The ancestors of the Slavs - the Proto-Slavs - have long lived in Central and Eastern Europe. In terms of language, they belong to the Indo-European group of peoples that inhabit Europe and part of Asia up to India. The first mention of the Proto-Slavs belong to the I-II centuries. Roman authors Tacitus, Pliny, Ptolemy called the ancestors of the Slavs Wends and believed that they inhabited the Vistula River basin. Later authors - Procopius of Caesarea and Jordanes (VI century) divide the Slavs into three groups: the Slavs who lived between the Vistula and the Dniester, the Wends who inhabited the Vistula basin, and the Antes who settled between the Dniester and the Dnieper. It is the Antes that are considered the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs.
Detailed information about the settlement of the Eastern Slavs is given in his famous "Tale of Bygone Years" by the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Nestor, who lived at the beginning of the 12th century. In his chronicle, Nestor names about 13 tribes (scientists believe that these were tribal unions) and describes in detail their places of settlement.
Near Kyiv, on the right bank of the Dnieper, there lived a glade, along the upper reaches of the Dnieper and the Western Dvina - the Krivichi, along the banks of the Pripyat - the Drevlyans. On the Dniester, Prut, in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and on the northern coast of the Black Sea, the streets and Tivertsy lived. Volhynia lived to the north of them. Dregovichi settled from Pripyat to the Western Dvina. Northerners lived along the left bank of the Dnieper and along the Desna, and Radimichi lived along the Sozh River - a tributary of the Dnieper. Ilmen Slovenes lived around Lake Ilmen.
The neighbors of the Eastern Slavs in the west were the Baltic peoples, the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs), in the south - the Pechenegs and Khazars, in the east - the Volga Bulgarians and numerous Finno-Ugric tribes (Mordovians, Mari, Muroma).
The main occupations of the Slavs were agriculture, which, depending on the soil, was slash-and-burn or shifting, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, beekeeping (collecting honey from wild bees).
In the 7th-8th centuries, in connection with the improvement of tools, the transition from the fallow or shifting system of agriculture to the two-field and three-field crop rotation system, the Eastern Slavs experienced a decomposition of the tribal system, an increase in property inequality.
The development of craft and its separation from agriculture in the VIII-IX centuries led to the emergence of cities - centers of craft and trade. Usually cities arose at the confluence of two rivers or on a hill, since such an arrangement made it possible to defend much better from enemies. The most ancient cities were often formed on the most important trade routes or at their intersection. The main trade route that passed through the lands of the Eastern Slavs was the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", from the Baltic Sea to Byzantium.
In the 8th - early 9th centuries, the Eastern Slavs distinguished tribal and military squad nobility, and military democracy was established. Leaders turn into tribal princes, surround themselves with a personal retinue. Stands out to know. The prince and the nobility seize tribal land into a personal hereditary share, subjugate the former tribal government bodies to their power.
Accumulating valuables, seizing lands and lands, creating a powerful military squad organization, making campaigns to capture military booty, collecting tribute, trading and engaging in usury, the nobility of the Eastern Slavs turns into a force that stands above society and subjugated previously free community members. Such was the process of class formation and the formation of early forms of statehood among the Eastern Slavs. This process gradually led to the formation of an early feudal state in Russia at the end of the 9th century.

State of Russia in the 9th - early 10th centuries

On the territory occupied by the Slavic tribes, two Russian state centers were formed: Kyiv and Novgorod, each of which controlled a certain part of the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks."
In 862, according to The Tale of Bygone Years, Novgorodians, wishing to stop the internecine struggle that had begun, invited the Varangian princes to rule Novgorod. The Varangian prince Rurik, who arrived at the request of the Novgorodians, became the founder of the Russian princely dynasty.
The date of formation of the ancient Russian state is conditionally considered to be 882, when Prince Oleg, who seized power in Novgorod after the death of Rurik, undertook a campaign against Kyiv. Having killed Askold and Dir ruling there, he united the northern and southern lands as part of a single state.
The legend about the calling of the Varangian princes served as the basis for the creation of the so-called Norman theory of the emergence of the ancient Russian state. According to this theory, the Russians turned to the Normans (the so-called
whether immigrants from Scandinavia) in order for them to put things in order on Russian soil. In response, three princes came to Russia: Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. After the death of the brothers, Rurik united the entire Novgorod land under his rule.
The basis for such a theory was the position rooted in the writings of German historians about the absence of prerequisites for the formation of a state among the Eastern Slavs.
Subsequent studies refuted this theory, since the determining factor in the formation of any state is objective internal conditions, without which it is impossible to create it by any external forces. On the other hand, the story about the foreign origin of power is quite typical of medieval chronicles and is found in the ancient histories of many European states.
After the unification of the Novgorod and Kyiv lands into a single early feudal state, the Kyiv prince began to be called the "grand prince". He ruled with the help of a council consisting of other princes and combatants. The collection of tribute was carried out by the Grand Duke himself with the help of the senior squad (the so-called boyars, men). The prince had a younger squad (gridi, youths). The oldest form of tribute collection was "polyudye". In late autumn, the prince traveled around the lands subject to him, collecting tribute and administering court. There was no clearly established rate of tribute. The prince spent the whole winter traveling around the lands and collecting tribute. In the summer, the prince with his retinue usually made military campaigns, subjugating the Slavic tribes and fighting with their neighbors.
Gradually, more and more of the princely warriors became landowners. They ran their own economy, exploiting the labor of the peasants they enslaved. Gradually, such combatants strengthened and could already further resist the Grand Duke both with their own squads and with their economic strength.
The social and class structure of the early feudal state of Russia was indistinct. The class of feudal lords was diverse in composition. These were the Grand Duke with his entourage, representatives of the senior squad, the closest circle of the prince - the boyars, local princes.
The dependent population included serfs (people who lost their freedom as a result of sales, debts, etc.), servants (those who lost their freedom as a result of captivity), purchases (peasants who received a “kupa” from the boyar - a loan of money, grain or draft power), etc. The bulk of the rural population was made up of free community members-smerds. As their lands were seized, they turned into feudal-dependent people.

Reign of Oleg

After the capture of Kyiv in 882, Oleg subjugated the Drevlyans, northerners, Radimichi, Croats, Tivertsy. Oleg successfully fought with the Khazars. In 907 he laid siege to the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, and in 911 concluded a profitable trade agreement with it.

Igor's reign

After the death of Oleg, Rurik's son Igor became the Grand Duke of Kyiv. He subjugated the Eastern Slavs who lived between the Dniester and the Danube, fought with Constantinople, and was the first of the Russian princes to face the Pechenegs. In 945, he was killed in the land of the Drevlyans while trying to collect tribute from them a second time.

Princess Olga, reign of Svyatoslav

Igor's widow Olga brutally suppressed the uprising of the Drevlyans. But at the same time, she determined a fixed amount of tribute, organized places for collecting tribute - camps and graveyards. So a new form of tribute collection was established - the so-called "cart". Olga visited Constantinople, where she converted to Christianity. She ruled during the early childhood of her son Svyatoslav.
In 964, Svyatoslav, who had come of age, came to rule over Russia. Under him, until 969, Princess Olga herself largely ruled the state, since her son spent almost his entire life on campaigns. In 964-966. Svyatoslav liberated the Vyatichi from the power of the Khazars and subordinated them to Kyiv, defeated the Volga Bulgaria, the Khazar Khaganate and took the capital of the Khaganate, the city of Itil. In 967 he invaded Bulgaria and
settled at the mouth of the Danube, in Pereyaslavets, and in 971, in alliance with the Bulgarians and Hungarians, began to fight with Byzantium. The war was unsuccessful for him, and he was forced to make peace with the Byzantine emperor. On the way back to Kyiv, Svyatoslav Igorevich died at the Dnieper rapids in a battle with the Pechenegs, who had been warned by the Byzantines about his return.

Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich

After the death of Svyatoslav, his sons began to fight for the rule in Kyiv. Vladimir Svyatoslavovich emerged as the winner. By campaigns against the Vyatichi, Lithuanians, Radimichi, Bulgarians, Vladimir strengthened the possessions of Kievan Rus. To organize defense against the Pechenegs, he established several defensive lines with a system of fortresses.
To strengthen the princely power, Vladimir made an attempt to turn folk pagan beliefs into a state religion and for this he established the cult of the main Slavic retinue god Perun in Kyiv and Novgorod. However, this attempt was unsuccessful, and he turned to Christianity. This religion was declared the only all-Russian religion. Vladimir himself adopted Christianity from Byzantium. The adoption of Christianity not only equalized Kievan Rus with neighboring states, but also had a huge impact on the culture, life and customs of ancient Russia.

Yaroslav the Wise

After the death of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, a fierce struggle for power began between his sons, culminating in the victory of Yaroslav Vladimirovich in 1019. Under him, Russia became one of the strongest states in Europe. In 1036, Russian troops inflicted a major defeat on the Pechenegs, after which their raids on Russia ceased.
Under Yaroslav Vladimirovich, nicknamed the Wise, a single judicial code for all of Russia began to take shape - "Russian Truth". It was the first document regulating the relationship of the princely warriors among themselves and with the inhabitants of cities, the procedure for resolving various disputes and compensation for damage.
Important reforms under Yaroslav the Wise were carried out in the church organization. Majestic cathedrals of St. Sophia were built in Kyiv, Novgorod, Polotsk, which was supposed to show the church independence of Russia. In 1051, the Metropolitan of Kyiv was elected not in Constantinople, as before, but in Kyiv by a council of Russian bishops. The church tithe was determined. The first monasteries appear. The first saints were canonized - brothers princes Boris and Gleb.
Kievan Rus under Yaroslav the Wise reached its highest power. Support, friendship and kinship with her were sought by many of the largest states in Europe.

Feudal fragmentation in Russia

However, the heirs of Yaroslav - Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod - could not maintain the unity of Russia. The internecine strife of the brothers led to the weakening of Kievan Rus, which was used by a new formidable enemy that appeared on the southern borders of the state - the Polovtsians. They were nomads who had replaced the Pechenegs who lived here earlier. In 1068, the united troops of the Yaroslavich brothers were defeated by the Polovtsy, which led to an uprising in Kyiv.
A new uprising in Kyiv, which broke out after the death of the Kyiv prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich in 1113, forced the Kyiv nobility to call for the reign of Vladimir Monomakh, the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, an imperious and authoritative prince. Vladimir was the inspirer and direct leader of military campaigns against the Polovtsians in 1103, 1107 and 1111. Having become the prince of Kyiv, he suppressed the uprising, but at the same time he was forced by law to somewhat soften the position of the lower classes. This is how the charter of Vladimir Monomakh arose, which, without encroaching on the foundations of feudal relations, sought to somewhat alleviate the situation of the peasants who fell into debt bondage. The same spirit is imbued with the "Instruction" of Vladimir Monomakh, where he advocated the establishment of peace between the feudal lords and peasants.
The reign of Vladimir Monomakh was a time of strengthening of Kievan Rus. He managed to unite under his rule significant territories of the ancient Russian state and stop princely civil strife. However, after his death, feudal fragmentation in Russia intensified again.
The reason for this phenomenon lay in the very course of the economic and political development of Russia as a feudal state. The strengthening of large landownership - estates dominated by subsistence farming, led to the fact that they became independent production complexes associated with their immediate environment. Cities became economic and political centers of estates. The feudal lords turned into full masters of their land, independent of the central government. The victories of Vladimir Monomakh over the Polovtsy, which temporarily eliminated the military threat, also contributed to the disunity of individual lands.
Kievan Rus broke up into independent principalities, each of which, in terms of territory, could be compared with an average Western European kingdom. These were Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Pereyaslav, Galicia, Volyn, Ryazan, Rostov-Suzdal, Kiev principalities, Novgorod land. Each of the principalities not only had its own internal order, but also pursued an independent foreign policy.
The process of feudal fragmentation opened the way for the strengthening of the system of feudal relations. However, it had several negative consequences. The division into independent principalities did not stop the princely strife, and the principalities themselves began to be divided among the heirs. In addition, a struggle began between the princes and local boyars within the principalities. Each of the parties strove for the greatest completeness of power, calling on foreign troops to their side to fight the enemy. But most importantly, the defense capability of Russia was weakened, which the Mongol conquerors soon took advantage of.

Mongol-Tatar invasion

By the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century, the Mongolian state occupied a vast territory from Baikal and Amur in the east to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Yenisei in the west, from the Great Wall of China in the south to the borders of southern Siberia in the north. The main occupation of the Mongols was nomadic cattle breeding, so the main source of enrichment was constant raids to capture booty and slaves, pasture areas.
The Mongol army was a powerful organization consisting of foot squads and cavalry warriors, which were the main offensive force. All units were shackled by cruel discipline, intelligence was well established. The Mongols had siege equipment at their disposal. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongol hordes conquered and ravaged the largest Central Asian cities - Bukhara, Samarkand, Urgench, Merv. Having passed through Transcaucasia, which they had turned into ruins, the Mongol troops entered the steppes of the northern Caucasus, and, having defeated the Polovtsian tribes, the hordes of the Mongol-Tatars, led by Genghis Khan, advanced along the Black Sea steppes in the direction of Russia.
They were opposed by the united army of Russian princes, commanded by the Kyiv prince Mstislav Romanovich. The decision on this was made at the princely congress in Kyiv, after the Polovtsian khans turned to the Russians for help. The battle took place in May 1223 on the Kalka River. The Polovtsians fled almost from the very beginning of the battle. The Russian troops found themselves face to face with a still unfamiliar enemy. They did not know either the organization of the Mongolian army or the methods of warfare. There was no unity and coordination of actions in the Russian regiments. One part of the princes led their squads into battle, the other preferred to wait. The consequence of this behavior was the brutal defeat of the Russian troops.
Having reached the Dnieper after the Battle of Kalka, the Mongol hordes did not go north, but, turning east, returned back to the Mongol steppes. After the death of Genghis Khan, his grandson Batu in the winter of 1237 moved the army now against
Russia. Deprived of help from other Russian lands, the Ryazan principality became the first victim of the invaders. Having devastated the Ryazan land, the troops of Batu moved to the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. The Mongols ravaged and burned Kolomna and Moscow. In February 1238, they approached the capital of the principality - the city of Vladimir - and took it after a fierce assault.
Having ravaged the Vladimir land, the Mongols moved to Novgorod. But because of the spring thaw, they were forced to turn towards the Volga steppes. Only the following year, Batu again moved his troops to conquer southern Russia. Having mastered Kyiv, they passed through the Galicia-Volyn principality to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. After that, the Mongols returned to the Volga steppes, where they formed the state of the Golden Horde. As a result of these campaigns, the Mongols conquered all Russian lands, with the exception of Novgorod. The Tatar yoke hung over Russia, which lasted until the end of the 14th century.
The yoke of the Mongol-Tatars was to use the economic potential of Russia in the interests of the conquerors. Every year, Russia paid a huge tribute, and the Golden Horde tightly controlled the activities of the Russian princes. In the cultural field, the Mongols used the labor of Russian craftsmen to build and decorate the Golden Horde cities. The conquerors plundered the material and artistic values ​​of Russian cities, exhausting the vitality of the population with numerous raids.

Crusader invasion. Alexander Nevskiy

Russia, weakened by the Mongol-Tatar yoke, found itself in a very difficult situation when a threat loomed over its northwestern lands from the Swedish and German feudal lords. After the seizure of the Baltic lands, the knights of the Livonian Order approached the borders of the Novgorod-Pskov land. In 1240, the Battle of the Neva took place - a battle between Russian and Swedish troops on the Neva River. Novgorod Prince Alexander Yaroslavovich utterly defeated the enemy, for which he received the nickname Nevsky.
Alexander Nevsky led the united Russian army, with whom he set out in the spring of 1242 to liberate Pskov, which had been captured by that time by the German knights. Pursuing their army, the Russian squads reached Lake Peipus, where on April 5, 1242, the famous battle took place, called the Battle of the Ice. As a result of a fierce battle, the non-German knights were utterly defeated.
The significance of the victories of Alexander Nevsky with the aggression of the Crusaders is difficult to overestimate. If the crusaders were successful, the peoples of Russia could be forcibly assimilated in many areas of their life and culture. This could not happen for almost three centuries of the Horde yoke, since the general culture of the nomadic steppe dwellers was much lower than the culture of the Germans and Swedes. Therefore, the Mongol-Tatars were never able to impose their culture and way of life on the Russian people.

Rise of Moscow

The ancestor of the Moscow princely dynasty and the first independent Moscow appanage prince was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. At that time, Moscow was a small and poor inheritance. However, Daniil Alexandrovich managed to significantly expand its boundaries. In order to gain control over the entire Moscow River, in 1301 he took Kolomna from the Ryazan prince. In 1302, Pereyaslavsky appanage was annexed to Moscow, the next year - Mozhaisk, which was part of the Smolensk principality.
The growth and rise of Moscow were associated primarily with its location in the center of that part of the Slavic lands where the Russian people developed. The economic development of Moscow and the Moscow Principality was facilitated by their location at the crossroads of both water and land trade routes. Trade duties paid to Moscow princes by passing merchants were an important source of growth in the princely treasury. No less important was the fact that the city was in the center
Russian principalities, which covered it from the raids of the invaders. The Moscow principality became a kind of refuge for many Russian people, which also contributed to the development of the economy and the rapid growth of the population.
In the XIV century, Moscow was promoted as the center of the Moscow Grand Duchy - one of the strongest in North-Eastern Russia. The skillful policy of the Moscow princes contributed to the rise of Moscow. Since the time of Ivan I Danilovich Kalita, Moscow has become the political center of the Vladimir-Suzdal Grand Duchy, the residence of Russian metropolitans, and the church capital of Russia. The struggle between Moscow and Tver for supremacy in Russia ends with the victory of the Moscow prince.
In the second half of the 14th century, under Ivan Kalita's grandson Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, Moscow became the organizer of the armed struggle of the Russian people against the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the overthrow of which began with the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, when Dmitry Ivanovich defeated the hundred thousandth army of Khan Mamai on the Kulikovo field. The Golden Horde khans, understanding the importance of Moscow, tried to destroy it more than once (the burning of Moscow by Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382). However, nothing could stop the consolidation of Russian lands around Moscow. In the last quarter of the 15th century, under Grand Duke Ivan III Vasilyevich, Moscow became the capital of the Russian centralized state, which in 1480 forever threw off the Mongol-Tatar yoke (standing on the Ugra River).

