Russia+&+USSR

toc

**Your Complete guide to Russian History**

__** DAVID AND MEYER'S WIKI **__

Play Some Classical Russian Music while you study...

media type="youtube" key="nKdSAjYSrgI" width="425" height="350" align="left"media type="youtube" key="7fUB0DN8Yic" height="165" width="219" align="left"

media type="youtube" key="DFy7buyU0rQ" width="425" height="350"

=__//**I. Beginnings of Czarist Government**//__= //This section explains how the Czarist government was established in 1400-1670. IT ONLY DEALS WITH the Czar and how the Czar's political leadership was maintained.//

>
 * In the 1400's, the princes in Moscow were taking Russian land to increase population and wealth while they were in power. The most prince who had the most success doing this was Ivan III, who would later lay down the foundation for a Russian national state.
 * The Russian leaders became a powerful and autocratic ruler- a CZAR. He crushed the power of the rival princes and landowners.
 * In 1533 the first czar was Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible). He expanded territory and most importantly violently maintained at least some control of the nobles.
 * Ivan IV strengthened the position of the monarch, ruthlessly made nobles serve him, created new code of laws, made first feudal representative body in Russia, curbed influence of clergy, introduced local self management in rural areas.
 * 1589- Russian Orthodox church becomes independent from other churches.
 * 1605-1613: Times of Troubles in Russia, as fake rulers claim the throne, revolts by landowners and peasants, and Poland Invading Russia.
 * 1613- **Micheal Romanov becomes czar and creates dynasty that lasts until 1917**. They established peace, taxed peasants (serfs), tradesmen and craftsmen greatly. Leading to revolts in 1648 (Salt Riot),Copper Riot in 1662, and the Moscow Uprising in 1682
 * Cossacks were the rebels in South Russia, inciting serf uprisings and replacing local governments with Cossack rule. They were crushed by czarist forces in 1670.

STUDY BREAK!!!!

media type="custom" key="16249926" align="center"

=**//__II. Peter the Great (18th century)__//**=
 * Before Modernization Russia had little trade, weak army, and frozen sea ports. Then Peter the Great Changed all that...
 * **Peter the Great** was possibly the moist influential person in Russian History.

//A. Domestic policies of Westernization//

 * His main goal was to Westernize Russia. He was amazed at French technology and Western ideas.
 * He fell in love with modern Western society when he took a tour of the West early in his life incognito.
 * On this trip he visited Amsterdam (Commercial center of Europe)
 * He was viscous in westernizing Russia. He only cared about forcing Russians to adopt Western culture.
 * He forced the nobles to shave their beards because that was the western culture.(broke religious customs of past, i.e. beard=wisdom)
 * He made people wear Western Clothing and
 * He also set agriculture laws in place to model the West (e.g. planting of potatoes, which made people sick).
 * Peter built educational institutes for engineering and science. He also changed Russian to be more compatible with French (modern).
 * In order to speed up the process of westernizing, Peter imposed harsh taxes on the serfs and created monopolies.
 * With this new money Peter the Great created an absolutist government (to copy Centralized European Bureaucracies)
 * To Keep nobles happy, he created **Table of Ranks** which awarded them with power for obedience.

//B. Search for warm water port//
[The importance of a warm water port was to create trade (Peter idealized the trade of the Dutch)] Although semi-barbaric and radical, Peter the Great was able to Westernize and get a warm water port, which allowed Russia to be a formidable and modern country in the future.
 * To accomplish this he expanded the army by drafting serfs and creating Russia's 1st navy.
 * He used this army & an alliance with the Polish-Lithuania commonwealth to defeat Sweden
 * This war is known as the **Great Northern War**
 * The Great northern war finally gave Peter a pathway to the Baltic sea. (A worm water port!)
 * St. Petersburg was the **"window to the West"**and became the new Capital. It replaced Moscow in 1703.
 * This replacement marked the shift from the cultural hearth of Moscow to the modern St. Petersburg.
 * This also shows his barbaric dedication because thousands died in the building of the city which was in dangerous marshland.
 * His dedication was so great that he brought many designers, architects, scientists, and specialists
 * He further modernized the government by replacing the Boyar Duma with a 9 member congress and created new districts within Russia.
 * This new senate was primarily assigned to collect more taxes.
 * Tax revenues tripled during the time he was the Czar.

