This city was known as Peter’s “window to the west” because it opened up many trading routes with other countries. Peter “The Great” died in St. Petersburg in 1725. He is buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Peter “The Great” is the most responsible monarch for “westernizing” Russia. He made several different reforms to give more power to the central government and the Tsar, he promoted military, and he improved the Russian economy.
Brian Ernst 18th Century Russia...or Were There Two? There have been many historians argue whether the Petrine reforms and the reforms of the 18th Century Russian Czars caused a great rift in Russian society between the “world” of the nobility and that of the peasant majority, thus creating “two Russias”, that is, two Russian societies coexisting in the same era. To get to the heart of this debate, it is essential to look at the origin and development of both the nobility and the peasants in Russian history. After uncovering the developmental paths of each class, it is then necessary to look at the western movement started by Peter the Great and carried on by his successors throughout the eighteenth century. Specifically,
Arguably Russia’s transformation from an autocratic state to a communist one was the greatest modification in the whole period 1855 to 1964, however, despite differing ideals there was in fact a large amount of continuity between the idealistically different styles of governance. Under Tsarist leaders, Russia experience differing levels of autocratic rule, interspersed with sporadic detours to democracy, yet upon the Communist takeover, there was a decisive shift towards autocratic dictatorship. Taking all this into consideration, the October Revolution can be seen as the most significant turning point in the development of Russian government, as the ideological shift influenced all subsequent decisions taken by the government of the USSR. Ideologically, the October Revolution in 1917 represented a unique turning point from Russia, as a 300 year old regime was unceremoniously discarded in favour of Marxism. Condemning the provisional government in his April Thesis, Lenin moved quickly to ensure the Bolshevik takeover was complete, consolidating
Theatre Practitioners and Theatre Styles | Drama Assessment task | Konstantin Stanislavski Konstantin Stanislavski, born in Russia in 1863 was a well know author and producer, co-finder of the Moscow theatre and a practitioner of realism but he is most famous for producing the first dramatic process known as the Stanislavski System. Stanislavski first drafted the system of techniques in 1909 after watching a variety of actors and the similarities between them. He decided that he would trail some of his techniques with the Moscow Theatre actors, and from this the first theatre was formed where Stanislavski's techniques being experimented with. Even when Stanislavski's techniques were becoming successful in the Moscow Theatre, Stanislavski decided that he would reformulate his techniques. These techniques, addressing the realistic style of theatre, were named the Stanislavski’s System; and because of his students teaching others Stanislavski’s ways these realistic techniques soon became an international teaching.
In addition, World War II introduced change through industrialisation, which was key to Russia’s success in the war. These key reforming leaders and other factors of change saw Russia grow from a very deprived country in 1856 to an industrial superpower in 1964. Alexander II became known as ‘Alexander the Great Reformer’ and ‘the Tsar Liberator’ which suggests that his work and reforms changed the nature of Russian government and society to a large extent. The emancipation of the Serfs in 1861 initially appeared to have major benefits for the serfs. As Alexander II said: “We vowed in our hearts to fulfil the mission which is entrusted to Us and to surround with Our affection and Our Imperial solicitude all Our faithful subjects of every rank and condition”2.
Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons depicts one of the most significant periods of reform and social change in all of Russian history, focusing on the period surrounding the tenuous shift from a feudal society to a relatively open market with the emancipation of the serfs under Alexander II. Two characters, the precocious, young nihilist Yevgeny Vassilyich Bazarov and the conservative and aristocratic Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, represent opposite ends of the spectrum of varying opinions towards the appropriate course of action for Russia in its immediate future. While Bazarov specifically represents the nihilist perspective, with a disbelief in the inherent truth of anything other than scientifically-proven phenomena, he can be more generally seen as an extreme example of the newly-emerging philosophy of the Westernizers, or those Russians who began (primarily in the first half of the 19th century) to look towards secular Western ideals of progress and empiricism as a model for the future growth and development of Russia. Pavel, on the other hand, can be viewed as fairly representative (if not a bit more extreme and devout in his views) of the Slavophile class that emerged in Russia around the same time. Pavel is quite the aristocratic gentleman and maintains very traditional values, with a strong belief in religion, social class distinctions, and the keeping up of appearances.
The goal of this paper is to contrast the film’s respective treatments of love as a unifying theme and to compare both to Shakespearean concepts of that emotion. Both films have grand entrances with seven travelers, one of long unseen friends and the other of a group of conquering heroes returning from battle. Each draws on the film legacy of The Magnificent Seven of John Sturges and thus of course The Seven Samauri of Akira Kurosawa. The concept of a separation and final unification of characters is a classic plot line in Shakespeare. The setting in each film is an idyllic, palatial estate, consistent with Branagh’s early 1990s, extravagant, auteurial style.
This investigation will deal with the origins of the Russian revolution in the months of 1917, and address the political, social and economic causes of the Bolshevik revolution. In order to answer this question, this investigation will first provide an overview of the events leading to the Russian revolution in 1917, and then compare various factors such as the Bolsheviks effective leadership with shortage of food and resources. This would be done with the help of scholastic history reference books like Alan Wood’s ‘Origins of Russian Revolution’ and reliable history educational portals such as “1917:Bolsheviks seize power” Seventeen Moments of Soviet History written by Siegelbaum Lewis. Summary of Evidence The Bolshevik party was a minority of the Marxists within the social democratic party, who believed that the proletariat required immediate and professional leadership in its upcoming battle with the capitol elites. The tsarist rule came to an end in February when 240 000 striking workers railed against poor labour condition and food shortage.
Alego Carpentier wrote Like the Night to depict western civilization and its historical relations with North and South Americas. It is rather read as an allegory than just a narrative which traces humans’ development in terms of a binary two sets (Europe vs. non Europe,) and examines the power relations between them. Particularly, the story reveals the West attitudes toward colonization and the colonized through the eyes of the narrator who is a Greek soldier taken to fight for Spain against America. This kind of allegorical stories plays a major role in determining the mode of narration, the choice of characters and their function in the story, the setting, as well as the themes. Each of these elements is done in a way to serve the the underlying message behind the story, the fact that the West is the civilizer and the non West is the uncivilized.
Why did the Reds win the Russian Civil War? When the Bolsheviks (known as the Reds) came to power in November 1917, they started to set out new policies and make new rules such as closing the Constituent Assembly. These new ways of running Russia, were disliked by many and by the summer of 1918 Russia was in the state of the Civil War. The Reds managed to win the civil war in the end. The main reasons for why the Reds won the Civil War the geographical factors affecting the war, support for the Bolsheviks and the Red Army and crucially were the leadership of Trotsky.