Difference between revisions 895254 and 899586 on iowiki

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| style="background: #1111A2; border:1px solid #1111A2; text-align: center; padding: 0 2px;" | <big><big>'''[[Historio di Rusia|<span style="color: white; text-decoration: #00B0C7;">Historio di Rusia</span></div>]]'''</big></big>
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|align="center"|[[Arkivo:Flag-map of the Russian Federation.svg|200px]]

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|style="padding: 0.3em; background-color: #1111A2"| <center><span style="color: white; text-decoration: #00B0C7;">'''Alta Mez-Epoko'''</span></center>
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* [[Frua Slavi]]/[[Rus' people|Rus']] | <small>pre-9th century</small>
* [[Volga-Bolgaria]] | <small>7th–13th century</small>
* [[Khazari|Khazara Khaganato]] | <small>7th–10th century</small>
* [[Rusa Khaganato]] | <small>9th century</small>
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|style="padding: 0.3em; background-color: #1111A2"|<center><span style="color: white; text-decoration: #00B0C7;">'''Basa Mez-Epoko'''</span></center>
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* [[Kievan Rus']] | 882–1240
* [[Princio di Vladimir-Suzdal‎|Vladimir-Suzdal‎]] | 1157–1331
* [[Republiko di Novgorod]] | 1136–1478
* [[Orea Hordo]] | 1240s–1480
* [[Granda dukio di Moskva|Granda dukio]] | 1283–1547
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|style="padding: 0.3em; background-color: #1111A2"| <center><span style="color: white; text-decoration: #00B0C7;">'''Moderna ero'''</span></center>
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* [[Cario di Rusia]] | 1547–1721
* [[Rusian imperio]] | 1721–1917
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|style="padding: 0.3em; background-color: #1111A2"| <center><span style="color: white; text-decoration: #00B0C7;">'''Nun-tempala ero'''</span></center>
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* [[Rusiana republiko]] | 1917
* [[Socialista Sovieta Republiko di Rusia|SSR di Rusia]] | 1917–1922
* [[Sovietia]]| 1922–1991
* [[Rusia]] | 1991–present
|}
[[File:Gosudarstvennost2002.jpg|thumb|The [[Millennium of Russia]] monument (was opened on 8th September 1862) on a postage stamp dedicated to the 1140th anniversary of the [[Russia]]n statehood in 2002]]

The '''history of Russia''' begins with that of the [[Eastern Slavs]] and the [[Finno-Ugric peoples]]. The state of [[Garðaríki]] ("the realm of towns"), which was centered in [[Novgorod]]  and included the entire areas inhabited by [[Ilmen Slavs]], [[Vepsians|Veps]], and [[Votes]], was established by the Varangian chieftain [[Rurik]] in 862 (the traditional beginning of Russian history).  [[Kievan Rus']], the first united [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] state, was founded by Rurik's successor [[Oleg of Novgorod]] in 882.  The state [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire]] in 988,  beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and [[Slavs|Slavic]] cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium.   Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of the [[Mongol invasion of Rus']] in 1237–1240 and the death of about half the population of Rus'.{{Citation needed|date=August 2014}} During that time, a number of regional magnates, in particular Novgorod and Pskov, fought to inherit the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'.

After the 13th century, Moscow became a cultural center. By the 18th century, the [[Tsardom of Russia]] had become the huge [[Russian Empire]], stretching from the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] eastward to the Pacific Ocean. Expansion in the western direction sharpened Russia's awareness of its separation from much of the rest of Europe and shattered the isolation in which the initial stages of expansion had occurred. Successive regimes of the 19th century responded to such pressures with a combination of halfhearted reform and repression. [[Russian serfdom]] was [[Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia|abolished in 1861]], but its abolition was achieved on terms unfavorable to the [[peasant]]s and served to increase revolutionary pressures. Between the abolition of serfdom and the beginning of [[World War I]] in 1914, the [[Stolypin reform]]s, the [[Russian Constitution of 1906|constitution of 1906]], and [[Duma|State Duma]] attempted to open and liberalize the economy and politics of Russia but the tsars were still not willing to relinquish autocratic rule or share their power.

The [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]] in 1917 was triggered by a combination of economic breakdown, [[war-weariness]], and discontent with the autocratic system of government, and it first brought a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists to power, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist]] [[Bolshevik]]s on 25 October. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of Russia is essentially the [[history of the Soviet Union]], effectively an ideologically based state which was roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history, from the mixed economy and diverse society and culture of the 1920s to the command economy and repressions of the [[Joseph Stalin]] era to the "era of stagnation" in the 1980s. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918.  However, by the mid 1980s, with the weaknesses of its economic and political structures becoming acute, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] embarked on major reforms, which led to the fall of the Soviet Union. 
The [[History of post-Soviet Russia|history]] of the [[Russian Federation]] officially starts in January 1992. The Russian Federation was the legal successor to the Soviet Union on the international stage.  However, Russia has lost its superpower status after facing serious challenges in its efforts to forge a new post-Soviet political and economic system. Scrapping the socialist [[planned economy|central planning]] and state ownership of property of the Soviet era, Russia attempted to build an economy based on market capitalism, often with painful results.  Since the new millennium, [[Vladimir Putin]] has been its dominant leader. Even today Russia shares many continuities of political culture and social structure with its tsarist and Soviet past.

==Prehistorio==
{{PA|Steppe nomads|Scythians|Scythia|Proto-Uralic|Paleo-Siberian}}
{{PA|Pontic-Caspian steppe|Domestication of the horse|Kama culture|Pit–Comb Ware culture}}
[[File:IE expansion.png|thumb|300px|The [[Kurgan hypothesis]]: South Russia as the [[urheimat]] of [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European peoples]].]]

In 2006,  1.5-million-year-old [[Oldowan]] flint tools were discovered in the [[Dagestan]] Akusha region of the north Caucasus, demonstrating the presence of early humans in Russia from a very early time.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Chepalyga|first1=A.L.|last2=Amirkhanov|first2=Kh.A.|last3=Trubikhin|first3=V.M.|last4=Sadchikova|first4=T.A.|last5=Pirogov|first5=A.N.|last6=Taimazov|first6=A.I.|title=Geoarchaeology of the earliest paleolithic sites (Oldowan) in the North Caucasus and the East Europe|url=http://paleogeo.org/article3.html|publication-date=2011|accessdate=2013-12-18|quote=Early Paleolithic cultural layers with tools of oldowan type was discovered in East Caucasus (Dagestan, Russia) by Kh. Amirkhanov (2006) [...]}}</ref> 
The discovery of some of the earliest evidence for the presence of anatomically modern humans found anywhere in Europe was reported in 2007 from the deepest levels of the Kostenki archaeological site near the Don River in Russia, which has been dated to at least 40,000 years ago.<ref>http://archaeology.about.com/od/earlymansites/a/kostenki.htm</ref> [[Mamontovaya Kurya|Arctic Russia]] was reached by 40,000 years ago.
That Russia was also home to some of the last surviving [[Neanderthal]]s was revealed by the discovery of the partial skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in [[Mezmaiskaya cave]] in [[Adygea]], which was carbon dated to only 29,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v404/n6777/full/404490a0.html?free=2|title=Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus|accessdate=13 March 2011|author=Igor V. Ovchinnikov|last=|first=|authorlink= |author2=Anders Götherström |author3=Galina P. Romanova |author4=Vitaliy M. Kharitonov |author5=Kerstin Lidén |author6=William Goodwin|date=30 March 2000|work=|publisher=[[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] '''404'''|pages= 490&ndash;493|doi=10.1038/35006625|archiveurl=|archivedate=|volume=404|issue=6777|pmid=10761915|journal=Nature}}</ref> In 2008, Russian [[Archaeology|archaeologists]] from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of [[Novosibirsk]], working at the site of [[Denisova Cave]] in the [[Altai Mountains]] of [[Siberia]], uncovered a 40,000 year old small bone fragment from the fifth finger of a juvenile [[hominin]], which DNA analysis revealed to be a previously unknown species of human, which was named the [[Denisova hominin]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210/& | work=The New York Times | first=Alanna | last=Mitchell | title=Gains in DNA Are Speeding Research Into Human Origins | date=30 January 2012}}</ref>

During the prehistoric eras the vast [[steppe]]s of Southern Russia were home to [[tribe]]s of [[nomadic pastoralists]]. In classical antiquity, the [[Pontic Steppe]] was known as [[Scythia]].<ref name = Belinskij>{{cite journal|last=Belinskij|first=Andrej|author2=H. Härke|title=The 'Princess' of Ipatovo|journal=Archeology|volume=52|issue=2|date=March–April 1999|url=http://cat.he.net/~archaeol/9903/newsbriefs/ipatovo.html|accessdate=26 December 2007}}</ref> Remnants of these long gone steppe cultures were discovered in the course of the 20th century in such places as [[Ipatovo kurgan|Ipatovo]],<ref name = Belinskij/> [[Sintashta]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Drews | first = Robert |author-link= Robert Drews | title = Early Riders: The beginnings of mounted warfare in Asia and Europe | year = 2004 | publisher=Routledge | location = New York | page = 50 | isbn = 0-415-32624-9}}</ref> [[Arkaim]],<ref>Dr. Ludmila Koryakova, "[http://www.csen.org/koryakova2/Korya.Sin.Ark.html Sintashta-Arkaim Culture]" The Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads (CSEN). Retrieved 20 July 2007.</ref> and [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]].<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html 1998 NOVA documentary: "Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden"] Transcript.</ref>

==Frua historio==

===Antiqueso===
{{PA|Bosporan Kingdom|Goths|Huns|Turkic migration|Khazaria}}

In the latter part of the 8th century BC, Greek merchants brought [[classical civilization]] to the trade emporiums in [[Tanais]] and [[Phanagoria]].<ref>Esther Jacobson, ''The Art of the Scythians: The Interpenetration of Cultures at the Edge of the Hellenic World'', Brill, 1995, p. 38. ISBN 90-04-09856-9.</ref> [[Gelonus]] was described by [[Herodotos]] as a huge (Europe's biggest) earth- and wood-fortified [[Grad (Slavic settlement)|grad]] inhabited around 500 BC by Heloni and [[Budini]]. At about the 2nd century AD Goths migrated to the Black Sea, and in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, a semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of [[Oium]] existed in Southern Russia until it was overrun by [[Huns]]. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the [[Bosporan Kingdom]], a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies,<ref>Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (ed), ''The Greek Colonisation of the Black Sea Area: Historical Interpretation of Archaeology'', F. Steiner, 1998, p. 48. ISBN 3-515-07302-7.</ref> was also overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions,<ref>Peter Turchin, ''Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall'', Princeton University Press, 2003, pp. 185–186. ISBN 0-691-11669-5.</ref> led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with the [[Huns]] and [[Avars (Carpathians)|Turkish Avars]].

A Turkic people, the [[Khazars]], ruled the lower [[Volga River|Volga]] basin [[steppe]]s between the [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] and [[Black Sea]]s through to the 8th century.<ref name = Christian>David Christian, ''A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia'', Blackwell Publishing, 1998, pp. 286–288. ISBN 0-631-20814-3.</ref> Noted for their laws, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism,<ref>Frank Northen Magill, ''Magill's Literary Annual, 1977'' Salem Press, 1977, p. 818. ISBN 0-89356-077-4.</ref> the Khazars were the main commercial link between the Baltic and the Muslim [[Abbasid]] empire centered in [[Baghdad]].<ref>André Wink, ''Al-Hind, the Making of an Indo-Islamic World'', Brill, 2004, p. 35. ISBN 90-04-09249-8.</ref> They were important allies of the [[Byzantine Empire]],<ref>András Róna-Tas, ''Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History'', Central European University Press, 1999, p. 257. ISBN 963-9116-48-3.</ref> and waged a series of successful wars against the [[Arab]] [[Caliphate]]s.<ref name = Christian/><ref name = Frank>Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman, ''History of Jewish Philosophy'', Routledge, 1997, p. 196. ISBN 0-415-08064-9.</ref> In the 8th century, the Khazars embraced Judaism.<ref name = Frank/>

===Early East Slavs===
{{Main|Early East Slavs|Rus' Khaganate}}
[[File:Muromian-map.png|thumb|300px|A general map of the cultures in European Russia at the arrival of the [[Varangian]]s and before the beginning of the Slavic colonization.]]

Some of the ancestors of the modern  [[Russians]] were the [[Slavic peoples|Slavic tribes]], whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the [[Pripet Marshes]].<ref>For a discussion of Slavic origins, see Paul M. Barford, ''The Early Slavs'', Cornell University Press, 2001, pp. 15–16. ISBN 0-8014-3977-9.</ref> The [[Early East Slavs]] gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from [[Kiev]] towards present-day [[Suzdal]] and [[Murom]] and another from [[Polotsk]] towards [[Novgorod]] and [[Rostov]].<ref name = Christian2>David Christian, op cit., pp. 6–7.</ref>

From the 7th century onwards, East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia<ref name = Christian2/> and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native [[Finno-Ugric peoples|Finno-Ugric]] tribes, such as the [[Merya]],<ref>Henry K Paszkiewicz, ''The Making of the Russian Nation'', Darton, Longman & Todd, 1963, p. 262.</ref> the [[Muroma|Muromians]],<ref>Rosamond McKitterick, ''The New Cambridge Medieval History'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 497. ISBN 0-521-36447-7.</ref> and the [[Meshchera]].<ref name = Mongait>[[Aleksandr Lʹvovich Mongaĭt]], ''Archeology in the U.S.S.R.'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1959, p. 335.</ref>

===Kievan Rus' (882–1283)===
{{PA|Kievan Rus}}
[[Scandinavia]]n Norsemen, called "[[Vikings]]" in Western Europe and "[[Varangian]]s"<ref>See, for instance, [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057004/Oleg Viking (Varangian) Oleg] and [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064445/Rurik Viking (Varangian) Rurik] at [[Encyclopædia Britannica]].</ref> in the East, combined [[piracy]] and trade in their roamings over much of Northern Europe. In the mid-9th century, they began to venture along the waterways from the eastern [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] to the [[Black Sea|Black]] and [[Caspian Sea]]s.<ref>Dimitri Obolensky, ''Byzantium and the Slavs'', St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1994, p. 42. ISBN 0-88141-008-X.</ref> According to the [[Russian Primary Chronicle|earliest Russian chronicle]], a Varangian named [[Rurik]] was elected ruler ([[grand prince|''knyaz'']]) of Novgorod in about 860,<ref name = Curtis>[http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Kievan.html Kievan Rus' and Mongol Periods], excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), ''Russia: A Country Study'', Department of the Army, 1998. ISBN 0-16-061212-8.</ref> before his successors moved south and extended their authority to [[Kiev]],<ref>James Westfall Thompson, and Edgar Nathaniel Johnson, ''An Introduction to Medieval Europe, 300–1500'', W. W. Norton & Co., 1937, p. 268.</ref> which had been previously dominated by the Khazars.<ref>David Christian, Op cit. p. 343.</ref> Oleg, Rurik's son [[Igor of Kiev|Igor]] and Igor's son [[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Sviatoslav]] subsequently subdued all local [[East Slavs|East Slavic]] tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the [[Khazar khaganate]] and launched several military expeditions to [[Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus'|Byzantium]] and [[Caspian expeditions of the Rus'|Persia]].

Thus, the first East Slavic state, [[Kievan Rus|Rus']]', emerged in the 9th century along the [[Dnieper River]] valley.<ref name = Curtis/> A coordinated group of princely states with a common interest in maintaining trade along the river routes, Kievan Rus' controlled [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|the trade route for furs, wax, and slaves]] between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire along the [[Volkhov River|Volkhov]] and Dnieper Rivers.<ref name = Curtis/>

By the end of the 10th century, the [[Old Norse language|Norse]] minority had merged with the Slavic population,<ref>Particularly among the aristocracy. See [http://history-world.org/BYZ4.htm World History]. Retrieved 22 July 2007.</ref> which also absorbed [[Byzantine Greece|Greek]] Christian influences in the course of the multiple [[Rus'–Byzantine War (disambiguation)|campaigns]] to loot [[Tsargrad]], or [[Constantinople]].<ref>See Dimitri Obolensky, "Russia's Byzantine Heritage," in ''Byzantium & the Slavs'', St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1994, pp. 75–108. ISBN 0-88141-008-X.</ref> One such campaign claimed the life of the foremost Slavic [[druzhina]] leader, [[Svyatoslav I]], who was renowned for having crushed the power of the [[Khazars]] on the Volga.<ref>Serhii Plokhy, ''The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 13. ISBN 0-521-86403-8.</ref> At the time, the [[Byzantine Empire]] was experiencing a major military and cultural revival; despite its later decline, its culture would have a continuous influence on the development of Russia in its formative centuries.

