Russian

The statements of the nobility in 1760 and 1860, in supplications, reflect an overall shift in the way that the Russian public regarded the monarch. In 1760, the position of the monarch was regarded with a sense of superiority, where all respect was directed. The monarch’s power was unquestioned and their judgment was seen as most informed, only allocating indirect power to provincial personnel or hand selected advisors. In the 1860s, after the state building of Catherine the Great which further…

Sergei Podbolotov is an instructor of Russian and European history, teaching primarily on the courses of Russian civilization. He is the author of multiple scholarly articles, covering subject matter from national problems in the Russian Empire to Russian nationalism and conservatism. In addition to this, he is a recipient of IREX awards for research. In his work, Monarchists Against Their Monarch: The Rightists Criticism of Tsar Nicholas II, he addresses the criticism of Tsar Nicholas II from…

subsequently giving Hungary to the Habsburgs and the Aegean Coast to the Venetians. In the year of 1718 their strong grip on their European territories was hanging by a mere thread. 1774 came in the blink of an eye and they lost Crimea while giving the Russians the authority to protect their Orthodox Christians. By 1798, the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte had already established his foothold in Egypt and conquered Palestine. While this was taking place, other Muslim dynasties were…

As Imperial Russia continued to expand, Serfdom took its place as a commonality in Russian culture. While social classes grew more and more apart, peasants were hit with the harsh reality of this class separation. As Kizhanich mentions in the source book; Medieval Russia, “in the middle of the fifteenth century, conditions of Russian peasants deteriorated rapidly. By the early seventeenth century the majority had become serfs of one kind to another.” Serfs did not live the best life, this can…

and unfair; the bourgeoisie lived easily with little work while benefitting from the sweat and blood of the middle and lower class, who were mercilessly exploited. For example in 1913, peasants were rewarded for their labor in only one-third of all Russian land. In the other two-thirds, peasants had to work for landlords and received only a small fraction of the profits. However the Bolsheviks believe in communism, in which each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.…

high level of income equality, and lack of corruption. Authoritarian systems are likely to fail in nations in which income inequality is high and/or corruption persists. I believe both theses statements can do a certain degree hold true in today’s Russian society. In terms of income inequality it is not high in terms of the average citizen to another average citizen, however since the times of Kruschev Russia has maintained a pseudo-oligarchical society. The oligarchy of wealth in modern day…

History.com Staff. “Bloody Sunday Massacre in Russia.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bloody-sunday-massacre-in-russia. Russia was under the control of Tsar Nicholas II and they were in a losing war against Japan. That caused violence in St. Petersburg in what became know as the Bloody Sunday. Nicholas fell under the influence of a man called the mad monk, Grigory Rasputin, which caused Nicholas to make many bad choices. The demands for reform…

to be a European-wide empire was a failure due to his and his military’s weaknesses. In 1812, Napoleon led French troops into Russia to try to invade their cities and capture the land. “Rather than engaging the French in a full scale battle, the Russians adopted a strategy of retreating...Of…

First there prisons, then there were gulags, the Russian Revolution truly did create an equal country, but the only form of equality they created was equality of suffering. The Russian Revolution was a controversial event that led to a new state, the USSR. Its goals were to create a classless society where the workers, or proletariat, had control over society and the government. In order to do this, they had to take it from the business owners and landowners, the bourgeoisie. In Doctor Zhivago,…

to more job opportunities. The war with Japan ended in 1905 which relieved a lot of economic strain, redirecting money from the front lines to Russian cities. Government intervention alleviated economic strain and helped to progress Russia from an agricultural society to a more modern capitalist society. The economic situation improved and the Russian people benefitted. Frustrations with the government became largely socially and politically motivated, focused on civil liberties and…