorod and Pskov. The regional princes were not deposed, but they were forced
to send regular tribute to the Tatar state, which became known as the Empire of
the Golden Horde. Invasions of Russia were attempted during this period from
the west as well, first by the Swedes (1240) and then by the Livonian Brothers
of the Sword (1242), a regional branch of the fearsome Teutonic Knights. In the
best news of the era for Russia, both were decisively defeated by the great
warrior Alexander Nevsky, a prince of Novgorod who earned his surname from his
victory over the Swedes on the Neva River.
For
the next century or so, very little seems to have happened in Russia. In fact,
given the tribute demanded by the Tatars, there wasn't much money available for
building, campaigns, or anything else of that sort. With the Tatars off to the
southwest, the northeastern cities gradually gained more influence--first Tver,
and then, around the turn of the 14th century, Moscow. As a sign of the city's
importance, the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred to
the city, making it the spiritual capital of Russia. By the latter part of the
century, Moscow felt strong enough to challenge the Tatars directly, and in
1380 a Muscovite prince named Dmitri Donskoy had the audacity to attack them.
His decisive victory at Kulikovo Field immediately made him a popular hero,
though the Tatar retaliation two years later maintained their rule over the
city. It wasn't until 1480, after another century had passed, that Moscow was
strong enough to throw off Tatar rule for good. Its ruler at that time was
Grand Duke Ivan III, better known as Ivan the Great. Ivan began by subjugating
most of Moscow's rival cities, and by the time he tore up the charter binding
it to Tatar tribute he was effectively in control of the entire country.
However, it wasn't until the reign of his grandson, Ivan IV (the Terrible),
that Russia became a unified state.
Ivan
the Terrible succeeded his father Vasily III as Grand Duke of Moscow in 1533 at
the age of three. His mother served as regent until she too died, when Ivan was
eight. For the next eight years, the young Grand Duke endured a series of
regents chosen from among the boyars (the nobility). Finally in 1547, he
adopted the title of tsar and set about crushing the power of the boyars,
reorganizing the military, and preparing to smite the Tatars. In 1552 he
conquered and sacked Kazan, and in 1556 Astrakhan, having thus destroyed the
lingering power of the Golden Horde. Ivan's Tatar campaigns opened vast new
areas for Russian expansion, and it was during his reign that the conquest and
colonization of Siberia began.
Believe
it or not, Ivan was not supposed to have been very terrible at all during the
early years of his reign. However, as he grew older his temper worsened, and by
the 1560s he carried out a pretty horrific campaign against the boyars,
confiscating their land and executing or exiling those who displeased him. In
1581, in a rage, he struck his son and heir Ivan with an iron rod, killing him.
When
Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, he was succeeded by his son Fyodor, who was not
exactly up to filling the shoes of an autocratic legend. Fyodor left most of
the management of the kingdom to his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, and it was
not long before Godunov began to work to secure the succession for himself. In
1591, he murdered Fyodor's younger brother Dmitri in the ancient town of
Uglich, a spot now marked by the magnificent Church of St. Demetrius on the
Blood. When Fyodor died in 1598, Godunov was made tsar, but his rule was never
accepted as entirely legitimate. Within a few years a pretender arose in Poland,
claiming to be Dmitri, and in 1604 he invaded Russia. Godunov died suddenly the
next year, and the "Time of Troubles" began. For the next eight years
both the first and a second false Dmitri laid claims to the throne, both
supported by invading Polish armies. Finally, in 1613, the Poles were ousted
from Moscow, and the boyars unanimously elected Michael Romanov as Tsar. The
Romanov dynasty was to rule Russia for the next 304 years, until the Russian
Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist state.
The
Romanovs
For
the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the statusquo in
Russia. They continued to centralize power, but they did very little to bring
Russia up to speed with the rapid changes in economic and political life that
were taking place elsewhere in Europe. Peter the Great decided to change all of
that.
Peter
the Great
Peter
was his father's youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of
which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first
wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died
in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in
1682. The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to
be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the
country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established,
however, than the Ivan's family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin
Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible
sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the
grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The
outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed
under the regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia.