[[File:Kievan-rus-1015-1113-(en).png|thumb|left|250px|Kievan Rus' after the [[Council of Liubech]] in 1097]]

Kievan Rus' is important for its introduction of a [[Russian Orthodox Church|Slavic variant]] of the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] religion,<ref name = Curtis/> dramatically deepening a synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next thousand years. The region adopted Christianity in 988 by the official act of public [[Baptism of Kievan Rus'|baptism]] of Kiev inhabitants by [[Vladimir I of Kiev|Prince Vladimir I]].<ref>See [http://www.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/christin.html The Christianisation of Russia], an account of Vladimir's baptism, followed by the baptism of the entire population of Kiev, as described in ''The Russian Primary Chronicle''.</ref> Some years later the first code of laws, [[Russkaya Pravda]], was introduced.<ref name = Smith>Gordon Bob Smith, ''Reforming the Russian Legal System'', Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 2–3. ISBN 0-521-45669-X.</ref> From the onset the Kievan princes followed the Byzantine example and kept the Church dependent on them, even for its revenues,<ref>P. N. Fedosejev, ''The Comparative Historical Method in Soviet Mediaeval Studies'', USSR Academy of Sciences, 1979. p. 90.</ref> so that the Russian Church and state were always closely linked.

By the 11th century, particularly during the reign of [[Yaroslav the Wise]], Kievan Rus' displayed an economy and achievements in architecture and literature superior to those that then existed in the western part of the continent.<ref>Russell Bova, ''Russia and Western Civilization: Cultural and Historical Encounters'', M.E. Sharpe, 2003, p. 13. ISBN 0-7656-0976-2.</ref> Compared with the languages of European Christendom, the [[Russian language]] was little influenced by the [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] of early Christian writings.<ref name = Curtis /> This was because [[Church Slavonic]] was used directly in [[liturgy]] instead.<ref>Timothy Ware: ''The Orthodox Church'' (Penguin, 1963; 1997 revision) p.74</ref>

A nomadic Turkic people, the [[Kipchaks]] (also known as the Cumans), replaced the earlier [[Pechenegs]] as the dominant force in the south steppe regions neighbouring to Rus' at the end of the 11th century and founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea (Desht-e-Kipchak). Repelling their regular attacks, especially on Kiev, which was just one day's ride from the steppe, was a heavy burden for the southern areas of Rus'. The nomadic incursions caused a massive influx of Slavs to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as [[Zalesye]].

Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of in-fighting between members of the princely family that ruled it collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of [[Vladimir-Suzdal]] in the north-east, [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] in the north, and [[Halych-Volhynia]] in the south-west. Conquest by the [[Mongol]] [[Golden Horde]] in the 13th century was the final blow. Kiev was destroyed.<ref name="Hamm">In 1240. See Michael Franklin Hamm, ''Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917'', Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-691-02585-1</ref> Halych-Volhynia would eventually be absorbed into the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]],<ref name = Curtis/> while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and independent [[Novgorod Republic]], two regions on the periphery of Kiev, would establish the basis for the modern Russian nation.<ref name = Curtis/>

===Mongol invasion (1223–1240)===
{{Main|Mongol invasion of Rus'|Tatar invasions}}
[[File:Sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan.jpg|thumb|The Sacking of [[Suzdal]] by [[Batu Khan]] in February 1238: a [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature]] from the 16th-century chronicle]]
The invading Mongols accelerated the fragmentation of the Rus'. In 1223, the disunited southern princes faced a Mongol raiding party at the [[Battle of the Kalka River|Kalka River]] and were soundly defeated.<ref>See [[David Nicolle]], ''Kalka River 1223: Genghiz Khan's Mongols Invade Russia'', Osprey Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84176-233-4.</ref> In 1237–1238 the Mongols burnt down the city of [[Vladimir]] (4 February 1238)<ref>Tatyana Shvetsova, [http://www.vor.ru/English/homeland/home_004.html The Vladimir Suzdal Principality]. Retrieved 21 July 2007.</ref> and other major cities of northeast Russia, routed the Russians [[Battle of the Sit River|at the Sit' River]],<ref>Janet Martin, ''Medieval Russia, 980–1584'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 139. ISBN 0-521-36832-4.</ref> and then moved west into [[Poland]] and [[Hungary]]. By then they had conquered most of the Russian principalities.<ref>[https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html The Destruction of Kiev]</ref> Only the Novgorod Republic escaped occupation and continued to flourish in the orbit of the [[Hanseatic League]].<ref>Jennifer Mills, [http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/hansa.html The Hanseatic League in the Eastern Baltic], SCAND 344, May 1998. Retrieved 21 July 2007.</ref>

The impact of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus' was uneven. The advanced city culture was almost completely destroyed. As older centers such as Kiev and Vladimir never recovered from the devastation of the initial attack,<ref name="Hamm" /> the new cities of Moscow,<ref name = Curtis2>[http://countrystudies.us/russia/3.htm Muscovy], excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), ''Russia: A Country Study'', Department of the Army, 1998. ISBN 0-16-061212-8.</ref> [[Tver]]<ref name = Curtis2/> and [[Nizhny Novgorod]]<ref>Sigfried J. De Laet, ''History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development'', Taylor & Francis, 2005, p. 196. ISBN 92-3-102814-6.</ref> began to compete for hegemony in the Mongol-dominated Russia. Although a Russian army defeated the [[Golden Horde]] at [[Battle of Kulikovo|Kulikovo]] in 1380,<ref name = Kulikovo>[http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/battles/Kulikovo/index.html The Battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380)]. Retrieved 22 July 2007.</ref> [[Mongol]] domination of the Russian-inhabited territories, along with demands of tribute from Russian princes, continued until about 1480.<ref name = Curtis2/>

===Russo-Tatar relations===
{{Main|Volga Bulgaria|Golden Horde}}
[[File:Semiradsky Aleksandr Nevsky v Orde.jpg|thumb|left|[[Alexander Nevsky]] in the [[Golden Horde]].]]
After the fall of the [[Khazars]] in the 10th century, the middle Volga came to be dominated by the mercantile state of [[Volga Bulgaria]], the last vestige of [[Great Bulgaria|Greater Bulgaria]] centered at [[Phanagoria]]. In the 10th century the Turkic population of Volga Bulgaria converted to [[Islam]], which facilitated its trade with the Middle East and Central Asia.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} In the wake of the [[Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria|Mongol invasions]] of the 1230s, Volga Bulgaria was absorbed by the [[Golden Horde]] and its population evolved into the modern [[Chuvash people|Chuvashes]] and [[Tatars|Kazan Tatars]].

The Mongols held Russia and Volga Bulgaria in sway from their western capital at [[Sarai (city)|Sarai]],<ref name = "history world">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa76|title=History of the Mongols|accessdate=26 July 2007|publisher=History World}}</ref> one of the largest cities of the medieval world. The princes of southern and eastern Russia had to pay tribute to the Mongols of the Golden Horde, commonly called [[Tatars]];<ref name = "history world"/> but in return they received charters authorizing them to act as deputies to the khans. In general, the princes were allowed considerable freedom to rule as they wished,<ref name = "history world"/> while the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] even experienced a spiritual revival under the guidance of [[Metropolitan Alexis]] and [[Sergius of Radonezh]].

To the Orthodox Church and most princes, the fanatical [[Northern Crusades|Northern Crusaders]] seemed a greater threat to the Russian way of life than the Mongols. In the mid-13th century, [[Alexander Nevsky]], elected prince of Novgorod, acquired heroic status as the result of major victories over the [[Teutonic Knights]] and the [[Swedish people|Swedes]]. Alexander obtained Mongol protection and assistance in fighting invaders from the west who, hoping to profit from the Russian collapse since the Mongol invasions, tried to grab territory and convert the Russians to Roman Catholicism. {{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}

The Mongols left their impact on the Russians in such areas as military tactics and transportation. Under Mongol occupation, Russia also developed its postal road network, census, fiscal system, and military organization.<ref name = Curtis/> Eastern influence remained strong well until the 17th century, when Russian rulers made a conscious effort to modernize their country.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

==Granda dukio di Moskva (1283–1547)==
{{PA|Granda dukio di Moskva}}

===Rise of Moscow===
[[File:Moscow daniel.jpg|thumb|During the reign of [[Daniel of Russia|Daniel]], Moscow was little more than a small timber fort lost in the forests of Central [[Rus' (region)|Rus']]]]
[[Daniil Aleksandrovich]], the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, founded the principality of Moscow (known as Muscovy in English),<ref name = Curtis2/> which eventually 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.

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 bishop|Metropolitan]], fled from Kiev to [[Vladimir-Suzdal|Vladimir]] in 1299 and a few years later established the permanent headquarters of the Church in Moscow under the original title of Kiev Metropolitan.

By the middle of the 14th century, the power of the Mongols was declining, and the Grand Princes felt able to openly oppose the [[Mongol yoke]]. In 1380, at [[Kulikovo]] on the [[Don River, Russia|Don River]], the Mongols were defeated,<ref name = Kulikovo /> and although this hard-fought victory did not end Tatar rule of Russia, it did bring great fame to the Grand Prince [[Dmitry Donskoy]]. Moscow's leadership in Russia was now firmly based and by the middle of the 14th century its territory had greatly expanded through purchase, war, and marriage.

===Ivan III, the Great===
{{Main|Ivan III of Russia}}
[[File:1000 Ivan III.jpg|thumb|left|180px|[[Ivan III of Russia]] at the [[Millennium of Russia]]]]
In the 15th century, the grand princes of Moscow went on gathering Russian lands to increase the population and wealth under their rule. The most successful practitioner of this process was [[Ivan III of Russia|Ivan III]]<ref name = Curtis2/> who laid the foundations for a Russian national state. Ivan competed with his powerful northwestern rival, the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], for control over some of the semi-independent [[Upper Principalities]] in the upper [[Dnieper River|Dnieper]] and [[Oka River]] basins.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/65/iv/Ivan3.html Ivan III], [[The Columbia Encyclopedia]], Sixth Edition. 2001–05.</ref><ref name="EB_IvanIII">[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-3598 Ivan III], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. 2007</ref>

Through the defections of some princes, border skirmishes, and a long war with the Novgorod Republic, Ivan III was able to annex Novgorod and Tver.<ref>Donald Ostrowski in ''The Cambridge History of Russia'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 234. ISBN 0-521-81227-5.</ref> As a result, the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] tripled in size under his rule.<ref name = Curtis2/> During his conflict with Pskov, a monk named [[Filofei]] (Philotheus of Pskov) composed a letter to Ivan III, with the prophecy that the latter's kingdom would be the [[Third Rome]].<ref name=EB3R>See e.g. [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-60463 Eastern Orthodoxy], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.</ref> The [[Fall of Constantinople]] and the death of the last Greek Orthodox Christian emperor contributed to this new idea of Moscow as 'New Rome' and the seat of Orthodox Christianity.<ref name = Curtis2/>

A contemporary of the [[Tudor dynasty|Tudors]] and other "new monarchs" in Western Europe, Ivan proclaimed his absolute sovereignty over all Russian princes and nobles. Refusing further tribute to the Tatars, Ivan initiated a series of attacks that opened the way for the complete defeat of the declining [[Golden Horde]], now divided into several [[Khanate]]s and hordes. Ivan and his successors sought to protect the southern boundaries of their domain against attacks of the [[Khanate of Crimea|Crimean Tatars]] and other hordes.<ref>[http://www.allempires.info/article/index.php?q=The_Crimean_Khanate The Tatar Khanate of Crimea]</ref> To achieve this aim, they sponsored the construction of the [[Great Abatis Belt]] and granted manors to nobles, who were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system provided a basis for an emerging cavalry based army.

In this way, internal consolidation accompanied outward expansion of the state. By the 16th century, the rulers of Moscow considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes still claimed specific territories,<ref name="EB_IvanIII"/> but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Moscow and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs. Gradually, the Russian ruler emerged as a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. The first Russian ruler to officially crown himself "[[Tsar]]" was [[Ivan IV]].<ref name = Curtis2/>

Ivan III tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the [[Golden Horde]] over the Rus, renovated the [[Moscow Kremlin]], and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Biographer Fennell concludes that his reign was "militarily glorious and economically sound," and especially points to his territorial annexations and his centralized control over local rulers. However Fennell, the leading British specialist on Ivan III, argues that his reign was also "a period of cultural depression and spiritual barrenness. Freedom was stamped out within the Russian lands. By his bigoted anti-Catholicism Ivan brought down the curtain between Russia and the west. For the sake of territorial aggrandizement he deprived his country of the fruits of Western learning and civilization."<ref>J. L. I. Fennell, ''Ivan the Great of Moscow'' (1961) p 354</ref>
{{Clear}}

==Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721)==
{{Main|Tsardom of Russia}}

===Ivan IV, the Terrible===
[[File:Kremlinpic4.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Ivan IV]]]]
The development of the Tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign (1547–1584) of [[Ivan IV of Russia|Ivan IV]] ("Ivan the Terrible").<ref>Tim McDaniel. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0yIABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 "Autocracy, Modernization, and Revolution in Russia and Iran"]. Princeton University Press, 14 jul. 2014 ISBN 1400861624 p 64</ref><ref>Kevin O'Connor. [https://books.google.com/books?id=b3b5nU4bnw4C&pg=PA23& "The History of the Baltic States"] Greenwood Publishing Group, 1 jan. 2003 ISBN 0313323550 p 23</ref> He strengthened the position of the monarch to an unprecedented degree, as he ruthlessly subordinated the nobles to his will, exiling or executing many on the slightest provocation.<ref name = Curtis2/> Nevertheless, Ivan is often seen as a farsighted statesman who reformed Russia as he promulgated a new code of laws ([[Sudebnik of 1550]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/russia/ivantheterrible.html|title=Ivan the Terrible|accessdate=23 July 2007|work=Minnesota State University Mankato}}</ref> established the first Russian feudal representative body ([[Zemsky Sobor]]), curbed the influence of clergy,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zenkovsky |first=Serge A. |date=October 1957  |title=The Russian Church Schism: Its Background and Repercussions|journal=Russian Review |volume=16 |issue=4 |page=37 |doi=10.2307/125748 |jstor=125748 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing}}</ref> and introduced the local self-management in rural regions.<ref>Skrynnikov R., "Ivan Grosny", p.58, M., AST, 2001</ref>

Although his long [[Livonian War]] for the control of the Baltic coast and the access to sea trade ultimately proved a costly failure,<ref>{{cite web|work=LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES|title=THE ORIGIN OF THE LIVONIAN WAR, 1558|accessdate=23 July 2007|author=William Urban|url=http://www.lituanus.org/1983_3/83_3_02.htm}}</ref> Ivan managed to annex the [[Khanate of Kazan|Khanates of Kazan]], [[Khanate of Astrakhan|Astrakhan]], and [[Siberia Khanate|Siberia]].<ref name = JMartin>Janet Martin, ''Medieval Russia, 980–1584'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 395. ISBN 0-521-36832-4.</ref> These conquests complicated the migration of the aggressive nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe through Volga and Ural.
Through these conquests, Russia acquired a significant Muslim Tatar population and emerged as a [[multiethnic]] and [[wikt:multiconfessional|multiconfessional]] state. Also around this period, the mercantile [[Stroganov]] family established a firm foothold at the [[Urals]] and recruited Russian [[Cossacks]] to colonise Siberia.<ref>[[Siberian Chronicles]], Строгановская Сибирская Летопись. изд. Спаским, СПб, 1821</ref>

In the later part of his reign, Ivan divided his realm in two. In the zone known as the ''[[oprichnina]]'', Ivan's followers carried out a series of bloody purges of the feudal aristocracy (which he suspected of treachery after the betrayal of prince Kurbsky), culminating in the [[Massacre of Novgorod]] (1570). This combined with the military losses, epidemics, poor harvests so weakened Russia that the [[Crimean Tatars]] were able to sack central Russian regions and [[Russo–Crimean War (1571)|burn down Moscow (1571)]].<ref>Skrynnikov R. "Ivan Grozny", M, 2001, pp.142–173</ref> In 1572 Ivan abandoned the ''oprichnina''.<ref>[[Robert I. Frost]] ''The Northern Wars: 1558–1721'' (Longman, 2000) pp.26–27</ref><ref>[http://www.economist.com/cities/printStory.cfm?obj_id=9141603&city_id=MCW Moscow – Historical background]</ref>

At the end of Ivan IV's reign the Polish–Lithuanian and Swedish armies carried out a powerful intervention in Russia, devastating its northern and northwest regions.<ref>Skrynnikov. "Ivan Grozny", M, 2001, pp.222–223</ref>

