Russia Flashcards
Northern Latitude Zone
Colder than most; Most people lived in the west; Gets little sunlight; Likes the cold so they fight during Winter and uses frozen lake to their advantage
Great Russian Plain
Rural; Away from cities; Mainly farm
Environment
Less populated cities; More rural; More demanding toughness to survive
Population Triangle
Most lived in the population triangle
Ural Mountains
Division/In both Asia and Europe
West Siberian Plain
Swampy
Tundra
Arctic desert; Northern and Eastern Russia; Permafrost; Houses are build on stilts
Taiga
Woodlands; Vast resources
Trans-Siberian Railroad
A railroad that goes all around Russia; Important because it’s the only way to get to eastern Russia
Steppe
Vast grassland; Could’ve been the greatest agriculture zone but there weren’t any water
Chernozem
Rich, dark soil
Russian Culture
Toughness in people/rulers
Where did the name Russia come from?
Rurik/Rus
What characteristics is required to rule Russia?
Intimidating but also forgiving - Toughness so that they wouldn’t get replaced
Who formed Kievan Rus?
Combination between the Slavics and Vikings because the Slavics had powerful forces/size but the Vikings controlled trade
Dnieper River
Place north of the Black Sea where the Rus lived; Crossroad of trade between Byzantines, Islamic world, China, and Europe
Rus
Rurik named the land after himself: “Land of Rurik”; Viking name - called during 9th and 10th century
Novgorod
Capital when Rurik was Tsar during the 9th century
Kiev
Largest trading center; Oleg moved Novgorod to Kiev
Kievan Rus
9th - 13th centuries; Founded by Rurik
3 Groups of Russians
Belarus: White Russians; Russia: Russians; Ukraine: Little Russians
Orthodox Christianity
Introduced by Cyril and Methodius from Byzantines -> Olga becomes the first ruler to be baptized -> New way to see religion and political power; Introduction to Cyrillics (New writing language)
Rulers of Kievan Rus
Rurik, Oleg, Igor, Olga, Syvatoslav, Vladimir, Yaroslav
Oleg
Rurik’s relative who moved the capital from Novgorod to Kiev; Raided Constantinople -> Gained immense wealth and cultural diffusion and trade to Mediterranean civilizations through Byzantines
Rurik
Viking; Slavics people/people of Novgorod requested Rurik to restore order and rule over them -> becomes prince of Novgorod and founded Kievan Rus/Rurik Dynasty
Igor
Oleg’s son/grandson expanded the influence of Kievan Rus but was killed on one of the expeditions
Olga
Brutal/ferocious after the death of Igor, her husband; Kills everyone in the village that killed Igor - Kill all princes, then forgives them, then burns houses; Baptized in the Eastern Orthodox Church -> Becomes 1st ruler of Kievan Rus to be baptized and then becomes a Saint; Showed legitimacy
Syvatoslav
Olga’s son; Didn’t convert into Christian; Spread influence across Caspian Sea
Vladimir I
Syvatoslav’s son; Incorporated Orthodox Christianity into the main religion of Kievan Rus -> Christian State; Didn’t choose Islam because of dietary restrictions; Didn’t choose Judaism because no countries practiced it as their official religion; Didn’t choose Catholic Christianity because the Pope was the head of the church but Vladimir wanted to pick the head himself; Wanted caesaropapism - Orthodox Christianity -> close relationship between state and church
Yaroslav / Yaroslav the Wise
Golden Age of Kievan Rus; Modeled Kiev after Constantinople; Built the St. Sophia Cathedral after the architecture of Hagia Sofia (Byzantines - Justinian); Organized the 1st library; Russkaya Pravda; Spread Orthodox Christianity by extending geological borders to Poland; Created the system of Precedence
Russkaya Pravda
Russia’s first codified law; Limited the number of avengers to the closest relatives of the dead - If no avengers, then killer must pay fine and compensation to relatives; Gives various forms of punishments
System of Precedence
Rank principality from least powerful to most; When a Duke dies, each noblemen move up once, avoiding conflicts for power
Icons
Byzantine icons become the Great Russian painting tradition - more visual because most Russians at the time couldn’t read
Religious service
People thinks words are magical, resulting in people having conflict with the translations of the texts
Metropolitan
Head of the Orthodox Church / Leading religious figure in the biggest city - Kind of like a Pope
Cyrillic Alphabet
Become popular in late 9th century
Architecture
Saint Basil’s Cathedral - Cultural diffusion with Byzantines -> Smaller domes but lots of them
Ivan the Terrible / Ivan Grozny / Ivan IV
Built St. Basil’s Cathedral because he wanted to build the greatest thing for Russia; 1st Tsar for Russia
Alexander Nevsky
Made a decision that shaped the future of Russia; Defeat 1 or the other between Germans and Mongols; Germans want to conquer so Nevsky joins forces with Mongols –> Pay tribute to Mongols -> Some people left and hid into safety from Mongol influence -> Creation of Moscow
Tatars
Russian name for the Mongols
Mongol Invasions
Mongols aren’t numerous, doesn’t want to conquer but pay tribute;
Mongols Tax
The Russian that’s the tax collector for the mongols are the most important person = Princes of Moscow; However, it’s hard to get Russians to pay taxes - Boyars were the only ones who could
Boyars
Russian nobles who owns land and control vast number of serfs; Didn’t like caesaropapism that Ivan the Terrible had so
Serfs
People who are forced to work and not allowed to leave
Ivan III / Ivan the Great
Tells Mongols that they aren’t going to pay taxes
Ivan the Terrible on Mongols
Autocracy / Dictatorship / Extremely powerful leadership; Found Mongols the way they fought others
Conscription
Forcing people to fight in the army
Serfdom
Abundant land + scarce labor; Russian peasants are bound to the land - their village is their entire world - No social mobility
Taxes
Because Ivan III and Ivan IV created their own Russian state, they didn’t have to pay taxes; This caused the peasants to inflict hate upon them and because of this, Ivan IV decided to blame the Boyars (Russian nobles who collects taxes) instead
Ivan the Terrible on Boyars
Boyars killed his wife because they couldn’t kill him -> Ivan IV retires -> Boyars fought endlessly to determine the next ruler -> Peasants and boyars plead for Ivan IV to return -> Raise his own army of psychos -> Kills boyars
Autocracy
Serfdom + Taxation + Conscription; Tyranny - Rulers have absolute power and abusing it
Muscovite Court
Coming out of Moscow - Royal court; Center of political, social, and cultural life; Ruling princes and later Tsars
Tsar
Russian Ruler/emperor - Comes from Caesar
Russian Mir
World, Peace, Village; Serfdom - Their village is their entire world because they can’t leave; If most Russians were serfs, then there were no social mobility in Russia; Merchant class was small; 80% were serfs before WW1
Communal Living
Most people don’t own land property but the village do - Land group property
Veche
Village Council; Decide interest of families; Collect tax; Send village idiots to army so smart ones remain safe
Veche Priority
Avoid risk - keep their village safe; Knows how to handle independent thinkers
Raising the Red Rooster
In Russia society, people are very conserved and takes less risks; Freeze or chased out; Unless someone has a prosperous year, the rest will all have no social mobility -> Slow cultural diffusion - no growth in cities
Russia / Moscow
Called 3rd Rome because Russians accepted Orthodox Christianity from the Greek Byzantines