Peter had not enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest
of his life.
With
Sophia in control, Peter was sent back to Kolomenskoe. It was soon noticed that
he possessed a penchant for war games, including especially military drill and
siegecraft. He became acquainted with a small community of European soldiers,
from whom he learned Western European tactics and strategy. Remarkably, neither
Sophia nor the Kremlin Guard found this suggestive. In 1689, just as Peter was
to come of age, Sophia attempted another coup--this time, however, she was
defeated and confined to Novodevichiy Convent. Six years later Ivan died,
leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence
and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. He
spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy
but also travelling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in
Holland. He amassed a considerable body of knowledge on western European
industrial techniques and state administration, and became determined to
modernize the Russian state and to westernize its society.
In
1698, still on tour, Peter received news of yet another rebellion by the
Kremlin Guard, instigated by Sophia despite her confinement to Novodevichiy. He
returned without any sense of humor, decisively defeating the guard with his
own European-drilled units, ordering a mass execution of the surviving rebels,
and then hanging the bodies outside Sophia's convent window. She apparently
went mad. The following day Peter began his program to recreate Russia in the
image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles.
Peter's
return to Russia and assumption of personal rule hit the country like a
hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced
military conscription, established technical schools, replaced the church
patriarchy with a holy synod answerable to himself, simplified the alphabet,
tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, changed his
title from Tsar to Emperor, and introduced a hundred other reforms,
restrictions, and novelties (all of which convinced the conservative clergy
that he was the antichrist). In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his
reforms--the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be
built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland. Over the next nine years, at
tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.
Peter
generated considerable opposition during his reign, not only from the
conservative clergy but also from the nobility, who were understandably rather
attached to the status quo. One of the most notable critics of his policies was
his own son Alexis, who naturally enough became the focus of oppositional
intrigue. In fact, Alexis seemed to desire no such position, and in 1716 he
fled to Vienna after renouncing his right to the succession. Having never had
much occasion to trust in others, Peter suspected that Alexis had in fact fled
in order to rally foreign backing. After persuading him to return, Peter had
his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but
died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.
Peter
himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in
Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful
new member of modern Europe, it is questionable whether his reforms resulted in
significant improvements to the lives of his subjects. Certainly he modernized
Russia's military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms
were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced
into serfdom. After Peter's death Russia went through a great number of rulers
in a distressingly short time, none of whom had much of an opportunity to leave
a lasting impression. Many of Peter's reforms failed to take root in Russia,
and it was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that his desire to make
Russia into a great European power was in fact achieved.
Catherine
the Great
On
December 25, 1761, Peter III, a grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Tsar.
Peter was thirty-four, dissolute, and imperceptive. He was not accompanied by his
wife Catherine, a year younger but far more mature, not dissolute but also no
puritan. The couple had been married for eighteen years. Both had been
newcomers to the Russian court as teens, and for a few years after their
marriage they had been on friendly terms. By 1762, however, their relationship
had long since been in name only. Peter had grown into a fool, while Catherine
had become a complete success, respected as much for her intellect as for her
winning personality. Although the court atmosphere in which they lived was much
more cosmopolitan than that inhabited by their royal predecessors, politics was
as always a deadly serious pursuit--and everyone knew that Catherine was the
more capable politician.
By
the following summer the conflict between Peter and Catherine had become quite
serious. In only six months of rule, he had managed to offend and outrage
virtually the entire court by diplomatic bumblings and large segments of the
population through his hostility to the church and his evident disdain for
Russia. Support for Catherine was widespread, and Peter was suspicious. Early
on the morning of June 28, Catherine left her estate at Peterhof, outside of
St. Petersburg, and departed for the city. Everything had been prepared in
advance, and when she arrived she was greeted with cheers by both the troops of
her factional supporters and the populace. By the next morning, Peter was
confronted with a fait accompli--and a prepared declaration of his abdication.
A week later, he was dead.