Great summary **Video** on Peter the Great: media type="youtube" key="yyLJ2aiKUOw" height="315" width="420"

=III. Nicholas II and the new Revolutionary movements=
 * 1) In the year 1894, Alexander was succeeded by Nicholas II setting into motion those forces that would eventually overthrow the Czar.
 * There were three competing parties in Russia at the time:
 * The Constitutional Democratic Party led by industrial capitalists and nobles who wanted peaceful reform and a constitutional monarchy.
 * Socialist-Revolutionary party led by people advocating for people who actually worked for the land (peasants) should receive it.
 * n
 * Finally, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) led by radical intellectuals and urban working class. They wanted a complete social, economic, and political revolution.

A. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and the Russo-Japanese War

 * The RSDLP split in to two sides, the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Bolsheviks led my Vladimir Lenin and Mensheviks led by Yuli Martov.
 * The Bolsheviks were led with strong discipline and wanted to get the power by force while the Mensheviks believed the Russian socialism will gradually grow and succeed the czar's regime and it would all be peaceful.
 * The Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05 laid a big blow to the Russian army in the loss. Setting the stage for political unrest to follow.
 * January,1905- **Bloody Sunday**- Father Gapon led a big crowd to the Winter Palace where the Czar lived to present a petition. When they reached the palace, Cossacks began firing on the crowd, killing hundreds. A general strike followed this and people demanded a democratic republic. This was the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
 * October 1905- Nicholas issues the October Manifesto and created a national **Duma** (a legislature).

i. Tough times for Russia
August 1914- Russia enters the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, supporting France and Serbia.
 * Large amount of population turns against government because of this and German and Ottoman fleets were preventing things from going in and out of Russia.
 * By middle of 1915 food and fuel were short, casualties rose, inflation was mounting, strikes increased, and the news that the mystic Grigory Rasputin was influencing the government (even with his assassination in 1916) led the autocracy to lose its prestige.
 * Strikes in factories occur in Petrograd on March 3 and March 8 1917. Within days, almost all workers are idle-street fighting breaks out.

ii. Overthrow of Nicholas II
March (February) 1917, the czar orders the Duma to disband.
 * Strikers were ordered to return to work and troops to shoot demonstrators in the streets. the troops disobeyed commands and joined the demonstrators triggering the February Revolution.
 * March 15- Czar Nicholas II is abdicated. the power of the Romanovs was finally gone after 300 years.

i.Kerensky leads Duma

 * 1) The Duma became Russia's Provisional Government, led by Prince George Lyov, a liberal nobleman.
 * Meanwhile, workers, soldiers, and sailors in Petrograd elected the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
 * In July of 1917, Alexander **Kerensky** takes succeeds Lyov and he was a member of the Socialist Revolution Party, but he was not radical enough for the Bolsheviks or many Russians that were not happy with the worsening economic crisis and Russia's continued involvement in the war.
 * Many socialist soviets joined throughout the country to create a national movement.

ii. Lenin takes over
2. Lenin returns from exile, presents his April Theses to the Bolsheviks urging for socialist revolution.
 * The Bolsheviks and other socialists called for "Peace,Land, and Bread" as well as an end to the war. They used a lot of Propaganda
 * These were all demands that the Provisional Government was not prepared to give, and they wanted to continue the war, launching a failed offense in July of 1917.
 * July Days breaks out in Petrograd- This was a spontaneous revolt against the Provisional Gov.
 * This insurrection was suppressed and Lenin flees to Finland. Although this failed it gave the Bolsheviks new followers and supporters.