Reign of Ivan IV the Terrible

After the death of Vasily III in 1533, his three-year-old son Ivan IV came to the throne. Because of his infancy, Elena Glinskaya, his mother, was declared the ruler. Thus begins the period of the infamous "boyar rule" - the time of boyar conspiracies, noble unrest, and urban uprisings. The participation of Ivan IV in state activity begins with the creation of the Chosen Rada - a special council under the young tsar, which included the leaders of the nobility, representatives of the largest nobility. The composition of the Elected Rada, as it were, reflected a compromise between the various strata of the ruling class.
Despite this, the aggravation of relations between Ivan IV and certain circles of the boyars began to mature as early as the mid-50s of the 16th century. A particularly sharp protest was caused by the course of Ivan IV to "open a big war" for Livonia. Some members of the government considered the war for the Baltics premature and demanded that all forces be directed to the development of the southern and eastern borders of Russia. The split between Ivan IV and the majority of members of the Elected Rada pushed the boyars to oppose the new political course. This prompted the tsar to take more drastic measures - the complete elimination of the boyar opposition and the creation of special punitive authorities. The new order of government, introduced by Ivan IV at the end of 1564, was called the oprichnina.
The country was divided into two parts: the oprichnina and the zemshchina. The tsar included the most important lands in the oprichnina - the economically developed regions of the country, strategically important points. Nobles who were part of the oprichnina army settled on these lands. It was the responsibility of the zemshchina to maintain it. The boyars were evicted from the oprichnina territories.
A parallel system of government was created in the oprichnina. Ivan IV himself became its head. Oprichnina was created to eliminate those who expressed dissatisfaction with the autocracy. It was not only administrative and land reform. In an effort to destroy the remnants of feudal fragmentation in Russia, Ivan the Terrible did not stop at any cruelty. The oprichnina terror began, executions and exile. The center and north-west of the Russian land, where the boyars were especially strong, were subjected to a particularly cruel defeat. In 1570 Ivan IV undertook a campaign against Novgorod. On the way, the oprichnina army defeated Klin, Torzhok and Tver.
Oprichnina did not destroy the princely-boyar land ownership. However, she greatly weakened his power. The political role of the boyar aristocracy, which opposed
centralization policies. At the same time, the oprichnina worsened the situation of the peasants and contributed to their mass enslavement.
In 1572, shortly after the campaign against Novgorod, the oprichnina was abolished. The reason for this was not only that the main forces of the opposition boyars had been broken by that time and that it itself had been almost completely exterminated physically. The main reason for the abolition of the oprichnina lies in the clearly overdue dissatisfaction with this policy of the most diverse segments of the population. But, having abolished the oprichnina and even returned some of the boyars to their old estates, Ivan the Terrible did not change the general direction of his policy. Many oprichnina institutions continued to exist after 1572 under the name of the Sovereign's Court.
Oprichnina could only give temporary success, since it was an attempt to break by brute force what was generated by the economic laws of the country's development. The need to combat specific antiquity, the strengthening of centralization and the power of the tsar were objectively necessary at that time for Russia. The reign of Ivan IV the Terrible predetermined further events - the establishment of serfdom on a national scale and the so-called "Time of Troubles" at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries.

"Time of Troubles"

After Ivan the Terrible, the Russian tsar in 1584 was his son Fyodor Ivanovich, the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty. His reign was the beginning of that period in national history, which is commonly referred to as the "Time of Troubles." Fedor Ivanovich was a weak and sickly man, unable to manage the vast Russian state. Among his close associates, Boris Godunov gradually stands out, who, after the death of Fyodor in 1598, was elected by the Zemsky Sobor to the kingdom. A supporter of strict power, the new tsar continued his active policy of enslaving the peasantry. A decree was issued on bonded serfs, at the same time a decree was issued on the establishment of “lesson years”, that is, the period during which the owners of the peasants could bring a claim for the return of fugitive serfs to them. During the reign of Boris Godunov, the distribution of land to service people was continued at the expense of possessions taken from monasteries and disgraced boyars for the treasury.
In 1601-1602. Russia suffered severe crop failures. The worsening situation of the population was facilitated by the cholera epidemic that hit the central regions of the country. The disasters and discontent of the people led to numerous uprisings, the largest of which was the uprising of Cotton, which was suppressed with difficulty by the authorities only in the autumn of 1603.
Taking advantage of the difficulties of the internal situation of the Russian state, the Polish and Swedish feudal lords tried to seize the Smolensk and Seversk lands, which used to be part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Part of the Russian boyars was dissatisfied with the rule of Boris Godunov, and this was a breeding ground for the emergence of the opposition.
In the conditions of general discontent, an impostor appears on the western borders of Russia, posing as Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, who "miraculously escaped" in Uglich. "Tsarevich Dmitry" turned to the Polish magnates for help, and then to King Sigismund. In order to enlist the support of the Catholic Church, he secretly converted to Catholicism and promised to subordinate the Russian Church to the papacy. In the autumn of 1604, False Dmitry with a small army crossed the Russian border and moved through the Seversk Ukraine to Moscow. Despite the defeat near Dobrynichy in early 1605, he managed to raise many regions of the country to revolt. The news of the appearance of the "legitimate Tsar Dmitry" aroused great hopes for changes in life, so city after city declared support for the impostor. Encountering no resistance on his way, False Dmitry approached Moscow, where Boris Godunov had suddenly died by that time. The Moscow boyars, who did not accept the son of Boris Godunov as tsar, made it possible for the impostor to establish himself on the Russian throne.
However, he was in no hurry to fulfill his earlier promises - to transfer the outlying Russian regions to Poland, and even more so to convert the Russian people to Catholicism. False Dmitry did not justify
hopes and the peasantry, since he began to pursue the same policy as Godunov, relying on the nobility. The boyars, who used False Dmitry to overthrow Godunov, were now only waiting for an excuse to get rid of him and come to power. The reason for the overthrow of False Dmitry was the wedding of the impostor with the daughter of the Polish magnate Marina Mniszek. The Poles who arrived at the celebrations behaved in Moscow as in a conquered city. Taking advantage of the current situation, on May 17, 1606, the boyars, led by Vasily Shuisky, raised an uprising against the impostor and his Polish supporters. False Dmitry was killed, and the Poles were expelled from Moscow.
After the assassination of False Dmitry, the Russian throne was taken by Vasily Shuisky. His government had to deal with the peasant movement of the early 17th century (an uprising led by Ivan Bolotnikov), with the Polish intervention, a new stage of which began in August 1607 (False Dmitry II). After the defeat at Volkhov, the government of Vasily Shuisky was besieged in Moscow by the Polish-Lithuanian invaders. At the end of 1608, many regions of the country came under the rule of False Dmitry II, which was facilitated by a new surge in the class struggle, as well as the growth of contradictions among Russian feudal lords. In February 1609, the Shuisky government concluded an agreement with Sweden, according to which, in exchange for hiring Swedish troops, it ceded to it part of the Russian territory in the north of the country.
From the end of 1608, a spontaneous people's liberation movement began, which the Shuisky government managed to lead only from the end of the winter of 1609. By the end of 1610, Moscow and most of the country were liberated. But as early as September 1609, open Polish intervention began. The defeat of Shuisky's troops near Klushino from the army of Sigismund III in June 1610, the speech of the city's lower classes against the government of Vasily Shuisky in Moscow led to his fall. On July 17, part of the boyars, the capital and provincial nobility, Vasily Shuisky was overthrown from the throne and forcibly tonsured a monk. In September 1610, he was extradited to the Poles and taken to Poland, where he died in prison.
After the overthrow of Vasily Shuisky, power was in the hands of 7 boyars. This government was called "seven boyars". One of the first decisions of the “seven boyars” was the decision not to elect representatives of Russian families as tsar. In August 1610, this grouping concluded an agreement with the Poles standing near Moscow, recognizing the son of the Polish king Sigismund III, Vladislav, as the Russian tsar. On the night of September 21, Polish troops were secretly admitted to Moscow.
Sweden also launched aggressive actions. The overthrow of Vasily Shuisky freed her from allied obligations under the treaty of 1609. Swedish troops occupied a significant part of the north of Russia and captured Novgorod. The country faced a direct threat of loss of sovereignty.
Discontent grew in Russia. There was an idea to create a national militia to liberate Moscow from the invaders. It was headed by the voivode Prokopiy Lyapunov. In February-March 1611, the militia troops besieged Moscow. The decisive battle took place on 19 March. However, the city has not yet been liberated. The Poles still remained in the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod.
In the autumn of the same year, at the call of Nizhny Novgorod Kuzma Minin, a second militia began to be created, the head of which was elected Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. Initially, the militia attacked the eastern and northeastern regions of the country, where not only new regions were formed, but governments and administrations were also created. This helped the army to enlist the support of people, finances and supplies of all the most important cities of the country.
In August 1612, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky entered Moscow and united with the remnants of the first militia. The Polish garrison experienced great hardship and hunger. After a successful assault on Kitai-Gorod on October 26, 1612, the Poles capitulated and surrendered the Kremlin. Moscow was liberated from the interventionists. The attempt of the Polish troops to retake Moscow failed, and Sigizmund III was defeated near Volokolamsk.
In January 1613, the Zemsky Sobor, which met in Moscow, decided to elect 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov, the son of Metropolitan Filaret, who was at that time in Polish captivity, to the Russian throne.
In 1618, the Poles again invaded Russia, but were defeated. The Polish adventure ended with a truce in the village of Deulino in the same year. However, Russia lost Smolensk and the cities of Seversk, which it was able to return only in the middle of the 17th century. Russian prisoners returned to their homeland, including Filaret, the father of the new Russian Tsar. In Moscow, he was elevated to the rank of patriarch and played a significant role in history as the de facto ruler of Russia.
In the fiercest and most severe struggle, Russia defended its independence and entered a new stage of its development. In fact, this is where its medieval history ends.

Russia after the Troubles

Russia defended its independence, but suffered serious territorial losses. The consequence of the intervention and the peasant war led by I. Bolotnikov (1606-1607) was a severe economic devastation. Contemporaries called it "the great Moscow ruin." Almost half of the arable land was abandoned. Having finished with the intervention, Russia begins slowly and with great difficulty to restore its economy. This became the main content of the reign of the first two tsars from the Romanov dynasty - Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645) and Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676).
In order to improve the work of government bodies and create a more equitable taxation system, a population census was conducted by decree of Mikhail Romanov, and land inventories were compiled. In the first years of his reign, the role of the Zemsky Sobor was strengthened, which became a kind of permanent national council under the tsar and gave the Russian state an outward resemblance to a parliamentary monarchy.
The Swedes, who ruled in the north, failed near Pskov and in 1617 concluded the Peace of Stolbov, according to which Novgorod was returned to Russia. At the same time, however, Russia lost the entire coast of the Gulf of Finland and access to the Baltic Sea. The situation changed only after almost a hundred years, at the beginning of the 18th century, already under Peter I.
During the reign of Mikhail Romanov, intensive construction of "secret lines" against the Crimean Tatars was also carried out, further colonization of Siberia took place.
After the death of Mikhail Romanov, his son Alexei took the throne. From the time of his reign, the establishment of autocratic power actually begins. The activities of the Zemsky Sobors ceased, the role of the Boyar Duma decreased. In 1654, the Order of Secret Affairs was created, which was directly subordinate to the king and exercised control over state administration.
The reign of Alexei Mikhailovich was marked by a number of popular uprisings - urban uprisings, the so-called. "copper riot", a peasant war led by Stepan Razin. In a number of Russian cities (Moscow, Voronezh, Kursk, etc.) in 1648 uprisings broke out. The uprising in Moscow in June 1648 was called the “salt riot”. It was caused by the dissatisfaction of the population with the predatory policy of the government, which, in order to replenish the state treasury, replaced various direct taxes with a single tax - on salt, which caused its price to rise several times. The uprising was attended by townspeople, peasants and archers. The rebels set fire to the White City, Kitay-Gorod, and defeated the courtyards of the most hated boyars, clerks, and merchants. The king was forced to make temporary concessions to the rebels, and then, having split the ranks of the rebels,
executed many leaders and active participants in the uprising.
In 1650 uprisings took place in Novgorod and Pskov. They were caused by the enslavement of the townspeople by the Council Code of 1649. The uprising in Novgorod was quickly suppressed by the authorities. In Pskov, this failed, and the government had to negotiate and make some concessions.
On June 25, 1662, Moscow was shaken by a new major uprising - the "copper riot". Its causes were the disruption of the economic life of the state during the years of Russia's wars with Poland and Sweden, a sharp increase in taxes and the intensification of feudal serf exploitation. The release of a large amount of copper money, equal in value to silver, led to their depreciation, the mass production of counterfeit copper money. Up to 10 thousand people took part in the uprising, mainly residents of the capital. The rebels went to the village of Kolomenskoye, where the tsar was, and demanded the extradition of traitorous boyars. The troops brutally suppressed this performance, but the government, frightened by the uprising, in 1663 abolished copper money.
The strengthening of serfdom and the general deterioration in the life of the people became the main reasons for the peasant war under the leadership of Stepan Razin (1667-1671). Peasants, the urban poor, the poorest Cossacks took part in the uprising. The movement began with a robbery campaign of the Cossacks against Persia. On the way back, the differences approached Astrakhan. The local authorities decided to let them through the city, for which they received part of the weapons and booty. Then the detachments of Razin occupied Tsaritsyn, after which they went to the Don.
In the spring of 1670, the second period of the uprising began, the main content of which was a speech against the boyars, nobles, and merchants. The rebels again captured Tsaritsyn, then Astrakhan. Samara and Saratov surrendered without a fight. In early September, Razin's detachments approached Simbirsk. By that time, the peoples of the Volga region - Tatars, Mordovians - joined them. The movement soon spread to Ukraine. Razin failed to take Simbirsk. Wounded in battle, Razin retreated to the Don with a small detachment. There he was captured by wealthy Cossacks and sent to Moscow, where he was executed.
The turbulent time of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich was marked by another important event - the schism of the Orthodox Church. In 1654, at the initiative of Patriarch Nikon, a church council met in Moscow, at which it was decided to compare church books with their Greek originals and establish a single and binding procedure for all rituals.
Many priests, led by Archpriest Avvakum, opposed the decision of the council and announced their departure from the Orthodox Church, headed by Nikon. They began to be called schismatics or Old Believers. The opposition to the reform that arose in church circles became a kind of social protest.
Implementing the reform, Nikon set theocratic goals - to create a strong church authority, standing above the state. However, the interference of the patriarch in the affairs of state administration caused a break with the tsar, which resulted in the deposition of Nikon and the transformation of the church into a part of the state apparatus. This was another step towards the establishment of autocracy.

Reunification of Ukraine with Russia

During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1654, the reunification of Ukraine with Russia took place. In the 17th century, Ukrainian lands were under the rule of Poland. Catholicism began to be forcibly introduced into them, Polish magnates and gentry appeared, who cruelly oppressed the Ukrainian people, which caused the rise of the national liberation movement. Its center was the Zaporizhzhya Sich, where the free Cossacks were formed. Bogdan Khmelnitsky became the head of this movement.
In 1648, his troops defeated the Poles near Zhovti Vody, Korsun and Pilyavtsy. After the defeat of the Poles, the uprising spread to all of Ukraine and part of Belarus. At the same time Khmelnitsky turned
to Russia with a request to accept Ukraine into the Russian state. He understood that only in alliance with Russia it was possible to get rid of the danger of complete enslavement of Ukraine by Poland and Turkey. However, at that time, the government of Alexei Mikhailovich could not satisfy his request, since Russia was not ready for war. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties of its domestic political situation, Russia continued to provide Ukraine with diplomatic, economic and military support.
In April 1653, Khmelnitsky again turned to Russia with a request to accept Ukraine into its composition. On May 10, 1653, the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow decided to grant this request. On January 8, 1654, the Bolshoy Rada in the city of Pereyaslavl proclaimed the entry of Ukraine into Russia. In this regard, a war began between Poland and Russia, which ended with the signing of the Andrusovo truce at the end of 1667. Russia received Smolensk, Dorogobuzh, Belaya Tserkov, Seversk land with Chernigov and Starodub. Right-bank Ukraine and Belarus still remained part of Poland. Zaporizhzhya Sich, according to the agreement, was under the joint control of Russia and Poland. These conditions were finally fixed in 1686 by the "Eternal Peace" of Russia and Poland.