Catherine
went on to become the most powerful sovereign in Europe. She continued Peter
the Great's reforms of the Russian state, further increasing central control
over the provinces. Her skill as a diplomat, in an era that produced many
extraordinary diplomats, was remarkable. Russia's influence in European
affairs, as well as its territory in Eastern and Central Europe, were increased
and expanded. Catherine was also an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She built
and founded the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia,
founded academies, journals, and libraries, and corresponded with the French
Encyclopedists, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Although Catherine
did in fact have many lovers, some of them trusted advisors and confidants, stories
alleging her to have had an excessive sexual appetite are unfounded.
With
the onset of the French Revolution, Catherine became strikingly conservative
and increasingly hostile to criticism of her policies. From 1789 until her
death, she reversed many of the liberal reforms of her early reign. One notable
effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine ultimately
contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in Russia.
When
Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I.
Catherine never really liked Paul, and her feelings were reciprocated by her
son. Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete
disaster. His most notable legacy is the remarkable and tragic Engineer's
Castle in St. Petersburg. Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is
remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon
Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.
The
Romanovs
For
the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the statusquo in
Russia. They continued to centralize power, but they did very little to bring
Russia up to speed with the rapid changes in economic and political life that
were taking place elsewhere in Europe. Peter the Great decided to change all of
that.
Peter
the Great
Peter
was his father's youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of
which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first
wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died
in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in
1682. The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to
be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the country
estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however,
than the Ivan's family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard,
they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight
of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red
Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of
the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the
regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Peter had not
enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest of his life.
With
Sophia in control, Peter was sent back to Kolomenskoe. It was soon noticed that
he possessed a penchant for war games, including especially military drill and
siegecraft. He became acquainted with a small community of European soldiers,
from whom he learned Western European tactics and strategy. Remarkably, neither
Sophia nor the Kremlin Guard found this suggestive. In 1689, just as Peter was
to come of age, Sophia attempted another coup--this time, however, she was
defeated and confined to Novodevichiy Convent. Six years later Ivan died,
leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence
and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. He
spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy
but also travelling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in
Holland. He amassed a considerable body of knowledge on western European
industrial techniques and state administration, and became determined to
modernize the Russian state and to westernize its society.
In
1698, still on tour, Peter received news of yet another rebellion by the
Kremlin Guard, instigated by Sophia despite her confinement to Novodevichiy. He
returned without any sense of humor, decisively defeating the guard with his
own European-drilled units, ordering a mass execution of the surviving rebels,
and then hanging the bodies outside Sophia's convent window. She apparently
went mad. The following day Peter began his program to recreate Russia in the
image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles.
Peter's
return to Russia and assumption of personal rule hit the country like a
hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced
military conscription, established technical schools, replaced the church
patriarchy with a holy synod answerable to himself, simplified the alphabet,
tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, changed his
title from Tsar to Emperor, and introduced a hundred other reforms,
restrictions, and novelties (all of which convinced the conservative clergy
that he was the antichrist). In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his
reforms--the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be
built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland. Over the next nine years, at
tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.
Peter
generated considerable opposition during his reign, not only from the
conservative clergy but also from the nobility, who were understandably rather
attached to the status quo. One of the most notable critics of his policies was
his own son Alexis, who naturally enough became the focus of oppositional
intrigue. In fact, Alexis seemed to desire no such position, and in 1716 he
fled to Vienna after renouncing his right to the succession. Having never had
much occasion to trust in others, Peter suspected that Alexis had in fact fled
in order to rally foreign backing. After persuading him to return, Peter had
his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but
died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.
Peter
himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in
Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful
new member of modern Europe, it is questionable whether his reforms resulted in
significant improvements to the lives of his subjects. Certainly he modernized
Russia's military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms
were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced
into serfdom. After Peter's death Russia went through a great number of rulers
in a distressingly short time, none of whom had much of an opportunity to leave
a lasting impression. Many of Peter's reforms failed to take root in Russia,
and it was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that his desire to make
Russia into a great European power was in fact achieved.
Catherine
the Great
On
December 25, 1761, Peter III, a grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Tsar.
