Unit 5
Beginnings• The “Rus” • Viking traders• Kiev – first Russian
civilzation• Invasion and
Conquest by the Mongols
• Russian Princes = Mongol tax collectors
Viking Trade Routes
Ancient Kiev – the first “Russian” civilization
The Mongol Empire
Princes of Muscovy• Tax collectors to Mongols• Powerful city-state
Ivan III (The Great)• Overthrew Mongol control• Tsar (Czar) = Ceasar• “Third Rome”• Byzantine influences
Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)• Expanded the Russian Empire
Peter the Great• Westernization and
modernization Ivan IVIvan IV
Russian Revolution 1917• WWI• Lenin and Communists
(Bolsheviks)• Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR aka Soviet Union)
• Civil War – Reds versus Whites
Josef Stalin• Collectivization• Human-induced famine• Exterminated Kulaks
WWII• German Invasion of Russia• Russia bore brunt of war
The Cold War• Xenophobia• Satellite countries
Josef StalinJosef Stalin
The Human Cost of WWII in Europe
Each flag = 100,000 dead soldiersEach skull = 100,000 civilian deadEach Star of David = 100, 000 Jewish dead
Soviet Satellite Nations
PolandRomaniaBulgariaEast GermanyCzechoslovakiaHungary Other European Communist Nations
YugoslaviaAlbania
• The Fall of the Soviet Union 1991
• The Russian Federation• Democracy or
dictatorship?• Former Soviet satellite
states – what now?
Vladimir Putin
Chechnya• Muslim• Two Russian invasions• Terrorism• Beslan
Georgia Armenia versus
Azerbaijan