A Short History of Russia: How to Understand the World's Most Complex Nation

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The culture of the Slavic tribes on the eve of the ancient Russian state was marked with the creation of the Slavic alphabet by Cyril and Methodius in the middle of the 9th Century. The Russian language has become a source of cultural history, being at that time very similar to other Slavic languages. The end of the century set the stage for the reign of Prince Oleg, famous for the unification of the Novgorod and Kiev regencies, and later the transfer of the capital from Novgorod to Kiev. The newly born kingdom conquered the tribes of Krivichi, Drevlyane, the Severians, and Radimichi and formed the Kievan Rus. In the early Thirteenth Century the large Mongol state formed in Central Asia. The territory occupied by Mongolian tribes, stretched from lake Baikal, the upper reaches of Yenisei River and Irtysh River in the north down to the southern regions of the Gobi Desert. On behalf of one of their principal tribes, the Mongols also wore the name of Tatars. Until the early thirties of the Thirteenth Century, the Mongol-Tatars engaged in wars in China and Central Asia, strategically explored the future theater of military invasions, and collected information on the political situation and economic and military capabilities of European countries. Also in need of some editing cleanup. The Organic Staute of 1832 under Nicolas I says: "the kingdom of Poland shall never cease to be an integral part of our empire - and that they shall henceforth form with the Russians one single nation, one fraternal people." The first major East Slavic state, Kievan Rus, is founded and led by the Viking Oleg of Novgorod (although some historians dispute this account). Kiev becomes the capital 20 years later. October 1962: The 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis leads Americans to fear nuclear war is at hand with the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev eventually agrees to remove the missiles, while President John F. Kennedy agrees to not invade Cuba and remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.

You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. The Great Patriotic War, as World War Two is known in Russia, is a central feature of the country’s identity. The heroic sacrifice of over 26 million Russians in the fight against Nazi Germany, including upwards of 10 million military personnel, is a defining feature in the country’s historical memory. By comparison, the United States lost 407,000 service members and the United Kingdom 383,000. From a western perspective, it is hard to fathom that kind of loss and the impact that it had on a country. The crisis provoked a patriotic national uprising against the invasion, both in 1611 and 1612. A volunteer army, led by the merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky, expelled the foreign forces from the capital on 4 November[ O.S. 22 October]1612. [82] [83] [84] World War II begins, and, in accord with a pact between Stalin and Adolf Hitler, Russia invades Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. Germany breaks the agreement in 1941, invading Russia, which then joins the Allies. The Russian army’s win at the Battle of Stalingrad serves as a major turning point in ending the war. After Russian armies liberated allied Georgia from Persian occupation in 1802, they clashed with Persia over control and consolidation over Georgia, as well as the Iranian territories that comprise modern-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They also became involved in the Caucasian War against the Caucasian Imamate and Circassia. In 1813, the war with Persia concluded with a Russian victory, forcing Qajar Iran to cede swaths of its territories in the Caucasus to Russia, [107] which drastically increased its territory in the region. To the south-west, Russia tried to expand at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, using Georgia at its base for the Caucasus and Anatolian front.Although the Russian Empire would play a leading role on behalf of conservatism as late as 1848, its retention of serfdom precluded economic progress of any significant degree. As West European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial Revolution, sea trade and colonialism which had begun in the second half of the 18th century, Russia began to lag ever farther behind, undermining its ability to field strong armies. March 11, 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary of the Communist Party, and, thus, effectively Russia’s leader. His reform efforts include perestroika (restructuring the Russian economy), glasnost (greater openness) and summit talks with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to end the Cold War. In 1990, he is elected president, the same year he wins the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end. June 12, 1991: Boris Yeltsin wins Russia’s first popular presidential election, urging democracy. Soviet Union Falls His presentation of Russia as a bulwark against the decadent and morally corrupt west is no different than Russia’s presentation of itself as the “third Rome” and the “cradle of true Christendom.” Yet today he uses it to advance his political interests in a cynical effort to retain power by mobilizing an older generation uncomfortable with the LGBT community.

Otro excelente libro para conocer la historia de Rusia, con muy buenos capítulo y subcapítulos, cortos y concisos, en el que la prosa es sencilla de leer. The struggle to define Russia as European is also a repeated theme. For as much as its leaders tried to make it European in customs, court, and appearance, old Europe seemed to reject it as Asian, still struggling with the legacy of the Mongol rule. It may have had the trappings of a European court, but it was just enough of the “other” to not be welcomed into the family, as it were. Palimpsest and Hypertext A major factor in the ascendancy of Moscow was the cooperation of its rulers with the Mongol overlords, who granted them the title of Grand Prince of Moscow and made them agents for collecting the Tatar tribute from the Russian principalities. The principality's prestige was further enhanced when it became the center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Its head, the Metropolitan, fled from Kiev to Vladimir in 1299 and a few years later established the permanent headquarters of the Church in Moscow under the original title of Kiev Metropolitan. It is also hard for the West to understand how the Russians, whether politically prompted or otherwise, grate at the fact that in Western narratives it is the United States and the United Kingdom that saved the world from the tyranny of Nazis. In reality three-quarters of Germany’s losses were at the hands of the Soviet Union.Daniil Aleksandrovich, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, founded the principality of Moscow (known as Muscovy in English), [51] which first cooperated with and ultimately expelled the Tatars from Russia. Well-situated in the central river system of Russia and surrounded by protective forests and marshes, Moscow was at first only a vassal of Vladimir, but soon it absorbed its parent state. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th is known as the Silver Age of Russian culture. The Silver Age was dominated by the artistic movements of Russian Symbolism, Acmeism, and Russian Futurism, many poetic schools flourished, including the Mystical Anarchism tendency within the Symbolist movement. The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russian Empire and Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960.