The reign of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich and the regency of Sophia

In the 17th century, Russia's noticeable lag behind the advanced Western countries becomes obvious. The lack of access to ice-free seas hindered trade and cultural ties with Europe. The need for a regular army was dictated by the complexity of Russia's foreign policy position. The Streltsy army and the noble militia could no longer fully ensure its defense capability. There was no large-scale manufacturing industry, the management system based on orders was outdated. Russia needed reforms.
In 1676, the royal throne passed to the weak and sickly Fyodor Alekseevich, from whom one could not expect the radical transformations so necessary for the country. And yet, in 1682, he managed to abolish localism - the system of distribution of ranks and positions according to nobility and generosity, which had existed since the 14th century. In the field of foreign policy, Russia managed to win the war with Turkey, which was forced to recognize the reunification of Left-Bank Ukraine with Russia.
In 1682, Fedor Alekseevich died suddenly, and, since he was childless, a dynastic crisis erupted in Russia again, since two sons of Alexei Mikhailovich could claim the throne - sixteen-year-old sickly and weak Ivan and ten-year-old Peter. Princess Sophia did not renounce her claims to the throne either. As a result of the Streltsy uprising in 1682, both heirs were declared kings, and Sophia was their regent.
During the years of her reign, small concessions were made to the townspeople and the search for fugitive peasants was weakened. In 1689, there was a gap between Sophia and the boyar-noble group that supported Peter I. Having been defeated in this struggle, Sophia was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent.

Peter I. His domestic and foreign policy

In the first period of the reign of Peter I, three events took place that decisively influenced the formation of the reformer tsar. The first of these was the trip of the young tsar to Arkhangelsk in 1693-1694, where the sea and ships conquered him forever. The second is the Azov campaigns against the Turks in order to find an outlet to the Black Sea. The capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov was the first victory of the Russian troops and the fleet created in Russia, the beginning of the country's transformation into a maritime power. On the other hand, these campaigns showed the need for changes in the Russian army. The third event was the trip of the Russian diplomatic mission to Europe, in which the tsar himself participated. The embassy did not achieve its direct goal (Russia had to abandon the fight against Turkey), but it studied the international situation, paved the way for the struggle for the Baltic states and for access to the Baltic Sea.
In 1700, a difficult Northern War began with the Swedes, which dragged on for 21 years. This war largely determined the pace and nature of the transformations being carried out in Russia. The Northern War was fought for the return of the lands occupied by the Swedes and for Russia's access to the Baltic Sea. In the first period of the war (1700-1706), after the defeat of the Russian troops near Narva, Peter I was able not only to raise a new army, but also to rebuild the country's industry in a military way. Having captured the key points in the Baltic and founded the city of Petersburg in 1703, Russian troops entrenched themselves on the coast of the Gulf of Finland.
In the second period of the war (1707-1709), the Swedes invaded Russia through Ukraine, but, having been defeated near the village of Lesnoy, they were finally defeated in the Battle of Poltava in 1709. The third period of the war falls on 1710-1718, when the Russians troops captured many Baltic cities, ousted the Swedes from Finland, together with the Poles pushed the enemy back to Pomerania. The Russian fleet won a brilliant victory at Gangut in 1714.
During the fourth period of the Northern War, despite the intrigues of England, which made peace with Sweden, Russia established itself on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The Northern War ended in 1721 with the signing of the Peace of Nystadt. Sweden recognized the accession to Russia of Livonia, Estonia, Izhora land, part of Karelia and a number of islands in the Baltic Sea. Russia undertook to pay Sweden monetary compensation for the territories ceded to it and to return Finland. The Russian state, having regained the lands previously occupied by Sweden, secured access to the Baltic Sea.
Against the backdrop of the turbulent events of the first quarter of the 18th century, all sectors of the country's life were restructured, as well as reforms of the state administration and political system were carried out - the power of the king acquired an unlimited, absolute character. In 1721 the tsar assumed the title of Emperor of All Russia. Thus, Russia became an empire, and its ruler - the emperor of a huge and powerful state, which became on a par with the great world powers of that time.
The creation of new power structures began with a change in the image of the monarch himself and the foundations of his power and authority. In 1702, the Boyar Duma was replaced by the “Council of Ministers”, and from 1711 the Senate became the supreme institution in the country. The creation of this authority also gave rise to a complex bureaucratic structure with offices, departments and numerous staffs. It was from the time of Peter I that a kind of cult of bureaucratic institutions and administrative instances was formed in Russia.
In 1717-1718. instead of a primitive and long-obsolete system of orders, colleges were created - the prototype of future ministries, and in 1721 the establishment of the Synod headed by a secular official completely placed the church in dependence and at the service of the state. Thus, from now on, the institution of the patriarchate in Russia was abolished.
The “Table of Ranks”, adopted in 1722, became the crowning achievement of the bureaucratic structure of the absolutist state. According to it, military, civil and court ranks were divided into fourteen ranks - steps. The society was not only ordered, but also found itself under the control of the emperor and the highest aristocracy. The functioning of state institutions has improved, each of which has received a certain direction of activity.
Feeling an urgent need for money, the government of Peter I introduced a poll tax, which replaced the household tax. In this regard, in order to take into account the male population in the country, which has become a new object of taxation, its census was carried out - the so-called. revision. In 1723, a decree on succession to the throne was issued, according to which the monarch himself received the right to appoint his successors, regardless of family ties and primogeniture.
During the reign of Peter I, a large number of manufactories and mining enterprises arose, and the development of new iron ore deposits began. Promoting the development of industry, Peter I established central bodies in charge of trade and industry, transferred state-owned enterprises to private hands.
The protective tariff of 1724 protected new industries from foreign competition and encouraged the import into the country of raw materials and products, the production of which did not meet the needs of the domestic market, which manifested itself in the policy of mercantilism.

The results of the activities of Peter I

Thanks to the vigorous activity of Peter I in the economy, the level and forms of development of the productive forces, in the political system of Russia, in the structure and functions of the authorities, in the organization of the army, in the class and estate structure of the population, in the life and culture of peoples, tremendous changes took place. Medieval Muscovite Rus turned into the Russian Empire. The place of Russia and its role in international affairs has changed radically.
The complexity and inconsistency of the development of Russia during this period determined the inconsistency of the activities of Peter I in the implementation of reforms. On the one hand, these reforms were of great historical significance, since they met the national interests and needs of the country, contributed to its progressive development, being aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, the reforms were carried out by the same feudal methods and thereby contributed to the strengthening of the rule of the feudal lords.
The progressive transformations of the time of Peter the Great from the very beginning carried conservative features, which, in the course of the development of the country, became more and more powerful and could not ensure the elimination of its backwardness in full. Objectively, these reforms were of a bourgeois nature, but subjectively, their implementation led to the strengthening of serfdom and the strengthening of feudalism. They could not be different - the capitalist way of life in Russia at that time was still very weak.
It should also be noted the cultural changes in Russian society that took place in the time of Peter the Great: the emergence of first-level schools, schools for specialties, the Russian Academy of Sciences. A network of printing houses appeared in the country for printing domestic and translated publications. The first newspaper in the country began to appear, the first museum appeared. Significant changes have taken place in everyday life.

Palace coups of the 18th century

After the death of Emperor Peter I, a period began in Russia when the supreme power quickly passed from hand to hand, and those who occupied the throne did not always have legal rights to do so. It began immediately after the death of Peter I in 1725. The new aristocracy, formed during the reign of the reforming emperor, fearing to lose their prosperity and power, contributed to the ascension to the throne of Catherine I, Peter's widow. This made it possible to establish in 1726 the Supreme Privy Council under the empress, which actually seized power.
The greatest benefit from this was derived by the first favorite of Peter I - His Serene Highness Prince A.D. Menshikov. His influence was so great that even after the death of Catherine I, he was able to subjugate the new Russian emperor, Peter II. However, another group of courtiers, dissatisfied with the actions of Menshikov, deprived him of power, and he was soon exiled to Siberia.
These political changes did not change the established order. After the unexpected death of Peter II in 1730, the most influential group of close associates of the late emperor, the so-called. "supreme leaders", decided to invite the niece of Peter I - the Duchess of Courland Anna Ivanovna to the throne, stipulating her accession to the throne with conditions ("Conditions"): not to marry, not to appoint a successor, not to declare war, not to introduce new taxes, etc. Accepting such conditions made Anna is an obedient toy in the hands of the highest aristocracy. However, at the request of the noble deputation, upon accession to the throne, Anna Ivanovna rejected the conditions of the "supreme leaders".
Fearing intrigues from the aristocracy, Anna Ivanovna surrounded herself with foreigners, on whom she became completely dependent. The Empress was almost not interested in state affairs. This prompted foreigners from the royal environment to many abuses, plundering the treasury and insulting the national dignity of the Russian people.
Shortly before her death, Anna Ivanovna appointed the grandson of her older sister, the infant Ivan Antonovich, as her heir. In 1740, at the age of three months, he was proclaimed Emperor Ivan VI. His regent was the Duke of Courland Biron, who enjoyed great influence even under Anna Ivanovna. This caused extreme discontent not only among the Russian nobility, but also in the immediate circle of the late Empress. As a result of a court conspiracy, Biron was overthrown, and the rights of the regency were transferred to the mother of the emperor, Anna Leopoldovna. Thus, the dominance of foreigners at the court was preserved.
Among the Russian nobles and officers of the guard, a conspiracy arose in favor of the daughter of Peter I, as a result of which, in 1741, Elizabeth Petrovna entered the Russian throne. During her reign, which lasted until 1761, there was a return to the Petrine order. The Senate became the highest body of state power. The Cabinet of Ministers was abolished, the rights of the Russian nobility expanded significantly. All changes in the administration of the state were primarily aimed at strengthening the autocracy. However, in contrast to the time of Peter the Great, the court-bureaucratic elite began to play the main role in decision-making. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, like her predecessor, was very little interested in state affairs.
Elizaveta Petrovna appointed the son of the eldest daughter of Peter I, Karl-Peter-Ulrich, Duke of Holstein, who in Orthodoxy took the name of Peter Fedorovich, as her heir. He ascended the throne in 1761 under the name of Peter III (1761-1762). The Imperial Council became the highest authority, but the new emperor was completely unprepared to govern the state. The only major event that he carried out was the "Manifesto on the Granting of Liberty and Freedom to All the Russian Nobility", which destroyed the obligation for the nobles of both civil and military service.
The admiration of Peter III for the Prussian King Frederick II and the implementation of a policy that was contrary to the interests of Russia led to dissatisfaction with his reign and contributed to the growth of the popularity of his wife Sophia-Augusta Frederica, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, in Orthodoxy Ekaterina Alekseevna. Catherine, unlike her husband, respected Russian customs, traditions, Orthodoxy, and most importantly, the Russian nobility and the army. A conspiracy against Peter III in 1762 elevated Catherine to the imperial throne.

Reign of Catherine the Great

Catherine II, who ruled the country for more than thirty years, was an educated, intelligent, businesslike, energetic, ambitious woman. While on the throne, she repeatedly declared that she was the successor of Peter I. She managed to concentrate all the legislative and most of the executive power in her hands. Her first reform was the reform of the Senate, which limited its functions in government. She carried out the seizure of church lands, which deprived the church of economic power. A colossal number of monastic peasants were transferred to the state, thanks to which the treasury of Russia was replenished.
The reign of Catherine II left a noticeable mark in Russian history. As in many other European states, Russia during the reign of Catherine II was characterized by a policy of "enlightened absolutism", which assumed a wise ruler, patron of art, benefactor of all science. Catherine tried to conform to this model and even corresponded with the French enlighteners, preferring Voltaire and Diderot. However, this did not prevent her from pursuing a policy of strengthening serfdom.
And yet, the manifestation of the policy of “enlightened absolutism” was the creation and activities of a commission to draw up a new legislative code of Russia instead of the obsolete Cathedral Code of 1649. Representatives of various segments of the population were involved in the work of this commission: nobles, townspeople, Cossacks and state peasants. The documents of the commission fixed the class rights and privileges of various segments of the population of Russia. However, the commission was soon dissolved. The empress found out the mentality of the class groups and made a bet on the nobility. The goal was one - to strengthen state power in the field.
From the beginning of the 1980s, a period of reforms began. The main directions were the following provisions: decentralization of management and increasing the role of the local nobility, almost doubling the number of provinces, strict subordination of all local authorities, etc. The system of law enforcement agencies was also reformed. Political functions were transferred to the zemstvo court elected by the noble assembly, headed by the zemstvo police officer, and in county towns - by the mayor. A whole system of courts, dependent on the administration, arose in the counties and provinces. The partial election of officials in the provinces and districts by the forces of the nobility was also introduced. These reforms created a fairly perfect system of local government and strengthened the relationship between the nobility and the autocracy.
The position of the nobility was further strengthened after the appearance of the “Charter on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble nobility”, signed in 1785. In accordance with this document, the nobles were exempted from compulsory service, corporal punishment, and could also lose their rights and property only by the verdict of the noble court approved by the empress.
Simultaneously with the Letter of Complaint to the Nobility, the “Charter for Rights and Benefits to the Cities of the Russian Empire” appeared. In accordance with it, the townspeople were divided into categories with different rights and obligations. A city duma was formed, dealing with issues of urban economy, but under the control of the administration. All these acts further consolidated the class-corporate division of society and strengthened autocratic power.

Uprising E.I. Pugacheva

The tightening of exploitation and serfdom in Russia during the reign of Catherine II led to the fact that in the 60-70s a wave of anti-feudal actions of peasants, Cossacks, ascribed and working people swept the country. They acquired the greatest scope in the 70s, and the most powerful of them entered the history of Russia under the name of the peasant war led by E. Pugachev.
In 1771, unrest swept the lands of the Yaik Cossacks, who lived along the Yaik River (modern Ural). The government began to introduce military orders in the Cossack regiments and to limit the Cossack self-government. The unrest of the Cossacks was suppressed, but hatred was ripening among them, which spilled out in January 1772 as a result of the activities of the commission of inquiry that examined the complaints. This explosive region was chosen by Pugachev for organizing and campaigning against the authorities.
In 1773, Pugachev escaped from the Kazan prison and headed east, to the Yaik River, where he proclaimed himself Emperor Peter III, allegedly saved from death. The "Manifesto" of Peter III, in which Pugachev granted land, hayfields, and money to the Cossacks, attracted a significant part of the discontented Cossacks to him. From that moment began the first stage of the war. After a bad luck near Yaitsky town with a small detachment of surviving supporters, he moved to Orenburg. The city was besieged by the rebels. The government brought troops to Orenburg, which inflicted a severe defeat on the rebels. Pugachev, who retreated to Samara, was soon defeated again and fled to the Urals with a small detachment.
In April-June 1774, the second stage of the peasant war fell. After a series of battles, detachments of the rebels moved to Kazan. In early July, the Pugachevites captured Kazan, but they could not resist the approaching regular army. Pugachev with a small detachment crossed to the right bank of the Volga and began a retreat to the south.
It was from this moment that the war reached its highest scope and acquired a pronounced anti-serfdom character. It covered the entire Volga region and threatened to spread to the central regions of the country. Selected army units were advanced against Pugachev. The spontaneity and locality characteristic of the peasant wars made it easier to fight the rebels. Under the blows of government troops, Pugachev retreated to the south, trying to break through l into the Cossack
Don and Yaik regions. Near Tsaritsyn, his detachments were defeated, and on the way to Yaik, Pugachev himself was captured and handed over to the authorities by wealthy Cossacks. In 1775 he was executed in Moscow.
The reasons for the defeat of the peasant war were its tsarist character and naive monarchism, spontaneity, locality, poor armament, disunity. In addition, various categories of the population participated in this movement, each of which sought to achieve its own goals.

Foreign policy under Catherine II

Empress Catherine II pursued an active and very successful foreign policy, which can be divided into three areas. The first foreign policy task that her government set for itself was to seek access to the Black Sea in order, firstly, to secure the southern regions of the country from the threat from Turkey and the Crimean Khanate, and secondly, to expand opportunities for trade and, consequently, , to increase the marketability of agriculture.
In order to fulfill the task, Russia fought twice with Turkey: the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774. and 1787-1791. In 1768, Turkey, incited by France and Austria, who were very concerned about the strengthening of Russia's positions in the Balkans and Poland, declared war on Russia. During this war, Russian troops under the command of P.A. Rumyantsev won brilliant victories in 1770 over superior enemy forces near the Larga and Cahul rivers, and the Russian fleet under the command of F.F. Ushakov in the same year twice inflicted a major defeat on the Turkish fleet in the Chios Strait and Chesma Bay. The advance of Rumyantsev's troops in the Balkans forced Turkey to admit defeat. In 1774, the Kyuchuk-Kaynarji peace treaty was signed, according to which Russia received lands between the Bug and the Dnieper, the fortresses of Azov, Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn, Turkey recognized the independence of the Crimean Khanate; The Black Sea and its straits were open to Russian merchant ships.
In 1783, the Crimean Khan Shagin Giray resigned his power, and the Crimea was annexed to Russia. The lands of the Kuban also became part of the Russian state. In the same 1783, the Georgian king Erekle II recognized the protectorate of Russia over Georgia. All these events exacerbated the already difficult relations between Russia and Turkey and led to a new Russian-Turkish war. In a number of battles, Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov again showed their superiority: in 1787 at Kinburn, in 1788 during the capture of Ochakov, in 1789 near the Rymnik River and near Focsani, and in 1790 it was taken impregnable fortress of Izmail. The Russian fleet under the command of Ushakov also won a number of victories over the Turkish fleet in the Kerch Strait, near the island of Tendra, at Kali Akria. Turkey again admitted its defeat. According to the Yassy peace treaty of 1791, the annexation of the Crimea and Kuban to Russia was confirmed, the border between Russia and Turkey along the Dniester was established. The Ochakov fortress retreated to Russia, Turkey abandoned its claims to Georgia.
The second foreign policy task - the reunification of Ukrainian and Belarusian lands - was carried out as a result of the division of the Commonwealth by Austria, Prussia and Russia. These sections took place in 1772, 1793, 1795. The Commonwealth ceased to exist as an independent state. Russia regained all of Belarus, the right-bank Ukraine, and also received Courland and Lithuania.
The third task was the fight against revolutionary France. The government of Catherine II took a sharply hostile stance towards the events in France. At first, Catherine II did not dare to openly intervene, but the execution of Louis XVI (January 21, 1793) caused a final break with France, which the Empress announced by a special decree. The Russian government provided assistance to French emigrants, and in 1793 concluded agreements with Prussia and England on joint actions against France. The 60,000th corps of Suvorov was preparing for the campaign, the Russian fleet participated in the naval blockade of France. However, Catherine II was no longer destined to solve this problem.

