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Adapted from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ru0012)

Early History to 1917
The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', emerged along
the Dnepr River valley and adopted Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. Kievan Rus'
ultimately disintegrated as a state and was then conquered
by the Mongols in the 13th century. Subsequently, a
number of states claimed to be the heirs to the
civilization. One of those states, Muscovy, was a
predominantly Russian territory located at the far
northern edge of the former cultural center. Muscovy
gradually came to dominate neighboring territories,
forming the basis for the future Russian Empire. As
Mongol control waned in the fifteenth century, Muscovite
expansion soon went beyond ethnically Russian areas. By
the 18th century, the principality of Muscovy had become
the Russian Empire, stretching from Poland eastward to
the Pacific Ocean.
Muscovy was able to develop at its own pace, but the
Russian Empire was forced to adopt Western technology
to compete militarily in Europe. Peter the Great (r. 16821725) was one of the first rulers to attempt to modernize
the country. Russia's defeat in the Crimean War (185356) triggered another attempt at modernization, including
the emancipation of the peasants who had been bound to
the land in serfdom. In addition to masses of peasants
seeking land to till, a new class of industrial workers--the
proletariat--and a small but influential group of middleclass professionals were dissatisfied with their positions.
The non-Russian populations resented periodic official
Russification campaigns and struggled for autonomy.
Gradually, the monarch and the state system that
surrounded him became isolated from the rest of society.
In the last decades of the 19th century, some intellectuals
became more radical, and groups of professional
revolutionaries emerged.
Unexpected defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05
sparked a revolution in 1905. At that stage, professionals,
workers, peasants, minority ethnic groups, and soldiers
demanded fundamental reforms. Reluctantly, Nicholas II
responded to the first of Russia's revolutions by granting
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a limited constitution, but he increasingly circumvented its democratic clauses, and autocracy
again returned. World War I found Russia unready for combat but full of patriotic zeal.
However, as the government proved incompetent and conditions worsened, war weariness and
revolutionary pressures increased, and the defenders of the autocracy grew fewer.
Adapted from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ru0031)
1917 to 1991
A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's
physical well-being and morale, culminated in the toppling of the imperial government in March
1917. Replacing the autocracy was the Provisional Government, whose leaders intended to
establish democracy in Russia and to continue participating on the side of the Allies in World
War I. The radical Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir I. Lenin, agitated for communist revolution. They
seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917. Only after the long and
bloody Civil War of 1918-21, which included combat between government forces and foreign
troops in several parts of Russia, was the new communist regime secure.
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. After unsuccessfully
attempting to centralize the economy, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise
to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s. Debate over the future of the economy
provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death
in 1924. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating his rivals within the party, Joseph
V. Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s.
In 1928 Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. In industry
the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of
industrialization; in agriculture the state appropriated the peasants' property to establish
collective farms. The plan's implementation produced widespread misery, including the deaths of
millions of peasants by starvation or directly at the hands of the government during forced
collectivization. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s, when Stalin began a purge of the
party; out of this process grew a campaign of terror that led to the execution or imprisonment of
untold millions from all walks of life.
Although Stalin tried to avert war with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression
Pact in 1939, in 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Red Army stopped the Nazi
offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and drove the Nazis through Eastern Europe to
Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945.
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and expanded its economy,
with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold
on Eastern Europe, supplied aid to the eventually victorious communists in China, and sought to
expand its influence elsewhere in the world. This active foreign policy helped bring about the
Cold War, which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, Britain and the United States, into
foes.

After Stalin died in 1953, his closest associates opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly. Nikita S.
Khrushchev, who won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of terror and
eased repressive controls over party and society. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and
administration, however, were generally unproductive, and his foreign policy was not always
successful. Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964.
Following the ouster of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, lasting until
Leonid I. Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet
political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of dtente with the West while at the same time
building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of dtente in the
late 1970s. Another contributing factor was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December
1979.
After the rapid succession of Yuriy V. Andropov and Konstantin U. Chernenko, transitional
figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, the energetic Mikhail S. Gorbachev made
significant changes in the economy and the party leadership. His policy of glasnost freed public
access to information after decades of government repression. But Gorbachev failed to address
the fundamental flaws of the Soviet system; by 1991, when a plot by government insiders
revealed the weakness of Gorbachev's political position, the end of the Soviet Union was in
sight.
Adapted from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/513251/Russia/38565/Collapse-ofthe-Soviet-Union
The Yeltsin Presidency (199199)
The Soviet Union legally ceased to exist on December 31, 1991. Upon independence, the
Russian Federation faced economic collapse. The new Russian government had to find a way to
transform the entire Russian economy. By 1991 few items essential for everyday life were
available in traditional retail outlets. In an effort to bring goods into stores, Boris Yeltsins
government removed price controls on most items in January 1992. It also spurred inflation,
which became a daily concern for Russians, whose salaries and purchasing power declined as
prices for even some of the most basic goods continued to rise.
Personality clashes between Yeltsin and the parliamentary leadership led to a break between the
legislative and executive branches. The conflict grew more intense on September 21, 1993, when
Yeltsin issued a series of presidential decrees that dissolved the parliament. The parliament
declared Yeltsins decree illegal, impeached him, and swore in his vice president. On October 2,
there were armed clashes between troops and supporters of the Congress. With the defeat of
parliamentary forces, the way was clear for elections to a new parliament and a referendum on a
new constitution in December 1993.
During Yeltsins presidential terms, the weakened Russian state failed to fulfill its basic
responsibilities. Due to a lack of resources, law-enforcement agencies proved unable to combat
rising crime rates. The collapse of medical services also led to a decline in life expectancy and to
concerns over the negative rate of population growth.