===Time of Troubles===
{{Main|Time of Troubles}}
[[File:Lissner.jpg|thumb|right|The Poles surrender the [[Moscow Kremlin]] to [[Prince Pozharsky]] in 1612]]
The death of Ivan's childless son [[Feodor I of Russia|Feodor]] was followed by a period of civil wars and foreign intervention known as the "[[Time of Troubles]]" (1606–13).<ref name = Curtis2/> Extremely cold summers (1601–1603) wrecked crops,<ref>Borisenkov E, Pasetski V. "The thousand-year annals of the extreme meteorological phenomena", ISBN 5-244-00212-0, p.190</ref> which led to the [[Russian famine of 1601–1603]] and increased the social disorganization. [[Boris Godunov]]'s (Борис Годунов) reign ended in chaos, civil war combined with foreign intrusion, devastation of many cities and depopulation of the rural regions. The country rocked by internal chaos also attracted several waves of interventions by the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].<ref>Solovyov. "History of Russia...", v.7, pp.533–535, pp.543–568</ref>

During the [[Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)]], Polish–Lithuanian forces reached Moscow and installed the impostor [[False Dmitriy I]] in 1605, then supported [[False Dmitry II]] in 1607. The decisive moment came when a combined Russian-Swedish army was routed by the Polish forces under [[hetman]] [[Stanisław Żółkiewski]] at the [[Battle of Klushino]] on {{OldStyleDate|4 July|1610|24 June}}. As the result of the battle, the [[Seven Boyars]], a group of Russian nobles, deposed the tsar [[Vasily Shuysky]] on {{OldStyleDate|27 July|1610|17 July}}, and recognized the Polish prince [[Władysław IV Vasa]] as the Tsar of Russia on {{OldStyleDate|6 September|1610|27 August}}.<ref>[[Lev Gumilev]] (1992), ''Ot Rusi k Rossii. Ocherki e'tnicheskoj istorii'' [From Rus' to Russia], Moscow: Ekopros.</ref><ref>Michel Heller (1997), ''Histoire de la Russie et de son empire'' [A history of Russia and its empire], Paris: Plon.</ref> The Poles entered Moscow on {{OldStyleDate|21 September|1610|11 September}}. Moscow revolted but riots there were brutally suppressed and the city was set on fire.<ref name=Vern>[[George Vernadsky]], "A History of Russia", Volume 5, Yale University Press, (1969). [http://www.spsl.nsc.ru/history/vernad/vol5/vgv522.htm#vgv522note35 Russian translation]</ref><ref>Mikolaj Marchocki "Historia Wojny Moskiewskiej", ch. "Slaughter in the capital", [http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus8/Marchockij/pred.phtml?id=902 Russian translation]</ref><ref>Sergey Solovyov. History of Russia... Vol. 8, p. 847</ref>

The crisis provoked a patriotic national uprising against the [[invasion]], both in 1611 and 1612. Finally, a volunteer army, led by the merchant [[Kuzma Minin]] and prince [[Dmitry Pozharsky]], expelled the foreign forces from the capital on {{OldStyleDate|4 November|1612|22 October}}.<ref name= Dunning>Chester S L Dunning, ''Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty'', [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0271020741&id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&pg=PA434&lpg=PA434&dq=moscow+minin+patriot p. 434] Penn State Press, 2001, ISBN 0-271-02074-1</ref><ref name=ToT>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9073517 Troubles, Time of]." [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. 2006</ref><ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/65/e-/E-Pozharsk.html Pozharski, Dmitri Mikhailovich, Prince]", [[Columbia Encyclopedia]]</ref>

The Russian statehood survived the "Time of Troubles" and the rule of weak or corrupt Tsars because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or the faction controlling the throne.<ref name = Curtis2/> However, the "[[Time of Troubles]]" provoked by the dynastic crisis resulted in the loss of much territory to the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in [[Russo-Polish War (1605-1618)|the Russo-Polish war]], as well as to the [[Swedish Empire]] in the [[Ingrian War]].

===Accession of the Romanovs and early rule===
[[File:Kivchenko Election of Mikhail Romanov.jpg|thumb|200-x|right|Election of 16-year-old [[Michael I of Russia|Mikhail Romanov]], the first Tsar of the [[Romanov dynasty]]]]
In February 1613, with the chaos ended and the Poles expelled from Moscow, a [[Zemsky Sobor|national assembly]], composed of representatives from fifty cities and even some peasants, elected [[Michael I of Russia|Michael Romanov]], the young son of [[Patriarch Filaret (Feodor Romanov)|Patriarch Filaret]], to the throne. The [[Romanov]] dynasty ruled Russia until 1917.

The immediate task of the new dynasty was to restore peace. Fortunately for Moscow, its major enemies, the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and [[Sweden]], were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Russia the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619. Recovery of lost territories started in the mid-17th century, when the [[Chmielnicki Uprising|Khmelnitsky Uprising]] in Ukraine against Polish rule brought about the [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]] concluded between Russia and the [[Ukrainian Cossacks]].
[[File:surikov1906.jpg|thumb|[[Stenka Razin]] Sailing in the [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]]]]
According to the treaty, Russia granted protection to the [[Cossack Hetmanate|Cossacks state]] in the [[Left-bank Ukraine]], formerly under Polish control. This triggered a prolonged [[Russo-Polish War (1654-1667)|Russo-Polish War]] which ended with the [[Treaty of Andrusovo]] (1667), where Poland accepted the loss of Left-bank Ukraine, [[Kiev]] and [[Smolensk]].<ref name = Curtis2/>

Rather than risk their estates in more civil war, the great nobles or ''[[boyar]]s'' cooperated with the first Romanovs, enabling them to finish the work of bureaucratic centralization. Thus, the state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return the tsars allowed the ''boyars'' to complete the process of enserfing the peasants.

In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another. With the state now fully sanctioning [[Russian serfdom|serfdom]], runaway peasants became state fugitives, and the power of the landlords over the peasants "attached" to their land had become almost complete. Together the state and the nobles placed the overwhelming burden of taxation on the peasants, whose rate was 100 times greater in the mid-17th century than it had been a century earlier. In addition, middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and, like the serfs, they were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and to special taxes.<ref>For a discussion of the development of the class structure in Tsarist Russia see [[Theda Skocpol|Skocpol, Theda]]. ''[[States and Social Revolutions]]: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China''. Cambridge U Press, 1988.</ref>

Under such circumstances, peasant disorders{{Clarify|date=June 2009}} were endemic; even the citizens of Moscow revolted against the Romanovs during the [[Salt Riot]] (1648),<ref name = Kotilaine>Jarmo Kotilaine and Marshall Poe, ''Modernizing Muscovy: Reform and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Russia'', Routledge, 2004, p. 264. ISBN 0-415-30751-1.</ref> [[Copper Riot]] (1662),<ref name = Kotilaine/> and the [[Moscow Uprising of 1682|Moscow Uprising]] (1682).<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://militera.lib.ru/common/solovyev1/13_03.html Moscow Uprising of 1682] in the ''History of Russia'' of [[Sergey Solovyov]]</ref> By far the greatest peasant uprising in 17th-century Europe erupted in 1667. As the free settlers of South Russia, the [[Cossacks]], reacted against the growing centralization of the state, serfs escaped from their landlords and joined the rebels. The Cossack leader [[Stenka Razin]] led his followers up the Volga River, inciting peasant uprisings and replacing local governments with Cossack rule.<ref name = Curtis2/> The tsar's army finally crushed his forces in 1670; a year later Stenka was captured and beheaded. Yet, less than half a century later, the strains of military expeditions produced another [[Bulavin Rebellion|revolt in Astrakhan]], ultimately subdued.

==Imperial Russia (1721–1917)==
{{Main|Russian Empire}}

===Peter the Great===
[[File:Peter de Grote.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Peter the Great|Peter I]] of Russia.]]
[[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] (1672–1725) brought [[autocracy]] into Russia and played a major role in bringing his country into the European state system.<ref>James Cracraft, ''The Revolution of Peter the Great'' (Harvard University Press, 2003) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=115404966 online edition]</ref> Russia had now become the largest country in the world, stretching from the [[Baltic Sea]] to the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of the land was unoccupied, and travel was slow. Much of its expansion had taken place in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian settlement of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the reconquest of Kiev, and the pacification of the Siberian tribes. However, this vast land had a population of only 14 million. With a short growing season grain yields trailed behind those in the West; potatoes were not yet widespread.  The great majority were tied to agriculture.  Russia remained isolated from the sea trade, its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.<ref>[http://bookz.ru/authors/milov-lv/milovlv01/1-milovlv01.html Milov L.V. «Russian peasant and features of the Russian historical process», the research of Russian economic history of 15th-18th centuries.]</ref>
[[File:Russia 1533-1896.gif|thumbnail|left|Russian expansion in Eurasia between 1533–1896]]
Peter's first military efforts were directed against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]].  His aim was to establish a Russian foothold on the [[Black Sea]] by taking the town of [[Azov]].<ref>Lord Kinross, ''The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire'' (1979) p. 353.</ref> His attention then turned to the north. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport except at [[Arkhangelsk|Archangel]] on the [[White Sea]], whose harbor was frozen nine months a year. Access to the Baltic was blocked by Sweden, whose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a "window to the sea" led him in 1699 to make a secret alliance with the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and Denmark against Sweden resulting in the [[Great Northern War]].

The war ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden sued for peace with Russia. Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, thus securing his coveted access to the sea. There, in 1703, he had already founded the city that was to become Russia's new capital, [[Saint Petersburg]], as a "window opened upon Europe" to replace Moscow, long Russia's cultural center. Russian intervention in the Commonwealth marked, with the [[Silent Sejm]], the beginning of a 200-year domination of that region by the Russian Empire.
In celebration of his conquests, Peter assumed the title of emperor as well as tsar, and Russian Tsardom officially became the [[Russian Empire]] in 1721.

[[File:Lomonosov Poltava 1762 1764.jpg|thumb|Peter the Great leading the Russian army in the [[Battle of Poltava]]]]
Peter reorganized his government on the latest Western models, molding Russia into an [[political absolutism|absolutist]] state. He replaced the old ''boyar'' [[Duma]] (council of nobles) with a nine-member senate, in effect a supreme council of state. The countryside was also divided into new [[Guberniya|provinces]] and districts. Peter told the senate that its mission was to collect tax revenues. In turn tax revenues tripled over the course of his reign.

Administrative [[Collegium (ministry)|Collegia]] were established in St. Petersburg, to replace the old governmental departments. In 1722 Peter promulgated his famous [[Table of ranks]]. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the [[patriarchate]] and replaced it with a collective body, the [[Holy Synod]], led by a lay government official. Peter continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service for all nobles.

By this same time, the once powerful Persian [[Safavid Empire]] to its south was heavily declining. Making advantage of the profitable situation, Peter launched the [[Russo-Persian War (1722-1723)]]  otherwise known as "The Persian Expedition of Peter the Great" by the Russian histographers, in order to be the first Russian emperor to increase Russian influence in the [[Caucasus]] and [[Caspian Sea]]. After considerable successes and the capture of many provinces and cities in the Caucasus and northern Persia, the Safavids were forced to hand over the territories to Russia. However, 9 years later all territories would be ceded back to Persia, now led by the charismatic and military genius [[Nader Shah]], as part of the [[Treaty of Resht]] and the Russo-Persian alliance against the Ottoman Empire,<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen J. Lee|title=Peter the Great|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=CXl-02q1YwsC&pg=PA31|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|page=31}}</ref> the common neighbouring rivalling enemy.

Russia, by the end of Peter's reign, had become a great power. Peter the Great died in 1725, leaving an unsettled succession.

===Ruling the Empire (1725–1825)===
====State budget====
Russia was in a continuous state of financial crisis. While revenue rose from 9 million rubles in 1724 to 40 million in 1794, expenses grew more rapidly, reaching 49 million in 1794. The budget was allocated 46 percent to the military, 20 percent to government economic activities, 12 percent to administration, and nine percent for the Imperial Court in St. Petersburg. The deficit required borrowing, primarily from Amsterdam; five percent of the budget was allocated to debt payments. Paper money was issued to pay for expensive wars, thus causing inflation. For its spending, Russia obtained at large and glorious army, a very large and complex bureaucracy, and a splendid court that rivaled Paris and London. However the government was living far beyond its means, and 18th century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country."<ref>Nicholas Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984), p 284</ref>

====Catherine the Great====
[[File:SPB Monument of Catherine II 1890-1900.jpg|thumb|left|The monument to [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]]]

Peter I was succeeded by his second wife ([[Catherine I of Russia|Catherine I]], 1725–1727) who was merely a figurehead for a powerful group of high officials, then by his minor grandson ([[Peter II of Russia|Peter II]], 1727–1730), then by his niece, [[Anna of Russia|Anna]], daughter of Tsar [[Ivan V]]. In 1741 [[Elizabeth of Russia|Elizabeth]], daughter of Peter, seized the throne, assisted by the [[Preobrazhensky Regiment]]. She reigned for twenty years, a period marked by the establishment of [[Moscow University]] and the abolition of capital punishment.

Nearly forty years were to pass before a comparably ambitious ruler appeared on the Russian throne. [[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine II]], the Great, was a German princess who married the German heir to the Russian crown. Finding him incompetent, Catherine tacitly consented to his murder and in 1762 she became ruler.<ref>John T. Alexander, ''Catherine the Great: Life and Legend'' (1988).</ref>  Catherine enthusiastically supported the ideals of [[The Enlightenment]], thus earning the status of an enlightened despot ("despot" is not derogatory in this context.)<ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth C. Campbell|title=Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach: Since 1600: Volume II: Since 1600|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A2JsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|page=86}}</ref> She patronized the arts, science and learning. She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great. Catherine promulgated [[Charter to the Gentry]] reaffirming rights and freedoms of the Russian nobility, and abolishing mandatory state service. She seized control of all the church lands, drastically reduced the size of the monasteries, and put the surviving clergy on a tight budget.<ref>Isabel De Madariaga, ''Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great'' (2002).</ref>

Catherine spent heavily to promote inexpensive foreign policy. She extended Russian political control over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with actions including the support of the [[Targowica Confederation]], although the cost of her campaigns, on top of the oppressive social system that required lords' serfs to spend almost all of their time laboring on the lords' land, provoked a major peasant uprising in 1773, after Catherine legalized the selling of serfs separate from land. Inspired by another Cossack named [[Yemelyan Pugachev|Pugachev]], with the emphatic cry of "Hang all the landlords!" the rebels threatened to take Moscow before Catherine crushed the rebellion. Like the other enlightened despots of Europe, she first of all made certain of her own power, and formed an alliance with the nobility.<ref>{{cite book|author=Campbell|title=Western Civilization|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A2JsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|page=86}}</ref>

[[File:suvorov crossing the alps.jpg|thumb|Russian troops under [[Generalissimo]] Suvorov crossing the [[Alps]] in 1799]]

Catherine successfully waged war against the decaying Ottoman Empire<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parallelsixty.com/history-russia.shtml|title=History|work=Parallel 60|accessdate=23 July 2007}}</ref> and advanced Russia's southern boundary to the [[Black Sea]]. Then, by allying with the rulers of [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] and [[Prussia]], she incorporated the territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where after a century of Russian rule non-Catholic mainly Orthodox population prevailed<ref>According to Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: 1891 Grodno province – catholics 384,696, total population 1,509,728 [http://gatchina3000.ru/brockhaus-and-efron-encyclopedic-dictionary/031/31772.htm]; Curland province – catholics 68,722, total population 555,003 [http://gatchina3000.ru/brockhaus-and-efron-encyclopedic-dictionary/057/57501.htm]; Volyhnia Province – catholics 193,142, total population 2,059,870 [http://gatchina3000.ru/brockhaus-and-efron-encyclopedic-dictionary/022/22861.htm]</ref> during the [[Partitions of Poland]], pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In accordance to the [[Treaty of Georgievsk|treaty]] Russia had signed with the Georgians to protect them against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains and further political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war [[Persian Expedition of 1796|against Persia]] in 1796 after they had again invaded Georgia and established rule over it about a [[Battle of Krtsanisi|year prior]], and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the [[Caucasus]].

====Alexander I====
By the time of her death in 1796, Catherine's expansionist policy had made Russia into a major European power. This continued with [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I's]] wresting of Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of [[Bessarabia]] from the Ottomans in 1812.