Pavel I

On November 6, 1796, Catherine II died suddenly. Her son Pavel I became the Russian emperor, whose short period of reign was full of intense searches for a monarch in all spheres of public and international life, which from the outside looked more like hectic throwing from one extreme to another. Trying to put things in order in the administrative and financial spheres, Pavel tried to get into every little thing, sent out mutually exclusive circulars, severely punished and punished. All this created an atmosphere of police surveillance and barracks. On the other hand, Paul ordered the release of all politically motivated prisoners arrested under Catherine. True, at the same time, it was easy to go to jail just because a person, for one reason or another, violated the rules of everyday life.
Pavel I attached great importance in his work to lawmaking. In 1797, he restored the principle of succession to the throne exclusively through the male line by the “Act on the Order of Succession” and the “Institution on the Imperial Family”.
Quite unexpected was the policy of Paul I in relation to the nobility. Catherine's liberties came to an end, and the nobility was placed under the strict control of the state. The emperor punished representatives of the noble estates especially severely for failure to perform public service. But even here there were some extremes: infringing on the nobles, on the one hand, Paul I at the same time, on an unprecedented scale, carried out the distribution of a significant part of all state peasants to the landowners. And here another innovation appeared - legislation on the peasant question. For the first time in many decades, official documents appeared that gave some relief to the peasants. The sale of householders and landless peasants was canceled, a three-day corvee was recommended, peasant complaints and requests that were previously unacceptable were allowed.
In the field of foreign policy, the government of Paul I continued the fight against revolutionary France. In the autumn of 1798, Russia sent a squadron under the command of F.F. Ushakov to the Mediterranean through the Black Sea straits, which liberated the Ionian Islands and southern Italy from the French. One of the largest battles of this campaign was the battle of Corfu in 1799. In the summer of 1799, Russian warships appeared off the coast of Italy, and Russian soldiers entered Naples and Rome.
In the same 1799, the Russian army under the command of A.V. Suvorov brilliantly carried out the Italian and Swiss campaigns. She managed to liberate Milan and Turin from the French, having made a heroic transition through the Alps to Switzerland.
In the middle of 1800, a sharp turn began in Russia's foreign policy - the rapprochement between Russia and France, which aggravated relations with England. Trade with it was actually stopped. This turn largely determined the events in Europe in the first decades of the new 19th century.

The reign of Emperor Alexander I

On the night of March 11-12, 1801, when Emperor Paul I was killed as a result of a conspiracy, the issue of the accession to the Russian throne of his eldest son Alexander Pavlovich was resolved. He was privy to the conspiracy plan. Hopes were pinned on the new monarch to carry out liberal reforms and soften the regime of personal power.
Emperor Alexander I was brought up under the supervision of his grandmother, Catherine II. He was familiar with the ideas of the Enlightenment - Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau. However, Alexander Pavlovich never separated thoughts of equality and freedom from autocracy. This half-heartedness became a feature of both the transformations and the reign of Emperor Alexander I.
His very first manifestos testified to the adoption of a new political course. It proclaimed the desire to rule according to the laws of Catherine II, remove restrictions on trade with England, contained the announcement of an amnesty and the reinstatement of persons repressed under Paul I.
All the work related to the liberalization of life was concentrated in the so-called. A secret committee, where friends and associates of the young emperor gathered - P.A. Stroganov, V.P. Kochubey, A. Czartorysky and N.N. Novosiltsev - adherents of constitutionalism. The committee existed until 1805. It was mainly engaged in the preparation of a program for the liberation of the peasants from serfdom and the reform of the state system. The result of this activity was the law of December 12, 1801, which allowed state peasants, burghers and merchants to acquire uninhabited lands, and the decree of February 20, 1803 "On free cultivators", which gave the landowners the right, at their request, to release the peasants into the will with endowing them land for ransom.
A serious reform was the reorganization of the highest and central government bodies. Ministries were established in the country: the military-ground forces, finance and public education, the State Treasury and the Committee of Ministers, which received a single structure and were built on the principle of one-man command. Since 1810, in accordance with the project of the prominent statesman of those years, M.M. Speransky, the State Council began to operate. However, Speransky could not carry out a consistent principle of separation of powers. The State Council from an intermediate body turned into a legislative chamber appointed from above. The reforms of the early 19th century did not affect the foundations of autocratic power in the Russian Empire.
In the reign of Alexander I, the Kingdom of Poland, annexed to Russia, was granted a constitution. The constitutional act was also granted to the Bessarabian region. Finland, which also became part of Russia, received its legislative body - the Sejm - and the constitutional structure.
Thus, constitutional government already existed in part of the territory of the Russian Empire, which inspired hopes for its spread throughout the country. In 1818, even the development of the Charter of the Russian Empire began, but this document never saw the light of day.
In 1822, the emperor lost interest in state affairs, work on reforms was curtailed, and among the advisers of Alexander I stood out the figure of a new temporary worker - A.A. Arakcheev, who became the first person in the state after the emperor and ruled as an all-powerful favorite. The consequences of the reform activities of Alexander I and his advisers were insignificant. The unexpected death of the emperor in 1825 at the age of 48 became an occasion for open action on the part of the most advanced part of Russian society, the so-called. Decembrists, against the foundations of autocracy.

Patriotic War of 1812

During the reign of Alexander I, there was a terrible test for the whole of Russia - the war of liberation against Napoleonic aggression. The war was caused by the desire of the French bourgeoisie for world domination, a sharp aggravation of Russian-French economic and political contradictions in connection with the aggressive wars of Napoleon I, Russia's refusal to participate in the continental blockade of Great Britain. The agreement between Russia and Napoleonic France, concluded in the city of Tilsit in 1807, was of a temporary nature. This was understood both in St. Petersburg and in Paris, although many dignitaries of the two countries were in favor of maintaining peace. However, the contradictions between the states continued to accumulate, which led to open conflict.
On June 12 (24), 1812, about 500 thousand Napoleonic soldiers crossed the Neman River and
invaded Russia. Napoleon rejected the proposal of Alexander I for a peaceful solution to the conflict if he withdraws his troops. Thus began the Patriotic War, so named because not only the regular army fought against the French, but almost the entire population of the country in the militia and partisan detachments.
The Russian army consisted of 220 thousand people, and it was divided into three parts. The first army - under the command of General M.B. Barclay de Tolly - was in Lithuania, the second - General Prince P.I. Bagration - in Belarus, and the third army - General A.P. Tormasov - in Ukraine. Napoleon's plan was extremely simple and consisted in defeating the Russian armies piece by piece with powerful blows.
The Russian armies retreated to the east in parallel directions, conserving their strength and exhausting the enemy in rearguard battles. On August 2 (14), the armies of Barclay de Tolly and Bagration united in the Smolensk region. Here, in a difficult two-day battle, the French troops lost 20 thousand soldiers and officers, the Russians - up to 6 thousand people.
The war clearly took on a protracted character, the Russian army continued its retreat, taking the enemy behind him into the interior of the country. At the end of August 1812, a student and colleague of A.V. Suvorov, M.I. Kutuzov, was appointed commander-in-chief instead of the Minister of War M.B. Barclay de Tolly. Alexander I, who did not like him, was forced to take into account the patriotic mood of the Russian people and the army, general dissatisfaction with the retreat tactics chosen by Barclay de Tolly. Kutuzov decided to give a general battle to the French army in the area of ​​​​the village of Borodino, 124 km west of Moscow.
On August 26 (September 7) the battle began. The Russian army was faced with the task of exhausting the enemy, undermining his combat power and morale, and in case of success, launching a counteroffensive on his own. Kutuzov chose a very good position for the Russian troops. The right flank was protected by a natural barrier - the Koloch River, and the left - by artificial earthen fortifications - flushes occupied by Bagration's troops. In the center were the troops of General N.N. Raevsky, as well as artillery positions. Napoleon's plan provided for a breakthrough in the defense of the Russian troops in the area of ​​​​the Bagrationovsky flushes and the encirclement of Kutuzov's army, and when it was pressed against the river, its complete defeat.
Eight attacks were made by the French against the flushes, but they could not completely capture them. They only managed to advance slightly in the center, destroying Raevsky's batteries. In the midst of the battle in the central direction, the Russian cavalry made a daring raid behind enemy lines, which sowed panic in the ranks of the attackers.
Napoleon did not dare to bring into action his main reserve - the old guard, in order to turn the tide of the battle. The Battle of Borodino ended late in the evening, and the troops retreated to their previously occupied positions. Thus, the battle was a political and moral victory for the Russian army.
On September 1 (13) in Fili, at a meeting of the command staff, Kutuzov decided to leave Moscow in order to save the army. Napoleonic troops entered Moscow and stayed there until October 1812. In the meantime, Kutuzov carried out his plan called the Tarutino Maneuver, thanks to which Napoleon lost the ability to track the Russian deployment sites. In the village of Tarutino, Kutuzov's army was replenished with 120,000 men and significantly strengthened its artillery and cavalry. In addition, she actually closed the way for the French troops to Tula, where the main weapons arsenals and food depots were located.
During their stay in Moscow, the French army was demoralized by hunger, looting, and fires that engulfed the city. Hoping to replenish his arsenals and food supplies, Napoleon was forced to withdraw his army from Moscow. On the way to Maloyaroslavets on October 12 (24), Napoleon's army suffered a serious defeat and began to retreat from Russia along the Smolensk road already devastated by the French themselves.
At the final stage of the war, the tactics of the Russian army consisted in the parallel pursuit of the enemy. Russian troops, no
engaging in battle with Napoleon, they destroyed his retreating army in parts. The French also suffered seriously from the winter frosts, for which they were not ready, since Napoleon expected to end the war before the cold. The culmination of the war of 1812 was the battle near the Berezina River, which ended with the defeat of the Napoleonic army.
On December 25, 1812, Emperor Alexander I published a manifesto in St. Petersburg, which stated that the Patriotic War of the Russian people against the French invaders ended in complete victory and the expulsion of the enemy.
The Russian army took part in the foreign campaigns of 1813-1814, during which, together with the Prussian, Swedish, English and Austrian armies, they finished off the enemy in Germany and France. The campaign of 1813 ended with the defeat of Napoleon in the battle of Leipzig. After the capture of Paris by the allied forces in the spring of 1814, Napoleon I abdicated.

Decembrist movement

The first quarter of the 19th century in the history of Russia became the period of the formation of the revolutionary movement and its ideology. After the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, advanced ideas began to penetrate into the Russian Empire. The first secret revolutionary organizations of the nobility appeared. Most of them were military - officers of the guard.
The first secret political society was founded in 1816 in St. Petersburg under the name of the Union of Salvation, renamed the following year into the Society of True and Faithful Sons of the Fatherland. Its members were the future Decembrists A.I. Muravyov, M.I. Muravyov-Apostol, P.I. Pestel, S.P. Trubetskoy and others. rights. However, this society was still small in number and could not realize the tasks that it set for itself.
In 1818, on the basis of this self-liquidating society, a new one was created - the Union of Welfare. It was already a more numerous secret organization, numbering more than 200 people. It was organized by F.N. Glinka, F.P. Tolstoy, M.I. Muravyov-Apostol. The organization had a branched character: its cells were created in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Tambov, in the south of the country. The goals of society remained the same - the introduction of representative government, the elimination of autocracy and serfdom. Members of the Union saw ways to achieve their goal in the propaganda of their views and proposals sent to the government. However, they never received a response.
All this prompted the radical members of society to create two new secret organizations, established in March 1825. One was founded in St. Petersburg and was called the "Northern Society". Its creators were N.M. Muravyov and N.I. Turgenev. The other originated in Ukraine. This "Southern Society" was led by P.I. Pestel. Both societies were interconnected and were actually a single organization. Each society had its own program document, the Northern one had the “Constitution” by N.M. Muravyov, and the Southern one had the “Russian Truth” written by P.I. Pestel.
These documents expressed a single goal - the destruction of the autocracy and serfdom. However, the "Constitution" expressed the liberal nature of the transformations - with a constitutional monarchy, restriction of voting rights and the preservation of landownership, and "Russian Truth" - radical, republican. It proclaimed a presidential republic, the confiscation of landowners' lands, and a combination of private and public ownership.
The conspirators planned to make their coup in the summer of 1826 during army exercises. But unexpectedly, on November 19, 1825, Alexander I died, and this event prompted the conspirators to take action ahead of schedule.
After the death of Alexander I, his brother Konstantin Pavlovich was to become the Russian emperor, but during the life of Alexander I he abdicated in favor of his younger brother Nicholas. This was not officially announced, so initially both the state apparatus and the army swore allegiance to Constantine. But soon Constantine's renunciation of the throne was made public and a re-swearing was appointed. That's why
On December 14, 1825, the members of the "Northern Society" decided to come out with the demands laid down in their program, for which they intended to hold a demonstration of military force near the Senate building. An important task was to prevent the senators from taking the oath to Nikolai Pavlovich. Prince S.P. Trubetskoy was proclaimed the leader of the uprising.
On December 14, 1825, the Moscow regiment was the first to come to Senate Square, led by the members of the "Northern Society" brothers Bestuzhev and Shchepin-Rostovsky. However, the regiment stood alone for a long time, the conspirators were inactive. The murder of the Governor-General of St. Petersburg M.A. Miloradovich, who went to the rebels, became fatal - the uprising could no longer end peacefully. By the middle of the day, the guards naval crew and a company of the Life Grenadier Regiment nevertheless joined the rebels.
The leaders still hesitated to start active operations. In addition, it turned out that the senators had already sworn allegiance to Nicholas I and left the Senate. Therefore, there was no one to present the Manifesto, and Prince Trubetskoy did not appear on the square. Meanwhile, troops loyal to the government began shelling the rebels. The uprising was crushed, arrests began. Members of the "Southern Society" tried to carry out an uprising in the first days of January 1826 (the uprising of the Chernigov regiment), but even this was brutally suppressed by the authorities. Five leaders of the uprising - P.I. Pestel, K.F. Ryleev, S.I. Muravyov-Apostol, M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and P.G. Kakhovsky - were executed, the rest of its participants were exiled to hard labor in Siberia.
The Decembrist uprising was the first open protest in Russia, which set itself the task of radically reorganizing society.

Reign of Nicholas I

In the history of Russia, the reign of Emperor Nicholas I is defined as the apogee of Russian autocracy. The revolutionary upheavals that accompanied the accession to the throne of this Russian emperor left their mark on all his activities. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was perceived as a strangler of freedom, freethinking, as an unlimited despot ruler. The emperor believed in the perniciousness of human freedom and the independence of society. In his opinion, the welfare of the country could be ensured only through strict order, the strict fulfillment by each citizen of the Russian Empire of his duties, control and regulation of public life.
Considering that the issue of prosperity can only be resolved from above, Nicholas I formed the “Committee of December 6, 1826”. The tasks of the committee included the preparation of bills for reforms. In 1826, the transformation of "His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery" into the most important body of state power and administration also falls. The most important tasks were assigned to its II and III departments. Section II was to deal with the codification of laws, while Section III dealt with matters of higher politics. To solve problems, it received a corps of gendarmes under its control and, thus, control over all aspects of public life. The all-powerful Count A.Kh. Benkendorf, close to the emperor, was placed at the head of the III branch.
However, the over-centralization of power did not lead to positive results. The supreme authorities drowned in a sea of ​​paperwork and lost control over the course of affairs on the ground, which led to red tape and abuse.
To solve the peasant question, ten successive secret committees were created. However, the result of their activities was insignificant. The reform of the state village of 1837 can be considered the most important event in the peasant question. Self-government was given to the state peasants, and their management was put in order. The taxation of taxes and the allotment of land were revised. In 1842, a decree was issued on obligated peasants, according to which the landowner received the right to release the peasants into the wild with the provision of land to them, but not for ownership, but for use. 1844 changed the position of the peasants in the western regions of the country. But this was done not with the aim of improving the situation of the peasants, but in the interests of the authorities, striving
striving to limit the influence of the local, opposition-minded non-Russian nobility.
With the penetration of capitalist relations into the economic life of the country and the gradual erosion of the estate system, changes were also associated in the social structure - the ranks giving the nobility were raised, and a new estate status was introduced for the growing commercial and industrial strata - honorary citizenship.
Control over public life led to changes in the field of education. In 1828, the lower and secondary educational institutions were reformed. Education was class-based, i.e. the stages of the school were torn off from each other: primary and parish - for peasants, county - for urban inhabitants, gymnasiums - for the nobles. In 1835, a new university charter saw the light of day, which reduced the autonomy of higher educational institutions.
The wave of European bourgeois revolutions in Europe in 1848-1849, which horrified Nicholas I, led to the so-called. The “gloomy seven years”, when censorship was tightened to the limit, the secret police raged. A shadow of hopelessness loomed before the most progressive-minded people. This last stage of the reign of Nicholas I, in fact, was already the agony of the system that he created.

