Rental Cars Russia - History of Russia
The first inhabitants of this great land, the Viking tribes, moved north from Scandinavia during the 9th C. This first Monarchic dynasty built Kiev as its capital. The Mongolian Tatars invaded in the 13th C stretching across the Asian continent. During the next two centuries Moscow rose as the provincial capital and became the centre of the Christian Orthodox church. In the 15th C Ivan the Great expanded Russia to include the Novgorod Republic to the north and became the first national sovereign. His son, Ivan the Terrible and first to hold the title of Tsar, further expanded Russia to the south and into Siberia. Due to this tyranny, both Sweden and Poland later invaded, claiming the Russian throne. The two great rulers of the 17th and 18th centuries were Peter the Great who established Russia as a leading European power and Catherine the Great who was famous for her shrewd leadership qualities and aggressive foreign policies.
In the 19th C, Tsar Alexander I tried to dismantle serfdom; however this process was disrupted when Napoleon invaded, leaving the country in turmoil. The French were later driven out in the retreat from Moscow. The serfs were freed in 1861 with the growing opposition to the Tsarist regime. A liberal government took control, but was forced out by a Bolshevik coup – an organised opposition to the regime. Alexander II was killed in 1881 and many radicals fled Russia, including Lenin.
Under Nicholas II, Russia was defeated in the war against Japan in 1904 this led to mass strikes and unrest culminating in the murders of ‘Bloody Sunday’. In 1905, after a huge strike, the Tsar was abolished and the country had its first parliament. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seized control, redistributed land and created Trotsky's Red Army. The Bolshevik Party was later renamed the Communist Party and the nations capital was moved to Moscow. The anti-communist ‘whites’ built up support throughout Russia resulting in three years of civil war.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established in 1922 and Lenin died in 1024 – succeeded by Josef Stalin. He started a process of industrialisation and forced collectivisation of agriculture. Millions were executed or exiled to Siberian concentration camps. In 1941 USSR was invaded by Germany, despite a peace treaty being signed with Hitler. They had bloody battles over Leningrad and Stalingrad until they were eventually driven out. A large reconstruction effort took place after the war period and Russia extended control over much of Eastern Europe. They also became the world’s second nuclear power exploding its first atomic bomb in 1949. In 1953, under the leadership of Nikita Krushchev, they came to the brink of war with the USA over the Cuban missile crisis.
Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in 1985, instigating a period of social, political and economic reform. A big success for him being the treaty on Intermediate Nuclear forces that eliminated a whole category of nuclear armaments, signed in 1987. The Soviet Union was later voted out of existence, to be replaced by a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Gorbachev resigned, and the Soviet flag atop the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian tri-colour. In 1991 Boris Yeltsin later won the election for presidency of the Russian Republic and a new constitution was passed.
The civil war in Chechnya marks recent history with incredible blood shed as the Government attacked Chechen separatists in the rebel territory. Russian fire power directed at guerilla positions reduced Grozny and other towns to rubble. Gangsters, corrupt officials, drug abuse and a high murder rate also continued to taint recent Russian history.
In March 2000, Vladimir Putin became president of Russia, after six months in a caretaker position following the abrupt resignation of an ailing and increasingly mad Boris Yeltsin. During 2002 the Russian economy improved, an alliance with China was achieved as well as putting much focus on the European Union. After the September 11 attacks, Putin provided much intelligence on Afghanistan to US forces – guaranteeing Russia a free hand in Chechnya.