After the Russian armies liberated allied [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] from Persian occupation in 1802, they [[Russo-Persian War (1804–13)|clashed in 1803 with Persia]] over control and consolidation over Georgia, and the Iranian territories that modern-day comprise [[Azerbaijan]] and [[Dagestan]], and also got involved in the [[Caucasian War]] against the [[Caucasian Imamate]]. In 1813, the [[Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)]] got concluded with a Russian victory, which forced neighboring [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar Iran]] to cede swaths of its territories in the North and South Caucasus to Russia comprising Georgia, Dagestan and most of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan,<ref>Timothy C. Dowling [https://books.google.nl/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA728&dq=russo+persian+war+1804-1813&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=QnOXVJXpCcz7UPevhPAK&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=russo%20persian%20war%201804-1813&f=false ''Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond''] pp 728 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484</ref> by which the latter drastically increased its territory in the Caucasus region. To the south-west, Russia attempted to expand at the expense of the [[Ottoman Empire]], using recently acquired Georgia at its base for the Caucasus and Anatolian front. 

[[File:Взятии штурмом крепости Гянджи.jpg|thumb|left|180px|The [[Battle of Ganja (1804)|Battle of Ganja]] during the [[Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)|Russo-Persian War]] of 1804-1813]]

In European policy, Alexander I switched Russia back and forth four times in 1804-1812 from neutral peacemaker to anti-Napoleon to an ally of Napoleon, winding up in 1812 as Napoleon’s enemy. In 1805, he joined Britain in the [[War of the Third Coalition]] against Napoleon, but after the massive defeat at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]] he switched and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the [[Treaty of Tilsit]] (1807) and joined Napoleon's [[Continental System]]. He fought [[Anglo-Russian War (1807–12)|a small-scale naval war against Britain, 1807-12]]. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810.

Furthermore, Russia's economy had been hurt by Napoleon's Continental System, which cut off trade with Britain. As Esdaile notes, "Implicit in the idea of a Russian Poland was, of course, a war against Napoleon."<ref>Charles Esdaile, ''Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803-1815'' (2007) p 438</ref> Schroeder says Poland was the root cause of the conflict but Russia's refusal to support the Continental System was also a factor.<ref>Paul W. Schroeder, ''The Transformation of European Politics: 1763 – 1848'' (1994) p 419</ref>

[[File:Napoleons retreat from moscow.jpg|thumb|[[Napoleon]]'s retreat from Moscow]]
[[File:Russparis.jpg|thumb|The entry of Russian troops into [[Paris]] in 1814, headed by the Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]].]]

The [[Napoleon's invasion of Russia|invasion of Russia]] was a catastrophe for Napoleon and his 450,000 invasion troops. One major battle was fought at [[Battle of Borodino|Borodino]]; casualties were very high but it was indecisive and Napoleon was unable to engage and defeat the Russian armies. He attempted to force the Tsar to terms by capturing Moscow at the onset of winter, even though the French Army had already lost most of its men. The expectation proved futile.  The Russians retreated, burning crops and food supplies in a scorched earth policy that multiplied Napoleon's logistic problems. Unprepared for winter warfare, 85%-90% of Napoleon's soldiers died from disease, cold, starvation or by ambush by peasant guerrilla fighters. As Napoleon's forces retreated, Russian troops pursued them into Central and Western Europe and finally captured Paris.<ref>Esdaile, ''Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803-1815'' (2007) pp 460-80</ref><ref>Alan Palmer, ''Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace'' (1974)</ref>  Out of a total population of around 43 million people,<ref>W.H. Parker, ''An historical geography of Russia'' (1968) p 193</ref> Russia lost about 1.5 million in the year 1812; of these about 250,000 to 300,000 were soldiers and the rest peasants and serfs.<ref>Geoffrey Best, ''War and Society in Revolutionary Europe, 1770-1870'' (1998) p. 187</ref>

After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Alexander became known as the 'savior of Europe.' He presided over the redrawing of the map of Europe at the [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814–15), which made him the king of [[Congress Poland]]. He formed the [[Holy Alliance]] with Austria and Prussia, to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as immoral threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austria's [[Klemens von Metternich]] in suppressing all national and liberal movements.

Although the Russian Empire would play a leading political role 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.

===Nicholas I and the Decembrist Revolt===
[[File:Kolman decembrists.jpg|thumb|The Decembrists at the [[Decembrists Square|Senate Square]].]]

Russia's great power status obscured the inefficiency of its government, the isolation of its people, and its economic backwardness.<ref>Riasonovsky ''A History of Russia'' (fifth ed.) pp.302–3; Charques ''A Short History of Russia'' (Phoenix, second ed. 1962) p.125</ref> Following the defeat of Napoleon, Alexander I was willing to discuss constitutional reforms, and though a few were introduced, no thoroughgoing changes were attempted.<ref>Riasonovsky p.302-307</ref>

The tsar was succeeded by his younger brother, [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] (1825–1855), who at the onset of his reign was confronted with an uprising. The background of this revolt lay in the Napoleonic Wars, when a number of well-educated Russian officers traveled in Europe in the course of the military campaigns, where their exposure to the liberalism of Western Europe encouraged them to seek change on their return to autocratic Russia. The result was the [[Decembrist Revolt]] (December 1825), the work of a small circle of liberal nobles and army officers who wanted to install Nicholas' brother as a constitutional monarch. But the revolt was easily crushed, leading Nicholas to turn away from the Westernization program begun by Peter the Great and champion the [[doctrine]] "[[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality]]".<ref>Riasonovsky p.324</ref>

Late 1820's were successful military years. In 1826-1828, [[Russo-Persian War (1826-1828)|another war was]] fought against Qajar Persia, and despite losing almost all recently consolidated territories in the first year of the battle in a successful Persian offensive, Russia managed to bring an end to the war on highly favourable terms, which got confirmed in the 1828 [[Treaty of Turkmenchay]], including the official gains of what is now [[Armenia]], [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic|Nakhchivan]], [[Nagorno-Karabakh]], [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Iğdır Province|Iğdır]].<ref>Timothy C. Dowling [https://books.google.nl/books?id=KTq2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA728&dq=russo+persian+war+1804-1813&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=QnOXVJXpCcz7UPevhPAK&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=russo%20persian%20war%201804-1813&f=false ''Russia at War: From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond''] pp 729 ABC-CLIO, 2 dec. 2014 ISBN 1598849484</ref> In the 1828-29 [[Russo-Turkish War]] Russia invaded northeastern [[Anatolia]] and occupied the strategic Ottoman towns of [[Erzurum]] and [[Gumushane]] and, posing as protector and saviour of the [[Greek Orthodox]] population, received extensive support from the region's [[Pontic Greeks]]. Following a brief occupation, the Russian imperial army withdrew back into Georgia.

By the 1830s, Russia had conquered all Persian territories and major Ottoman territories in the Caucasus.<ref>Riasonovsky p.308</ref> In 1831 Nicholas crushed [[November Uprising|a major uprising]] in [[Congress Poland]]; it would be followed by [[January Uprising|another large-scale Polish and Lithuanian revolt]] in 1863.<ref>See Norman Davies: ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'' (OUP, 1981) vol. 2, pp.315–333; and 352-63</ref>

===The Russian Army===
[[File:equestriannicholas1.jpg|thumb|left|[[Monument to Nicholas I]] on [[St. Isaac's Square]], Moscow]]

Tsar [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] (reigned 1825–1855) lavished attention on his very large army; with a population of 60-70 million people, the army included a million men.  They had outdated equipment and tactics, but the tsar, who dressed like a soldier and surrounded himself with officers,  gloried in the victory over Napoleon in 1812 and took enormous pride in its smartness on parade.  The cavalry horses, for example, were only trained in parade formations, and did poorly in battle. The glitter and braid masked profound weaknesses that he did not see. He put generals in charge of most of his civilian agencies regardless of their qualifications. An agnostic who won fame in cavalry charges was made supervisor of  Church affairs. The Army became the vehicle of upward social mobility for noble youths from non-Russian areas, such as Poland, the Baltic, Finland and Georgia.  On the other hand, many miscreants, petty criminals and undesirables were punished by local officials by enlisting them for life in the  Army.  The conscription system was highly unpopular with people, as was the practice of forcing peasants to house the soldiers for six months of the year. Curtiss finds that "The pedantry of Nicholas' military system, which stressed unthinking obedience and parade ground evolutions rather than combat training, produced ineffective commanders in time of war." His commanders in the Crimean War were old and incompetent, and indeed so were his muskets as the colonels sold the best equipment and the best food.<ref>{{cite journal |first=John Shelton |last=Curtiss |title=The Army of Nicholas I: Its Role and Character |journal=[[American Historical Review]] |year=1958 |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=880–889 [quote p. 886] |jstor=1848945 }}</ref>

Finally the Crimean war at the end of his reign demonstrated to the world what no one had previously realized: Russia was militarily weak, technologically backward, and administratively incompetent.  Despite his grand ambitions toward the south and Turkey, Russia had not built its railroad network in that direction, and communications were bad.  The bureaucracy was riddled with graft, corruption and inefficiency and was unprepared for war.  The Navy was weak and technologically backward; the Army, although very large, was good only for parades, suffered from colonels who pocketed their men's pay, poor morale, and was even more out of touch with the latest technology as developed by Britain and France. As Fuller notes, "Russia had been beaten on the Crimean peninsula, and the military feared that it would inevitably be beaten again unless steps were taken to surmount its military weakness."<ref>{{cite book |author=Fuller |title=Strategy and Power in Russia 1600–1914 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BNF318Pgq9kC&pg=PA273 |page=273}}</ref><ref>Barbara Jelavich, ''St. Petersburg and Moscow: Tsarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814-1974'' (1974) p 119</ref><ref>William C. Fuller, ''Strategy and Power in Russia 1600-1914'' (1998) pp 252-59</ref>

===Radicals and reactionaries===
As Western Europe modernized after 1840 the issue became one of Russian direction. Some favored imitating Europe while others renounced the West and called for a return of the traditions of the past. The latter path was championed by [[Slavophile]]s, who heaped scorn on the "decadent" West.  The Slavophiles were opponents of bureaucracy, preferred the [[collectivism]] of the medieval Russian ''[[mir (social)|mir]]'', or [[obshchina|village community]], to the individualism of the West.<ref>Tim Chapman, ''Imperial Russia: 1801-1905'' (2001) pp 60-65  [http://www.questia.com/library/107435912/imperial-russia-1801-1905 online]</ref>

Since the war against Napoleon, Russia had become deeply involved in the affairs of Europe, as part of the "Holy Alliance."  The Holy Alliance was formed to serve as the "policeman of Europe."  However, to be the policeman of Europe and maintain the Holy alliance needed large armies.  Prussia, Austria, Britain and France, (the other members of the "Holy Alliance") lacked the large armies required to do so.  They needed Russia to supply the required armies. Their need for large armies fit the philosophy of Tsar Nicholas I. When the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, Russia was quiet. The Tsar sent his army into Hungary in 1849 at the request of the Austrian Empire and  broke the revolt, while preventing its spread to Russian Poland. Indeed, the Tsar cracked down on any signs of unrest.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Kort|title=A Brief History of Russia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=i8_RH3hhsAMC&pg=PA92|year=2008|publisher=Infobase |page=92}}</ref>

[[File:Bakuninfull.jpg|thumb|175px|[[Mikhail Bakunin]]]]

Russia expected that in exchange for supplying the troops to be the policeman of Europe, it should have a free hand in dealing with the decaying Ottoman Empire—the "sick man of Europe." The upshot was that Russia invaded the Crimea peninsula and other regions, leading to the [[Crimean War]] of 1853-56 when Britain and France came to the rescue of the Ottomans.<ref>Rene Albrecht-Carrie, ''A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna'' (1973) pp 84-94</ref><ref>Orlando Figes, ''The Crimean War: A History'' (2011)</ref> As Fuller notes, "Russia had been beaten on the Crimean peninsula, and the military feared that it would inevitably be beaten again unless steps were taken to surmount its military weakness."<ref>{{cite book|author=William C. Fuller|title=Strategy and Power in Russia 1600-1914|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BNF318Pgq9kC&pg=PA273|year=1998|page=273}}</ref>

In this setting [[Michael Bakunin]] would emerge as the father of [[anarchism]]. He left Russia in 1842 to Western Europe, where he became active in the socialist movement. After participating in the [[May Uprising in Dresden]] of 1849, he was handed over to Russia and sent to Siberia, He escaped in 1861, then began to organize. He argued with [[Karl Marx]] over socialism. Marx won and had Bakunin and the anarchists Bakunin expelled from the First International in 1872. He died in obscurity but other anarchists took up the torch, especially Russian radicals as [[Alexander Herzen]] and [[Peter Kropotkin]].<ref>E.H. Carr, ''Michael Bakunin'' (1961) [http://www.questia.com/library/2952155/michael-bakunin online]</ref>

===Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom===
[[File:Myasoedov 16.jpg|thumb|left|The manifesto of the [[Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia|abolition of serfdom]] is being read to people.]]

Tsar Nicholas died with his philosophy in dispute. One year earlier, Russia had become involved in the [[Crimean War]], a conflict fought primarily in the [[Crimea|Crimean peninsula]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/russian.htm|work=The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|title=Russian Philosophy|accessdate=23 July 2007|author=Thomas Nemeth}}</ref> Since playing a major role in the defeat of Napoleon, Russia had been regarded as militarily invincible, but, once pitted against a coalition of the great powers of Europe, the reverses it suffered on land and sea exposed the weakness of Tsar Nicholas' regime.

When [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] came to the throne in 1855, desire for reform was widespread. The most pressing problem which confronted the Government was that of serfdom. In 1859, there were 23 million [[serfs]] (total population of Russia 67.1&nbsp;Million).<ref>[http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2007/0293/nauka02.php Excerpt from "Enserfed population in Russia"] published at ''Демоскоп Weekly'', No 293 – 294, 18 June 1 July 2007</ref> Alexander II made up his own mind to abolish [[Russian serfdom|serfdom]] from above rather than wait for it to be abolished from below through revolution. The [[Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia|emancipation of the serfs]] in 1861 was the single most important event in 19th-century Russian history. It was the beginning of the end for the landed aristocracy's monopoly of power.{{Citation needed|reason=reliable source needed|date=October 2013}} Emancipation brought a supply of free labor to the cities, industry was stimulated, and the middle class grew in number and influence. The freed peasants had to buy land, allotted to them, from the landowners with the state assistance. The Government issued special bonds to the landowners for the land that they had lost, and collected a special tax from the peasants, called redemption payments, at a rate of 5% of the total cost of allotted land yearly. All the land turned over to the peasants was owned collectively by the ''mir'', the village community, which divided the land among the peasants and supervised the various holdings.

[[File:The defeat of Shipka Peak, Bulgarian War of Independence.JPG|thumb|The Russian and Bulgarian [[Battle of Shipka Pass|defence of Shipka Pass]] against Turkish troops was crucial for the independence of [[Bulgaria]].]]

Alexander was the most successful Russian reformer since [[Peter the Great]], and was responsible for numerous reforms besides abolishing serfdom. [[Judicial reform of Alexander II|He reorganized the judicial system]], setting up elected local judges, abolishing capital punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoting the universities.  In foreign policy, he [[Alaska Purchase|sold Alaska]] to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there was another war.  He modernized the military command system. He sought peace, and moved away from  bellicose France when Napoleon III fell. He joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. The Russian Empire expanded in Siberia and in the Caucasus and made gains at the expense of China.  Faced with an uprising in Poland in 1863, he stripped that land of its separate Constitution and incorporated it directly into Russia.  To counter the rise of a revolutionary and anarchistic movements, he sent thousands of dissidents into exile in Siberia and  was proposing additional parliamentary reforms when he was assassinated in 1881.<ref>W. E. Mosse, ''Alexander II and the Modernization of Russia'' (1958) [http://www.questia.com/library/4022637/alexander-ii-and-the-modernization-of-russia online]</ref>

In the late 1870s Russia and the Ottoman Empire again clashed in the Balkans. [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|The Russo-Turkish War]] was popular among Russian people, who supported the independence of their fellow Orthodox Slavs, the Serbs and the Bulgarians. However, the war increased tension with Austria-Hungary, which also had ambitions in the region.  The tsar was disappointed by the results of the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878, but abided by that agreement.<ref>Riasonovsky pp.386–7</ref> During this period Russia expanded its empire into Central Asia, which was rich in raw materials, conquering the [[khanate]]s of [[Kokand]], [[Bokhara]] and [[Khiva]], as well as the Trans-[[Caspian Sea|Caspian region]].<ref>Riasonovsky p.349</ref>

===Nihilism===
[[File:Russian Nihilists are given the last rites before their exec Wellcome V0041839.jpg|thumb|Russian [[Pervomartovtsy]] are given the last rites before their execution]]

In the 1860s a movement known as [[Nihilist movement|Nihilism]] developed in Russia. A term originally coined by [[Ivan Turgenev]] in his 1862 novel ''[[Fathers and Sons (novel)|Fathers and Sons]]'', Nihilists favoured the destruction of human institutions and laws, based on the assumption that such institutions and laws are artificial and corrupt. At its core, Russian nihilism was characterized by the belief that the world lacks comprehensible meaning, objective truth, or value. For some time many Russian liberals had been dissatisfied by what they regarded as the empty discussions of the [[intelligentsia]]. The Nihilists questioned all old values and shocked the Russian establishment.<ref>Riasonovsky pp.381–2, 447–8</ref> They moved beyond being purely philosophical to becoming major political forces after becoming involved in the cause of reform. Their path was facilitated by the previous actions of the Decembrists, who revolted in 1825, and the financial and political hardship caused by the Crimean War, which caused large numbers of Russian people to lose faith in political institutions.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

The Nihilists first attempted to convert the aristocracy to the cause of reform.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Failing there, they turned to the peasants. Their campaign, which targeted the people instead of the aristocracy or the landed gentry, became known as the [[Narodnik|Populist movement]]. It was based upon the belief that the common people possessed the wisdom and peaceful ability to lead the nation.<ref name = CurtisT>[http://countrystudies.us/russia/6.htm Transformation of Russia in the Nineteenth Century], excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), ''Russia: A Country Study'', Department of the Army, 1998. ISBN 0-16-061212-8.</ref>

While the Narodnik movement was gaining momentum, the government quickly moved to extirpate it. In response to the growing reaction of the government, a radical branch of the Narodniks advocated and practiced terrorism.<ref name = CurtisT/> One after another, prominent officials were shot or killed by bombs. This represented the ascendancy of [[anarchism in Russia]] as a powerful revolutionary force. Finally, after several attempts, Alexander II was assassinated by anarchists in 1881, on the very day he had approved a proposal to call a representative assembly to consider new reforms in addition to the abolition of serfdom designed to ameliorate revolutionary demands.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}

===Autocracy and reaction under Alexander III===
[[File:Russian Field Gun during the Battle of Mukden.jpg|thumb|Russian field gun during the [[Battle of Mukden]].]]