Crimean War

The last years of the reign of Nicholas I passed against the backdrop of complications in the foreign policy situation in Russia, associated with the aggravation of the Eastern question. The cause of the conflict was the problems associated with trade in the Middle East, for which Russia, France and England fought. Turkey, in turn, counted on revenge for the defeat in the wars with Russia. Austria did not want to miss its chance, which wanted to expand its sphere of influence on Turkish possessions in the Balkans.
The direct reason for the war was the old conflict between the Catholic and Orthodox churches for the right to control the holy places for Christians in Palestine. Supported by France, Turkey refused to satisfy Russia's claims to the priority of the Orthodox Church in this matter. In June 1853, Russia severed diplomatic relations with Turkey and occupied the Danubian principalities. In response to this, the Turkish Sultan on October 4, 1853 declared war on Russia.
Turkey relied on the unceasing war in the North Caucasus and provided all kinds of assistance to the highlanders who rebelled against Russia, including landing their fleet on the Caucasian coast. In response to this, on November 18, 1853, the Russian flotilla under the command of Admiral P.S. Nakhimov completely defeated the Turkish fleet in the roadstead of the Sinop Bay. This naval battle became a pretext for France and England to enter the war. In December 1853, the combined English and French squadron entered the Black Sea, and in March 1854 war was declared.
The war that came to the south of Russia showed the complete backwardness of Russia, the weakness of its industrial potential and the unpreparedness of the military command for war in the new conditions. The Russian army was inferior in almost all respects - the number of steam ships, rifled weapons, artillery. Due to the lack of railways, the situation with the supply of the Russian army with equipment, ammunition and food was also bad.
During the summer campaign of 1854, Russia managed to successfully resist the enemy. Turkish troops were defeated in several battles. The English and French fleets tried to attack Russian positions in the Baltic, Black and White Seas and the Far East, but to no avail. In July 1854, Russia had to accept the Austrian ultimatum and leave the Danubian principalities. And from September 1854, the main hostilities unfolded in the Crimea.
The mistakes of the Russian command allowed the Allied landing force to successfully land in the Crimea, and on September 8, 1854, defeat the Russian troops near the Alma River and besiege Sevastopol. The defense of Sevastopol under the leadership of Admirals V.A. Kornilov, P.S. Nakhimov and V.I. Istomin lasted 349 days. Attempts by the Russian army under the command of Prince A.S. Menshikov to pull back part of the besieging forces were unsuccessful.
On August 27, 1855, French troops stormed the southern part of Sevastopol and captured the height that dominated the city - Malakhov Kurgan. Russian troops were forced to leave the city. Since the forces of the fighting parties were exhausted, on March 18, 1856, a peace treaty was signed in Paris, under the terms of which the Black Sea was declared neutral, the Russian fleet was reduced to a minimum and fortifications were destroyed. Similar demands were made to Turkey. However, since the exit from the Black Sea was in the hands of Turkey, such a decision seriously threatened the security of Russia. In addition, Russia was deprived of the mouth of the Danube and the southern part of Bessarabia, and also lost the right to patronize Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia. Thus, Russia lost its positions in the Middle East to France and England. Its prestige in the international arena was severely undermined.

Bourgeois reforms in Russia in the 60s - 70s

The development of capitalist relations in pre-reform Russia came into ever greater conflict with the feudal-serf system. The defeat in the Crimean War exposed the rottenness and impotence of serf Russia. There was a crisis in the policy of the ruling feudal class, which could no longer carry it out with the old, feudal methods. Urgent economic, social and political reforms were needed in order to prevent a revolutionary explosion in the country. The country's agenda included measures necessary to not only preserve, but also strengthen the social and economic base of the autocracy.
All this was well understood by the new Russian emperor Alexander II, who ascended the throne on February 19, 1855. He understood the need for concessions, as well as compromise in the interests of state life. After his accession to the throne, the young emperor introduced his brother Constantine, who was a staunch liberal, into the cabinet of ministers. The next steps of the emperor were also progressive in nature - free travel abroad was allowed, the Decembrists were amnestied, censorship on publications was partially lifted, and other liberal measures were taken.
Alexander II took the problem of the abolition of serfdom with great seriousness. Starting from the end of 1857, a number of committees and commissions were created in Russia, the main task of which was to resolve the issue of emancipating the peasantry from serfdom. At the beginning of 1859, Editorial Commissions were created to summarize and process the projects of the committees. The project developed by them was submitted to the government.
On February 19, 1861, Alexander II issued a manifesto on the liberation of the peasants, as well as the “Regulations” regulating their new state. According to these documents, Russian peasants received personal freedom and most civil rights, peasant self-government was introduced, whose duties included collecting taxes and some judicial powers. At the same time, the peasant community and communal land ownership were preserved. The peasants still had to pay the poll tax and bear the recruitment duty. As before, corporal punishment was used against the peasants.
The government believed that the normal development of the agrarian sector would make it possible for two types of farms to coexist: large landowners and small peasants. However, the peasants got land for plots 20% less than those plots that they used before the liberation. This greatly complicated the development of the peasant economy, and in some cases brought it to naught. For the land received, the peasants had to pay the landowners a ransom that exceeded its value by one and a half times. But this was unrealistic, so the state paid 80% of the cost of the land to the landowners. Thus, the peasants became debtors of the state and were obliged to return this amount within 50 years with interest. Be that as it may, the reform created significant opportunities for the agrarian development of Russia, although it retained a number of vestiges in the form of class isolation of the peasantry and communities.
The peasant reform led to the transformation of many aspects of the social and state life of the country. 1864 was the year of the birth of zemstvos - local governments. The area of ​​competence of the zemstvos was quite wide: they had the right to collect taxes for local needs and hire employees, they were in charge of economic issues, schools, medical institutions, as well as charity issues.
They touched upon the reform and urban life. Since 1870, self-government bodies began to form in cities as well. They were mainly in charge of economic life. The self-government body was called the city duma, which formed the council. At the head of the Duma and the executive body was the mayor. The Duma itself was elected by city voters, whose composition was formed in accordance with the social and property qualifications.
However, the most radical was the judicial reform carried out in 1864. The former class and closed court was abolished. Now the verdict in the reformed court was passed by jurors, who were members of the public. The process itself became public, oral and adversarial. On behalf of the state, the prosecutor-prosecutor spoke at the trial, and the defense of the accused was carried out by a lawyer - a sworn attorney.
The media and educational institutions were not ignored. In 1863 and 1864 new university statutes are introduced, which restored their autonomy. A new regulation on school institutions was adopted, according to which the state, zemstvos and city dumas, as well as the church took care of them. Education was proclaimed accessible to all classes and confessions. In 1865, the preliminary censorship of publications was lifted and the responsibility for already published articles was assigned to the publishers.
Serious reforms were also carried out in the army. Russia was divided into fifteen military districts. Military educational institutions and the court-martial were modified. Instead of recruitment, since 1874 universal military duty was introduced. The transformations also affected the sphere of finance, the Orthodox clergy and church educational institutions.
All these reforms, called "great", brought the socio-political structure of Russia in line with the needs of the second half of the 19th century, mobilized all representatives of society to solve national problems. The first step was taken towards the formation of the rule of law and civil society. Russia has entered a new, capitalist path of its development.

Alexander III and his counter-reforms

After the death of Alexander II in March 1881 as a result of a terrorist act organized by the Narodnaya Volya, members of a secret organization of Russian utopian socialists, his son, Alexander III, ascended the Russian throne. At the beginning of his reign, confusion reigned in the government: not knowing anything about the forces of the populists, Alexander III did not dare to dismiss the supporters of his father's liberal reforms.
However, already the first steps of the state activity of Alexander III showed that the new emperor was not going to sympathize with liberalism. The punitive system has been significantly improved. In 1881, the "Regulations on measures to preserve state security and public peace" were approved. This document expanded the powers of the governors, gave them the right to introduce a state of emergency for an unlimited period and to carry out any repressive actions. There were "security departments", which were under the jurisdiction of the gendarmerie corps, whose activities were aimed at suppressing and suppressing any illegal activity.
In 1882, measures were taken to tighten censorship, and in 1884 higher educational institutions were actually deprived of their self-government. The government of Alexander III closed liberal publications, increased several
times the tuition fee. The decree of 1887 "on cook's children" made it difficult for children of the lower classes to enter higher educational institutions and gymnasiums. At the end of the 80s, reactionary laws were adopted, which essentially canceled a number of provisions of the reforms of the 60s and 70s
Thus, peasant class isolation was preserved and consolidated, and power was transferred to officials from among the local landowners, who combined judicial and administrative powers in their hands. The new Zemsky Code and City Regulations not only significantly curtailed the independence of local self-government, but also reduced the number of voters by several times. Changes were made in the activities of the court.
The reactionary nature of the government of Alexander III also manifested itself in the socio-economic sphere. An attempt to protect the interests of the bankrupt landlords led to a tougher policy towards the peasantry. In order to prevent the emergence of a rural bourgeoisie, the family sections of the peasants were limited and obstacles were put up for the alienation of peasant allotments.
However, in the conditions of the increasingly complicated international situation, the government could not but encourage the development of capitalist relations, primarily in the field of industrial production. Priority was given to enterprises and industries of strategic importance. A policy of their encouragement and state protection was carried out, which led to their transformation into monopolists. As a result of these actions, threatening disproportions were growing, which could lead to economic and social upheavals.
The reactionary transformations of the 1880s and 1890s were called "counter-reforms". Their successful implementation was due to the lack of forces in Russian society that would be able to create an effective opposition to government policy. To top it all off, they extremely aggravated relations between the government and society. However, the counter-reforms did not achieve their goals: society could no longer be stopped in its development.

Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

At the turn of the two centuries, Russian capitalism began to develop into its highest stage - imperialism. Bourgeois relations, having become dominant, demanded the elimination of the remnants of serfdom and the creation of conditions for the further progressive development of society. The main classes of bourgeois society had already taken shape - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the latter being more homogeneous, bound by the same hardships and difficulties, concentrated in the major industrial centers of the country, more receptive and mobile in relation to progressive innovations. All that was needed was a political party that could unite his various detachments, arm him with a program and tactics of struggle.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a revolutionary situation developed in Russia. There was a delimitation of the political forces of the country into three camps - government, liberal-bourgeois and democratic. The liberal-bourgeois camp was represented by supporters of the so-called. "Union of Liberation", which set as their task the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Russia, the introduction of general elections, the protection of "the interests of the working people", etc. After the creation of the party of the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats), the Union of Liberation ceased its activities.
The social democratic movement, which appeared in the 90s of the XIX century, was represented by supporters of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which in 1903 was divided into two movements - the Bolsheviks led by V.I. Lenin and the Mensheviks. In addition to the RSDLP, this included the Socialist-Revolutionaries (the party of socialist revolutionaries).
After the death of Emperor Alexander III in 1894, his son Nikolai I ascended the throne. which put the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. The mediocrity of Russian generals and the tsarist entourage, who sent thousands of Russians into the bloody massacre
soldiers and sailors, further aggravated the situation in the country.

First Russian Revolution

The extremely deteriorating condition of the people, the complete inability of the government to resolve the pressing problems of the country's development, the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War became the main causes of the first Russian revolution. The reason for it was the execution of a demonstration of workers in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905. This execution caused an outburst of indignation in wide circles of Russian society. Mass riots and unrest broke out in all regions of the country. The movement of discontent gradually assumed an organized character. The Russian peasantry also joined him. In the conditions of the war with Japan and complete unpreparedness for such events, the government had neither the strength nor the means to suppress numerous speeches. As one of the means of relieving tension, tsarism announced the creation of a representative body - the State Duma. The fact of neglecting the interests of the masses from the very beginning put the Duma in the position of a still-born body, since it had practically no powers.
This attitude of the authorities caused even greater discontent both on the part of the proletariat and the peasantry, and on the part of the liberal-minded representatives of the Russian bourgeoisie. Therefore, by the autumn of 1905, all conditions were created in Russia for the brewing of a nationwide crisis.
Losing control over the situation, the tsarist government made new concessions. In October 1905, Nicholas II signed the Manifesto, granting Russians freedom of the press, speech, assembly and association, which laid the foundations of Russian democracy. This Manifesto also split the revolutionary movement. The revolutionary wave has lost its breadth and mass character. This can explain the defeat of the December armed uprising in Moscow in 1905, which was the highest point in the development of the first Russian revolution.
Under the circumstances, liberal circles came to the fore. Numerous political parties arose - the Cadets (constitutional democrats), the Octobrists (Union of October 17). A noticeable phenomenon was the creation of organizations of a patriotic direction - the "Black Hundreds". The revolution was on the decline.
In 1906, the central event in the life of the country was no longer the revolutionary movement, but the elections to the Second State Duma. The new Duma was unable to resist the government and was dispersed in 1907. Since the manifesto on the dissolution of the Duma was published on June 3, the political system in Russia, which lasted until February 1917, was called the Third June Monarchy.

Russia in World War I

Russia's participation in the First World War was due to the aggravation of Russian-German contradictions caused by the formation of the Triple Alliance and the Entente. The murder in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the city of Sarajevo, of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was the reason for the outbreak of hostilities. In 1914, simultaneously with the actions of the German troops on the western front, the Russian command launched an invasion of East Prussia. It was stopped by German troops. But in the region of Galicia, the troops of Austria-Hungary suffered a serious defeat. The result of the 1914 campaign was the establishment of a balance on the fronts and the transition to a positional war.
In 1915, the center of gravity of hostilities was shifted to the Eastern Front. From spring to August, the Russian front along its entire length was broken into by German troops. Russian troops were forced to leave Poland, Lithuania and Galicia, having suffered heavy losses.
In 1916 the situation changed somewhat. In June, troops under the command of General Brusilov broke through the Austro-Hungarian front in Galicia in Bukovina. This offensive was stopped by the enemy with great difficulty. The military actions of 1917 took place in the conditions of a clearly imminent political crisis in the country. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution took place in Russia, as a result of which the Provisional Government, which replaced the autocracy, became a hostage to the previous obligations of tsarism. The course to continue the war to a victorious end led to an aggravation of the situation in the country and to the coming to power of the Bolsheviks.

Revolutionary 1917

The First World War sharply exacerbated all the contradictions that had been brewing in Russia since the beginning of the 20th century. The loss of life, the ruin of the economy, famine, the dissatisfaction of the people with the measures of tsarism to overcome the imminent national crisis, the inability of the autocracy to compromise with the bourgeoisie became the main causes of the February bourgeois revolution of 1917. On February 23, a strike of workers began in Petrograd, which soon grew into an all-Russian strike. The workers were supported by the intelligentsia, students,
army. The peasantry also did not remain aloof from these events. Already on February 27, power in the capital passed into the hands of the Soviet of Workers' Deputies, headed by the Mensheviks.
The Petrograd Soviet completely controlled the army, which soon completely went over to the side of the rebels. Attempts at a punitive campaign, undertaken by the forces withdrawn from the front, were unsuccessful. The soldiers supported the February coup. On March 1, 1917, a Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd, consisting mainly of representatives of the bourgeois parties. Nicholas II abdicated. Thus, the February Revolution overthrew the autocracy, which hindered the progressive development of the country. The relative ease with which the overthrow of tsarism in Russia took place showed how weak the regime of Nicholas II and its support, the landlord-bourgeois circles, were in their attempts to retain power.
The February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917 had a political character. It could not solve the pressing economic, social and national problems of the country. The provisional government had no real power. An alternative to his power - the Soviets, created at the very beginning of the February events, controlled so far by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, supported the Provisional Government, but so far could not take a leading role in the implementation of radical changes in the country. But at this stage, the Soviets were supported by both the army and the revolutionary people. Therefore, in March - early July 1917, the so-called dual power developed in Russia - that is, the simultaneous existence of two authorities in the country.
Finally, the petty-bourgeois parties, which then had a majority in the Soviets, ceded power to the Provisional Government as a result of the July crisis of 1917. The fact is that in late June - early July, German troops launched a powerful counteroffensive on the Eastern Front. Not wanting to go to the front, the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison decided to organize an uprising under the leadership of the Bolsheviks and anarchists. The resignation of some ministers of the Provisional Government further aggravated the situation. There was no consensus among the Bolsheviks about what was happening. Lenin and some members of the central committee of the party considered the uprising premature.
On July 3, mass demonstrations began in the capital. Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks tried to direct the actions of the demonstrators in a peaceful direction, armed clashes began between the demonstrators and the troops controlled by the Petrosoviet. The Provisional Government, seizing the initiative, with the help of the troops that arrived from the front, went to the application of harsh measures. The demonstrators were shot. From that moment on, the leadership of the Council gave full power to the Provisional Government.
The duality is over. The Bolsheviks were forced to go underground. A decisive offensive by the authorities began against all those dissatisfied with the policy of the government.
By the autumn of 1917, a nationwide crisis had again matured in the country, creating the ground for a new revolution. The collapse of the economy, the activation of the revolutionary movement, the increased authority of the Bolsheviks and support for their actions in various sectors of society, the disintegration of the army, which suffered defeat after defeat on the battlefields of the First World War, the growing distrust of the masses in the Provisional Government, as well as the unsuccessful attempt at a military coup undertaken by General Kornilov , - these are the symptoms of the maturing of a new revolutionary explosion.
The gradual Bolshevization of the Soviets, the army, the disappointment of the proletariat and the peasantry in the ability of the Provisional Government to find a way out of the crisis made it possible for the Bolsheviks to put forward the slogan "All power to the Soviets", under which in Petrograd on October 24-25, 1917 they managed to carry out a coup called the Great October Revolution. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 25, the transfer of power in the country to the Bolsheviks was announced. The provisional government was arrested. The congress promulgated the first decrees of the Soviet government - "On Peace", "On the Land", formed the first government of the victorious Bolsheviks - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by V.I. Lenin. On November 2, 1917, Soviet power established itself in Moscow. Almost everywhere the army supported the Bolsheviks. By March 1918, the new revolutionary power was established throughout the country.
The creation of a new state apparatus, which at first encountered the stubborn resistance of the former bureaucratic apparatus, was completed by the beginning of 1918. At the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets in January 1918, Russia was proclaimed a republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was established as a federation of Soviet national republics. Its supreme body was the All-Russian Congress of Soviets; in the intervals between congresses, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), which had legislative power, worked.
The government - the Council of People's Commissars - through the formed People's Commissariats (People's Commissariats) exercised executive power, people's courts and revolutionary tribunals exercised judicial power. Special authorities were formed - the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh), which was responsible for regulating the economy and the processes of nationalization of industry, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) - for the fight against counter-revolution. The main feature of the new state apparatus was the merging of legislative and executive power in the country.

