Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A Three-Dimensional View
Interstate relations - relations between the Russian state and other states Russias internal conditions social development and transformation, social structure, ethnic composition, available resources, state-society relations, political consciousness, balance of political forces, etc. Transnational relations Russia has been involved in movement of people, goods, information, technology, money; ethnic, cultural (including religious), political ties
To understand Russias international behaviour, we will view it through this three-dimensional prism, looking for historically-specific combinations and interactions of interstate, internal, and transnational factors at work
Eurasia: a supercontinent consisting of two continents Unity and divisions of the supercontinent The Coastlands and the Heartland. The Heartland and the Rimland Land Rivers Seas Winds Temperature
Human settlement patterns Search and struggle for resources Potential for development Degree of security http://stort.unepwcmc.org/imaps/gb2002/book/viewer. htm
Security-development interactions
Costs of development and security: four basic modes of interaction D-costs high, S-costs high (Russia) D-costs low, S-costs low (USA, Canada) D-costs high, S-costs low (Scandinavia) D-costs low, S-costs high (?)
EURASIA, 1288
The belt between the Baltic and the Adriatic East European state-forming nations: Greeks Germans Slavs Eastern: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians Western: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks Southern: Serbs, Croatians, Slovenians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Bulgarians Hungarians (Magyars) Finns Balts (Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians) Romanians (19th-century name) Albanians Turks Tatars
Russia
Kiev Rus (9th-13th centuries) Domain of the Tatar-Mongol empire (13th-15th centuries) Moscovy (15th-17th centuries) The Russian Empire (18th century-1917) The Soviet Union (1917-1991) The Russian Federation (1991- today)
EUROPE 0001
EUROPE 1000
EUROPE 1600
NATION-STATES VS. EMPIRES A 3-way conflict of civilizations for control of Eastern Europe. Objects of the struggle:
Resources Trade routes Security THE RISE OF EMPIRES Western Christian (German) successors to the Western Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire, later the Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary) and the Hohenzollern Empire (Germany) Orthodox Christian (Russian) successor to Eastern Roman Empire (The Romanov Empire) Muslim (Turkish) successor to the Arab Caliphate (The Ottoman Empire)
EUROPE 1900
In the Modern Age, Russia expanded to take control of most of the Eurasian Heartland Gradually, it filled much of the space first integrated by the Mongols Expansion was driven by:
Struggle for independence and security Struggle for control of resources and trade routes Human settlement Imperial inertia and the internal interests maintaining it
Chengiz Khan
Russian countryside
The state was huge, costly, militarized Society (especially the peasantry) was heavily exploited and closely controlled by the state The political system was autocratic-patrimonial, with the monarch being the sole source of sovereignty The church was subservient to the state Individual rights and liberties were severely curbed Market economy had very limited potential for development When reforms became overdue, the state acted as the main agent of change, usually with limited effect Society had no legal means of influencing government policies the people had an impact on the state either by obedience to it or by resistance to it (passive or active)
What kept the system going was its battle order: NO CITIZENS JUST SOLDIERS, OFFICERS, AND WORKERS WHO FED THE ARMY The system was designed primarily for war. Successful wars kept it going. Failed wars undermined it.
Tsar Ivan The Terrible Kills His Son (from Ilya Repins painting)
Russia under Polish rule: False Dimitry and Marina Mnishek (1609)
Kuzma Minin and Prince Pozharsky: leaders of the antiPolish revolution (1609)
Tsar Peter the Great, Founder of the Russian Empire (reign 1682-1725)
St. Petersburg
Borodino
Moscow on Fire
(reign 18811894)
Nicholas II, the last Tsar, Emperor of all Russias (reign 18941917)
1/3 of the German level 1/7 of the British level of the French and Austrian levels
*Richard Pipes, Russia Under the old Regime. Penguin Books, 1974, p.8
The image of stability vs. The potential for revolution Lenins conversation with a police investigator: Yes, it is a wall, but it is all rotten: just push it, and it will fall down REFORM VS. REVOLUTION: IS THE SYSTEM REFORMABLE? RUSSIAS REBELS Cossack uprisings of 17th and 18th centuries (Razin, Bolotnikov, Pugachev) The Decembrists 1825 The Revolutionary Democrats (Chernyshevsky, Herzen) The Populists The Anarchists (Kropotkin, Bakunin) The Social Democrats (Plekhanov, Lenin)
From the triumph of 1812 (victory over Napoleon) to the disaster of 1855 (defeat in the Crimean War)
The pressures for change The reforms of Alexander II Development of capitalism vs. Political modernization Capitalism was creating new classes, new issues, new conflicts and the state was expected to evolve to be able to deal with them. But the Russian state was not up to the task. It was not part of the solution, it was the source of additional problems
By the end of the 19th century, the flaws of the Russian system become manifest The gap between Europe and Russia widens fast, the Russian system is too inefficient, too rigid, resistant to reform The 1904-05 war with Japan and then World War I exhaust the Russian state and expose its flaws 1905-1917: 12 YEARS OF UPHEAVAL WHICH DESTROYED THE RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY AND EMPIRE