Unlike his father, the new tsar [[Alexander III of Russia|Alexander III]] (1881–1894) was throughout his reign a staunch reactionary who revived the maxim of "[[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and National Character]]".<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057487/Orthodoxy-Autocracy-and-Nationality Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> A committed Slavophile, Alexander III believed that Russia could be saved from chaos only by shutting itself off from the subversive influences of Western Europe. In his reign Russia concluded the [[Franco-Russian Alliance|union with republican France]] to contain the growing power of Germany, completed the conquest of Central Asia, and exacted important territorial and commercial concessions from China.

The tsar's most influential adviser was [[Konstantin Pobedonostsev]], tutor to Alexander III and his son Nicholas, and procurator of the Holy Synod from 1880 to 1895. He taught his royal pupils to fear freedom of speech and press and to hate democracy, constitutions, and the parliamentary system.<ref>Hugo S. Cunninggam, [http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/pobedonostsev.html Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev (1827–1907): Reactionary Views on Democracy, General Education]. Retrieved 21 July 2007.</ref> Under Pobedonostsev, revolutionaries were hunted down<ref>Robert F. Byrnes, "Pobedonostsev: His Life and Thought" in ''Political Science Quarterly'', Vol. 85, No. 3 (September 1970), pp. 528–530.</ref> and a policy of [[Russification]] was carried out throughout the empire.<ref>Arthur E. Adams, "Pobedonostsev's Religious Politics" in ''Church History'', Vol. 22, No. 4 (December 1953), pp. 314–326.</ref>

===Nicholas II and new revolutionary movement===
{{main| History of Russia (1892–1917)}}
[[File:Russia ethnic.JPG|thumb|Ethnic and religious map of European Russia at the end of the 19th century. This imperial-era map shows [[Russians]] (“Great Russians”), [[Belarusians]] (“White Russians”), and [[Ukrainians]] (“Little Russians”) in a single colour; based on 1897 Russian census.]]

Alexander was succeeded by his son [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] (1894–1917). The Industrial Revolution, which began to exert a significant influence in Russia, was meanwhile creating forces that would finally overthrow the tsar. Politically, these opposition forces organized into three competing parties: The liberal elements among the industrial capitalists and nobility, who believed in peaceful social reform and a constitutional monarchy, founded the [[Constitutional Democratic party]] or ''Kadets'' in 1905. Followers of the Narodnik tradition established the [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party]] or ''Esers'' in 1901, advocating the distribution of land among those who actually worked it—the peasants.  A third and more radical group founded the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] or ''RSDLP'' in 1898; this party was the primary exponent of [[Marxism]] in Russia. Gathering their support from the radical intellectuals and the urban working class, they advocated complete social, economic and political revolution.<ref>Hugh Seton-Watson, ''The Russian Empire 1801-1917'' (Oxford History of Modern Europe) (1967), pp 598-627</ref>  

[[File:Repin 17October.jpg|thumb|The [[October Manifesto]] granting [[civil liberties]] and establishing first [[State Duma|parliament]].]]

In 1903 the RSDLP split into two wings: the radical [[Bolshevik]]s, led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], and the relatively moderate [[Menshevik]]s, led by Yuli Martov. The Mensheviks believed that Russian socialism would grow gradually and peacefully and that the tsar’s regime should be succeeded by a democratic republic in which the socialists would cooperate with the liberal bourgeois parties. The Bolsheviks advocated the formation of a small elite of professional revolutionists, subject to strong party discipline, to act as the vanguard of the proletariat in order to seize power by force.<ref>For an analysis of the reaction of the elites to the revolutionaries see Roberta Manning, ''The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia: Gentry and Government''. (1982).</ref>

===Revolution of 1905===
{{Main|Revolution of 1905}}
[[File:Зал заседаний государственной думы 1906-1917.jpg|thumb|Hall of the Sessions of the [[State Duma of the Russian Empire|State Duma]].]]

The disastrous performance of the Russian armed forces in the [[Russo-Japanese War]] was a major blow to the Russian State<!--"the Tsarist regime" It is the term of the marxist-revolutionaries--> and increased the potential for unrest.<ref name = CurtisAut>[http://countrystudies.us/russia/7.htm The Last Years of the Autocracy], excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), ''Russia: A Country Study'', Department of the Army, 1998. ISBN 0-16-061212-8.</ref>

In January 1905, an incident known as "[[Bloody Sunday (1905)|Bloody Sunday]]" occurred when [[Father Gapon]] led an enormous crowd to the [[Winter Palace]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] to present a petition to the tsar. When the procession reached the palace, Cossacks opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds.<ref name = CurtisAut/> The Russian masses were so aroused over the massacre that a general strike was declared demanding a democratic republic. This marked the beginning of the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]]. [[Soviet (workers council)|Soviets]] (councils of workers) appeared in most cities to direct revolutionary activity.<ref>Orlando Figes, ''Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History'' (2014) pp 1-33</ref>

In October 1905, Nicholas reluctantly issued the famous [[October Manifesto]], which conceded the creation of a national Duma (legislature) to be called without delay.<ref name = CurtisAut/> The right to vote was extended,  and no law was to go into force without confirmation by the Duma. The moderate groups were satisfied;<ref name = CurtisAut/> but the socialists rejected the concessions as insufficient and tried to organize new strikes. By the end of 1905, there was disunity among the reformers, and the tsar's position was strengthened for the time being.<ref>Figes, ''Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History'' (2014) pp 33-43</ref>

===Unesma mondomilito ===
{{Main|Unesma mondomilito}}
[[File:Les troupes russe défilant devant Gouraud, Mailly oct 1916.JPG|thumb|[[Russian Expeditionary Force in France]], October 1916]]

Bound by treaty, Tsar Nicholas II entered [[World War I]] to defend [[Serbia]] from Austria. At the opening of hostilities in August 1914, the Russians took the offensive against both Germany and [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref>W. Bruce Lincoln, ''Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914-1918'' (1986)</ref>

The very large but poorly equipped Russian army fought tenaciously and desperately at times despite its lack of organization and very weak logistics.  Casualties were enormous.  By 1915, many soldiers were sent to the front unarmed, and told to pick up whatever weapons they could from  the battlefield.  Nevertheless, the Russian army fought on, and tied down large numbers of Germans and Austrians.  When civilians showed a surge of patriotism, the tsar and his entourage failed to exploit it for military benefit.  Instead, they relied on slow-moving bureaucracies.  In areas where they did advance against the Austrians, they failed to rally the ethnic and religious minorities that were hostile to Austria, such as Poles. The tsar refused to cooperate with the national legislature, the Duma, and listened less to experts than to his wife, who was in thrall to her chief advisor, the ignorant hypnotic peasant [[Grigori Rasputin]].<ref>Nicholas Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) p 418-20</ref>

Repeated military failures and bureaucratic ineptitude soon turned large segments of the population against the government.<ref name = CurtisAut/> The German and Ottoman fleets prevented Russia from importing supplies and exporting goods through the Baltic and Black seas.<ref name = CurtisAut/>

By the middle of 1915 the impact of the war was demoralizing. Food and fuel were in short supply, casualties kept occurring, and inflation was mounting.  Strikes increased among low-paid factory workers, and the peasants, who wanted land reforms, were restless.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Charques|title=The Twilight of Imperial Russia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=PbUYPD6AY6wC&pg=PA232|year=1974|publisher=Oxford U.P.|page=232}}</ref>  Meanwhile, elite distrust of the regime was deepened by reports that Rasputin was gaining influence; his assassination in late 1916 ended the scandal but did not restore the autocracy's lost prestige.<ref name = CurtisAut/>

===Russian Revolution===
{{main|Russian Revolution}}
[[File:Soviet Union, Lenin (55).jpg|thumb|[[Vladimir Lenin]] speaking to Red Army troops before their departure to the Polish front (the left half of the original picture)<ref>[http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/classes/csci_2101/false.html Falsification of history]</ref>]]

The Tsarist system was completely overthrown in February 1917. Rabinowitch argues:
<blockquote>The February 1917 revolution...grew out of prewar political and economic instability, technological backwardness, and fundamental social divisions, coupled with gross mismanagement of the war effort, continuing military defeats, domestic economic dislocation, and outrageous scandals surrounding the monarchy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alexander Rabinowitch|title=The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=BEoBCGJ4VqYC&pg=PA1|year=2008|publisher=Indiana UP|page=1}}</ref>
</blockquote>

In late February (3 March 1917), a strike occurred in a factory in the capital [[Petrograd]] (the new name for Saint Petersburg). On 23 February (8 March) 1917, thousands of women textile workers walked out of their factories protesting the lack of food and calling on other workers to join them. Within days, nearly all the workers in the city were idle, and street fighting broke out.  The tsar ordered the Duma to disband, ordered strikers to return to work, and ordered troops to shoot at demonstrators in the streets. His orders triggered the [[February Revolution]], especially when soldiers openly sided with the strikers.  The tsar and the aristocracy fell on 2 March, as Nicholas II abdicated.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rex A. Wade|title=The Russian Revolution, 1917|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uBfnjdxFUkUC&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge U.P.|pages=29–50}}</ref><ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp 455-56</ref>

To fill the vacuum of authority, the Duma declared a [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]], headed by [[Georgy Lvov|Prince Lvov]] which was collectively known as the [[Russian Republic]].<ref name = HistoryC>[http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=221104 The Russian Revolution] in the [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] Encyclopedia.</ref> Meanwhile, the socialists in Petrograd organized elections among workers and soldiers to form a soviet (council) of workers' and soldiers' deputies, as an organ of popular power that could pressure the "bourgeois" Provisional Government.<ref name = HistoryC/>

In July, following a series of crises that undermined their authority with the public, the head of the Provisional Government resigned and was succeeded by [[Alexander Kerensky]], who was more progressive than his predecessor but not radical enough for the Bolsheviks or many Russians discontented with the deepening economic crisis and the continuation of the war. While Kerensky's government marked time, the socialist-led soviet in Petrograd joined with soviets that formed throughout the country to create a national movement.<ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp 456-60</ref>

[[File:Volunteer Army infantry company.jpg|thumb|Anti-Bolshevik [[Volunteer Army]] in South Russia, January 1918]]
[[Vladimir Lenin]] returned to Russia from exile in Switzerland with the help of Germany, which hoped that widespread strife would cause Russia to withdraw from the war. After many behind-the-scenes maneuvers, the soviets seized control of the government in November 1917 and drove Kerensky and his moderate provisional government into exile, in the events that would become known as the [[October Revolution]].<ref>Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984) pp 460-61</ref>

When the national Constituent Assembly  (elected in December 1917) refused to become a rubber stamp of the Bolsheviks, it was dissolved by Lenin's troops and all vestiges of democracy were removed. With the handicap of the moderate opposition removed, Lenin was able to free his regime from the war problem by the harsh [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] (1918) with Germany Russia lost much of her western borderlands. However, when Germany was defeated the Soviet government repudiated the Treaty.<ref>W. Bruce Lincoln, ''Red Victory: A History Of The Russian Civil War, 1918-1921'' (1999)</ref>

===Russian Civil War===
{{PA|Russian Civil War}}
[[File:Russia Famine Saratov 1921.jpg|thumb|[[Russian famine of 1921]], which killed an estimated 5 million.]]

The Bolshevik grip on power was by no means secure, and a lengthy struggle broke out between the new regime and its opponents, which included the Socialist Revolutionaries, right-wing "Whites", and large numbers of peasants. At the same time the [[Allied intervention in Russia|Allied powers sent several expeditionary armies]] to support the anti-Communist forces in an attempt to force Russia to rejoin the world war. The Bolsheviks fought against both these forces and national independence movements in the former Russian Empire. By 1921, they had defeated their internal enemies and brought most of the newly independent states under their control, with the exception of Finland, the Baltic States, the [[Moldavian Democratic Republic]]
(which joined [[Romania]]), and Poland (with whom they had fought the [[Polish-Soviet War]]).<ref>See Orlando Figes: ''A People's Tragedy'' (Pimlico, 1996) ''passim''</ref> Finland also annexed the [[region Pechenga]] of the Russian [[Kola peninsula]]; Soviet Russia and allied Soviet republics conceded the parts of its territory to Estonia ([[Petseri County]] and [[Leander Reijo|Estonian Ingria]]), Latvia ([[Pytalovo]]), and Turkey ([[Kars]]). Poland incorporated the contested territories of [[Western Belarus]] and [[Ukraine|Western Ukraine]], the former parts of the Russian Empire (except [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]]) east to [[Curzon Line]].<ref>Lincoln, ''Red Victory: A History Of The Russian Civil War, 1918-1921'' (1999)</ref>

==Sovietia (1917–1991)==
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union}}

===Kreado di Sovietia===
[[File:Lenin and stalin.jpg|thumb|Lenin and Stalin at [[Gorki Leninskiye|Gorki]] (1922)]]
The history of Russia between 1922 and 1991 is essentially the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or [[Soviet Union]]. This ideologically based union, established in December 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party,<ref>"[http://library.thinkquest.org/27629/themes/society/rsussr.html Tsar Killed, USSR Formed]," in ''20th Century Russia''. Retrieved 21 July 2007.</ref> was roughly coterminous with Russia before the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. At that time, the new nation included four constituent republics: the [[Russian SFSR]], the [[Ukrainian SSR]], the [[Belarusian SSR]], and the [[Transcaucasian SFSR]].<ref>Soviet Union Information Bureau, [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/1928/sufds/ch01.htm Area and Population]. Retrieved 21 July 2007.</ref>

The constitution, adopted in 1924, established a federal system of government based on a succession of soviets set up in villages, factories, and cities in larger regions. This pyramid of soviets in each constituent republic culminated in the All-Union Congress of Soviets. However, while it appeared that the congress exercised sovereign power, this body was actually governed by the Communist Party, which in turn was controlled by the [[Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee|Politburo]] from Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, just as it had been under the tsars before Peter the Great.

===War Communism and the New Economic Policy===
The period from the consolidation of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 until 1921 is known as the period of [[war communism]].<ref name="Richman">{{cite journal|last=Richman|first=Sheldon L.|year=1981|title=War Communism to NEP: The Road to Serfdom|url=https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/5_1/5_1_5.pdf|format=PDF|journal=The Journal of Libertarian Studies|volume=5|issue=1|pages=89–97}}</ref>
Land, all industry, and small businesses were [[nationalized]], and the money economy was restricted. Strong opposition soon developed.<ref name="Richman"/> The peasants wanted cash payments for their products and resented having to surrender their surplus grain to the government as a part of its civil war policies. Confronted with peasant opposition, Lenin began a strategic retreat from war communism known as the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP).<ref name="Richman"/> The peasants were freed from wholesale levies of grain and allowed to sell their surplus produce in the open market. Commerce was stimulated by permitting private retail trading. The state continued to be responsible for banking, transportation, heavy industry, and public utilities.