Peter was thirty-four, dissolute, and imperceptive. He was not accompanied by
his wife Catherine, a year younger but far more mature, not dissolute but also
no puritan. The couple had been married for eighteen years. Both had been
newcomers to the Russian court as teens, and for a few years after their
marriage they had been on friendly terms. By 1762, however, their relationship
had long since been in name only. Peter had grown into a fool, while Catherine
had become a complete success, respected as much for her intellect as for her
winning personality. Although the court atmosphere in which they lived was much
more cosmopolitan than that inhabited by their royal predecessors, politics was
as always a deadly serious pursuit--and everyone knew that Catherine was the
more capable politician.
By
the following summer the conflict between Peter and Catherine had become quite
serious. In only six months of rule, he had managed to offend and outrage
virtually the entire court by diplomatic bumblings and large segments of the
population through his hostility to the church and his evident disdain for
Russia. Support for Catherine was widespread, and Peter was suspicious. Early
on the morning of June 28, Catherine left her estate at Peterhof, outside of
St. Petersburg, and departed for the city. Everything had been prepared in
advance, and when she arrived she was greeted with cheers by both the troops of
her factional supporters and the populace. By the next morning, Peter was
confronted with a fait accompli--and a prepared declaration of his abdication.
A week later, he was dead.
Catherine
went on to become the most powerful sovereign in Europe. She continued Peter
the Great's reforms of the Russian state, further increasing central control
over the provinces. Her skill as a diplomat, in an era that produced many
extraordinary diplomats, was remarkable. Russia's influence in European
affairs, as well as its territory in Eastern and Central Europe, were increased
and expanded. Catherine was also an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She built
and founded the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia,
founded academies, journals, and libraries, and corresponded with the French
Encyclopedists, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Although Catherine
did in fact have many lovers, some of them trusted advisors and confidants,
stories alleging her to have had an excessive sexual appetite are unfounded.
With
the onset of the French Revolution, Catherine became strikingly conservative
and increasingly hostile to criticism of her policies. From 1789 until her
death, she reversed many of the liberal reforms of her early reign. One notable
effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine ultimately
contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in Russia.
When
Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I.
Catherine never really liked Paul, and her feelings were reciprocated by her
son. Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete
disaster. His most notable legacy is the remarkable and tragic Engineer's
Castle in St. Petersburg. Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is
remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon
Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.
Napoleon's
Invasion of Russia
In
June of 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign, a landmark in the
history of the destructive potential of warfare. Virtually all of continental
Europe was under his control, and the invasion of Russia was an attempt to
force Tsar Alexander I to submit once again to the terms of a treaty that
Napoleon had imposed upon him four years earlier. Having gathered nearly half a
million soldiers, from France as well as all of the vassal states of Europe, Napoleon
entered Russia at the head of the largest army ever seen. The Russians, under
Marshal Kutuzov, could not realistically hope to defeat him in a direct
confrontation. Instead, they begin a defensive campaign of strategic retreat,
devastating the land as they fell back and harassing the flanks of the French.
As the summer wore on, Napoleon's massive supply lines were stretched ever
thinner, and his force began to decline. By September, without having engaged
in a single pitched battle, the French Army had been reduced by more than two
thirds from fatigue, hunger, desertion, and raids by Russian forces.
Nonetheless,
it was clear that unless the Russians engaged the French Army in a major
battle, Moscow would be Napoleon's in a matter of weeks. The Tsar insisted upon
an engagement, and on September 7, with winter closing in and the French army
only 70 miles (110 km) from the city, the two armies met at Borodino Field. By
the end of the day, 108,000 men had died--but neither side had gained a
decisive victory. Kutuzov realized that any further defense of the city would
be senseless, and he withdrew his forces, prompting the citizens of Moscow to
began a massive and panicked exodus. When Napoleon's army arrived on September
14, they found a city depopulated and bereft of supplies, a meagre comfort in
the face of the oncoming winter. To make matters much, much worse, fires broke
out in the city that night, and by the next day the French were lacking shelter
as well.