For the successful construction of a new state, the Bolsheviks needed peaceful conditions. Therefore, already in December 1917, negotiations began with the command of the German army on the conclusion of a separate peace treaty, which was concluded in March 1918. Its conditions for Soviet Russia were extremely difficult and even humiliating. Russia abandoned Poland, Estonia and Latvia, withdrew its troops from Finland and Ukraine, conceded the regions of Transcaucasia. However, this "obscene", in the words of Lenin himself, the world was urgently needed by the young Soviet republic. Thanks to a peaceful respite, the Bolsheviks managed to carry out the first economic measures in the city and in the countryside - to establish workers' control in industry, begin its nationalization, and begin social transformations in the countryside.
However, the course of the reforms that had begun was interrupted for a long time by a bloody civil war, the beginning of which was laid by the forces of internal counter-revolution already in the spring of 1918. In Siberia, the Cossacks of Ataman Semenov opposed the Soviet government, in the south, in the Cossack regions, the Don Army of Krasnov and the Volunteer Army of Denikin were formed
in the Kuban. Socialist-Revolutionary riots broke out in Murom, Rybinsk, and Yaroslavl. Almost simultaneously, interventionist troops landed on the territory of Soviet Russia (in the north - the British, Americans, French, in the Far East - the Japanese, Germany occupied the territories of Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states, British troops occupied Baku). In May 1918, the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps began.
The situation on the fronts of the country was very difficult. Only in December 1918 did the troops of the Red Army manage to stop the offensive of the troops of General Krasnov on the southern front. From the east, the Bolsheviks were threatened by Admiral Kolchak, who was striving for the Volga. He managed to capture Ufa, Izhevsk and other cities. However, by the summer of 1919, he was driven back to the Urals. As a result of the summer offensive of the troops of General Yudenich in 1919, the threat now hung over Petrograd. Only after bloody battles in June 1919 was it possible to eliminate the threat of the capture of the northern capital of Russia (by this time the Soviet government had moved to Moscow).
However, already in July 1919, as a result of the offensive of General Denikin's troops from the south to the central regions of the country, Moscow now turned into a military camp. By October 1919 the Bolsheviks had lost Odessa, Kyiv, Kursk, Voronezh and Orel. The troops of the Red Army, only at the cost of huge losses, managed to repulse the offensive of Denikin's troops.
In November 1919, the troops of Yudenich were finally defeated, who again threatened Petrograd during the autumn offensive. In the winter of 1919-1920. The Red Army liberated Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. Kolchak was captured and shot. At the beginning of 1920, having liberated the Donbass and Ukraine, the troops of the Red Army drove the White Guards into the Crimea. Only in November 1920 was the Crimea cleared of the troops of General Wrangel. The Polish campaign of spring-summer 1920 ended in failure for the Bolsheviks.

From the policy of "war communism" to the new economic policy

The economic policy of the Soviet state during the years of the civil war, aimed at mobilizing all resources for military needs, was called the policy of "war communism". It was a complex of emergency measures in the country's economy, which was characterized by such features as the nationalization of industry, the centralization of management, the introduction of surplus appropriation in the countryside, the prohibition of private trade and equalization in distribution and payment. In the conditions of the ensuing peaceful life, she no longer justified herself. The country was on the verge of economic collapse. Industry, energy, transport, agriculture, as well as the country's finances experienced a protracted crisis. The speeches of the peasants, dissatisfied with the surplus appraisal, became more frequent. The mutiny in Kronstadt in March 1921 against the Soviet regime showed that the dissatisfaction of the masses with the policy of "war communism" could threaten its very existence.
The consequence of all these reasons was the decision of the Bolshevik government in March 1921 to switch to the "new economic policy" (NEP). This policy provided for the replacement of the surplus appropriation with a fixed tax in kind for the peasantry, the transfer of state enterprises to self-financing, and the permission of private trade. At the same time, a transition was made from natural to cash wages, and equalization was abolished. Elements of state capitalism in industry were partially allowed in the form of concessions and the creation of state trusts connected with the market. It was allowed to open small handicraft private enterprises, serviced by the labor of hired workers.
The main merit of the NEP was that the peasant masses finally went over to the side of Soviet power. Conditions were created for the restoration of industry and the start of an increase in production. The granting of a certain economic freedom to the working people gave them the opportunity to show initiative and enterprise. NEP, in fact, demonstrated the possibility and necessity of a variety of forms of ownership, recognition of the market and commodity relations in the country's economy.

In 1918-1922. small and compact peoples living on the territory of Russia received autonomy within the RSFSR. Parallel to this, the formation of larger national entities - allied with the RSFSR sovereign Soviet republics. By the summer of 1922, the process of unification of the Soviet republics entered its final phase. The Soviet party leadership prepared a project for unification, which provided for the entry of the Soviet republics into the RSFSR as autonomous entities. The author of this project was I.V. Stalin, the then People's Commissar for Nationalities.
Lenin saw in this project an infringement of the national sovereignty of the peoples and insisted on the creation of a federation of equal union republics. On December 30, 1922, the First Congress of Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics rejected Stalin's "project of autonomization" and adopted a declaration and an agreement on the formation of the USSR, which was based on the plan of a federal structure that Lenin insisted on.
In January 1924, the II All-Union Congress of Soviets approved the Constitution of the new union. According to this Constitution, the USSR was a federation of equal sovereign republics with the right to freely secede from the union. At the same time, the formation of representative and executive Union bodies in the field took place. However, as subsequent events will show, the USSR gradually acquired the character of a unitary state, ruled from a single center - Moscow.
With the introduction of the New Economic Policy, the measures taken by the Soviet government to implement it (the denationalization of some enterprises, the permission of free trade and wage labor, the emphasis on the development of commodity-money and market relations, etc.) came into conflict with the concept of building a socialist society on a non-commodity basis. The priority of politics over the economy, preached by the Bolshevik Party, the beginning formation of the administrative-command system led to the crisis of the New Economic Policy in 1923. In order to increase labor productivity, the state went to an artificial increase in prices for manufactured goods. The villagers turned out to be beyond their means to acquire industrial goods, which overflowed all the warehouses and shops of the cities. The so-called. "crisis of overproduction". In response to this, the village began to delay the delivery of grain to the state under the tax in kind. In some places, peasant uprisings broke out. New concessions were needed to the peasantry on the part of the state.
Thanks to the successful monetary reform of 1924, the ruble exchange rate was stabilized, which helped to overcome the sales crisis and strengthen trade relations between the city and the countryside. The in-kind taxation of the peasants was replaced by monetary taxation, which gave them greater freedom in developing their own economy. In general, therefore, by the mid-1920s, the process of restoring the national economy was completed in the USSR. The socialist sector of the economy has significantly strengthened its positions.
At the same time, there was an improvement in the positions of the USSR in the international arena. In order to break through the diplomatic blockade, Soviet diplomacy took an active part in the work of international conferences in the early 1920s. The leadership of the Bolshevik Party hoped to establish economic and political cooperation with the leading capitalist countries.
At an international conference in Genoa devoted to economic and financial issues (1922), the Soviet delegation expressed its readiness to discuss the issue of compensation for former foreign owners in Russia, subject to the recognition of the new state and the provision of international loans to it. At the same time, the Soviet side put forward counterproposals to compensate Soviet Russia for the losses caused by the intervention and blockade during the years of the civil war. However, these issues were not resolved during the conference.
On the other hand, the young Soviet diplomacy managed to break through the united front of non-recognition of the young Soviet republic by the capitalist encirclement. In Rapallo, suburb
Genoa, managed to conclude an agreement with Germany, which provided for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries on the terms of mutual renunciation of all claims. Thanks to this success of Soviet diplomacy, the country entered a period of recognition from the leading capitalist powers. In a short time, diplomatic relations were established with Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, China, Mexico, France and other states.

Industrialization of the national economy

The need to modernize industry and the entire economy of the country in the conditions of the capitalist encirclement became the main task of the Soviet government from the beginning of the 20s. In the same years, there was a process of strengthening control and regulation of the economy by the state. This led to the development of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR. The plan for the first five-year plan, adopted in April 1929, laid down indicators for a sharp, accelerated growth in industrial output.
In this regard, the problem of lack of funds for the implementation of an industrial breakthrough was clearly identified. Capital investment in new industrial construction was sorely lacking. It was impossible to count on help from abroad. Therefore, one of the sources of industrialization of the country was the resources pumped out by the state from the still weak agriculture. Another source was government loans, which were levied on the entire population of the country. To pay for foreign supplies of industrial equipment, the state went to the forced seizure of gold and other valuables both from the population and from the church. Another source of industrialization was the export of the country's natural resources - oil, timber. Grain and furs were also exported.
Against the backdrop of a lack of funds, the technical and economic backwardness of the country, and a shortage of qualified personnel, the state began to artificially spur the pace of industrial construction, which led to disproportions, disruption of planning, a discrepancy between wage growth and labor productivity, a breakdown in the monetary system and rising prices. As a result, a commodity hunger was discovered, a rationing system for supplying the population was introduced.
The command-administrative system of economic management, accompanied by the establishment of Stalin's regime of personal power, attributed all the difficulties in implementing industrialization plans to the expense of certain enemies who interfered with the construction of socialism in the USSR. In 1928-1931. A wave of political processes swept across the country, during which many qualified specialists and managers were condemned as "saboteurs", allegedly holding back the development of the country's economy.
Nevertheless, thanks to the broadest enthusiasm of the entire Soviet people, the first five-year plan was completed ahead of schedule in terms of its main indicators. In the period from 1929 to the end of the 1930s alone, the USSR made a fantastic breakthrough in its industrial development. During this time, about 6 thousand industrial enterprises came into operation. The Soviet people created such an industrial potential that, in terms of its technical equipment and sectoral structure, was not inferior to the level of production of the advanced capitalist countries of that time. And in terms of production, our country came second after the United States.

Collectivization of agriculture

The acceleration of the pace of industrialization, mainly at the expense of the countryside, with an emphasis on basic industries, very quickly exacerbated the contradictions of the new economic policy. The end of the 1920s was marked by its overthrow. This process was stimulated by the fear of the administrative-command structures before the prospect of losing the leadership of the country's economy in their own interests.
Difficulties were growing in the country's agriculture. In a number of cases, the authorities got out of this crisis by using violent measures, which was comparable to the practice of war communism and surplus appropriations. In the autumn of 1929, such violent measures against agricultural producers were replaced by forced, or, as they said then, complete collectivization. To this end, with the help of punitive measures, all potentially dangerous, as the Soviet leadership believed, elements were removed from the village - kulaks, wealthy peasants, that is, those who could prevent collectivization from developing their personal economy normally and who could resist it.
The destructive nature of the forcible association of peasants into collective farms forced the authorities to abandon the extremes of this process. Volunteering began to be respected when joining collective farms. The main form of collective farming was declared an agricultural artel, where the collective farmer had the right to a personal plot, small implements and livestock. However, land, cattle and basic agricultural implements were still socialized. In such forms, collectivization in the main grain regions of the country was completed by the end of 1931.
The gain of the Soviet state from collectivization was very important. The roots of capitalism in agriculture were liquidated, as well as undesirable class elements. The country gained independence from the import of a number of agricultural products. Grain sold abroad has become a source for acquiring the perfect technologies and advanced machinery needed in the course of industrialization.
However, the consequences of the destruction of the traditional economic structure in the countryside turned out to be very difficult. The productive forces of agriculture were undermined. Crop failures in 1932-1933, unreasonably high plans for the supply of agricultural products to the state led to famine in a number of regions of the country, the consequences of which could not be eliminated immediately.

Culture of the 20-30s

Transformations in the field of culture were one of the tasks of building a socialist state in the USSR. The features of the implementation of the cultural revolution were determined by the backwardness of the country inherited from the old times, the uneven economic and cultural development of the peoples that became part of the Soviet Union. The Bolshevik authorities focused on building a public education system, restructuring higher education, enhancing the role of science in the country's economy, and forming a new creative and artistic intelligentsia.
Even during the civil war, the struggle against illiteracy began. Since 1931, universal primary education has been introduced. The greatest successes in the field of public education were achieved by the end of the 1930s. In the system of higher education, together with old specialists, measures were taken to create the so-called. "people's intelligentsia" by increasing the number of students from among the workers and peasants. Significant advances have been made in the field of science. The researches of N. Vavilov (genetics), V. Vernadsky (geochemistry, biosphere), N. Zhukovsky (aerodynamics) and other scientists gained fame all over the world.
Against the backdrop of success, some areas of science have experienced pressure from the administrative-command system. Significant harm was done to the social sciences - history, philosophy, etc. by various ideological purges and persecution of their individual representatives. As a result, almost all of the then science was subordinated to the ideological ideas of the communist regime.

USSR in the 1930s

By the beginning of the 1930s, the formation of the economic model of society, which can be defined as state-administrative socialism, was taking shape in the USSR. According to Stalin and his inner circle, this model should have been based on complete
nationalization of all means of production in industry, the implementation of the collectivization of peasant farms. Under these conditions, the command-administrative methods of managing and managing the country's economy have become very strong.
The priority of ideology over the economy against the backdrop of the dominance of the party-state nomenclature made it possible to industrialize the country by reducing the living standards of its population (both urban and rural). In organizational terms, this model of socialism was based on maximum centralization and rigid planning. In social terms, it relied on formal democracy with the absolute dominance of the party and state apparatus in all areas of the life of the country's population. Directive and non-economic methods of coercion prevailed, the nationalization of the means of production replaced the socialization of the latter.
Under these conditions, the social structure of Soviet society changed significantly. By the end of the 1930s, the country's leadership declared that after the liquidation of capitalist elements, Soviet society consisted of three friendly classes - workers, collective farm peasantry and the people's intelligentsia. Among the workers, several groups have formed - a small privileged stratum of highly paid skilled workers and a significant stratum of the main producers who are not interested in the results of labor and therefore are low paid. Increased staff turnover.
In the countryside, the socialized labor of collective farmers was paid very low. Almost half of all agricultural products were grown on small household plots of collective farmers. Actually collective-farm fields gave much less production. Collective farmers were infringed on political rights. They were deprived of their passports and the right to move freely throughout the country.
The Soviet people's intelligentsia, the majority of which were unskilled petty employees, was in a more privileged position. It was mainly formed from yesterday's workers and peasants, the ego could not but lead to a decrease in its general educational level.
The new Constitution of the USSR of 1936 found a new reflection of the changes that had taken place in Soviet society and the state structure of the country since the adoption of the first constitution in 1924. It declaratively consolidated the fact of the victory of socialism in the USSR. The basis of the new Constitution was the principles of socialism - the state of socialist ownership of the means of production, the elimination of exploitation and exploiting classes, labor as a duty, the duty of every able-bodied citizen, the right to work, rest and other socio-economic and political rights.
The Soviets of Working People's Deputies became the political form of organization of state power in the center and in the localities. The electoral system was also updated: elections became direct, with secret ballot. The Constitution of 1936 was characterized by a combination of new social rights of the population with a whole series of liberal democratic rights - freedom of speech, press, conscience, rallies, demonstrations, etc. Another thing is how consistently these declared rights and freedoms were implemented in practice...
The new Constitution of the USSR reflected the objective tendency of Soviet society towards democratization, which followed from the essence of the socialist system. Thus, it contradicted the already established practice of Stalin's autocracy as head of the Communist Party and state. In real life, mass arrests, arbitrariness, and extrajudicial killings continued. These contradictions between word and deed became a characteristic phenomenon in the life of our country in the 1930s. The preparation, discussion and adoption of the new Basic Law of the country were sold simultaneously with falsified political trials, rampant repressions, and the forcible removal of prominent figures of the party and the state who did not reconcile themselves to the regime of personal power and Stalin's personality cult. The ideological justification for these phenomena was his well-known thesis about the aggravation of the class struggle in the country under socialism, which he proclaimed in 1937, which became the most terrible year of mass repressions.
By 1939, almost the entire "Leninist guard" was destroyed. Repressions also affected the Red Army: from 1937 to 1938. about 40 thousand officers of the army and navy were destroyed. Almost the entire senior command staff of the Red Army was repressed, a significant part of them were shot. Terror affected all layers of Soviet society. The rejection of millions of Soviet people from public life has become the norm of life - deprivation of civil rights, removal from office, exile, prisons, camps, the death penalty.

The international position of the USSR in the 30s

Already in the early 1930s, the USSR established diplomatic relations with most countries of the then world, and in 1934 joined the League of Nations, an international organization created in 1919 with the aim of collectively resolving issues in the world community. In 1936, the conclusion of the Franco-Soviet agreement on mutual assistance in the event of aggression followed. Since in the same year Nazi Germany and Japan signed the so-called. the “anti-Comintern pact”, to which Italy later joined, the answer to this was the conclusion in August 1937 of a non-aggression pact with China.
The threat to the Soviet Union from the countries of the fascist bloc was growing. Japan provoked two armed conflicts - near Lake Khasan in the Far East (August 1938) and in Mongolia, with which the USSR was connected by an allied treaty (summer 1939). These conflicts were accompanied by significant losses on both sides.
After the conclusion of the Munich Agreement on the secession of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, the USSR's distrust of Western countries, which agreed with Hitler's claims to part of Czechoslovakia, intensified. Despite this, Soviet diplomacy did not lose hope of creating a defensive alliance with Britain and France. However, negotiations with the delegations of these countries (August 1939) ended in failure.