Although the left opposition among the Communists criticized the rich peasants, or [[kulak]]s, who benefited from the NEP, the program proved highly beneficial and the economy revived.<ref name="Richman"/> The NEP would later come under increasing opposition from within the party following Lenin's death in early 1924.<ref name="Richman"/>

===Chanji en la Rusiana socio===


While the Russian economy was being transformed, the social life of the people underwent equally drastic changes. From the beginning of the revolution, the government attempted to weaken patriarchal domination of the family.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} [[Divorce]] no longer required court procedure,<ref name = "pushkareva">{{cite web|url=http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/pushkareva.doc|title=Marriage in Twentieth Century Russia: Traditional Precepts and Innovative Experiments|accessdate=23 July 2007|last=Pushkareva|first=Natalia|format=.doc|publisher=Russian Academy of Sciences}}</ref>
and to make women completely free of the responsibilities of childbearing, [[abortion]] was made legal as early as 1920.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Remennick | first1 = Larissa | year = 1991 | title = Epidemology and Determinants of Induced Abortion in the USSR | url = | journal=Soc. Sci. Med. | volume = 33 | issue = 7| pages = 841–848 | doi = 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90389-T | pmid = 1948176 }}</ref> As a side effect, the emancipation of women increased the labor market. Girls were encouraged to secure an education and pursue a career in the factory or the office. Communal nurseries were set up for the care of small children, and efforts were made to shift the center of people's social life from the home to educational and recreational groups, the soviet clubs.

The regime abandoned the tsarist policy of [[Discrimination|discriminating]] against [[national minorities]] in favor of a policy of incorporating the more than two hundred minority groups into Soviet life.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Another feature of the regime was the extension of medical services. Campaigns were carried out against [[typhus]], [[cholera]], and [[malaria]]; the number of doctors was increased as rapidly as facilities and training would permit; and [[infant mortality]] rates rapidly decreased while [[life expectancy]] rapidly increased.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}

In [[Marxist‒Leninist atheism|accordance]] with Marxist theory, the government also [[State atheism|promoted atheism]] and [[materialism]]. It opposed organized religion, especially to break the power of the Russian Orthodox Church, a former pillar of the old tsarist regime and a major barrier to social change.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Many religious leaders were sent to internal exile camps.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Members of the party were forbidden to attend religious services, and the education system was separated from the Church.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Religious teaching was prohibited except in the home, and [[Atheism|atheist]] instruction was stressed in the schools.

===Industrialization and Collectivization===
{{Further|Collectivization in the Soviet Union}}
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Magnito.jpg|thumb|left|The construction of steel-producing city of [[Magnitogorsk]] in 1931 appears above. Magnitogorsk was at the forefront of Stalin's Five-Year Plans in the 1930s.]] -->
The years from 1929 to 1939 comprised a tumultuous decade in Soviet history—a period of massive industrialization and internal struggles as [[Joseph Stalin]] established near total control over Soviet society, wielding virtually unrestrained power. Following Lenin's death Stalin wrestled to gain control of the Soviet Union with rival factions in the Politburo, especially [[Leon Trotsky]]'s. By 1928, with the [[Trotskyist]]s either exiled or rendered powerless, Stalin was ready to put a radical programme of industrialisation into action.<ref name = Deutscbher>I. Deutscher, ''Stalin: A Political Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1949, pp. 294–344.</ref>

In 1929 Stalin proposed the [[First Five-Year Plan]].<ref name="Richman"/> Abolishing the NEP, it was the first of a number of plans aimed at swift accumulation of capital resources through the buildup of heavy industry, the [[Collectivisation in the USSR|collectivization of agriculture]], and the restricted manufacture of [[consumer goods in the Soviet Union|consumer goods]].<ref name="Richman"/> For the first time in history a government controlled all economic activity.

As a part of the plan, the government took control of agriculture through the state and collective farms (''[[kolkhoz]]es'').<ref name="conquest-coll">[[Conquest, Robert]]. ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-19-505180-7.</ref> By a decree of February 1930, about one million individual peasants (''[[kulaks]]'') were forced off their land. Many peasants strongly opposed regimentation by the state, often slaughtering their herds when faced with the loss of their land. In some sections they revolted, and countless peasants deemed "kulaks" by the authorities were executed.<ref>Viola, Lynne. ''Peasant Rebels under Stalin. Collectivization and the Culture of Peasant Resistance''. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-513104-5.</ref> The combination of bad weather, deficiencies of the hastily established collective farms, and massive confiscation of grain precipitated a serious famine,<ref name="conquest-coll"/> and several million peasants [[Soviet famine of 1932-1934|died of starvation]], [[Holodomor|mostly in Ukraine]], [[Famine in Kazakhstan of 1932–33|Kazakhstan]] and parts of southwestern Russia.<ref name="conquest-coll"/> The deteriorating conditions in the countryside drove millions of desperate peasants to the rapidly growing cities, fueling industrialization, and vastly increasing Russia's urban population in the space of just a few years.

[[Image:USSR stamp M.Tukhachevsky 1963 4k.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]] and other generals convicted in the [[Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization|Trial of Red Army Generals]] in 1937 were declared innocent ("[[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|rehabilitated]]") in 1957.]]
The plans received remarkable results in areas aside from agriculture. Russia, in many measures the poorest nation in Europe at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, now industrialized at a phenomenal rate, far surpassing Germany's pace of industrialization in the 19th century and Japan's earlier in the 20th century. {{Citation needed|date=August 2014}}

While the Five-Year Plans were forging ahead, Stalin was establishing his personal power. The [[NKVD]] gathered in tens of thousands of Soviet citizens to face arrest, [[population transfer in the Soviet Union|deportation]], or execution. Of the six original members of the 1920 Politburo who survived Lenin, all were purged by Stalin. Old Bolsheviks who had been loyal comrades of Lenin, high officers in the Red Army, and directors of industry were liquidated in the [[Great Purges]].<ref name="conquest-terror">[[Conquest, Robert]]. ''[[The Great Terror: A Reassessment]]''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-19-507132-8.</ref> Purges in other Soviet republics also helped centralize control in the USSR.

Stalin's repressions led to the creation of a vast system of [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|internal exile]], of considerably greater dimensions than those set up in the past by the tsars.<ref>[http://www.jamestown.org/getman_paintings.php?painting_id=22 The Gulag Collection: Paintings of Nikolai Getman]</ref>{{failed verification|date=January 2014}} Draconian penalties were introduced and many citizens were prosecuted for fictitious crimes of sabotage and espionage. The labor provided by convicts working in the [[labor camp]]s of the [[Gulag]] system became an important component of the industrialization effort, especially in [[Siberia]].<ref name="forcedlabor">Gregory, Paul R. & Valery Lazarev (eds.). ''The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag''. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8179-3942-3.</ref><ref name="ivanova">Ivanova, Galina M. ''Labor Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian System''. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. ISBN 0-7656-0427-2.</ref> An estimated 18 million people passed through the Gulag system, and perhaps another 15&nbsp;million had experience of some other form of forced labor.<ref>[http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/2000/06_15_nyrb_gulag.html Anne Applebaum – Inside the Gulag]</ref><ref name="applebaum">[[Applebaum, Anne]]. ''Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps''. London: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN 0-7139-9322-7.</ref>

===Soviet Union on the international stage===
{{Main|Foreign relations of the Soviet Union|Soviet imperialism}}
The Soviet Union viewed the 1933 accession of fervently [[anti-Communist]] [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s government to power in [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] with great alarm from the onset, especially since Hitler proclaimed the [[Drang nach Osten]] as one of the major objectives in his vision of the German strategy of [[Lebensraum]].<ref name=Lebensraum>See, e.g. [[Mein Kampf]]</ref> The Soviets supported the republicans of Spain who struggled against fascist German and Italian troops in the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>Payne, Stanley G. ''The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-300-10068-X.</ref><ref>Radosh, Ronald, Mary Habeck & Grigory Sevostianov (eds.). ''Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-300-08981-3.</ref> In 1938–1939, immediately prior to WWII, the Soviet Union successfully fought against [[Imperial Japan]] in the [[Soviet-Japanese Border Wars]] in the [[Russian Far East]], which led to [[Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact|Soviet-Japanese neutrality]] and the tense border peace that lasted until August 1945.<ref>Coox, Alvin D. ''The Anatomy of a Small War: The Soviet-Japanese Struggle for Changkufeng/Khasan, 1938''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8371-9479-2.</ref><ref>Coox, Alvin D. ''Nomonhan: Japan against Russia, 1939''. 2 vols. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8047-1835-0.</ref>

In 1938 Germany [[Anschluss|annexed Austria]] and, together with major Western European powers, signed the [[Munich Agreement]] following which Germany, Hungary and Poland divided parts of Czechoslovakia between themselves. German plans for further eastward expansion, as well as the lack of resolve from Western powers to oppose it, became more apparent. Despite the Soviet Union strongly opposing the Munich deal and repeatedly reaffirming its readiness to militarily back commitments given earlier to Czechoslovakia, the [[Western Betrayal]] led to the end of Czechoslovakia and further increased fears in the Soviet Union of a coming German attack. This led the Soviet Union to rush the modernization of its military industry and to carry out its own diplomatic maneuvers. In 1939 the Soviet Union signed the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]]: a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany dividing Eastern Europe into two separate spheres of influence.<ref>{{Cite journal | author=Roberts, Geoffrey | year = 1992 | title = The Soviet Decision for a Pact with Nazi Germany | journal=[[Soviet Studies]] | volume = 44 | issue = 1 | pages = 57–78 | jstor = 00385859 | doi=10.1080/09668139208411994 }}</ref> Following the pact, the USSR normalized [[Soviet-German relations before 1941|relations with Nazi Germany]] and resumed Soviet-German trade.<ref>Ericson, Edward E. ''Feeding the German Eagle: Soviet Economic Aid to Nazi Germany, 1933–1941''. New York: Praeger, 1999. ISBN 0-275-96337-3.</ref><!---ref to books should be given with page numbers or specific sections. Will be removed if specific info not given--->

===World War II===
{{Main|World War II|Eastern Front (World War II)}}
[[File:Poster Defend Moscow.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Soviet poster proclaiming, "Let's defend Moscow!"]]

On 17 September 1939, seventeen days after the start of [[World War II]] and victorious German advance deep into the Polish territory, the [[Red Army]] [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|invaded eastern portions of Poland]] stating the "need to protect Ukrainians and Belarusians" there, after the "cessation of existence" of the Polish state as the justification of the action.<ref>Gross, Jan Tomasz. ''Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. 2nd ed. ISBN 0-691-09603-1.</ref><ref>Zaloga, Steven & Victor Madej. ''The Polish Campaign 1939''. 2nd ed. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1991. ISBN 0-87052-013-X.</ref> As a result, the Belarusian and Ukrainian Soviet republics' western borders were moved westward and the new Soviet western border was drawn close to the original [[Curzon line]]. In the meantime the negotiations with [[Finland]] about the Soviet-proposed land swap that would redraw the Soviet-Finnish border further away from [[Leningrad]] failed; and in December 1939 the USSR started a campaign against Finland, known as the [[Winter War]] (1939–40). The war took a heavy death toll on the [[Red Army]] but forced Finland to sign a [[Moscow Peace Treaty]] and cede the [[Karelian Isthmus]] and [[Ladoga Karelia]].<ref>Vehviläinen, Olli. ''Finland in the Second World War: Between Germany and Russia''. New York: Palgrave, 2002. ISBN 0-333-80149-0</ref><ref>Van Dyke, Carl. ''The Soviet Invasion of Finland 1939–1940''. London: Frank Cass, 1997. ISBN 0-7146-4314-9.</ref> In summer 1940 the USSR issued an [[June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum|ultimatum to Romania]] forcing it to cede the territories of [[Bessarabia]] and [[Northern Bukovina]]. At the same time, the Soviet Union also occupied the three [[occupation of Baltic states|formerly independent Baltic states]] ([[Estonia]], Latvia and [[Lithuania]]).<ref>Dima, Nicholas. ''Bessarabia and Bukovina: The Soviet-Romanian Territorial Dispute''. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1982. ISBN 0-88033-003-1.</ref><ref>Tarulis, Albert N. ''Soviet Policy Toward the Baltic States 1918–1940''. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959.</ref><ref>Misiunas, Romuald J. & Rein Taagepera. ''The Baltic States: The Years of Dependence, 1940–90''. 2nd ed. London: Hurst & Co, 1993. ISBN 1-85065-157-4.</ref>

[[File:Charkov-Belgorod.jpg|thumb|Soviet [[T-34/76]]s and infantry advance past a destroyed [[Panzer IV]]. [[Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev|Kharkov, August 1943]]]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-208, KZ Mauthausen, Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene.jpg|thumb|Soviet POW's starving in a Nazi camp. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, about half of all [[World War II casualties]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4530565.stm Leaders mourn Soviet wartime dead]</ref>]]

The peace with Germany was tense, as both sides were preparing for the military conflict,<ref name=Isaev10>А. В. Десять мифов Второй мировой. – М.: Эксмо, Яуза, 2004, ISBN 5-699-07634-4</ref><ref>[[Mikhail Meltyukhov]], ''[[Stalin's Missed Chance]]'', М. И. Мельтюхов ''Упущенный шанс Сталина: Советский Союз и борьба за Европу 1939–1941 гг. : Документы, факты, суждения.'' Изд. 2-е, испр., доп. ISBN 5-7838-1196-3 (second edition)</ref> and abruptly ended when the [[Axis forces]] led by Germany [[Operation Barbarossa|swept across the Soviet border]] on 22 June 1941. By the autumn the [[Wehrmacht|German army]] had [[Battle of Kiev (1941)|seized Ukraine]], laid a [[siege of Leningrad]], and [[Battle of Moscow|threatened to capture the capital]], Moscow, itself.<ref>[[Gilbert, Martin]]. The Second World War: A Complete History. 2nd ed. New York: Owl Books, 1991. ISBN 0-8050-1788-7.</ref><ref>Thurston, Robert W. & Bernd Bonwetsch (ed.). ''The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. ISBN 0-252-02600-4.</ref><ref>[[Clark, Alan]]. ''Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941–1945''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1985. ISBN 0-688-04268-6.</ref> Despite the fact that in December 1941 the Red Army [[Battle of Moscow|threw off the German forces from Moscow]] in a successful counterattack, the Germans retained the strategic initiative for approximately another year and held a deep offensive in the south-eastern direction, reaching the [[Volga]] and the [[Caucasus]]. However, two major German defeats in [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]] and [[Battle of Kursk|Kursk]] proved decisive and reversed the course of the entire [[World War II|World War]] as Germans never regained the strength to sustain their offensive operations and the Soviet Union recaptured the initiative for the rest of the conflict.<ref>[[Beevor, Antony]]. ''[[Stalingrad (book)|Stalingrad, The Fateful Siege: 1942–1943]]''. New York: Viking, 1998. ISBN 0-670-87095-1.</ref> By the end of 1943, the Red Army had broken through the German siege of Leningrad and [[Battle of the Dnieper|liberated much of Ukraine]], much of Western Russia and [[Battle of Smolensk (1943)|moved into Belarus]].<ref>[[Glantz, David M.]] & Jonathan M. House. ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler''. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. ISBN 0-7006-0717-X.</ref> By the end of 1944, the front had moved beyond the 1939 Soviet frontiers into eastern Europe. Soviet forces drove into eastern Germany, [[battle of Berlin|capturing Berlin]] in May 1945.<ref>[[Beevor, Antony]]. ''Berlin: The Downfall, 1945''. 3rd ed. London: Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0-14-101747-3.</ref> The war with Germany thus ended triumphantly for the Soviet Union.