After
waiting in vain for Alexander to offer to negotiate, Napoleon ordered his
troops to begin the march home. Because the route south was blocked by
Kutuzov's forces (and the French were in no shape for a battle) the retreat
retraced the long, devastated route of the invasion. Having waited until
mid-October to depart, the exhausted French army soon found itself in the midst
of winter--in fact, in the midst of an unusually early and especially cold
winter. Temperatures soon dropped well below freezing, cossacks attacked
stragglers and isolated units, food was almost non-existent, and the march was
five hundred miles. Ten thousand men survived. The campaign ensured Napoleon's
downfall and Russia's status as a leading power in post-Napoleonic Europe. Yet
even as Russia emerged more powerful than ever from the Napoleonic era, its
internal tensions began to increase.
The
Path to Revolution
Since
the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly
consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and
into their own hands. This centralization of authority in the Russian state had
usually been accomplished in one of two ways--either by simply taking power
from the nobles and braving their opposition (Ivan the Terrible was very good
at this), or by compensating the nobles for decreased power in government by
giving them greater power over their land and its occupants. Serfdom, as this
latter system was known, had increased steadily in Russia from the time of Ivan
the Terrible, its inventor. By the time of Catherine the Great, the Russian
Tsars enjoyed virtually autocratic rule over their nobles. However, they had in
a sense purchased this power by granting those nobles virtually autocratic
power over the serfs, who by this time had been reduced to a state closer to
slavery than to peasantry.
By
the nineteenth century, both of these relationships were under attack. In the
Decembrist revolt in 1825, a group of young, reformist military officers
attempted to force the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia by
preventing the accession of Nicholas I. They failed utterly, and Nicholas
became the most reactionary leader in Europe. Nicholas' successor, Alexander
II, seemed by contrast to be amenable to reform. In 1861, he abolished serfdom,
though the emancipation didn't in fact bring on any significant change in the
condition of the peasants. As the country became more industrialized, its
political system experienced even greater strain. Attempts by the lower classes
to gain more freedom provoked fears of anarchy, and the government remained
extremely conservative. As Russia became more industrialized, larger, and far
more complicated, the inadequacies of autocratic Tsarist rule became
increasingly apparent. By the twentieth century conditions were ripe for a
serious convulsion.
At
the same time, Russia had expanded its territory and its power considerably
over the nineteenth century. Its borders extended to Afghanistan and China, and
it had acquired extensive territory on the Pacific coast. The foundation of the
port cities of Vladivostok and Port Arthur there had opened up profitable
avenues for commerce, and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway
(constructed from 1891-1905) linked the European Russia with its new eastern
territories.
In
1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. He was not the most competent of
political leaders, and his ministers were almost uniformly reactionaries. To
make matters worse, the increasing Russian presence in the far east provoked
the hostility of Japan. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia
experienced a series of defeats that dissolved the tenuous support held by
Nicholas' already unpopular government. Nicholas was forced to grant
concessions to the reformers, including most notably a constitution and a
parliament, or Duma. The power of the reform movement was founded on a new and
powerful force entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the major
western cities and the development of the Batu oil fields had brought together
large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into
local political councils, or soviets. It was in large part the power of the
soviets, united under the Social Democratic party, that had forced Nicholas to
accept reforms in 1905.
After
the war with Japan was brought to a close, Nicholas attempted to reverse the
new freedoms, and his government became more reactionary than ever. Popular
discontent gained strength, and Nicholas countered it with increased
repression, maintaining control but worsening relations with the population. In
1912, the Social Democrats split into two camps--the radical Bolsheviks and the
comparatively moderate Menshiviks. In 1914, another disastrous war once again
brought on a crisis. If the Russo-Japanese war had been costly and unpopular,
it was at least remote. The First World War, however, took place right on
Russia's western doorstep. Unprepared militarily or industrially, the country
suffered demoralizing defeats, suffered severe food shortages, and soon
suffered an economic collapse. By February of 1917, the workers and soldiers
had had enough. Riots broke out in St. Petersburg, then called Petrograd, and
the garrison there mutinied. Workers soviets were set up, and the Duma approved
the establishment of a Provisional Government to attempt to restore order in
the capital. It was soon clear that Nicholas possessed no support, and on March
2 he abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael. No fool, Michael
renounced his claim the next day.
The
Provisional Government set up by the Duma attempted to pursue a moderate
policy, calling for a return to order and promising reform of worker's rights.
