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Europe

Russia
Last reviewed: 27 July 2009

Country information

HISTORY

The origins of the Russian state can be traced back to the sixteenth century when the trading principality of Muscovy emerged as the dominant player among a number of small principalities and fiefdoms. Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible, 1533-1584) was the first prince of Muscovy to style himself as Tsar.  The Romanov family emerged as Russia's leaders in the early 17th century, and ruled Russia for the next 300 years. Perhaps the best known of the Romanovs are Peter the Great (1682-1725) and Catherine the Great (1762-1796), who arguably did most to reform and modernise the country.

Bolshevik Revolution

By the early 20th century, discontent at all levels of Russian society was high. Harsh working conditions in the newly industrialised cities, coupled with an absolutist monarchy which was perceived as being indifferent to the suffering of the mass of the population, created conditions which were ripe for the growth of political radicalism. In 1903 a schism in the Russian Social Democrats led to the emergence of the Bolshevik Party, led by Lenin, which was inspired by an extremist interpretation of certain European models of socialism. Dissatisfaction grew following the Bloody Sunday Massacre in 1905, defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the disastrous course of Russia's involvement in the First World War. By 1917 the Bolsheviks were in a position to seize political control from the recently installed Provisional Government in an opportunistic and fairly bloodless coup. The following year, Russia withdrew early from the First World War with the costly Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Tsar Nikolai II and his family were shot.

Soviet Union

The early years of Lenin’s rule were marked by civil war and mass starvation. Later, there was considerable rivalry for power as Lenin became increasingly incapacitated. Stalin emerged as the undisputed leader of the Communist Party in 1929. Once in place, his leadership came to be characterised by the use of political purges, mass deportation and imprisonment on an unprecedented scale as means of control. Stalin’s Five Year Plans did, however, see rapid industrialisation. In June 1941 Germany invaded the USSR, triggering a four year war during which up to 27 million Soviet citizens died. Yet Russia emerged from the war victorious and having secured effective political control over most of Eastern Europe. Stalin remained firmly in control until his death in 1953, although he became increasingly paranoid and reclusive. During this period the Communist Party consolidated its hold on every aspect of life by means of a vast security apparatus. The USSR had become an industrial and military superpower, although at an immense human cost.

Khrushchev, Stalin's successor, made some efforts to address the worst excesses of Stalin's rule, while preserving the key elements of Communism. He eased censorship and fostered a foreign policy of peaceful co-existence with the West, while, in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, maintaining strong control over the Soviet satellite states. But the Party establishment distrusted him and he lost further credibility over his handling of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He was deposed in 1964 in a political coup. Brezhnev, his successor, presided over a period of consolidation. Life became more predictable and comfortable for the bulk of the population. However, with growth rates steadily declining and social problems growing, it became know as ‘the period of stagnation.’ From 1979 the Soviet Union became involved in a prolonged and bloody occupation of Afghanistan scarring a generation.

Gorbachev

The stagnation of the Brezhnev era was compounded by a quick succession of short-lived Party leaders who died in office. It was only in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev took power, that reform took off. Perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) liberalised both the economy and the political system. Gorbachev’s goal was to build a better form of socialism. Gradually, however, the process of democratisation took on a pace of its own. Gorbachev made it clear that he would not intervene in the internal affairs of the Eastern European satellite states, which prompted widespread protest movements that brought about the collapse of unpopular communist governments which had previously relied on the threat of Soviet military support. At the same time, pressure was growing among the republics of the USSR for greater independence, and in 1990 the Russia republic within the USSR (headed by Yeltsin) declared its independence in a symbolic gesture. In August 1991, a coup was mounted against Gorbachev by a group of Communist Party hard-liners seeking to stop the fragmentation of the USSR. Yeltsin supported Gorbachev and the coup was defeated. But when Gorbachev returned to Moscow from the south where he had been under house arrest, it became clear that Yeltsin held the political initiative, and many of the other republics of the USSR hastened to declare their independence. The dissolution of the USSR on 31 December 1991 left Gorbachev with no option but to resign as its President.

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