As agreed at the [[Yalta Conference]], three months after the [[Victory Day (Eastern Europe)|Victory Day in Europe]] the USSR launched the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria]], defeating the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese troops]] in neighboring [[Manchuria]], the last Soviet battle of World War II.<ref>[[Glantz, David M.]] ''The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria: ‘August Storm’''. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-7146-5279-2.</ref>

Although the Soviet Union was victorious in [[World War II]], the war resulted in around 26–27&nbsp;million Soviet deaths (estimates vary)<ref>This is far higher than the original number of 7 million given by Stalin, and, indeed, the number has increased under various Soviet and Russian Federation leaders. See Mark Harrison, ''The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 291 (ISBN 0-521-78503-0), for more information.</ref> and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle. Some 1,710 towns and 70 thousand settlements were destroyed.<ref>As evidenced at the post-war [[Nuremberg Trials]]. See Ginsburg, George, ''The Nuremberg Trial and International Law'', Martinus Nijhoff, 1990, p. 160. ISBN 0-7923-0798-4.</ref> The occupied territories suffered from the ravages of German occupation and deportations of [[slave labor]] in Germany.<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers]</ref> Thirteen million Soviet citizens became victims of a repressive policy of Germans and their allies on an occupied territory, where people died because of mass murders, [[famine]], absence of elementary medical aid and slave labor.<ref>Gerlach, C. «Kalkulierte Morde» Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 1999</ref><ref>Россия и СССР в войнах ХХ века", М. "Олма- Пресс", 2001 год</ref><ref>[http://www.tr.rkrp-rpk.ru/get.php?1379 Цена войны (Борис ЯЧМЕНЕВ) – "Трудовая Россия"]. Tr.rkrp-rpk.ru. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.</ref><ref name="gumer1">[http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/Article/_Rubak_VelOtech.php Рыбаковский Л. Великая отечественная: людские потери России]. Gumer.info. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.</ref> The [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[The Holocaust|Genocide of the Jews]] carried by German ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'', along the local collaborators resulted in almost complete annihilation of the Jewish population over the entire territory temporary occupied by Germany and [[Axis forces|its allies]].,<ref>[http://www.un.int/russia/other/latv1941.htm Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (Russian Federation. General Information)]. Un.int. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.</ref><ref>[http://www.un.int/russia/other/eest1941.htm#english Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (Russian Federation. General Information)]. Un.int. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.</ref> [http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_18.html#top], [http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html]. During occupation, Russia's [[Leningrad]], now [[Saint Petersburg]], region lost around a quarter of its population.<ref name="gumer1"/> Soviet Belarus lost from a quarter to a third of its population. 3.6&nbsp;million Soviet [[prisoners of war]] (of 5.5&nbsp;million) died in German camps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gendercide.org/case_soviet.html|title=Case Study: Soviet Prisoners-of-War (POWs), 1941–42|work=Gendercide Watch|accessdate=22 July 2007}}</ref><ref>"Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century", Greenhill Books, London, 1997, G. F. Krivosheev</ref><ref>Christian Streit: Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die Sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, 1941–1945, Bonn: Dietz (3. Aufl., 1. Aufl. 1978), ISBN 3-8012-5016-4</ref>

===Kolda milito===
{{PA|Kolda milito}}
[[File:Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon talks in 1973.png|thumb|[[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] [[Leonid Brezhnev]] talks to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Richard Nixon]] on his visit to USA, the high-water mark of [[detente]]]]

Collaboration among the major Allies had won the war and was supposed to serve as the basis for postwar reconstruction and security. However, the conflict between Soviet and U.S. national interests, known as the [[Cold War]], came to dominate the international stage in the postwar period.

The Cold War emerged from a conflict between Stalin and U.S. President [[Harry Truman]] over the future of Eastern Europe during the [[Potsdam Conference]] in the summer of 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/The+Cold+War.htm|title=The Cold War|work=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum}}</ref> Russia had suffered three devastating Western onslaughts in the previous 150 years during the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War, and Stalin's goal was to establish a buffer zone of states between Germany and the Soviet Union.<ref name="Gaddis">{{cite book|last=Gaddis|first=John Lewis|authorlink=John Lewis Gaddis|title=Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States: An Interpretive History|year=1990|publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]]|page=176|isbn=0-07-557258-3}}</ref> Truman charged that Stalin had betrayed the [[Yalta]] agreement.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} With Eastern Europe under Red Army occupation, Stalin was also biding his time, as his own [[Soviet atomic bomb project|atomic bomb project]] was steadily and secretly progressing.<ref>Cochran, Thomas B., Robert S. Norris & Oleg Bukharin. [http://docs.nrdc.org/nuclear/nuc_01019501a_138.pdf ''Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin''] (PDF). Boulder,. CO:. Westview Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8133-2328-2.</ref><ref>[[Gaddis, John Lewis]]. ''We now know. Rethinking Cold War History''. Oxford: Clarendon press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-878071-0.</ref>

In April 1949 the United States sponsored the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO), a mutual defense pact in which most Western nations pledged to treat an armed attack against one nation as an assault on all. The Soviet Union established an Eastern counterpart to NATO in 1955, dubbed the [[Warsaw Pact]].<ref>[[Mastny, Vojtech]], Malcolm Byrne & Magdalena Klotzbach (eds.). ''Cardboard Castle?: An Inside History Of The Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991''. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005. ISBN 963-7326-08-1.</ref><ref>Holloway, David & Jane M. O. Sharp. ''The Warsaw Pact: Alliance in Transition?'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8014-1775-9.</ref><ref>Holden, Gerard. ''The Warsaw Pact: Soviet Security and Bloc Politics''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989. ISBN 0-631-16775-7.</ref> The division of Europe into Western and Soviet blocks later took on a more global character, especially after 1949, when the U.S. nuclear monopoly ended with the testing of [[Joe-1|a Soviet bomb]] and the [[Communist Party of China|Communist]] takeover in [[China]].

The foremost objectives of Soviet foreign policy were the maintenance and enhancement of [[national security]] and the maintenance of hegemony over [[Eastern Europe]]. The Soviet Union maintained its dominance over the Warsaw Pact through crushing the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]],<ref>Litvan, Gyorgy, Janos M. Bak & Lyman Howard Legters (eds.). ''The Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Reform, Revolt and Repression, 1953–1963''. London – New York: Longman, 1996. ISBN 0-582-21504-8.</ref> suppressing the [[Prague Spring]] in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and supporting the suppression of the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement in Poland in the early 1980s. The Soviet Union opposed the United States in a number of [[proxy conflicts]] all over the world, including [[Korean War]] and [[Vietnam War]].

As the Soviet Union continued to maintain tight control over its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, the Cold War gave way to ''[[Détente]]'' and a more complicated pattern of international relations in the 1970s in which the world was no longer clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs. Less powerful countries had more room to assert their independence, and the two [[superpower]]s were partially able to recognize their common interest in trying to check the further spread and proliferation of nuclear weapons in treaties such as [[SALT I]], [[SALT II]], and the [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty]].

U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorated following the beginning of the nine-year [[Soviet War in Afghanistan]] in 1979 and the [[U.S. presidential election, 1980|1980 election of Ronald Reagan]], a staunch [[anti-communist]], but improved as the [[communist bloc]] started to unravel in the late 1980s. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia lost the superpower status that it had won in the Second World War.

===De-Stalinization and the era of stagnation===
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)|History of the Soviet Union (1964–1982)|Era of Stagnation}}
[[File:Артимарка Микита Хрущов 2009.jpg|thumb|Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred [[Crimea]] from [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] to [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Ukraine]]]]

In the power struggle that erupted after Stalin's death in 1953, his closest followers lost out. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] solidified his position in a speech before the [[20th Party Congress|Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party]] in 1956 detailing Stalin's atrocities.<ref name="CNN Khrushchev">{{cite news|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/khrushchev/|title=Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev|accessdate=22 July 2007|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080613043811/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/khrushchev/|archivedate=13 June 2008}}</ref>

In 1964 Khrushchev was [[Impeachment|impeached]] by the Communist Party's Central Committee, charging him with a host of errors that included Soviet setbacks such as the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].<ref name="CNN Khrushchev" /> After a period of [[collective leadership]] led by [[Leonid Brezhnev]], [[Alexei Kosygin]] and [[Nikolai Podgorny]], a veteran bureaucrat, Brezhnev, took Khrushchev's place as [[Soviet leader]].<ref>{{cite news|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/brezhnev/|title=Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev|accessdate=22 July 2007|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080613043927/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/brezhnev/|archivedate=13 June 2008}}</ref> Brezhnev followed emphasis on heavy industry,<ref name="History Guide Brezhnev">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyguide.org/europe/brezhnev.html|title=Leonid Brezhnev, 1906–1982|work=The History Guide|accessdate=22 July 2007|quote=During the 1970s Brezhnev attempted to normalize relations between [[West Germany]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]] and to ease tensions with the United States through the policy known as détente. At the same time, he saw to it that the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex was greatly expanded and modernized.", "After his death, he was criticized for a gradual slide in living standards, the spread of corruption and cronyism within the Soviet [[bureaucracy]], and the generally [[Era of Stagnation|stagnant and dispiriting character of Soviet life]] in the late 1970s and early '80s.}}</ref> instituted the [[Soviet economic reform of 1965]],<ref name=Duke>{{cite web|title=Soviet and Post-Soviet Economic Structure And Performance|url=http://econ.duke.edu/pub/treml/brezhnev.293|publisher=HArper Collins}}</ref>  and also attempted to ease relationships with the United States.<ref name="History Guide Brezhnev" /> In the 1960s the USSR became a leading producer and exporter of petroleum and natural gas.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}

Khrushchev and Brezhnev years were time when Soviet science and industry peaked. The world's first [[nuclear power plant]] was established in 1954 [[Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant|in Obninsk]]. [[Baikal Amur Mainline]] was built.

[[File:Gagarin in Sweden-2.jpg|thumb|[[Yuri Gagarin]], first human to travel into space]]

The [[Soviet space program]], founded by [[Sergey Korolev]], was especially successful. On 4 October 1957 Soviet Union launched the first [[space satellite]] [[Sputnik]].<ref name="NASA Sputnik">{{cite web|work=NASA|url=http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/|title=Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age|accessdate=22 July 2007|date=19 January 2007|author=Steve Garber|quote=History changed on October&nbsp;4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite...}}</ref> On 12 April 1961 [[Yuri Gagarin]] became the first human to travel into space in the Soviet spaceship [[Vostok 1]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/netnotes/article/0,,470879,00.html|title=Yuri Gagarin|work=The Guardian |location=UK |quote=12 April 2001 is the fortieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space, the first time a human left the planet|author=Neil Perry|accessdate=22 July 2007|date=12 April 2001 }}</ref> Other achievements of Russian space program include: the first photo of the [[far side of the Moon]]; exploration of [[Venus]]; the first [[Extra-vehicular activity|spacewalk]] by [[Alexey Leonov]]; first female spaceflight by [[Valentina Tereshkova]]. More recently, the Soviet Union produced the world's first space station, [[Salyut]] which in 1986 was replaced by [[Mir]], the first consistently inhabited long-term space station, that served from 1986 to 2001.

While all modernized economies were rapidly moving to computerization after 1965, the USSR fell further and further behind. Moscow's decision to copy the IBM 360 of 1965 proved a decisive mistake for it locked scientists into an antiquated system they were unable to improve. They had enormous difficulties in manufacturing the necessary chips reliably and in quantity, in programming workable and efficient programs, in coordinating entirely separate operations, and in providing support to computer users.<ref>James W. Cortada, "Public Policies and the Development of National Computer Industries in Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, 1940—80." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (2009) 44#3 pp: 493-512, especially page 509-10.</ref><ref>Frank Cain, "Computers and the Cold War: United States restrictions on the export of computers to the Soviet Union and Communist China." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (2005) 40#1 pp: 131-147. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036313 in JSTOR]</ref>

One of the greatest strengths of Soviet economy was its vast supplies of oil and gas; world oil prices quadrupled in the 1973-74, and rose again in 1979-1981, making the energy sector the chief driver of the Soviet economy, and was used to cover multiple weaknesses. At one point, Soviet Premier [[Alexei Kosygin]] told the head of oil and gas production, "things are bad with bread. Give me 3 million tons [of oil] over the plan." <ref>Yergin, ''The Quest'' (2011) p 23</ref>  Former prime minister [[Yegor Gaidar]], an economist looking back three decades, in 2007 wrote:
:The hard currency from oil exports stopped the growing food supply crisis, increased the import of equipment and consumer goods, ensured a financial base for the arms race and the achievement of nuclear parity with the United States, and permitted the realization of such risky foreign-policy actions as the war in Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite book|author=Yegor Gaidar|title=Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bDSfnxYjVwAC&pg=PA102|date= 2007|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|page=102}}</ref>

===Breakup of the Union===
{{main|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)|Dissolution of the Soviet Union}}
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:1991 coup yeltsin.jpg|right|thumb|In an iconic photograph by the [[Associated Press]] broadcast worldwide<ref>{{cite book|title=The Broadcast Century and Beyond: a Biography of American Broadcasting|author=Robert L. Hilliard|author2=Michael C. Keith|publisher=Elsevier|year=2006|pages=271|isbn=0-240-80570-4}}</ref> a recently elected [[President of Russia|Russian president]] [[Boris Yeltsin]] (far left) stands on a tank to defy the coup whose failure brought about the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]].]] -->
[[File:RIAN archive 848095 Signing the Agreement to eliminate the USSR and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.jpg|thumb|Leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the [[Belavezha Accords]], [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolving the Soviet Union]], 8&nbsp;December&nbsp;1991]]

Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. After the rapid succession of former KGB Chief [[Yuri Andropov]] and [[Konstantin Chernenko]], transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] announced [[perestroika]] in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism, and made significant changes in the party leadership.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} However, [[Perestroika|Gorbachev's social reforms]] led to [[unintended consequence]]s. Because of his policy of ''[[glasnost]]'', which facilitated public access to information after decades of government repression, social problems received wider public attention, undermining the Communist Party's authority. In the [[revolutions of 1989]] the USSR lost its allies in Eastern Europe. ''Glasnost'' allowed ethnic and nationalist disaffection to reach the surface.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} Many constituent republics, especially the [[Baltic republics]], [[Georgian SSR]] and [[Moldavian SSR]], sought greater autonomy, which Moscow was unwilling to provide. Gorbachev's attempts at economic reform were not sufficient, and the Soviet government left intact most of the fundamental elements of communist economy. Suffering from low pricing of petroleum and natural gas, ongoing [[Soviet war in Afghanistan|war in Afghanistan]], outdated industry and pervasive corruption, the Soviet [[planned economy]] proved to be ineffective, and by 1990 the Soviet government had lost control over economic conditions. Due to [[price control]], there were shortages of almost all products, reaching their peak in the end of 1991, when people had to stand in long lines and to be lucky enough to buy even the essentials. Control over the constituent republics was also relaxed, and they began to assert their national sovereignty over Moscow.

[[File:Boris Yeltsin 4 April 1996.jpg|thumb|Boris Yeltsin on election rally in [[Belgorod]], 1996]]
The tension between Soviet Union and Russian SFSR authorities came to be personified in the bitter power struggle between Gorbachev and [[Boris Yeltsin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmZjYmUzZmQ1ZmFlMTc5NjA1ZWZiZTgwMTM1ZDVkOTk=|title=Boris on a Pedestal|quote=In the process he engaged in a power struggle with Mikhail Gorbachev... |author=David Pryce-Jones|work=National Review Online|accessdate=22 July 2007|date=20 March 2000}}</ref> Squeezed out of Union politics by Gorbachev in 1987, Yeltsin, who represented himself as a committed democrat, presented a significant opposition to Gorbachev authority.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} In a remarkable reversal of fortunes, he gained election as chairman of the Russian republic's new Supreme Soviet in May 1990.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=CNN|title=Boris Yeltsin|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/yeltsin/|quote=The first-ever popularly elected leader of Russia, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a protégé of Mikhail Gorbachev's.|accessdate=22 July 2007|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080613043952/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/yeltsin/|archivedate=13 June 2008}}</ref> The following month, he secured legislation [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|giving Russian laws priority over Soviet laws]] and withholding two-thirds of the budget.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}} In the [[Russian presidential election, 1991|first Russian presidential election]] in 1991 Yeltsin became president of the Russian SFSR.
At last Gorbachev [[New Union Treaty|attempted to restructure]] the Soviet Union into a less centralized state. However, on 19 August 1991, a [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|coup against Gorbachev]], conspired by senior Soviet officials, was attempted. The coup faced wide popular opposition and collapsed in three days, but disintegration of the Union became imminent. The Russian government took over most of the Soviet Union government institutions on its territory. Because of the dominant position of Russians in the Soviet Union, most gave little thought to any distinction between Russia and the [[Soviet Union]] before the late 1980s. In the Soviet Union, only Russian SFSR lacked even the paltry instruments of statehood that the other republics possessed, such as its own republic-level Communist Party branch, [[trade union]] councils, [[Academy of Sciences]], and the like.<ref>{{cite web|quote=Because of the Russians' dominance in the affairs of the union, the RSFSR failed to develop some of the institutions of governance and administration that were typical of public life in the other republics: a republic-level communist party, a Russian academy of sciences, and Russian branches of trade unions, for example.|work=Country Studies|title=Government|url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/68.htm|accessdate=22 July 2007}}</ref> The [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] was banned in Russia in 1991–1992, although no [[lustration]] has ever taken place, and many of its members became top Russian officials. However, as the Soviet government was still opposed to market reforms, the economic situation continued to deteriorate. By December 1991, the shortages had resulted in the introduction of food [[rationing]] in Moscow and Saint Petersburg for the first time since World War II. Russia received humanitarian food aid from abroad. After the [[Belavezha Accords]], the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia]] withdrew Russia from the Soviet Union on 12 December. The Soviet Union officially ended on 25 December 1991,<ref name="BBC Timeline">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1112551.stm|work=BBC |title=Timeline: Soviet Union|quote=1991 25 December – Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president; US recognises independence of remaining Soviet republics|accessdate=22 July 2007 | date=3 March 2006}}</ref> and the [[Russia|Russian Federation]] (formerly the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Russian+Soviet+Federal+Socialist+Republic|work=The Free Dictionary|title=Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic|quote=The largest republic of the former Soviet Union; it became independent as the Russian Federation in 1991|accessdate=22 July 2007}}</ref> took power on 26 December.<ref name="BBC Timeline" /> The Russian government lifted price control on January 1992. Prices rose dramatically, but shortages disappeared.