This forced the Soviet government to move closer to Germany. On August 23, 1939, a Soviet-German non-aggression pact was signed, accompanied by a secret protocol on the delimitation of spheres of influence in Europe. Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bessarabia were assigned to the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. In the event of the division of Poland, its Belarusian and Ukrainian territories were to go to the USSR.
Already after the German attack on Poland on September 28, a new agreement was concluded with Germany, according to which Lithuania also retreated to the sphere of influence of the USSR. Part of the territory of Poland became part of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR. In August 1940, the Soviet government granted a request for the admission of three new republics to the USSR - Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian, where pro-Soviet governments came to power. At the same time, Romania gave in to the ultimatum demand of the Soviet government and transferred the territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the USSR. Such a significant territorial expansion of the Soviet Union pushed its borders far to the west, which, in the face of the threat of invasion from Germany, should be assessed as a positive moment.
Similar actions of the USSR against Finland led to an armed conflict that escalated into the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. In the course of heavy winter battles, the troops of the Red Army only in February 1940, with great difficulty and losses, managed to overcome the defensive Mannerheim Line, which was considered impregnable. Finland was forced to transfer the entire Karelian Isthmus to the USSR, which significantly pushed the border away from Leningrad.

The Great Patriotic War

The signing of a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany only briefly delayed the start of the war. On June 22, 1941, having assembled a colossal invasion army - 190 divisions, Germany and its allies attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. The USSR was not ready for war. The miscalculations of the war with Finland were slowly eliminated. Serious damage to the army and the country was caused by the Stalinist repressions of the 30s. The situation with the technical support was no better. Despite the fact that Soviet engineering thought created many samples of advanced military equipment, little of it was sent to the active army, and its mass production was only getting better.
The summer and autumn of 1941 were the most critical for the Soviet Union. Fascist troops invaded from 800 to 1200 kilometers deep, blockaded Leningrad, approached dangerously close to Moscow, occupied most of the Donbass and Crimea, the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova, almost all of Ukraine and a number of regions of the RSFSR. Many people died, the infrastructure of many cities and towns was completely destroyed. However, the enemy was opposed by the courage and strength of the spirit of the people and the material possibilities of the country put into action. A mass resistance movement unfolded everywhere: partisan detachments were created behind enemy lines, and later even entire formations.
Having bled the German troops in heavy defensive battles, the Soviet troops in the battle near Moscow went on the offensive in early December 1941, which continued in some directions until April 1942. This dispelled the myth of the enemy's invincibility. The international prestige of the USSR increased sharply.
On October 1, 1941, a conference of representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain ended in Moscow, at which the foundations for the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition were laid. Agreements were signed on the supply of military aid. And already on January 1, 1942, 26 states signed the Declaration of the United Nations. An anti-Hitler coalition was created, and its leaders decided on the conduct of the war and the democratic organization of the post-war system at joint conferences in Tehran in 1943, as well as in Yalta and Potsdam in 1945.
In the beginning - the middle of 1942, a very difficult situation again developed for the Red Army. Using the absence of a second front in Western Europe, the German command concentrated maximum forces against the USSR. The successes of the German troops at the beginning of the offensive were the result of an underestimation of their forces and capabilities, the result of an unsuccessful attempt by the Soviet troops near Kharkov and gross miscalculations of the command. The Nazis rushed to the Caucasus and the Volga. On November 19, 1942, the Soviet troops, having stopped the enemy in Stalingrad at the cost of colossal losses, launched a counteroffensive, which ended with the encirclement and complete liquidation of more than 330,000 enemy groups.
However, a radical turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War came only in 1943. One of the main events of that year was the victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk. It was one of the largest battles of the war. In only one tank battle in the Prokhorovka area, the enemy lost 400 tanks and more than 10 thousand people were killed. Germany and her allies were forced to go on the defensive from active operations.
In 1944, an offensive Belarusian operation was carried out on the Soviet-German front, code-named "Bagration". As a result of its implementation, Soviet troops reached their former state border. The enemy was not only expelled from the country, but the liberation of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe from Nazi captivity began. And on June 6, 1944, the allies who landed in Normandy opened a second front.
In Europe in the winter of 1944-1945. during the Ardennes operation, the Nazi troops inflicted a serious defeat on the allies. The situation took on a catastrophic character, and the Soviet army helped them get out of a difficult situation, which launched a large-scale Berlin operation. In April-May, this operation was completed, and our troops captured the capital of Nazi Germany by storm. A historic meeting of the allies took place on the Elbe River. The German command was forced to capitulate. In the course of its offensive operations, the Soviet army made a decisive contribution to the liberation of the occupied countries from the fascist regime. And on May 8 and 9 in the majority
European countries and in the Soviet Union began to be celebrated as Victory Day.
However, the war was not over yet. On the night of August 9, 1945, the USSR, true to its allied obligations, entered the war with Japan. The offensive in Manchuria against the Japanese Kwantung Army and its defeat forced the Japanese government to admit final defeat. On September 2, the act of surrender of Japan was signed. Thus, after a long six years, the Second World War was over. On October 20, 1945, a trial began in the German city of Nuremberg against the main war criminals.

Soviet rear during the war

At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis managed to occupy the industrially and agriculturally developed regions of the country, which were its main military-industrial and food base. However, the Soviet economy was able not only to withstand extreme stress, but also to defeat the economy of the enemy. In an unprecedentedly short time, the economy of the Soviet Union was reorganized on a war footing and turned into a well-organized military economy.
Already in the first days of the war, a significant number of industrial enterprises from the front-line territories were prepared for evacuation to the eastern regions of the country in order to create the main arsenal for the needs of the front. The evacuation was carried out in an exceptionally short time, often under enemy fire and under the blows of his aircraft. The most important force that made it possible in a short time to restore evacuated enterprises in new places, build new industrial facilities and start manufacturing products intended for the front, is the selfless labor of the Soviet people, which has provided unprecedented examples of labor heroism.
In mid-1942, the USSR had a rapidly growing military economy capable of meeting all the needs of the front. During the war years in the USSR, iron ore production increased by 130%, iron production - by almost 160%, steel - by 145%. In connection with the loss of the Donbass and the enemy's access to the oil-bearing sources of the Caucasus, vigorous measures were taken to increase the production of coal, oil and other types of fuel in the eastern regions of the country. The light industry worked with great tension, which, after a difficult year for the entire national economy of the country in 1942, in the following year, 1943, managed to fulfill the plan for supplying the belligerent army with everything necessary. Transport also worked with maximum load. From 1942 to 1945 the freight turnover of railway transport alone increased by almost one and a half times.
The military industry of the USSR with each military year gave more and more small arms, artillery weapons, tanks, aircraft, ammunition. Thanks to the selfless work of the home front workers, by the end of 1943 the Red Army was already superior to the fascist in all combat means. All this was the result of a stubborn single combat between two different economic systems and the efforts of the entire Soviet people.

The meaning and price of the victory of the Soviet people over fascism

It was the Soviet Union, its fighting army and people, that became the main force blocking the path of German fascism to world domination. Over 600 fascist divisions were destroyed on the Soviet-German front, the enemy army lost here three-quarters of its aircraft, a significant part of tanks and artillery.
The Soviet Union rendered decisive assistance to the peoples of Europe in their struggle for national independence. As a result of the victory over fascism, the balance of forces in the world changed decisively. The prestige of the Soviet Union in the international arena has grown considerably. In the countries of Eastern Europe, power passed to the governments of people's democracy, the system of socialism went beyond the boundaries of one country. The economic and political isolation of the USSR was eliminated. The Soviet Union has become a great world power. This was the main reason for the formation of a new geopolitical situation in the world, characterized in the future by the confrontation of two different systems - socialist and capitalist.
The war against fascism brought innumerable losses and destruction to our country. Almost 27 million Soviet people died, of which more than 10 million died on the battlefields. About 6 million of our compatriots ended up in Nazi captivity, 4 million of them died. Nearly 4 million partisans and underground fighters perished behind enemy lines. The grief of irretrievable losses came to almost every Soviet family.
During the war years, more than 1700 cities and about 70 thousand villages and villages were completely destroyed. Almost 25 million people lost their roof over their heads. Such large cities as Leningrad, Kyiv, Kharkov and others were subjected to significant destruction, and some of them, such as Minsk, Stalingrad, Rostov-on-Don, were completely in ruins.
A truly tragic situation has developed in the countryside. About 100 thousand collective farms and state farms were destroyed by the invaders. The sown area has been significantly reduced. Livestock has suffered. In terms of its technical equipment, the country's agriculture turned out to be thrown back to the level of the first half of the 30s. The country has lost about a third of its national wealth. The damage caused by the war to the Soviet Union exceeded the losses during the Second World War of all other European countries combined.

Restoration of the economy of the USSR in the post-war years

The main tasks of the fourth five-year plan for the development of the national economy (1946-1950) were the restoration of the country's regions destroyed and devastated by the war, the achievement of the pre-war level of development of industry and agriculture. At first, the Soviet people faced enormous difficulties in this area - a lack of food, the difficulties of restoring agriculture, aggravated by a strong crop failure in 1946, the problems of transferring industry to a peaceful track, and the mass demobilization of the army. All this did not allow the Soviet leadership until the end of 1947 to exercise control over the country's economy.
However, already in 1948 the volume of industrial production still exceeded the pre-war level. Back in 1946, the level of 1940 in the production of electricity was blocked, in 1947 - coal, in the next 1948 - steel and cement. By 1950, a significant part of the indicators of the Fourth Five-Year Plan had been implemented. Almost 3,200 industrial enterprises were put into operation in the west of the country. The main emphasis, therefore, was placed, as in the course of the pre-war five-year plans, on the development of industry, and above all, heavy industry.
The Soviet Union did not have to rely on the help of its former Western allies in restoring its industrial and agricultural potential. Therefore, only their own internal resources and the hard work of the entire people became the main sources of restoration of the country's economy. Growing massive investment in industry. Their volume significantly exceeded the investments that were directed to the national economy in the 1930s during the first five-year plans.
With all the close attention to heavy industry, the situation in agriculture has not yet improved. Moreover, we can talk about its protracted crisis in the post-war period. The decline of agriculture forced the country's leadership to turn to methods proven back in the 1930s, which concerned primarily the restoration and strengthening of collective farms. The leadership demanded the implementation at any cost of plans that did not proceed from the capabilities of the collective farms, but from the needs of the state. Control over agriculture again sharply increased. The peasantry was under heavy tax oppression. Purchase prices for agricultural products were very low, and peasants received very little for their work on collective farms. As before, they were deprived of passports and freedom of movement.
And yet, by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the grave consequences of the war in the field of agriculture were partially overcome. Despite this, agriculture still remained a kind of “pain point” for the entire economy of the country and required a radical reorganization, for which, unfortunately, in the post-war period there were neither funds nor forces.

Foreign policy in the post-war years (1945-1953)

The victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War led to a serious change in the balance of power in the international arena. The USSR acquired significant territories both in the West (part of East Prussia, Transcarpathian regions, etc.) and in the East (South Sakhalin, the Kuriles). The influence of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe grew. Immediately after the end of the war, communist governments were formed here in a number of countries (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.) with the support of the USSR. In China, in 1949, a revolution took place, as a result of which the communist regime also came to power.
All this could not but lead to a confrontation between the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. In the conditions of tough confrontation and rivalry between two different socio-political and economic systems - socialist and capitalist, called the "cold war", the government of the USSR made great efforts in pursuing its policy and ideology in those states of Western Europe and Asia that it considered objects of its influence . The split of Germany into two states - the FRG and the GDR, the Berlin crisis of 1949 marked the final break between the former allies and the division of Europe into two hostile camps.
After the formation of the military-political alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in 1949, a single line began to take shape in the economic and political relations between the USSR and the countries of people's democracy. For these purposes, a Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) was created, which coordinated the economic relations of the socialist countries, and in order to strengthen their defense capability, their military bloc (the Warsaw Pact Organization) was formed in 1955 in the form of a counterweight to NATO.
After the United States lost its monopoly on nuclear weapons, in 1953 the Soviet Union was the first to test a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb. The process of rapid creation in both countries - the Soviet Union and the United States - of more and more new carriers of nuclear weapons and more modern weapons - the so-called. arms race.
This is how the global rivalry between the USSR and the USA arose. This most difficult period in the history of modern mankind, called the Cold War, showed how two opposing political and socio-economic systems fought for dominance and influence in the world and prepared for a new, now all-destroying war. It split the world in two. Now everything began to be viewed through the prism of tough confrontation and rivalry.

The death of I.V. Stalin became a milestone in the development of our country. The totalitarian system created in the 1930s, which was characterized by the features of state-administrative socialism with the dominance of the party-state nomenklatura in all its links, had already exhausted itself by the beginning of the 1950s. It needed a radical change. The process of de-Stalinization, which began in 1953, developed in a very complex and contradictory way. In the end, he led to the coming to power of N.S. Khrushchev, who in September 1953 became the de facto head of the country. His desire to abandon the old repressive methods of leadership won the sympathy of many honest communists and the majority of the Soviet people. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU, held in February 1956, the policies of Stalinism were sharply criticized. Khrushchev's report to the delegates of the congress, later, in milder terms, published in the press, revealed those perversions of the ideals of socialism that Stalin allowed during almost thirty years of his dictatorial rule.
The process of de-Stalinization of Soviet society was very inconsistent. He did not touch upon the essential aspects of the formation and development
of the totalitarian regime in our country. N. S. Khrushchev himself was a typical product of this regime, only realizing the potential inability of the former leadership to preserve it in an unchanged form. His attempts to democratize the country were doomed to failure, since in any case, the real activity to implement changes in both the political and economic lines of the USSR fell on the shoulders of the former state and party apparatus, which did not want any radical changes.
At the same time, however, many victims of Stalinist repressions were rehabilitated, some peoples of the country, repressed by Stalin's regime, were given the opportunity to return to their former places of residence. Their autonomy was restored. The most odious representatives of the country's punitive organs were removed from power. Khrushchev's report to the 20th Party Congress confirmed the country's former political course, aimed at finding opportunities for peaceful coexistence of countries with different political systems, at defusing international tension. Characteristically, it already recognized various ways of building a socialist society.
The fact of public condemnation of Stalin's arbitrariness had a huge impact on the life of the entire Soviet people. Changes in the life of the country led to the loosening of the system of state, barracks socialism built in the USSR. The total control of the authorities over all areas of life of the population of the Soviet Union was a thing of the past. It was these changes in the former political system of society, already uncontrolled by the authorities, that aroused in them the desire to strengthen the authority of the party. In 1959, at the 21st Congress of the CPSU, it was announced to the entire Soviet people that socialism had won a complete and final victory in the USSR. The statement that our country had entered a period of "widespread construction of a communist society" was confirmed by the adoption of a new program of the CPSU, which set out in detail the tasks of building the foundations of communism in the Soviet Union by the beginning of the 80s of our century.

The collapse of the Khrushchev leadership. Return to the system of totalitarian socialism

N.S. Khrushchev, like any reformer of the socio-political system that had developed in the USSR, was very vulnerable. He had to change her, relying on her own resources. Therefore, the numerous, not always well thought-out reform initiatives of this typical representative of the administrative-command system could not only significantly change it, but even undermine it. All his attempts to "cleanse socialism" from the consequences of Stalinism were unsuccessful. Having ensured the return of power to party structures, restoring its significance to the party-state nomenklatura and saving it from potential repressions, N.S. Khrushchev fulfilled his historical mission.
The aggravated food difficulties of the early 60s, if not turned the entire population of the country into dissatisfied with the actions of the previously energetic reformer, then at least determined indifference to his future fate. Therefore, the removal of Khrushchev in October 1964 from the post of head of the country by the forces of the highest representatives of the Soviet party-state nomenklatura passed quite calmly and without excesses.

Increasing difficulties in the socio-economic development of the country

In the late 60s - in the 70s, the USSR economy gradually slid to the stagnation of almost all of its industries. A steady decline in its main economic indicators was evident. The economic development of the USSR looked especially unfavorable against the background of the world economy, which at that time was progressing significantly. The Soviet economy continued to reproduce its industrial structures with an emphasis on traditional industries, in particular on the export of fuel and energy products.
resources. This certainly caused significant damage to the development of science-intensive technologies and complex equipment, the share of which was significantly reduced.
The extensive nature of the development of the Soviet economy significantly limited the solution of social problems related to the concentration of funds in heavy industry and the military-industrial complex, the social sphere of life of the population of our country during the period of stagnation was out of the government's field of vision. The country gradually plunged into a severe crisis, and all attempts to avoid it were unsuccessful.