However, it was unwilling to endorse the most pressing demand of the
soviets--an immediate end to the war. For the next 9 months, the Provisional
Government, first under Prince Lvov and then under Alexandr Kerensky, unsuccessfully
attempted to establish its authority. In the meanwhile, the Bolsheviks gained
increasing support from the ever more frustrated soviets. On October 25, led by
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, they stormed the Winter Palace and deposed the Kerensky
government.
Although
the Bolsheviks enjoyed substantial support in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they
were by no means in control of the country as a whole. They succeeded in taking
Russia out of the war (though on very unfavorable terms), but within months
civil war broke out throughout Russia. For the next three years the country was
devastated by civil strife, until by 1920 the Bolsheviks had finally emerged
victorious.
The
Soviet Era
The
first few years of Soviet rule were marked by an extraordinary outburst of
social and cultural change. Although the Bolsheviks had maintained complete
control of the economy during the civil war, Lenin decided at its end that a
partial return to a market economy would help the country recover from the
destruction of the previous three years. His New Economic Policy, or NEP,
brought about a period of relative prosperity, allowing the young Soviet
government to consolidate its political position and rebuild the country's
infrastructure. This was also the period during which the Russian Avant-Garde
reached its height, developing the radical new styles of Constructivism,
Futurism, and Suprematism. Although the country still faced enormous
challenges, there was a widespread sense of optimism and opportunity.
Lenin's
death in 1924 was followed by an extended and extremely divisive struggle for
power in the Communist Party. By the latter part of the decade, Joseph Stalin
had emerged as the victor, and he immediately set the country on a much
different course. The NEP was scrapped, to be replaced by an economic plan
dictated from the top. Agricultural lands were collectivized, creating large,
state-run farms. Industrial development was pushed along at breakneck speed,
and production was almost entirely diverted from consumer products to capital
equipment. Art and literature were placed under much tighter control, and the
radical energy of the Russian Avant-Garde was replaced by the solemn grandeur
of Soviet realism. Religion was violently repressed, as churches were closed,
destroyed, or converted to other uses. Stalin purged all opposition to himself
within the party as well as all opposition to party policy in the country. By
the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union had become a country in which life was
more strictly regulated than ever before. Experimentation had ended, and
discipline was the rule of the day.
With
the outbreak of the Second World War, the Soviet Union found itself unprepared
for the conflict. Political purges had stripped the military of much of its
experienced leadership, and industrial production was slow in converting from
civil to military production. Although its non-aggression pact with Germany
(1939) served for a while to forestall an attack by Hitler, the Soviets were
caught by surprise by the invasion of June 1941. By the end of the year, the
Germans had seized most of the Soviet territory in the west, surrounded St.
Petersburg (having been renamed once again as Leningrad), and advanced to
within a few hundred miles of Moscow. With tremendous effort, a Russian counter-offensive
pushed back the advance on the capital, but in the summer of 1942 the Germans
launched a new invasion against the southern front in an attempt to gain
control of the rail center of Stalingrad on the Volga and the vital Caucasus
oil fields. Despite an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers and inferior
weaponry, the Russian army succeeded in holding out against the enormous German
army. In November, a relieving force managed to encircle the attackers and
compel the surrender of the entire force, marking a decisive turning point in
the war. From that point onward, the Russian army remained on the attack. By
1944 they had driven the Germans back to Poland, and on May 2, 1945, Berlin
fell.
As
was the case with the Napoleonic Wars, the Soviet Union emerged from World War
II considerably stronger than it had been before the war. Although the country
suffered enormous devastation and lost more than twenty million lives, it had
gained considerable territory and now ranked as one of the two great world
powers along with the United States. Nonetheless, life in the country continued
to suffer. Industrial production was once again concentrated on heavy industry,
agricultural failures produced widespread famine, political freedoms were
restricted even further, and another huge wave of purges was carried out. As
the Cold War got underway, an increasing proportion of the Soviet Union's
resources were funneled into military projects, further exacerbating the
quality of life. Stalin remained in power until 1953, when he died of a
cerebral hemorrhage.