==Russian Federation (1991–present)==
{{Main|History of Russia (1992–present)}}
Although Yeltsin came to power on a wave of optimism, he never recovered his popularity after endorsing [[Yegor Gaidar]]'s "[[shock therapy (economics)|shock therapy]]" of ending Soviet-era price controls, drastic cuts in state spending, and an open foreign trade regime in early 1992 (''see'' [[Economy of Russia#Economic Reform in the 1990s|Russian economic reform in the 1990s]]). The reforms immediately devastated the living standards of much of the population. In the 1990s Russia suffered an economic downturn that was, in some ways, more severe than the United States or Germany had undergone six decades earlier in the Great Depression.<ref>Peter Nolan, ''China's Rise, Russia's Fall''. Macmillan Press, 1995. pp. 17–18.</ref> Hyperinflation hit the ruble, due to [[monetary overhang]] from the days of the planned economy.

Meanwhile, the profusion of small parties and their aversion to coherent alliances left the legislature chaotic. During 1993, Yeltsin's rift with the parliamentary leadership led to the [[Russian constitutional crisis of 1993|September–October 1993 constitutional crisis]]. The crisis climaxed on 3 October, when Yeltsin chose a radical solution to settle his dispute with parliament: he called up tanks to shell the [[White House of Russia|Russian White House]], blasting out his opponents. As Yeltsin was taking the unconstitutional step of dissolving the legislature, Russia came close to a serious civil conflict. Yeltsin was then free to impose the [[constitution of the Russian Federation|current Russian constitution]] with strong presidential powers, which was approved by referendum in December 1993. The cohesion of the Russian Federation was also threatened when the republic of [[Chechnya]] attempted to break away, leading to the [[First Chechen War|First]] and [[Second Chechen War]]s.

[[File:Vladimir Putin 11 March 2008-1.jpg|thumb|[[Dmitri Medvedev]] with [[Vladimir Putin]]]]
Economic reforms also consolidated a semi-criminal oligarchy with roots in the old Soviet system. Advised by Western governments, the [[World Bank]], and the [[International Monetary Fund]], Russia embarked on the largest and fastest [[privatization]] that the world had ever seen in order to reform the fully [[nationalized]] Soviet economy. By mid-decade, retail, trade, services, and small industry was in private hands. Most big enterprises were acquired by their old managers, engendering a new rich ([[Russian oligarch|Russian tycoons]]) in league with [[Russian Mafia|criminal mafias]] or Western investors.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fairbanks | first1 = Jr. | last2 = Charles | first2 = H. | year = 1999 | title = The Feudalization of the State | url = | journal=Journal of Democracy | volume = 10 | issue = 2| pages = 47–53 | doi = 10.1353/jod.1999.0031 }}</ref> That being said, there were [[corporate raider]]s such as [[Andrei Volgin]] engaged in [[hostile takeover]]s of corrupt corporations by the mid-1990s.
<!--[[File:T628776A.jpg|thumb|left|The shelling of the Russian White House, 4–5 October, during the [[Russian constitutional crisis of 1993]]]] Commenting out fair use image for now as it has no rational. -->
By the mid-1990s Russia had a system of multiparty electoral politics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/9176-3.cfm|title=Russian president praises 1990s as cradle of democracy|work=Johnson's Russia List|accessdate=20 July 2007}}</ref> But it was harder to establish a representative government because of two structural problems—the struggle between president and parliament and the anarchic party system.

Meanwhile, the central government had lost control of the localities, bureaucracy, and economic fiefdoms; tax revenues had collapsed. Still in deep depression by the mid-1990s, Russia's economy was hit further by the [[1998 Russian financial crisis|financial crash of 1998]]. After the 1998 financial crisis, Yeltsin was at the end of his political career. Just hours before the first day of 2000, Yeltsin made a surprise announcement of his resignation, leaving the government in the hands of the little-known Prime Minister [[Vladimir Putin]], a former KGB official and head of the [[FSB (Russia)|FSB]], the KGB's post-Soviet successor agency.<ref>CNN [http://archives.cnn.com/1999/WORLD/europe/12/31/yeltsin.resigns.04/ Apologetic Yeltsin resigns; Putin becomes acting president]. Written by Jim Morris. Published 31 December 1999.</ref> In 2000, the new acting president defeated his opponents in the presidential election on 26 March, and won a landslide 4 years later.<ref name="BBC Putin Elections">{{cite news |title=Putin's hold on the Russians |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/667749.stm |work=BBC  |date=28 June 2007 |accessdate=22 July 2007 |quote=In the 2000 election, he took 53% of the vote in the first round and, four years later, was re-elected with a landslide majority of 71%.}}</ref> International observers were alarmed by late 2004 moves to further tighten the presidency's control over parliament, civil society, and regional officeholders.<ref name="BBC Putin Elections2">{{cite news |title=Putin's hold on the Russians |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/667749.stm|work=BBC  |date=28 June 2007 |accessdate=22 July 2007 |quote=But his critics believe that it has come at the cost of some post-communist democratic freedoms.", "2003: General election gives Putin allies control over parliament"}}</ref> In 2008 [[Dmitri Medvedev]], a former [[Gazprom]] chairman and Putin's head of staff, was elected new President of Russia. In 2012, Putin was once again elected as President.
[[File:Марш мира Москва 21 сент 2014 L1460091.jpg|thumb|Anti-war demonstrations took place in Moscow opposing the war in [[Eastern Ukraine]]]]

Russia has had difficulty attracting foreign direct investment{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}} and has experienced large capital outflows in the past several years{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}}. Russia's long-term problems also include a shrinking workforce, rampant corruption, and underinvestment in infrastructure.<ref name=cia/>
Nevertheless, reversion to a [[Socialism|socialist]] [[command economy]] seemed almost impossible.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Russian Federation Today|url=http://www.guidetorussia.org/history/russia-today.html|work=Guide to Russia's HISTORY OF RUSSIA}}</ref> Russia ended 2006 with its eighth straight year of growth, averaging 6.7% annually since the [[1998 Russian financial crisis|financial crisis of 1998]]. Although high oil prices and a relatively cheap ruble initially drove this growth, since 2003 consumer demand and, more recently, investment have played a significant role.<ref name=cia>CIA World Fact Book – Russia</ref> Russia is well ahead of most other resource-rich countries in its economic development, with a long tradition of education, science, and industry.<ref>[http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2006/gb20061207_520461_page_2.htm Russia: How Long Can The Fun Last?] businessweek.com</ref>

Scholars have examined the prevailing political philosophy in recent years under President Putin. Barbashin and Hannah Thoburn  argue regarding the philosophy behind Putin's dealing with Ukraine in 2014:
:True to Putin’s insistence that Russia cannot be judged in Western terms, Putin’s new conservatism does not fit U.S. and European definitions. In fact, the main trait they share is opposition to liberalism. Whereas conservatives in those parts of the world are fearful of big government and put the individual first, Russian conservatives advocate for state power and see individuals as serving that state. They draw on a long tradition of Russian imperial conservatism and, in particular, Eurasianism. That strain is authoritarian in essence, traditional, anti-American, and anti-European; it values religion and public submission. And more significant to today’s headlines, it is expansionist.<ref>Anton Barbashin and Hannah Thoburn, "Putin's Brain: Alexander Dugin and the Philosophy Behind Putin's Invasion of Crimea,"  ''Foreign Affairs'' (21 March 2014)
Volume 93, Number 2 [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141080/anton-barbashin-and-hannah-thoburn/putins-brain online]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Dissolution of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Exploration of Russia]]
*[[History of Siberia]]
*[[History of Soviet Union]]
*[[History of the administrative division of Russia]]
*[[Military history of Imperial Russia]]
*[[Military history of the Russian Federation]]
*[[Military history of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Russian Empire]]
*[[Russian colonization of the Americas]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}

===Surveys===
*Bushkovitch, Paul. ''A Concise History of Russia'' (2011) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russia-Cambridge-Histories/dp/0521543231/ excerpt and text search]
*Freeze, Gregory L. (ed.). ''Russia: A History''. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-860511-0.
*Jelavich, Barbara. '' St. Petersburg and Moscow: tsarist and Soviet foreign policy, 1814-1974'' (1974) 
*McKenzie, David & Michael W. Curran. ''A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond''. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-534-58698-8.
*Perrie, Maureen, et al. ''The Cambridge History of Russia''. (3 vol. Cambridge University Press, 2006). [http://www.amazon.com/The-Cambridge-History-Russia-Volume/dp/0521812275/  excerpt and text search]
*Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. and Mark D. Steinberg. ''A History of Russia''. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 800 pages. ISBN 0-19-515394-4
*Stone, David. ''A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya'' [http://www.amazon.com/Military-History-Russia-Terrible-Chechnya-ebook/dp/B0029LGW5A/ excerpts]
*Ziegler; Charles E. ''The History of Russia'' (Greenwood Press, 1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23391126 online edition]

===Russian Empire===
*Christian, David. ''A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia''. Vol. 1: ''Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire''. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-631-20814-3.
* De Madariaga, Isabel. ''Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great'' (2002), comprehensive topical survey
*Fuller, William C. ''Strategy and Power in Russia 1600-1914'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D1YCWC/ excerpts] 
* Hughes, Lindsey. ''Russia in the Age of Peter the Great'' (Yale University Press, 1998), Comprehensive topical survey.
*Lincoln, W. Bruce. ''The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias'' (1983) [http://www.amazon.com/Romanovs-Autocrats-All-Russias/dp/0385279086/  excerpt and text search], sweeping narrative history
*Manning, Roberta. ''The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia: Gentry and Government''. Princeton University Press, 1982.
*Mironov, Boris N., and Ben Eklof. ''The Social History of Imperial Russia, 1700-1917'' (2 vol Westview Press, 2000) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=89764491 vol 1 online]; [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100513328 vol 2 online]
*Moss, Walter G. ''A History of Russia''. Vol. 1: ''To 1917''. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2002.
*Pipes, Richard. ''Russia under the Old Regime'' (2nd ed. 1997)
*Seton-Watson, Hugh. ''The Russian Empire 1801-1917'' (Oxford History of Modern Europe) (1988) [http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Empire-1801-1917-Oxford-History/dp/0198221525/  excerpt and text search]

===Soviet era===
* Chamberlin, William Henry. ''The Russian Revolution 1917-1921'' (2 vol 1935)
*Cohen, Stephen F. ''Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History since 1917''. (Oxford University Press, 1985)
*Fitzpatrick, Sheila. ''The Russian Revolution''. (Oxford University Press, 1982), 208 pages. ISBN 0-19-280204-6
*Gregory, Paul R. and Robert C. Stuart, ''Russian and Soviet Economic Performance and Structure'' (7th ed. 2001)
*Hosking, Geoffrey. ''The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within'' (2nd ed. Harvard UP 1992) 570pp
*Kort, Michael. ''The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath'' (7th ed. 2010) 502pp
*Kotkin, Stephen. ''Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928'' (2014)
*Library of Congress. ''Russia: a country study'' edited by Glenn E. Curtis. (Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1996). [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html online]
*Lincoln, W. Bruce. ''Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914-1918'' (1986)
*[[Moshe Lewin|Lewin, Moshe]]. ''Russian Peasants and Soviet Power''. (Northwestern University Press, 1968)
*McCauley, Martin. ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union '' (2007), 522 pages.
*Moss, Walter G. ''A History of Russia''. Vol. 2: Since 1855. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2005.
*[[Alec Nove|Nove, Alec]]. ''An Economic History of the USSR, 1917–1991''. 3rd ed. London: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-015774-3.
*Regelson, Lev. ''Tragedy of Russian Church. 1917–1953.'' http://www.regels.org/Russian-Church.htm
*Remington, Thomas. ''Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia''. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984.
*Service, Robert. ''A History of Twentieth-Century Russia''. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-674-40348-7.
*Service, Robert. ''Stalin: A Biography'' (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography
*Tucker, Robert C. ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929'' (1973); ''Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-1941.'' (1990) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103246514 online edition] with Service, a standard biography; [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]

===Post-Soviet era===
* [[Ronald Asmus|Asmus, Ronald]]. ''A Little War that Shook the World : Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West''. NYU (2010). ISBN 978-0-230-61773-5
*Cohen, Stephen. ''Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia''. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000, 320 pages. ISBN 0-393-32226-2
*Gregory, Paul R. and Robert C. Stuart, ''Russian and Soviet Economic Performance and Structure'', Addison-Wesley, Seventh Edition, 2001.
*Medvedev, Roy. ''Post-Soviet Russia A Journey Through the Yeltsin Era'', Columbia University Press, 2002, 394 pages. ISBN 0-231-10607-6
*Moss, Walter G. ''A History of Russia''. Vol. 2: ''Since 1855''. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2005. Chapter 22.
*Stent, Angela. ''The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century'' (2014)
{{refend}}

===Atlases, geography===
*Blinnikov, Mikhail S. ''A geography of Russia and its neighbors'' (Guilford Press, 2011)
*Catchpole, Brian. ''A map history of Russia'' (1983)
*Chew, Allen F. ''An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders'' (2nd ed. 1967)
*Gilbert, Martin. ''Routledge Atlas of Russian History'' (4th ed. 2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Russian-History-Historical-Atlases/dp/0415394848/ excerpt and text search]
*Henry, Laura A. ''Red to green: environmental activism in post-Soviet Russia'' (2010)
*Kaiser, Robert J. ''The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR'' (1994).
*Medvedev, Andrei. ''Economic Geography of the Russian Federation'' by (2000)
*Parker, William Henry. ''An historical geography of Russia'' (University of London Press, 1968)
*Shaw, Denis J.B. ''Russia in the modern world: A new geography'' (Blackwell, 1998)

===Historiography===
*Confino, Michael. "The New Russian Historiography and the Old—Some Considerations," ''History & Memory'' Vol. 21#2 Fall/Winter 2009 {{doi|10.1353/ham.0.0027}} in [[Project MUSE]]
*Cox, Terry. "The New History of the Russian Peasantry," ''Journal of Agrarian Change'' 2, no. 4 (October 2002): 570–86.
*David-Fox, Michael et al. eds. ''After the Fall: Essays in Russian and Soviet Historiography'' (Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2004)
*{{cite journal | last1 = Martin | first1 = Russell E | year = 2010 | title = The Petrine Divide and the Periodization of Early Modern Russian History | journal = Slavic Review | volume = 69 | issue = 2| pages = 410–425 | jstor=25677105}}
*{{cite journal | last1 = Orlovsky | first1 = Daniel | year = 1990 | title = The New Soviet History | journal = Journal of Modern History | volume = 62 | issue = 4| pages = 831–50 | jstor=1881065 | doi=10.1086/600602}}
*Sanders, Thomas, ed. ''Historiography of Imperial Russia: The Profession and Writing of History in a Multinational State'' (1999).
*{{cite journal | last1 = Winkler | first1 = Martina | year = 2011 | title = Rulers and Ruled, 1700-1917 | url = | journal = Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History | volume = 13 | issue = 4| pages = 789–806 }}

===Primary sources===
*Kaiser, Daniel H. and Gary Marker, eds. ''Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings 860-1860s'' (1994) 464pp [http://www.amazon.com/Reinterpreting-Russian-History-Readings-860-1860s/dp/0195078586/  excerpt and text search]; primary documents and excerpts from historians
*Vernadsky, George, et al. eds. ''Source Book for Russian History from Early Times to 1917'' (3 vol 1972)
*[http://www.soviethistory.org/ Seventeen Moments in Soviet History] (An on-line archive of primary source materials on Soviet history.)

==External links==
*[http://www.library.illinois.edu/spx/webct/subjectresources/subsourrus/rushistbib2.html Guides to Sources on Russian History and Historiography]
*[http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_Russia:_Primary_Documents History of Russia: Primary Documents]