Both Tsars were thoroughly progressive, bringing reform to Russian bureaucracies and institutions that had slowly stagnated. In addition, both Ivan IV and Peter I succeeded in centralizing authority around the monarchy. Indeed, Peter the Great professed himself to be an admirer of Ivan’s. But the common perception of Ivan the Terrible’s rule as truly “terrible” in comparison to Peter’s is not without base. The latter half of Ivan IV’s reign would be characterized by a bloody reign of terror by the dreaded oprichnik and drawn out military failures in the Baltic.
In the period directly following Soviet liberation of Nazi-held Eastern Europe, it became evident of the Russian desire to dominate that very region. The reasons for this are manifold, but one of the most significant reasons was a desire to ensure the USSR’s security. Russia had repeatedly been attacked through Eastern Europe (and most specifically Poland), from the time of Napoleon to Hitler not 4 years ago. With America and its allies building up force in Western Europe, Stalin was bound to be suspicious of the capitalist powers, even more so considering the increasing level of anti-communist demagoguery in America. Having a series of puppet states in Eastern Europe would give the metropole invaluable security, ensuring that the states which bordered it were friendly and would support it in a theoretical invasion.
Advanced education by opening a school of navigation and introducing schools for the arts and sciences Reorganized and reformed the Russian armed forces and created a modern navy modeled on European practices. Although he did all of this , he failed to accomplish his objective which was to gain a warm water port for Russia , but his wife and successor Catherine the Great accomplished
Stalin's foreign policies contributed an enormous amount to the tensions of the Cold War. His aim, to take advantage of the military situation in post-war Europe to strengthen Russian influence, was perceived to be a threat to the Americans. Stalin was highly effective in his goal to gain territory, with victories in Poland, Romania, and Finland. To the western world, this success looked as if it were the beginning of serious Russian aggressions. The western view of the time saw Stalin as doing one of two things: either continuing the expansionist policies of the tsars, or worse, spreading communism across the world now that his one-state notion had been fulfilled.
Having dealt with Denmark and Poland-Saxony, Charles turned his attention back to Russia. Dismissive of the Russian performance at Narva, Charles had ignored Peter to his cost. Narva was Peter’s second campaign and was the first test for his newly remodelled army who were faced what were considered to be the best and most aggressive soldiers of Europe. The result was almost inevitable. While Charles concentrated on Poland, Peter had conducted small campaigns in other areas of the Swedish Empire.
Goverments that attempted to control thoughts and actions of their people. Throught history there have benn many governments that have attempted to control the thoughts anbd and actions of their people. Peter the great in Russia and Mao Zedong in China are just two leaderds who have treied to incluuence their people and had a major impact on society and the world. Peter the great: Peter the great lived during the period 1672-1725 and was the tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725. He was a leading figure in bringing drastic changes in Russia from the old medieval life to that of a leading power in Eastern Europe.
Critical Summary The Russian Moment in World History By Marshall Poe In this book, Marshall Poe explores the many episodes of the Russian past and exposes many theories and explanations as to how and why the success of those societies through time was misconceived, misunderstood or underappreciated. In the first chapter, “What Russia Is and What It Is Not”, Poe disparages the foolish assumption that Russians have been predisposed to having authoritarian governments and argues that Russia has not been uncharacteristically imperialistic. In fact, all great countries have expanded through war. He explores the rise to power and the sudden decline of Russia in an attempt to show the meaning of the Russian experience in world history. Poe traces the migration of the Slavs to the North and describes their encounter with the Vikings, outlines Russia’s emergence as a regional European power and its consequences.
In many respects, there is no doubt that Alexander III was the most effective Tsar in such the short reign that he had. He was referred to as a reactionary, unlike his father Alexander II who was known as a reformer. He managed to please the people with his Russian figure and attitude, he changed their attitude and he made tsarism look all the better, all in a short period of time. Despite their different policies, they had the same ambitions inside their head in the long run, and that was to strengthen autocracy in the Russian empire but Alexander III did this by reversing what his father had done as he felt he knew better ways of dealing with the situation and strengthening the Tsarist position. The first thing that Alexander III did when he came into power to contradict his fathers’ reforms was to recall the decision of creating the constitution.
There were two views on the Tsarism regime, the Liberal theory where they believed things were getting better and the regime could have survived and the Marxist theory where they believed the Tsarist regime was outdated and could no longer work and the masses would rise up. Although these two views were debated amongst the people of Russia it was not what made the revolution inevitable, different factors such as the war, food shortages, working conditions, etc.... are what mad the revolution inevitable as they showed the Tsar’s weaknesses and made him vulnerable. The main reasons why it was inevitable that Russia would face a revolution in 1917 was the War. This was one of the main reasons as the Tsar was over ambitious once he got to the Front, he thought they could win the war which meant pro-longing the suffering back in Russia, as the people thought the war was dragging on and that they were unlikely to win, therefore even more soldiers would die leaving the women and children without husbands, fathers or brothers. This made the people more frustrated with the Tsar as 10 million soldiers had already died, therefore they did not want the suffering to go on longer if they were not going to win.
According to the author Sidney Harcave, who wrote The Russian Revolution of 1905, there were four problems in Russian society at the time that had led to the revolution. These are the agrarian problem, the nationality problem, the labor problem, and the educated class as a problem. While individually these may have not made a difference, the combination of these problems created the conditions for a potential revolution. [1] "At the turn of the century, discontent with the Tsar’s dictatorship was manifested not only through the growth of political parties dedicated to the overthrow of the monarchy but also through industrial strikes for better wages and working conditions, protests and riots among peasants, university demonstrations, and the assassination of government officials, often done by Socialist Revolutionaries. "[2] The government finally recognized these problems, albeit in a shortsighted and narrow-minded way.