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Russia in Eurasia
A Three-Dimensional View
Interstate relations - relations between the Russian state and other states
Russia’s internal conditions – social development and transformation, social structure, ethnic composition, available resources, state-society relations, political consciousness, balance of political forces, etc.
Transnational relations Russia has been involved in – movement of people, goods, information, technology, money; ethnic, cultural (including religious), political ties
To understand Russia’s international behaviour, we will view it through this three-dimensional prism, looking for historically-specific combinations – and interactions –
of interstate,
internal,
and transnational factors at work
Russia’s world status: geopolitics vs. market power
The Eurasian Context
Eurasia: a supercontinent consisting of two continents Unity and divisions of the supercontinent The Coastlands and the Heartland. The Heartland and
the Rimland Land Rivers Seas Winds Temperature
Human migration routes*
*The time frames are highly approximate
Human settlement patterns Search and struggle for resources Potential for development Degree of security
http://stort.unep-wcmc.org/imaps/gb2002/book/viewer.htm
Security-development interactions Costs of development and security: four basic
modes of interaction
D-costs high, S-costs high (Russia) D-costs low, S-costs low (USA, Canada) D-costs high, S-costs low (Scandinavia) D-costs low, S-costs high (?)
Eurasia’s political integration: historical phases
EURASIA, 116 C.E.
EURASIA, 8TH CENTURY
EURASIA, 1288
Europe’s Eastern frontier The belt between the Baltic and the Adriatic East European state-forming nations:
Greeks Germans Slavs
• Eastern: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians• Western: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks• Southern: Serbs, Croatians, Slovenians, Macedonians,
Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Bulgarians Hungarians (Magyars) Finns Balts (Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians) Romanians (19th-century name) Albanians Turks Tatars
Russia
Russia is 1,200 years old It has existed in 6 historical forms:
Kiev Rus (9th-13th centuries) Domain of the Tatar-Mongol empire
(13th-15th centuries) Moscovy (15th-17th centuries) The Russian Empire (18th century-1917) The Soviet Union (1917-1991) The Russian Federation (1991- today)
EUROPE 0001
EUROPE 1000
EUROPE 1600
NATION-STATES VS. EMPIRES A 3-way conflict of civilizations for control of Eastern
Europe. Objects of the struggle: Resources Trade routes Security
THE RISE OF EMPIRES Western Christian (German) – “successors” to the Western
Roman Empire, “Holy Roman Empire”, later the Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary) and the Hohenzollern Empire (Germany)
Orthodox Christian (Russian) – “successor” to Eastern Roman Empire (The Romanov Empire)
Muslim (Turkish) – “successor” to the Arab Caliphate (The Ottoman Empire)
EUROPE 1900
In the Modern Age, Russia expanded to take control of most of the Eurasian Heartland
Gradually, it filled much of the space first integrated by the Mongols
Expansion was driven by: Struggle for independence and security Struggle for control of resources and trade routes Human settlement Imperial inertia and the internal interests maintaining
it
Chengiz Khan
Batu-Khan, son of Chengiz, conqueror of Kiev Rus
The Battle of Kulikovo Pole, 1380: Russians defeat Tatars
Moscow: a Kremlin wall
The Red Square
Kremlin, Tsar Cannon
The Church of Ivan the Great, Moscow Kremlin
The Virgin of St. Vladimir
(13th century)
The Saviour Golden Hair
(13th century)
St. George the Victorious
Russian countryside
THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM:
The state was huge, costly, militarized Society (especially the peasantry) was heavily exploited
and closely controlled by the state The political system was autocratic-patrimonial, with the
monarch being the sole source of sovereignty The church was subservient to the state Individual rights and liberties were severely curbed Market economy had very limited potential for development When reforms became overdue, the state acted as the
main agent of change, usually with limited effect Society had no legal means of influencing government
policies – the people had an impact on the state either by obedience to it or by resistance to it (passive or active)
What kept the system going was its
“battle order”:
NO CITIZENS – JUST SOLDIERS, OFFICERS, AND WORKERS WHO FED THE ARMY
The system was designed primarily for war.
Successful wars kept it going.
Failed wars undermined it.
“Tsar Ivan The Terrible Kills His Son” (from Ilya Repin’s painting)
Cossacks are writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan
Russia under Polish rule: False Dimitry and Marina Mnishek (1609)
Kuz’ma Minin and Prince Pozharsky: leaders of the anti-Polish revolution (1609)
Tsar Mikhail, Founder of the Romanov Dynasty (reign 1613-1645)
Tsar Peter the Great, Founder of the Russian Empire
(reign 1682-1725)
The Battle of Poltava, 1709: Russia defeats Sweden
St. Petersburg
Poseidon over St. Peterburg
Emperor Alexander I (reign 1801-1825)
Napoleon at the Battle of Borodino: Sept. 7, 1812
The Battle of Borodino
Borodino
Moscow on Fire
Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, winter of 1812
An Imperial Russian Army officer, 1812
St. Petersburg, December 18, 1825: A military rebellion against autocracy
Tsar Nicholas I (reign 1825-1855)
“The Russian octopus” – a British 1850s cartoon
British cavalry in the Crimean War, 1855
Emperor Alexander II (reign 1855-1881)
Emperor Alexander III
(reign 1881-1894)
Nicholas II, the last Tsar, Emperor of all Russias
(reign 1894-1917)
Grain production in Russia, late 19th century*:
1/3 of the German level 1/7 of the British level ½ of the French and Austrian levels*Richard Pipes, Russia Under the old Regime. Penguin Books, 1974, p.8
The issue of the surplus.
The costs of security and development
Deceptive appearances of Russia:
The image of stability vs.The potential for revolution
Lenin’s conversation with a police investigator: “Yes, it is a wall, but it is all rotten: just push it, and it will fall down”
REFORM VS. REVOLUTION: IS THE SYSTEM REFORMABLE?
RUSSIA’S REBELS Cossack uprisings of 17th and 18th centuries (Razin, Bolotnikov, Pugachev) The Decembrists – 1825 The Revolutionary Democrats (Chernyshevsky, Herzen) The Populists The Anarchists (Kropotkin, Bakunin) The Social Democrats (Plekhanov, Lenin)
Russia’s 19th century
The apex of expansion – and the lag behind the West From the triumph of 1812 (victory over Napoleon) to the
disaster of 1855 (defeat in the Crimean War) The pressures for change The reforms of Alexander II Development of capitalism vs. Political modernizationCapitalism was creating new classes, new issues, new
conflicts – and the state was expected to evolve to be able to deal with them.
But the Russian state was not up to the task.It was not part of the solution, it was the source of
additional problems
By the end of the 19th century, the flaws of the Russian system become manifest
The gap between Europe and Russia widens fast, the Russian system is too inefficient, too rigid, resistant to reform
The 1904-05 war with Japan and then World War I exhaust the Russian state and expose its flaws
1905-1917: 12 YEARS OF UPHEAVAL WHICH DESTROYED THE RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY AND EMPIRE