iii. Bolsheviks take over
3. Kornilov Affair weakens Provisional Government (an attempt for military dictatorship)
 * In October of 1917, plans begin to be made to overthrow the Provisional Government.
 * On the nights of November 6-7 (Oct 24-25), the Red Guards seized key strategic locations in Petrograd.
 * Morning of November 7, Lenin announces the establishment of a new regime called the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin was the chairman, Leon Trotsky-Commissar of foreign affairs, and Joseph Stalin was the commissar for nationalities.
 * Bolsheviks also took control in other cities and towns, and fought for Moscow for a couple days.[[image:http://www.economicnoise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/lenin.jpg width="142" height="162" caption=""Lenin""]]

D. New Bolshevik Regime
Detailed Visual Summary of Russian Revolution media type="youtube" key="2VldXUyCaeQ" width="425" height="350" align="center"
 * Immediately called for the peasants to seize the landowners' land and the workers to take control of the factories.
 * Bolsheviks sought to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church, church and state separated, church property taken, many churches-monasteries-convents were closes. Religious teachings prohibited, replaced Julian calendar with Gregorian (reason why dates were off till now) and titles of nobility were abolished.
 * They kept the voting for the Constituent Assembly. 420 Socialist Revolutionaries were elected while Bolsheviks only won 225 seats.
 * In January of 1918 the Assembly met in Petrograd and was dissolved after one session by the Bolsheviks.
 * Lenin created a secret police called the Cheka (KGB) to combat counter revolutionary activity.
 * Signed the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk with the Germans to release them from the war in March of 1918. Forcing the Russians to give up Finland, Russian Poland, the Baltic area, and parts of Belorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia. **They withdrew from WWI**
 * To Lenin's appeasement, the treaty was nullified on November 13, 1918 when Germany was defeated by the Allies.

=__IV. Russian Civil War__=

** Background info: **
Although the Bolsheviks just gained political power in the Revolution, they still had threats to their control over Russia. These "threats" were named "whites" (vs. Bolshevik "Red"). The "white" were a group of loosely allied anti- Bolshevik political parties and militias.


 * "Reds" [pro-bolshevik] vs. "whites" [anti- bolshevik].[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/National_Bolshevik_Party.svg/500px-National_Bolshevik_Party.svg.png width="241" height="164" align="right" caption="Boshlevik Flag"]]
 * The "whites" included tsarist leadership, landlords, aristocrats. Liberal business owners, intellects joined
 * Other non- Russian entities helped the whites because they wanted sovereignty,
 * Former allies (USA, England, France, & Japan) tried to counteract Bolshevism
 * The Weakness of the revolt against the "Reds" was disunity.
 * Among the tsarists, middle class, some peasants, and socialists fractions there was in fighting.
 * E.g. Pro-tsarists could not accept that Ukrainians, Estonians, and Lithuanians wanted freedom.

The Bolshevik defense

 * Trotsky, the Bolshevik commissioner of war, built a highly structured and organized military
 * It was was disciplined, and he appointed officers and a military hierarchy.
 * "War Communism" was introduced: Troops move thru rural area and steal food and supplies from peasants for the armies use.
 * The Secret service (Cheka/KGB) were brutal in arresting and killing political opponents.[[image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DQS2t5brY6E/T2k-vYnR-HI/AAAAAAAAB14/wzeYCCN3kZE/s320/kgb.jpg width="180" height="184" align="right" caption="KGB symbol"]]
 * This just increased the size of the army, and led to a more authoritarian government. (Opposite of Marxist promise)
 * It brought about more State influence, not less of it.
 * The bolsheviks spread their communist ideas using propaganda.
 * They created the 3rd international (Comintern) whose sole objective was to spread communist ideas.
 * By 1921, The reds overcame the whites and established strong support with in Russia.
 * Areas such as the Crimea, Caucasus, and the Muslim lands were now under the reds control.
 * The Bolsheviks were now a multinational entity.
 * Important note**: the violent suppression of the whites by the Bolsheviks set a precedent of violence and brutality for Russian politics in the 20th century