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It was not uncommon during this time for workers to go

months without being paid. In 1995 the government
succeeded in stabilizing the national currency. However,
the government continued to avoid real structural
economic reforms. As a result, the ruble collapsed in
1998, and the government was forced to withhold
payments on its debt amid a growing number of
bankruptcies. At around the same time, reformists in the
Yeltsin government sought to speed privatization. By
the end of 1992, some one-third of enterprises in the
services and trade fields had been privatized. The second
wave of privatization occurred in 199495. From this
process emerged the oligarchs, individuals who,
because of their political connections, came to control
huge segments of the Russian economy. By the time
Yeltsin left office in 1999, most of the Russian economy
had been privatized.
In late 1994 Yeltsin sent the army into Chechnya in the
aftermath of a botched Russian-orchestrated coup
against the secessionist president, Dzhokhar Dudayev.
However, in 1996 Russian forces were pushed out of the
capital city. The Russians subsequently withdrew from
the republic.
The Putin Presidency (2000-2008)
As prime minister under Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin blamed
Chechen secessionists for the bombing of several
apartment buildings that killed scores of Russian
civilians, prompting the Moscow government to send
Russian forces into the republic once again. The
campaign enjoyed some initial success, and Putins
popularity soared. In the presidential election held in
March 2000, Putin easily defeated Communist Party
leader Gennady Zyuganov. By 2002 fighting had abated.
Putin proved adept at constructing a stable relationship
with the Russian parliament. He pursued economic
reforms, creating a new tax code that simplified and
streamlined the tax system. Coupled with a surge in
income from the increase in world oil prices, the
Russian government enjoyed a budget surplus and was
able to pay off some of its external debt. Putin also took
steps to limit the political and economic power of
the oligarchs.

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Despite criticism that he had centralized too much power in the presidency and was curtailing
freedoms won with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Putin remained popular and was
reelected in 2004. During his second term, Putins popularity continued to be high, and
speculation loomed that he, constitutionally ineligible to run for another term in office because of
term limits, might engineer a change to the constitution to allow him to be reelected. Instead,
Putin surprised many observers in October 2007 by announcing that he would head the list of the
pro-Putin United Russia party in parliamentary elections. In December 2007 United Russia won
more than three-fifths of the vote. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was easily
elected president in March 2008, after which he appointed Putin Prime Minister, giving Putin a
platform b which to continue his dominance of Russian politics..
The Medvedev Presidency (2008-2012)
In August 2008, Russia sent thousands of troops across the Georgian border with the goal of
supporting rebels in not only South Ossetia but also in Abkhazia, another separatist region within
Georgia. In September the Russian government agreed to withdraw its troops from Georgia;
however, it planned to maintain a military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose
independence it had recognized.
In September 2011 Medvedev announced that he and Putin would, in essence, trade jobs during
the upcoming 2012 elections. Putin would run for president and, if elected, would likely appoint
Medvedev prime minister. The plan for a seamless succession hit a snag on December 4, 2011,
when United Russia suffered sharp and surprising losses in parliamentary elections. Within days
of the election, an estimated 50,000 people gathered near the Kremlin to protest the results.
The Second Putin Presidency (2012 today)
On March 4, 2012, Putin was elected to a third term as president of Russia. Putins first months
in office were marked by attempts to quash or marginalize the protest movement and those
entities that might lend it support.
Tensions between Russia and the West have increased throughout Putins third term. Ties
between Washington and Moscow were strained in June 2013 when former National Security
Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden fled to Moscow after revealing the existence of
sweeping secret NSA intelligence-gathering programs. In July 2013 anticorruption
blogger Aleksey Navalny, who had been a prominent figure in the protests of 201112, was
sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement. Navalny was unexpectedly released the
following day. Putin continued to assert Russias role on the global stage, and his foreign
minister, Sergey Lavrov, brokered a deal that headed off potential Western military intervention
in the Syrian Civil War.
Putin also took an active role in the events in neighboring Ukraine, where a protest movement
toppled the government of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. On
February 28 armed men whose uniforms lacked visible insignia took control of key sites in the
Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea. By March 3 Russia had achieved de facto military
control of Crimea. The U.S. and the EU responded by enacting sanctions against high-ranking
officials in Russia. On March 18 Putin and members of the Crimean parliament signed a treaty
that annexed the peninsula to Russia.
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In early April 2014 heavily armed pro-Russian gunmen occupied government buildings
throughout southeastern Ukraine and proclaimed the independence of the regions of Donetsk and
Luhansk. Despite early reversals, the Ukrainian army began reclaiming rebel-held territory as
separatist groups fielded increasingly sophisticated heavy weapons. The U.S. and EU
dramatically expanded their sanctions against Russia. Russia denied any connection to the rebels.
Throughout August 2014, journalists, Western intelligence agencies, NATO, and the Ukrainian
government documented multiple instances of troops and matriel crossing into Ukraine from
Russia. On September 5 Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met in Minsk, Belarus,
and agreed to a cease-fire plan that pledged to de-escalate the fighting and limit the use of heavy
weapons in civilian areas. However, the agreement was soon violated by both sides, however.
Western sanctions and plunging oil prices combined to send the Russian economy into recession
in early 2015.

Timeline of Major Events in Russian History

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http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Russia.html

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2
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http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/74492/borsch
http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Russia.html

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http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/513251/Russia
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/49751/balalaika
6
http://www.seicorde.it/articles/guitczar.htm
5

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http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/513793/Russian-literature

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