Almost
immediately after the death of Stalin, many of the repressive policies that he
had instituted were dismantled. Under the leadership of Nikita Khruschev,
political controls were to some degree relaxed, and cultural life experienced a
brief period of revival. However, opposition to Khruschev gradually gained
strength within the party, and in 1964 he was ousted. In a notable break with
historical traditions, Khruschev was permitted to quietly retire. By the 1970s,
Leonid Brezhnev, as general secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet
Union (CPSU), had become the next prominent Soviet leader. His tenure was
marked by a determined emphasis on domestic stability and an aggressive foreign
policy. The country entered a decade-long period of stagnation, its rigid
economy slowly deteriorating and its political climate becoming increasingly
pessimistic. When Breshnev died in 1982 he was succeeded as general secretary
first by Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB, and then by Konstantin Chernenko,
neither of whom managed to survive long enough to effect significant changes.
In March of 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary, the need for
reforms was pressing.
Gorbachev's
platform for a new Soviet Union was founded on two now-famous terms--glasnost
(openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Like Khruschev, Gorbachev intended
to revitalize the Soviet economy by loosening up a bit on social control,
opening some room for new ideas, relaxing control of the economy, and generally
allowing for a little fresh air. Restructuring began in earnest, with a
vigorous housecleaning of the bureaucracy and a significant investigation into
corruption. Glasnost, however, lost some credibility right at the outset when
it was discovered in April 1986 that the government had waited several days
before admitting to the infamous nuclear disaster at Chernobyl--a reactor
explosion that had thrown radioactive material over a wide area of the country.
Backed into a corner on Chernobyl, Gorbachev countered with the dramatic
removal of all controls on reporting--and at that point the fresh air really
began to howl.
For
the first time in decades, the problems of the country became subjects for open
public discussion. Poverty, corruption, the enormous mismanagement of the
country's resources, the unpopularity of the Afghan war, and a host of other
problems and grievances were raised. Radical reform leaders emerged, including
the new Moscow Party chief Boris Yeltsin, and prominent dissidents like Andrei
Sakharov were able to voice their views for the first time. For some peculiar
reason, the government found that it was the target of most of the criticism,
but it also found that it wasn't any longer in much a position to do anything
but try to move with the flow of events. Early in 1989, Soviet troops were
withdrawn from Afghanistan. In the spring of 1989, the first open elections
since 1917 were held, allowing voters a novel choice of more than one candidate
for seats in the Congress of People's Deputies. The governments of the Soviet
satellite states in Eastern Europe, subjected to the same rising tide of public
criticism, fell one after the other in a rapid series of revolutions culminating
in the fall of the Berlin wall.
In
1990, the Soviet Union itself began to unravel. Its own constituent republics
began to issue declarations of independence. In the Russian Republic, Yeltsin
was elected chairman of the Parliament, taking a lead in the independence
movement. Large scale strikes shattered the Communist Party's traditional claim
to be the representative of workers' rights. Demonstrations against the
government and the party intensified. The economy worsened, food shortages
became a problem, and the crime rate began to skyrocket. Gorbachev, caught
between popular demands for more radical reform and party demands for the
re-imposition of strict control, failed to satisfy either side.
The
following summer, the radical reform movements became strong enough to openly
defy the government. In the press, criticism of Gorbachev intensified. Yeltsin,
on the other hand, was the overwhelming victor in June elections for the
Russian presidency. On August 18, party conservatives made a desparate bid for
power. A group led by Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov and Vice President Gennady
Yanayev detained Gorbachev at his country retreat in the Crimea. After he
refused to support the imposition of military law, the head of state was placed
under house arrest. The next morning the coup leaders issued the announcement
that Gorbachev had resigned and that a state of emergency had been declared.
Military units were dispatched to enforce the authority of the new government,
but they were met with overwhelming popular protest led by Yeltsin and the
other presidents of the republics. After three days the attempted coup had
collapsed. Gorbachev was reinstated, only to realize that his position had
become completely obsolete. By the end of the year the Soviet Union had been
voted out of existence, to be replaced by a Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). On December 25, Gorbachev resigned, and on midnight of December 31, the
Soviet flag atop the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian tricolour.
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