=V. USSR=

A. Industrialization

 * After Lenin’s death, Lenin fought of Trotsky to gain control of the USSR (est. 1922)
 * Lenin used unchecked power to put radical industrializing policies in place.

i. Stalin’s 5 year plans

 * This was the economic policy of Stalin between 1928-1932 [[image:https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDZv8J-BAFw3taURSkrRhmG_9ry0c3hDYugXrx3oi3Sgv0asVkqg width="259" height="195" align="right" caption="Russia's Industrialization of the 1900's"]]
 * It’s goal was to make the nation Fiscally, industrially, and militarily self-sufficient
 * This largely got government involved in day to day business procedures
 * They kept record of order, production, shipment of products
 * It was created for effieciency purposes.
 * The government controlled all economic activity

ii.. Collectivization

 * This was the policy that put agriculture in the hands of the government
 * Government seized millions of peasant’s farms.
 * Goal-to make the agriculture system better and more effiecient as well as boost urban population.
 * This caused famine, millions died, others moved to cities and spurred industrialization more.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">side note: Great Purges- suppression and murder of Stalin’s political opposition

media type="custom" key="16250118"

**B. World War II**

 * 1) On September 17, 1939 the Red Army invaded eastern part of Poland, seventeen days after Germany had successfully advanced deep from the west


 * As a result, Soviet borders moved westward. Had the Winter War with Finland (1939-40), took heavy toll on Red Army but forced Finland to sign Moscow Peace Treaty and give away land to the Soviet Union. The Union also acquired territories from Romania and occupied the Baltic states.
 * Up until June of 1941, Soviet Union and Germany had been allies in the war but it was very tense and on June 22, 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union on three fronts- Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the center, and Ukraine in the south.
 * By the fall, Germany had seized Ukraine, placed a 900 day siege of Leningrad, and were making their way to the capital city of Moscow.
 * In December of 1941, the Soviets successfully counterattacked an invasion of Moscow by the Germans. The Germans sill held a strong offensive attack in the south-east direction
 * In the spring of 1942 the Germans launched an offensive to capture the oil-rich Caucasus and Stalingrad. They did not reach the oil fields, and at Stalingrad, the Germans and Soviets fought one of the war's bloodiest battles with Soviets coming out on top.
 * The Germans never gained the strength back and the Soviets began pushing back hard. By the end of 1943 the Soviets broke through the siege at Leningrad and liberated much of Ukraine.
 * By the end of 1944 the Soviet forces drove into eastern Germany, captured Berlin in May of 1945 and ultimately defeated the Germans.

media type="youtube" key="2A4HVtkjAs4" width="425" height="350"


 * 1) =====**2.** **Yalta Conference-1945**=====


 * In February of 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in the Soviet Crimea in one of the most important of the wartime conferences.
 * For the Soviets, they would be returned the southern half of Sakhalin island which they had lost to Japan in 1905. They had to enter the war against Japan with the United States, 3 months after the defeat of Germany
 * This was the last battle for the Soviets in WWII. The Soviet Union lost around 26-27 million people, devastated the economy, suffered from slave labor from Germans and destroyed many cities, towns, countryside of eastern Russia.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">C. Cold war
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Cold war was an economical, ideological political, technological, diplomatic, and semi-military dispute between the West and the Soviets. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In other words This was a period of tension between the USA and USSR from 1940’s to 1990’s (post ww2)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fight for War torn Europe

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in 1945, after the war, Stalin and Truman disputed over Eastern Europe’s fate
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stalin-Communist (had many satellites i.e Bulgaria, Poland, Romania etc.)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Truman-anti-communist
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stalin wanted a “buffer zone” to prevent what happened with Napolean, WW1, WW2)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">U.S enacted the “Marshall Plan” which invested Billions of dollars into Germany to rebuild Western Europe after the war.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Much of the money was used to push USA’s objective: stop spread of communism
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NATO was created to rearm anti- communist organizations in Europe.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[Stalin was currently working on an atomic bomb project]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The USSR Reacted with their own supranational organization called the Warsaw Pact.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Containment

