HISTORY
Human experience on the territory
of present-day Russia dates back to Paleolithic times. Greek traders
conducted extensive commerce with Scythian tribes around the shores
of the Black Sea and the Crimean region. In the third century
B.C., Scythians were displaced by Sarmatians, who in turn were
overrun by waves of Germanic Goths. In the third century A.D.,
Asiatic Huns replaced the Goths and were in turn conquered by
Turkic Avars in the sixth century. By the ninth century, Eastern
Slavs began to settle in what is now Ukraine, Belarus and the
Novgorod and Smolensk regions.
In 862, the political entity known
as Kievan Rus was established in what is now Ukraine and lasted
until the 12th century. In the 10th century, Christianity became
the state religion under Vladimir, who adopted Greek Orthodox
rites. Consequently, Byzantine culture predominated, as is evident
in much of Russia's architectural, musical, and artistic heritage.
Over the next centuries, various invaders assaulted the Kievan
state and, finally, Mongols under Batu Khan destroyed the main
population centers except for Novgorod and Pskov and prevailed
over the region until 1480.
In the post-Mongol period, Muscovy
gradually became the dominant principality and was able, through
diplomacy and conquest, to establish suzerainty over European
Russia. Ivan III (1462-1505) was able to refer to his empire as
"the Third Rome" and heir to the Byzantine tradition,
and a century later the Romanov dynasty was established under
Tsar Mikhail in 1613.
During Peter the Great's reign (1689-1725),
Russia began modernizing, and European influences spread in Russia.
Peter created Western-style military forces, subordinated the
Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy to the Tsar, reformed the entire
governmental structure, and established the beginnings of a Western-style
education system. His introduction of European customs generated
nationalistic resentments in society and spawned the philosophical
rivalry between "Westernizers" and nationalistic "Slavophiles"
that remains a key dynamic of current Russian social and political
thought.
Peter's expansionist policies were
continued by Catherine the Great, who established Russia as a
continental power. During her reign (1762-96), power was centralized
in the monarchy and administrative reforms concentrated great
wealth and privilege in the hands of the Russian nobility.
Napoleon failed in his attempt in
1812 to conquer Russia after occupying Moscow; his defeat and
the continental order that emerged following the Congress of Vienna
(1814-15) set the stage for Russia and Austria-Hungary to dominate
the affairs of eastern Europe for the next century.
During the 19th century, the Russian
Government sought to suppress repeated attempts at reform from
within. Its economy failed to compete with those of Western countries.
Russian cities were growing without an industrial base to generate
employment, although emancipation of the serfs in 1861 foreshadowed
urbanization and rapid industrialization late in the century.
At the same time, Russia expanded across Siberia until the port
of Vladivostok was opened on the Pacific coast in 1860. The Trans-Siberian
Railroad opened vast frontiers to development late in the century.
In the 19th century, Russian culture flourished as Russian artists
made significant contributions to world literature, visual arts,
dance, and music.
Imperial decline was evident in
Russia's defeat in the unpopular Russo-Japanese war in 1905. Subsequent
civic disturbances forced Tsar Nicholas II to grant a constitution
and introduce limited democratic reforms. The government suppressed
opposition and manipulated popular anger into anti-Semitic pogroms.
Attempts at economic reform, such as land reform, were incomplete.
1917
Revolution and the U.S.S.R.
The ruinous
effects of World War I, combined with internal pressures, sparked
the March 1917 uprising, which led Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate
the throne. A provisional government came to power, headed by
Aleksandr Kerenskiy. On November 7, 1917, the Bolshevik Party,
led by Vladimir Lenin, seized control and established the Russian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. Civil war broke out in 1918
between Lenin's "Red" army and various "White"
forces and lasted until 1920, when, despite foreign interventions,
the Bolsheviks triumphed. After the Red army conquered Ukraine,
Belorussia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, a new nation was
formed in 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The U.S.S.R. lasted 69 years. In
the 1930s, tens of millions of its citizens were collectivized
under state agricultural and industrial enterprises. Millions
died in political purges, the vast penal and labor system, or
in state-created famines. During World War II, as many as 20 million
Soviet citizens died. In 1949, the U.S.S.R. developed its own
nuclear arsenal.
First among its political figures
was Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Party and head of the first
Soviet Government, who died in 1924. In the late 1920s, Josif
Stalin emerged as General Secretary of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union (CPSU) amidst intraparty rivalries; he maintained
complete control over Soviet domestic and international policy
until his death in 1953. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, served
as Communist Party leader until he was ousted in 1964. Aleksey
Kosygin became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Leonid
Brezhnev was made First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
in 1964, but in 1971, Brezhnev rose to become "first among
equals" in a collective leadership. Brezhnev died in 1982
and was succeeded by Yuriy Andropov (1982-84), Konstantin Chernenko
(1984-85), and Mikhail Gorbachev, who resigned as Soviet President
on December 25, 1991. On December 26, 1991, the U.S.S.R. was formally
dissolved.
The
Russian Federation
After the December
1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation became
its largest successor state, inheriting its permanent seat on
the United Nations Security Council, as well as the bulk of its
foreign assets and debt.
Boris Yeltsin was elected President
of Russia by popular vote in June 1991. By the fall of 1993, politics
in Russia reached a stalemate between President Yeltsin and the
parliament. The parliament had succeeded in blocking, overturning,
or ignoring the President's initiatives on drafting a new constitution,
conducting new elections, and making further progress on democratic
and economic reforms.
In a dramatic speech in September
1993, President Yeltsin dissolved the Russian parliament and called
for new national elections and a new constitution. The standoff
between the executive branch and opponents in the legislature
turned violent in October after supporters of the parliament tried
to instigate an armed insurrection. Yeltsin ordered the army to
respond with force to capture the parliament building (known as
the White House).
In December 1993, voters elected
a new parliament and approved a new constitution that had been
drafted by the Yeltsin government. Yeltsin has remained the dominant
political figure, although a broad array of parties, including
ultra-nationalists, liberals, agrarians, and communists, have
substantial representation in the parliament and compete actively
in elections at all levels of government.
In late 1994, the Russian security
forces launched a brutal operation in the Republic of Chechnya
against rebels who were intent on separation from Russia. Along
with their opponents, Russian forces committed numerous violations
of human rights. The Russian Army used heavy weapons against civilians.
Tens of thousands of them were killed and more than 500,000 displaced
during the course of the war. The protracted conflict, which received
close scrutiny in the Russian media, raised serious human rights
and humanitarian concerns abroad as well as within Russia.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to institute a cease-fire,
in August 1996 the Russian and Chechen authorities negotiated
a settlement that resulted in a complete withdrawal of Russian
troops and the holding of elections in January 1997. The Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) played a major role
in facilitating the negotiation. A peace treaty was concluded
in May 1997. Following an August 1999 attack into Dagestan by
Chechan separatists and the September 1999 bombings of two apartment
buildings in Moscow, the federal government launched a military
campaign into Chechnya. Russian authorities accused the Chechan
government of failing to stop the growth of the rebels activities
and failure to curb widespread banditry and hostage taking in
the republic. By spring 2000, federal forces claimed control over
Chechan territory, but fighting continues as rebel fighters regularly
ambush Russian forces in the region
.
