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VI. Russia: Early Growth
and Expansion
A little more than a century later, Christianity began to spread around Slavic
and Russian territories, but many people remained pagans. Once such person was
Prince Vladimir, the ruler of the city-state of Kiev, which would become the first
Russian state. According to legend, the prince sent emissaries to investigate the
major monotheistic religions of his day: Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman
Catholic Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. When his emissaries visited
Constantinople and saw Hagia Sophia, they were astonished and overwhelmed by
the beauty of the church, its dome, and its mosaics. Surely, they thought, this is
the house of the true God. Vladimir selected Orthodox Christianity as his own
religion, and decided it would also be the religion of his people. It is also possible that he may have been influenced to convert to Christianity by the economic
and political advantages of an alliance with Byzantium, as well as in order to get
approval to marry the Byzantine emperor’s sister. He ordered the old pagan idols
thrown into the Dnieper River and conducted mass baptisms in the same river.
Adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity had a number of benefits for the
Russians. It strengthened the commercial ties between Russia and the Byzantine
Empire and also provided the basis for the development of a national identity
among the various Russian city-states by giving them something in common.
Over time, princes of the various city-states adopted the written language of the
empire, as well as its architecture, music, and art. Like the Byzantine emperor, the
Russian czars (also spelled tsars) would claim jurisdiction over the church in
Russia, thus strengthening their own power. Similar to the monarchs of western
Europe, the Russian czars also came to believe in the theory of the divine right of
kings—that they ruled as the representative of God on Earth, and as such, their
authority was absolute.
Moscow as the Third Rome
Over time Kiev became less important and Moscow, to the north, became
more important. Moscow became the headquarters of the Russian church. When
the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453, the rulers of Moscow announced
that Moscow was “The Third Rome.” Rome had been the capital city of
Christianity and so the “spiritual center of the world,” but then the popes and the
Roman Catholic church had fallen into heresy and false belief. After 1054, when
the Orthodox Church split with the Roman Catholic Church, Constantinople had
become the new “spiritual center of the world,” the “Second Rome.” When
Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, the Russians thought Moscow was
poised to take its place and become the latest spiritual center of the world, the
“Third Rome.”
The Czars
Ivan III
Beginning in 1236, Mongols, nomadic warriors from Central Asia, had invaded and conquered large parts of Russia. Students in Core Knowledge schools
should have learned about the Mongols in the Grade 4 section on China. The
same people who swept south to conquer China swept north to conquer large
parts of Russia. In return for acknowledging the Mongols as their rulers and paying tribute to them, the princes of the various states were allowed to keep their
lands and titles. The Mongols remained in power until 1480 when Ivan III
declared Russia free of Mongol rule.
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Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great, had come to power as the Grand
Prince of Moscow in 1462. During his reign of 43 years, he extended Moscow’s
control over a large area, annexing land from other city-states and from the Poles,
Lithuanians, and Mongols.
Teaching Idea
Using Instructional Master 25, Czars
of Russia (1613–1917), have students
keep a chart of the czars, their dates,
and their accomplishments.
The government was centralized and Ivan asserted his influence over the
church. He surrounded himself with the splendor and ceremony befitting an
emperor and adopted as the symbol of the czar the Byzantine symbol of the double eagle. Ivan’s reign laid the foundation for the later Russian state.
Ivan IV
Ivan earned his nickname because of his cruelty. He was initially called
“Ivan the Terrible” because he terrified his enemies, but later he also began
to terrify his own people. Indeed, he became one of history’s most famous
examples of the paranoid tyrant. Convinced that enemies and intrigue surrounded him, Ivan IV was suspicious of everyone. He established the
Oprichniki, a group of special guards, to search out traitors among his subjects. They acted like secret police and wore black uniforms. These policemen could throw people in jail or torture them on the slightest suspicion of
disloyalty. Ivan the Terrible also had a terrible temper. One day in a fit of anger,
he hit his eldest son so hard that he killed him.
Ivan also established the Zemski Sobor, or land assembly, to act as an advisory body to the czar. It was the first national assembly of Russians ever convened.
However, Ivan IV was even more autocratic than Ivan III had been. In an effort to
rid himself of any threat from the boyars, who were hereditary aristocrats, he had
many of them accused of treason. He then seized their lands and divided the lands
among a new class of landholders that he created. In return for land, these men
owed the czar military service when he asked for assistance. The service was to
be performed by peasants supplied by the new nobility. In effect, Ivan created a
feudal system in Russia.
Peter the Great
Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1689 to 1725. Like his predecessors, Peter
was an autocratic ruler. Unlike them, he was fascinated by western Europe, its
culture, its sciences, and its growing industries.
Only 17 when he became czar, Peter had an immense curiosity about people,
ideas, and things. His appetite for information matched his size. He was 6 feet 9
inches tall and weighed close to 300 pounds. As a young man, he spent time in
the German Quarter of Moscow, where not only Germans but also Scottish,
English, and Dutch artisans lived. Although previous czars had been generally
suspicious of foreigners, some had been allowed to settle in special zones of the
city, but their contact with Russians was limited to people the czars trusted.
Name
Date
Czars of Russia (1613–1917)
Study the family tree and use it to answer the questions on Master 25b.
Mikhail Feodorovich
(1596–1645)
1613–45
Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina
Evdokia Lukianovna
Streshneva
Alexei Mikhailovich
(1629–76)
1645–76
Maria Miloslavskaya
Sofia Alexeena
(1657–1704)
1682–89
Evdokia Fedorovna Lopuhina
Crown Princess
Sofia Charlotta
Peter the Great
(1672–1725)
1682–1725
Czarevich Alexei
Petrovich
Catherine the Great
(1729–96)
1762–96
Praskovia Saltykova
Anna
Leopoldovna
Maria Fyodorovna
Prince Anton
Ulrich
Ivan VI
(1740–64)
1740–41
Alexander I
(1777–1825)
1801–25
Nicholas I
(1796–1855)
1825–55
Alexander II
(1818–1881)
1855–1881
Anna Ivanovna
(1693–1740)
1730–40
Karl Friedrich
Peter III
(1728–62)
1761–62
Paul I
(1754–1801)
1796–1801
Alexandra
Fyodorovna
Ivan V
(1666–96)
1682–96
Unknown
Anna Petrovna
Elizaveta Petrovna
(1709–61)
1741–61
Peter II
(1715–30)
1727–30
Feodor Alexeevich
(1661–82)
1676–82
Ekaterina Skawronska
Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation
Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, reigned from 1533 to 1584. He
greatly expanded Russia’s borders, extending Russian rule throughout the
Volga River Basin to the Caspian Sea and pushing across the Ural Mountains
into Siberia. His attempt to win a foothold on the Baltic Sea was less successful. The Swedes and Poles defeated the Russian forces.
Maria Aleksandrovna
Alexander III
(1845–94)
1881–94
Maria Fyodorovna
Nicholas II
(1868–1918)
1894–1917
Purpose: To gain a greater understanding of the hereditary monarchy in czarist Russia
Master 25a
Grade 5: History & Geography
Use Instructional Master 25a–25b.
Teaching Idea
If you have taught Section V of World
History and Geography, ask students
what other important event occurred
in 1689. Students should respond that
the English Parliament passed the
English Bill of Rights in 1689.
Compare the political structure of
Russia at the time with that of
England; help students see that, while
England was beginning to place limits on the power of the king, Russia
was still an autocratic state in which
the czar had virtually unlimited
powers.
History and Geography: World
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