Russian_Cot_Essay

Russian Change Over Time All rulers of Russia, though ruling in different time periods, Rurik, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and other significant tsars, all had different and similar views on culture, economy, and expansion. In about 855 C.E., a native man of Denmark named Rurik became the first prince of the Russian dynasty Kievan Rus’. Kievan Rus’ had established contacts with Byzantium that extended steadily. These contacts that were centered around the city of Kiev, made it a prosperous trading center from which many Russians visited Constantinople. These exchanges led to a growing knowledge of Christianity. A Rurik descendant named Prince Vladimir I took the step of converting his people to Orthodox Christianity. He wanted to avoid Roman Catholicism, and it was a valid alternative to the prevailing animism. Vladimir organized mass baptisms for his people, even through the use of military pressure. He also imported church leaders from Byzantium to help train a literate Russian priesthood. As Kievan Rus’ became Christian, it was the largest single state in Europe. The Kievan principality began to fade in the 12th century due to invasions and the decline of its heavily depended on Byzantium. The Mongols invaded and captured major Russian cities easily, though they did not penetrate farther west. The Mongols, know in Russia as Tatars, did not force their religion upon the Russian Christianity in return for tribute. Russia would emerge as a new power in Eastern Europe once it became independent from the Tatars through Ivan the Great. Ivan the Great claimed succession from the Rurik Dynasty and organized a strong army, giving the government a military emphasis it would long retain. Russia had become purely agricultural due to the Mongol attacks, and Ivan called for reform. He also had plans to expand Russia claiming that he had succeeded Byzantium. Like Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible too had plans for expansion. These two early Tsars expanded Russia southward toward the Caspian Sea, and east into the Ural Mountains. The early Tsars were desperate to become independent from the Mongol culture, so they began to look to the West for ideas, particularly for emblems of upper class art and status. Russia’s next autocrat known as Peter the Great led the first Westernization efforts in Russia. He traveled widely west, incognito, seeking new technologies. He worked with ships and used that to create Russia’s first Navy. Peter extended an earlier policy of recruiting bureaucrats from outside aristocratic ranks. He established a secret police to supervise his bureaucracy. He also established a strong western military system that helped him win new territory on the Baltic Sea. He then later moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to a Baltic city he named St. Petersburg. Peter’s economic efforts focused on building up metallurgical and mining industries. Without urbanizing extensively or developing a large commercial class, Peter’s reforms changed the Russian economy. Landlords were rewarded for using serf labor to staff new manufacturing operations. This gave Russia the internal economic means to maintain substantial military presence for almost two centuries. Peter was eager to make Russia culturally respectable in Western eyes. Thus, he required nobles to shave of their beards and wear western clothes. At the elite level, Peter built Russia into a western cultural zone. The death of Peter the Great in 1724 was followed be several decades of weak rule until Catherine the Great took rule. Catherine the Great was a Prussian born princess who converted to the Orthodox faith after her marriage to the heir to the Russian throne was arranged. Catherine’s reign combined genuine Enlightenment interests with her need to consolidate power as a truly Russian ruler. Like peter, Catherine was also a selective Westernizer. She liked the ideas of the French Enlightenment and discussed new western law codes that offered less severe punishment. She was an advocate of a strong tsarist hand, but she also gave new powers to the nobility over their serfs, maintaining a trade off that had developed over previous centuries in Russia. She also increased the harshness of punishments nobles could decree for their serfs. Catherine patronized Western style art and architecture, continuing to build St. Petersburg in the classical styles popular at the same time in the west. She also encouraged nobles to tour the west, and even send their children to be educated there. Catherine the Great also pursued Russian expansion, winning new territories in central Asia, including the Crimea, bordering the Black Sea. She also claimed territories in Alaska. Catherine’s death occurred in 1796. During the rule of these Russian rulers, Russia experienced independence and expanded into a strong state. With it came new elements of culture and economy that changed and remained the same throughout the changing hand of power.