Anne Davison - A History of RUSSIA

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Copyright2018Anne Davison

Cover Design byKaren Turner

CONTENTS

MAPS

Russianrivers

Cities of KievanRus

Sviatoslav FamilyTree

Rostov/Vladimirmap

Dynasties ofGenghis Khan

Grand Dukes ofMuscovy

Great Khans of theGolden Horde 1227-1341

Ivan IV theTerrible

Feodor I FamilyTree

Feodor II andSuccessors

Beginning of theRomanov Dynasty

Alexis I FamilyTree

Feodor III FamilyTree

CossackHetmanate

Paul I FamilyTree

Russian Empire1900

Queen VictoriaFamily Tree

SovietRepublics

Soviet SatelliteStates

*****

October 2017marked one hundred years since the Russian Revolution and theoverthrow of the Romanov Dynasty. But as the anniversaryapproached, there appeared to be some ambivalence in the Kremlin asto how the event should be celebrated, if indeed, celebrated atall.

The mood in Russiawas captured in Shaun Walkers enlightening article entitledTragedy or triumph? Russians agonise over how to mark 1917revolutions. Published in The Guardian newspaper on the17th December 2016, the article reveals the dilemmafacing President Putin and those charged with arranging anniversaryevents.

The articlereports the words of journalist Michael Zygar, who said: Thereis no officially approved narrative of 1917; its too difficult andcomplicated. But its a very important period to help understandwhats happening in Russia now, and very important for the nationalconsciousness

Zygar continued:Theres no official line from the Kremlin they cant identifythemselves with Lenin, because he was a revolutionary, and theycant identify with Nicholas II because he was a weak leader.This goes some way to explaining the problem facing PresidentPutin. He would not want to celebrate the life of either arevolutionary or a weakling.

It could be saidthat the Soviet experiment was simply a blip in the long history ofthe Russian people and nationalities ruled from Moscow orLeningrad. But how, or why did the blip happen? More significantly,is the blip slowly being forgotten, while people and events fromRussias glorious past are re-emerging into the Russianconsciousness?

There are signsthat this may be the case. Stalin has been brought in from the coldand a monument to Vladimir the Great has been erected outside theKremlin. Even a monument of Ivan the Terrible has been unveiled onthe grounds that through his expansionist policies he increasedRussias territory. And the Russian Orthodox Church has beenreinstated, not only as a moral force but also as a supporter ofthe Russian State.

This book is anattempt to look back at Russian history and to try and discover whythese particular rulers are so relevant today. Perhaps it mightthen be possible to identify those characteristics, traits andtrends that not only survived the Soviet period, but re-emerged asstrong as ever.

As with otherbooks in the In Brief series, this book is aimed at the generalreader who wants to understand a particular historical topic butdoes not have the time or inclination to read a heavy academictome. With this mind, footnotes have been omitted.

While there willinevitably be gaps in a book of this size, the intention is tocover the most significant events that moulded Russian history.Should the reader be inspired to further reading on the subject, asmall selection of the main works that have been consulted isprovided at the end.

Wherepossible ,maps and charts are provided which should help the reader navigatethrough the text. A Whos Who and Whats What is included at theend of the book.

Finally, Iwould like to thank those friends and colleagues who gave of theirvaluable time to read through various chapters, proof read thetext, and offer helpful comments and advice.

*****

The KievanRus

We get most of ourinformation about the peoples who first populated the region oftodays Russia from the Russian Primary Chronicle, alsoknown as the Chronicle of Nestor, the Kiev Chronicleor The Tale of Bygone Years. Nestor, a monk from Kiev, issaid to have compiled the chronicle in the year 1113, takingsources from Byzantine chronicles, Slav literature, officialdocuments and popular oral sagas. While the original document hasbeen lost, there are extant copies, the earliest being dated 1377.It is now generally thought that the Chronicle was not the work ofone author, but more likely to have been the joint effort ofseveral chroniclers.

The RussianPrimary Chronicle covers the period from 850 to 1110 and tellsthe history of the Kievan Rus. It includes the arrival of theVikings, or Varangians from Scandinavia, their integration with theEastern Slavs, the Christianisation of the Rus under Vladimir theGreat in 988 and the Rus invasions of Constantinople.

Nestor alsorelates in his Chronicle how the apostle St Andrew preached in thearea of the Black Sea and founded the See of Constantinople.According to the Chronicle, the Saint then travelled up the DnieperRiver as far as Kiev where he planted a cross on the site of thecurrent St Andrews Church of Kiev. St Andrew is now patron saintof both Russia and Ukraine.

The Slavs

The history ofRussia began in the 9th Century in the Baltic region, anarea incorporating todays Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine,populated then by Finnic and Slavic tribes. Today the Slavs are thelargest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. Speaking avariety of Slavic languages, they are the native population of mostof Central and Eastern Europe, North Asia and Central Asia.

The Slavs areusually categorised into West Slavs (Czechs, Poles and Slovaks),East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians) and South Slavs(people of the Balkans including Slovenes and Bulgarians). There isalso a theory that the English word slave is derived from theword Slav in reference to the Slavs from the Balkans who were takenas slaves by Muslims, particularly during the Ottoman period. Inrelation to Russian history and the subject of this book, the EastSlavs are of most interest to us.

There is verylittle written information about the Slavs before the11th Century. However, it is generally thought that thevarious Slavic tribes probably migrated westwards, from CentralAsia into Eastern Europe, in the wake of the great migrations ofthe Huns, Avars, Alans and Magyars, which occurred between the6th and 10th Centuries. They then settled inforests and on the banks of the Rivers Danube and Dnieper as wellas around the Black Sea.

The first mentionof the Slavs appeared in Byzantine chronicles during the reign ofByzantine Emperor Justinian I who reigned from 527 to 565. At thattime, the historian and legal adviser named Procopius of Caesarea,mentions the Sclaveni and Antae tribes who were thought to beSlavs. Procopius was adviser to the renowned Byzantine GeneralBelisarius and he accompanied the General on most of his campaigns.In his writings Procopius refers to Slavic tribes invadingConstantinople. Further Slavic invasions of Constantinople arementioned in Byzantine chronicles during the reign of EmperorMichael III who reigned between 842 and 867.