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The US sought to control and stop the spread of communism from the Soviets
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreign aid from the USA was sent to anyone opposed to Communism
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this policy is known as the Truman Doctrine

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Conflicts of 1968

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The USSR suppresses the Prague spring in Czecholsavakia by using the Brezhnev Doctrine. (Can intervene satellite countries if communism is at risk.)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Space and Nuclear race

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The USA and the USSR raced for the first to be in space and on the moon
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">USSR was first to get a man into space (1961)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">US was the first to get a man on the moon (Apollo 11 in 1969)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nuclear race
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This was the race for superior nuclear weapons during the cold war.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nuclear attacks were prevented by “mutually assured destruction”

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Proxy wars **
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a war instigated by a major power that does not itself become involved. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the Cold War many of these wars happened between the allies of the USA and USSR but they never had a direct military conflict. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Arab-Israeli Wars media type="youtube" key="rnhCrmAZkiY" height="217" width="382" align="right" <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Korean Wars <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Vietnam War <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Bay of Pigs Invasion <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Cuban Missile Crisis <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6.Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and many many more...

**D. Khrushchev and Brezhnev in power**
Following Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev solidified his position to succeed Stalin with his speech that detailed Stalin’s atrocities in 1956.
 * In November of 1958, Khrushchev demanded that the Western powers neutralize and demilitarize West Berlin, for many East Germans were fleeing through Berlin and it was hurting East Germany’s economy.
 * On August 13, 1961, Khrushchev closed the border between East and West Berlin and began construction of the Berlin Wall (preventing flight of East Germans to the West)
 * Khrushchev encouraged production of consumer goods and construction of housing, made collective farms into larger units and began cultivating semiarid land like Siberia.
 * In the fall of 1957, Soviets launched //Sputnik I// (first satellite), in 59’ sent a rocket to the moon, and in 61’ Yuri Gagarin made first manned orbital flight.
 * In October of1964, Khrushchev was impeached by the Communist Party’s Central Committee for setbacks like the Cuban Missile Crisis and failed agricultural plans.
 * Leonid Brezhnev took Khrushchev’s place as the Soviet leader and in 1977 assumed the additional title of president.
 * Brezhnev continued the emphasis of heavy industry, had the Soviet economic reform of 1965, tried easing relations with the USA, and made the Soviet Union a leading producer and exporter of petroleum and natural gas.

E. Collapse of the USSR

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gorvachev changed the policy in the USSR.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He wanted to modernize the communism system in USSR.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was much more linient, less demanding, and less violent towards opposition.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He allowed access to information (glasnost)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This allowed for attention to be paid toward the USSR social/humanitarian problems.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Soviet Union overstretched their military war in Afghanistan
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Revolutions of 1989 (lost satellite nations)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Economic problems
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To keep up with the U.S in the Technological Race, they wasted billions, rendering their economy and infrastructure completely ruined.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gorbachev did implemen his own economic policy to become more cpitalistic.

Great Timeline of everything: || ** 1480 ** || Ivan III freed Russia from the Mongols || || ** 1547 ** || Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) became the first Czar || || ** 1682 ** || Peter the Great became Czar || || ** 1762 ** || Catherine the Great became empress Austria, Prussia, and Russia divided Poland amongst themselves. Russia received Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine from Poland || || ** 1801 ** || Alexander I became Czar || || ** 1812 ** || Napoleon Bonaparte led troops into Russia but was defeated || || ** 1825 ** || Nicholas I became Czar || || ** 1853 ** || The Crimean War broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire || || ** 1867 ** || Russia sold Alaska to the United States || || ** 1894 ** || Nicholas II became Czar || || ** 1898 ** || The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was established by the Marxists || || ** 1903 ** || Lenin became the leader of the Bolsheviks || || ** 1914 ** || [|World War I] broke out and the Russians fought the Germans and Austrians || || ** 1917 ** || Revolutionaries overthrew the Russian government || || ** 1918 ** || July : Czar Nicholas II and his family were murdered Russia became the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which eventually formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) Lenin changes the name of the Bolshevik party to Russian Communist Party 1918-22 - Civil war between the Red Army and White Russians, or anti-communists || || ** 1924 ** || Lenin died || || ** 1929 ** || Stalin became the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) Leon Bronstein (Trotsky), who opposes Stalin, is deported to Turkey || || ** 1939 ** || German forces invaded Poland resulting in [|World War 2] Russia occupied Poland || || ** 1945 ** || May, Berlin fell to Russia August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki End of WW2 || || ** 1953 ** || Stalin dies and is succeeded by Nikita Krushev || || ** 1957 ** || The Soviet Union launches Sputnik || || ** 1959 ** || The communists led by Fidel Castro win the civil war in Cuba || || ** 1961 ** || Yuri Gagarin becomes the first astronaut The Soviet Union builds the wall between East and West Berlin || || ** 1962 ** || The Cuban Missile Crisis - Click the following link **[|Cuban Timeline]** || || ** 1964 ** || Krushev replaced by Leonid Brezhnev || || ** 1965 ** || The Soviet Union backs North Vietnam against the USA || || ** 1985 ** || Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union initiating a campaign of openness called "glasnost" and restructuring called "perestroika" || || ** 1986 ** || The nuclear accident in Chernobyl Russia launches the MIR space station || || ** 1989 ** || The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan The Berlin Wall is destroyed || || ** 1990 ** || Boris Yeltsin is elected president || || ** 1991 ** || The Soviet Union is dismantled and Russia becomes an independent federation || || ** 1999 ** || Yeltsin resigns and Vladimir Putin is his successor || || ** 2002: ** || Russia becomes an ally of NATO ||

//1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia//
 * //__Annotated Bibliography__//**
 * This is an overall, very brief overview of all Russian history displayed above.
 * We used it for almost every section, but because of the lack of depth, details came from other sources [below]

//2. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/russiatime2.html//
 * This timeline was EXTREMELY brief and did not supply us with a wealth of details
 * It was mainly used for ordering the information, and keeping the "big Picture" in mind.

//3.http://www.infoplease.com/spot/russiatime2.html//
 * This website provided a great amount of details for the break up of the USSR, the Creation f the USSR, and the Russian revolution/Civil war.
 * It was used for specific events and people. It had policies, dates, events, and consequences which were presented in our presentation.

//4. Eder, James M., Seth A. Roberts, and James M. Eder. Barron's AP European History. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 2008. Print.//
 * This was one of the main sources used in our wikispace.
 * We used this for both an overview of events as well as for specific details (as it contained many)
 * It was especially used the Civil war, Cold war, and "The Khrushchev and Brezhnev" section

//5. Hunt, Lynn. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. Print.//
 * This textbook was very helpful and contained all the information we needed for this project
 * The problem was that it was spread out over 100's of pages and seemed too long.
 * Difficult to locate the information we needed
 * Time consuming

//6. Cracking the Ap European History Exam, 2012.// Princeton Review, 2012. Print.
 * This was also a great review book that contained many great details
 * Similar to textbook because the index is poor and made it difficult to navigate for specific events.
 * Overall helped with majority of sections and provided great timelines/charts.

//7. http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/places-timelines/36-russian-history-timeline.htm//
 * This is a good overview timeline of Russia from start to finish
 * Lacks details but is good to organize time of events in order.
 * Used at end of presentation as a wrap-up/summary

//8."Russian Civil War | View Timeline." Object Moved. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Russian-Civil-War>.//
 * This is a good time line of the Russian Civil war.
 * It is interactive an provided many specific details of the civil war.
 * Used ONLY for the "Russian civil war" section. But still was a valuable source.
 * Tried to embed this many times but failed miserably.

//9."Russian History." || Bucknell University. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://www.bucknell.edu/x17601.xml>.//
 * This website was GOLD.
 * Ir provided links all over the web that helped us with every sing section.
 * Although it itself did not provide any facts, the links on the page did.