An attempt to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country

By the end of the 1970s, for a part of the Soviet leadership and millions of Soviet citizens, the impossibility of maintaining the existing order in the country without changes became obvious. The last years of the rule of L.I. Brezhnev, who came to power after the removal of N.S. Khrushchev, took place against the backdrop of a crisis in the economic and social spheres in the country, an increase in apathy and indifference of the people, and a deformed morality of those in power. The symptoms of decay were clearly felt in all areas of life. Some attempts to find a way out of the current situation were made by the new leader of the country - Yu.V. Andropov. Although he was a typical representative and sincere supporter of the former system, nevertheless, some of his decisions and actions had already shaken the previously indisputable ideological dogmas that did not allow his predecessors to carry out, although theoretically justified, but practically failed reform attempts.
The new leadership of the country, relying mainly on tough administrative measures, tried to stake on restoring order and discipline in the country, on eradicating corruption, which by that time had affected all levels of government. This gave temporary success - the economic indicators of the country's development improved somewhat. Some of the most odious functionaries were withdrawn from the leadership of the party and government, and criminal cases were opened against many leaders who held high positions.
The change in political leadership after the death of Yu.V. Andropov in 1984 showed how great the power of the nomenklatura is. The new general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the terminally ill KU Chernenko, as if personified the system that his predecessor was trying to reform. The country continued to develop as if by inertia, the people indifferently watched Chernenko's attempts to return the USSR to Brezhnev's order. Numerous Andropov's undertakings to revive the economy, renew and purge the leadership cadres were curtailed.
In March 1985, MS Gorbachev, a representative of a relatively young and ambitious wing of the country's party leadership, came to the leadership of the country. On his initiative, in April 1985, a new strategic course for the development of the country was proclaimed, focused on accelerating its socio-economic development based on scientific and technological progress, the technical re-equipment of mechanical engineering and the activation of the "human factor". Its implementation at first was able to somewhat improve the economic indicators of the development of the USSR.
In February-March 1986, the XXVII Congress of Soviet Communists took place, the number of which by that time amounted to 19 million people. At the congress, which was held in a traditional ceremonial setting, a new version of the party program was adopted, from which the unfulfilled tasks for building the foundations of a communist society in the USSR by 1980 were removed. elections, plans were made to solve the housing problem by the year 2000. It was at this congress that a course was put forward for the restructuring of all aspects of the life of Soviet society, but specific mechanisms for its implementation have not yet been developed, and it was perceived as an ordinary ideological slogan.

The collapse of perestroika. The collapse of the USSR

The course towards perestroika, proclaimed by the Gorbachev leadership, was accompanied by slogans of accelerating the country's economic development and glasnost, freedom of speech in the field of public life of the population of the USSR. The economic freedom of enterprises, the expansion of their independence and the revival of the private sector turned for the majority of the country's population into rising prices, a shortage of basic goods and a drop in living standards. The policy of glasnost, at first perceived as a sound criticism of all the negative phenomena of Soviet society, led to an uncontrollable process of denigrating the entire past of the country, the emergence of new ideological and political movements and parties that were alternative to the course of the CPSU.
At the same time, the Soviet Union is radically changing its foreign policy - now it was aimed at easing tensions between West and East, settling regional wars and conflicts, and expanding economic and political ties with all states. The Soviet Union stopped the war in Afghanistan, improved relations with China, the United States, contributed to the unification of Germany, etc.
The decomposition of the administrative-command system, generated by the perestroika processes in the USSR, the abolition of the former levers of governing the country and its economy significantly worsened the life of the Soviet people and radically influenced the further deterioration of the economic situation. Centrifugal tendencies were growing in the Union republics. Moscow could no longer tightly control the situation in the country. The market reforms proclaimed in a number of decisions of the country's leadership could not be understood by ordinary people, since they further worsened the already low level of well-being of the people. Inflation intensified, prices on the “black market” rose, there were not enough goods and products. Workers' strikes and interethnic conflicts became frequent occurrences. Under these conditions, representatives of the former party-state nomenklatura attempted a coup d'état - the removal of Gorbachev from the post of president of the collapsing Soviet Union. The failure of the putsch of August 1991 showed the impossibility of reviving the former political system. The very fact of the coup attempt was the result of Gorbachev's inconsistent and ill-conceived policy, leading the country to collapse. In the days that followed the putsch, many former Soviet republics declared their full independence, and the three Baltic republics also achieved its recognition from the USSR. The activity of the CPSU was suspended. Gorbachev, having lost all the levers of governing the country and the authority of the party and state leader, left the post of president of the USSR.

Russia at a turning point

The collapse of the Soviet Union led the American president in December 1991 to congratulate his people on their victory in the Cold War. The Russian Federation, which became the legal successor of the former USSR, inherited all the difficulties in the economy, social life and political relations of the former world power. President of Russia Boris N. Yeltsin, with difficulty maneuvering between various political currents and parties of the country, made a bet on a group of reformers who took a tough course in carrying out market reforms in the country. The practice of ill-conceived privatization of state property, the appeal for financial assistance to international organizations and major powers of the West and East have significantly worsened the overall situation in the country. Non-payment of wages, criminal clashes at the state level, uncontrolled division of state property, a drop in the living standards of the people with the formation of a very small layer of super-rich citizens - this is the result of the policy of the current leadership of the country. Russia is in for a big test. But the whole history of the Russian people shows that its creative forces and intellectual potential will overcome modern difficulties in any case.

Russian history. Brief reference book for schoolchildren - Publishers: Slovo, OLMA-PRESS Education, 2003

Russia in the 18th century.

1. Features of the historical process in Russia in the 18th century.

2. Reforms of Peter 1 and their impact on the history of Russia.

3. The era of palace coups and its consequences.

4. "Enlightened Absolutism" by CatherineII.

5. PaulI.

1. The 18th century is in many ways a turning point in world and Russian history, a time of violent social upheavals. It contained the grandiose reforms of Peter I, which radically changed the face of Russia, an endless series of palace coups. This is the time of the great reforms of Catherine II, the heyday of Russian culture, the time of sharp class battles (peasant wars led by K. Bulavin (1707-1709), E. Pugachev (1773-1775).

The 18th century is the heyday, and then the crisis of the feudal system. In Europe, the decline of absolutism begins. In Russia, at that time, feudalism was experiencing a period of apogee, but since the end of the century, the crisis of the feudal system has been intensifying, however, unlike the West, the crisis of feudalism was accompanied not by a narrowing of its scope, but by spreading to new territories. The 18th century is the time of constant wars for the expansion of the territory of Russia. Back in the 17th century, Siberia, the Far East, and Ukraine became part of Russia. In the 18th century, it included Northern Kazakhstan, the Baltic states, Belarus, the Baltic, the Black and Azov seas. The multinationality of Russia grew. In the 18th century, the population more than doubled (37.5 million people). New big cities are emerging. At the beginning of the century, Russia is experiencing an industrial boom. In agriculture, serfdom continues to dominate. The basis of the social structure was the estate principle. The taxable estates were artisans, peasants, philistines, merchants up to 1 guild. The boyars are increasingly losing their leading positions. During the time of Catherine the Second, the nobles, who received huge benefits, became the first estate. The privileged classes also included foreigners, clergy, Cossack foremen.

In the 18th century, the nature of power changed. Under Peter I, absolutism (autocracy) was finally established. Subsequently, there is a transformation of absolutism into the regime of the enlightened monarchy of Catherine II. The 18th century was characterized by constant, comprehensive intervention of the state in the affairs of society, the role of a catalyst for many processes was played by wars - out of 36 years of the reign of Peter I, Russia fought for 29 years.

2. In the 17th century Russia remained a deeply patriarchal state. The Russian tsars Michael (1613-1645) and his son Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676) were old people, and Russia needed to be modernized. The first attempts at reforms were carried out by the son of Alexei - Fedor (1676 -1682). Alexei had 11 children, and he was an exemplary family man. Under the influence of Sophia, the sister of Peter I, after the death of Fedor, Peter I and Ivan V were proclaimed kings (Ivan V is the son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich through the Miloslavskys). Only in 1689 did Peter overthrow Sophia (she died in a monastery), and in 1696 Peter I became the sole tsar. He ruled for 36 years - from 1689 to 1725. He is considered the largest reformer in Russia.

Peter was a classic supporter of the ideology of rationalism. His ideal was a regular state headed by a sage on the throne. He believed that the state is the fruit of creation not of God, but of man, it can be built like a house. Therefore, it is necessary to invent wise laws that the sage on the throne will put into practice. The state is a tool to make society happy (illusion). Peter wanted clear laws for all occasions. The main idea of ​​Peter is the modernization of Russia "from above" (without the participation of the people), according to the European model. From Peter to the present day, there has been a tendency to catch up with the West, from which we have lagged behind "thanks" to the Mongol-Tatars.

In the first years, Peter looked closely and outlined a plan for reforms (amusing troops, amusing ships). He travels abroad, visits France, Holland, England, Switzerland, Belgium, where he gets acquainted with the experience of Europe. As a simple soldier, Peter participated in two campaigns against Azov. Peter knew 15 crafts, he sought to adopt all the best in the West. Peter is difficult to compare with anyone else. He was a genius, but next to him there were no people of the same rank.

He was a man of enormous stature (2m 4 cm) and gigantic strength.

The main reforms of Peter turned out to be in tune with the interests of Russia. The first recruitment was held in 1705, and the last - in 1874. That is, recruitment sets lasted 169 years.

The Senate, the main governing body of the country, existed for 206 years - from 1711 to 1917.

The synod, the state governing body of the church, existed for 197 years, from 1721 to 1918.

The poll tax existed for 163 years - from 1724 to 1887. Before the poll tax, there was a household.

Peter's reforms were comprehensive and affected all spheres of life. The Petrine system of government was distinguished by: unification and militarization (out of 36 years of Peter's reign, Russia fought for 29 years), centralization and excessive differentiation of functions. Under Peter, the book “Honest Mirrors of Youth” was published, it gave a description of the behavior of young people in different places and in different situations.

The reforms affected the management system. New authorities were created: the Senate, the prosecutor's office (1722) and the Synod, the institute of fiscals (the eye of the sovereign - secret inspection).

In 1718, instead of the Orders, Collegiums were created - collective management bodies (Commerce Collegium, Manufactory Collegium, Berg Collegium, etc.).

Peter changed the system of territorial administration. He introduced the Town Hall and Zemsky huts - the main tax collectors. Town Hall - in the capital cities, zemstvo - in the field.

In 1708, a regional reform was carried out, according to which 8 provinces were created, headed by governors general. After 10 years, the country was divided into 50 provinces. In 1720, Peter created the main magistrate - the body for the administration of territories.

The General Regulations was created - a collection of basic legislative acts.

Peter I destroys the Boyar Duma, but breeds bureaucracy - the Senate, the Synod.

His reforms in the field of economy and culture were radical. From the beginning of the 18th century Peter begins building an industrial base in the Urals, a fleet. In the conditions of the Northern War, he carries out a monetary reform - reduces the amount of metal in money.

Trying to protect Russian industry from competition, he is pursuing an active policy of protectionism (protecting his industry through high customs tariffs) and mercantilism (encouraging his own entrepreneurs). The economy is booming. The number of manufactories increased 10 times. Russia's exports exceeded imports by almost 2 times (surplus).

Under Peter, the life and traditions of society change radically. In 1703, he creates an ideal city - St. Petersburg - a model for the whole country.

Peter introduced a new chronology - from the birth of Christ - the Julian calendar (from the creation of the world). The New Year does not begin on September 1st, but on January 1st. Peter introduced the celebration of the New Year (this tradition of bringing spruce branches came from Peter). He created the first library, the first public newspaper Vedomosti, the first museum, the first state theater. He developed the idea of ​​creating the Academy of Sciences, but Peter died in January 1725, and the Academy was created according to his project, but after his death.

Peter created a wide network of primary schools, digital schools, a network of parish schools, education becomes a priority area. The first specialized institutions appear: artillery, medical schools, mathematical and navigational sciences (Sukharev Tower). Peter changes household traditions, he organizes assemblies (parties), where young people played chess and checkers. Peter brought in tobacco and coffee. The nobles learned the art of etiquette. Peter introduced European clothing and the shaving of beards. There was a beard tax of 100 rubles (5 rubles could buy 20 cows).

In 1721, Peter took the title of emperor, and in 1722 he introduced the Table of Ranks (ladder to the future), according to which the entire population was divided into 14 ranks (chancellor, vice-chancellor, secret adviser, etc.).

Thus, Peter's reforms radically changed Russia. The French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone captured the image of Peter in the form of a sculpture of the Bronze Horseman, in which the horse personifies Russia, while the rider is Peter.

The ideal of Peter - a regular state - turned out to be a utopia. Instead of the ideal, a police state was created. The price of Peter's reforms was too high. He acted on the principle "The end justifies the means."

Peter is a figure of enormous historical scale, complex and contradictory. He was smart, inquisitive, hardworking, energetic. Having not received a proper education, he, nevertheless, possessed extensive knowledge in various fields of science, technology, crafts, and military art. But many qualities of Peter's character were due to the nature of the harsh era in which he lived, determined his cruelty, suspicion, lust for power. Peter liked being compared to Ivan the Terrible. In achieving his goals, he did not disdain any means, he was cruel to people (1689 chopped off the heads of archers, looked at people as material for the implementation of his plan). During the reign of Peter in the country, taxes increased by 3 times and the population decreased by 15%. Peter did not stop before using the most sophisticated methods of the Middle Ages: he used torture, surveillance, and encouraged denunciations. He was convinced that in the name of the state good, moral standards can be neglected.

Merits of Peter:

Peter made a gigantic contribution to the creation of a mighty Russia with a strong army and navy.

He contributed to the creation of industrial production in the state (a giant leap in the development of productive forces).

His merit is the modernization of the state machine.

Reforms in the field of culture.

However, the nature of their implementation was reduced to the mechanical transfer of cultural stereotypes of the West, the suppression of the development of national culture.

Peter's reforms aimed at the Europeanization of Russia are grandiose in scope and consequences, but they could not ensure the long-term progress of the country, because. were carried out by force and consolidated a rigid system based on forced labor.

2 . With the light hand of V.O. Klyuchevsky, the period from 1725 to 1762. 37 years of our history began to be called "the era of palace coups." Peter I changed the traditional order of succession to the throne. Previously, the throne passed in a direct male descending line, and according to the manifesto of February 5, 1722, the monarch himself appointed his successor. But Peter did not have time to appoint an heir. A power struggle between the two factions began. One supported Catherine I - the wife of Peter (Tolstoy, Menshikov), the other - the grandson of Peter I - Peter II (the old aristocracy). The outcome of the case was decided by the guards. From 1725 to 1727 Catherine I ruled. She was incapable of governing. In February 1726, the Supreme Privy Council was created, headed by Menshikov. Before her death, Catherine drew up a decree on succession to the throne (testament), according to which power was to belong to Peter II - the grandson of Peter I, the son of Tsarevich Alexei, and then Anna Ioannovna - the niece of Peter I, then Anna Petrovna and Elizabeth Petrovna (daughter of Peter I). After the death of Catherine I, Peter II came to the throne - a boy of 12 years old, the son of Alexei, under whom Menshikov ruled. In the autumn of 1727, Menshikov was arrested and stripped of his ranks and ranks. Under him, affairs were managed by a secret council, and the main occupations of Peter II were hunting and love joys.

After the death of Peter II, Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740) came to power. She was the daughter of Ivan V, the brother of Peter I. She was not distinguished by intelligence, beauty, or education. She handed over control to Ernst Biron, Duke of Courland (since 1737). The reign of Anna Ioannovna was called "Bironism". During her reign, the autocracy was strengthened, the duties of the nobles were reduced and their rights were expanded over the peasants. Before her death, Anna Ioannovna announced her successor to the infant John VI Antonovich, the son of her niece. Biron was regent under Ivan, and then his mother, Anna Leopoldovna.

On November 25, 1741, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter I, came to power, overthrowing the young Ivan with the help of the Guards. She ruled for 20 years - from 1741 to 1761. The cheerful and loving empress did not devote much time to public affairs. Her policy was distinguished by caution and softness. She was the first in Europe to abolish the death penalty. Klyuchevsky called her "a smart and kind, but disorderly and wayward Russian young lady."

Peter III (Karl Peter Ulrich - son of Anna Petrovna - daughter of Peter I and Duke Karl Friedrich) ruled for 6 months (from December 25, 1761 to June 28, 1762) (born 1728-1762). His wife was Catherine II the Great. Peter was not respected either by his wife, or by the courtiers, or by the guards, or in society.

On June 28, 1762, a palace coup took place. Peter III was forced to abdicate, and a few days later he was killed.

4. The era of palace coups is ending, the Enlightened absolutism of Catherine II begins.

Like Peter I, Catherine II went down in history under the name of Catherine the Great. Her reign became a new era in the history of Russia. The beginning of the reign was difficult for Catherine in moral terms. Peter III was the legitimate sovereign, the grandson of Peter the Great, and Catherine was actually called Sophia Frederica-August, the German princess Anhald of Zerbst. She showed herself as a patriot of the Russian land. For the first 15 years, she did not play a significant role in state affairs. She persistently studied the Russian language and literature, the works of ancient authors, the works of French enlighteners, the traditions and customs of the Russian people. Catherine's first steps spoke of her mind. One of her decrees reduced taxes on bread and salt. Catherine was the first to inoculate herself against smallpox and saved the lives of thousands of peasants.

She was crowned in Moscow on September 22, 1762 (she awarded everyone who helped her - the participants in the coup received land with serfs, ranks, money). Catherine was a typical Westerner. She tried to introduce the ideas of enlightenment and freedom in Russia. Catherine was a supporter of autocracy and a prominent follower of Peter I. She wanted to create in Russia a regime of enlightened absolutism - a regime in which the monarch cares about the freedom, welfare and enlightenment of the people. The monarch is the sage on the throne. True freedom, according to Catherine, consisted in strict observance of the law. She came up with the idea of ​​limiting state intervention in the economy, defended the freedom of entrepreneurship. Catherine provided extensive benefits to manufactories. Its main goal is to strengthen the social support of absolutism, making the nobles the first estate. Until 1775, reforms were carried out spontaneously (spontaneously), and from 1775 the second stage of reforms began, which finally established the power of the nobility in Russia.

Catherine tried to develop new legislation based on the principles of the Enlightenment. In 1767, a commission was created to review Russian laws, which received the name laid down. The commission was made up of deputies from different class groups - the nobility, townspeople, state peasants, Cossacks. The deputies came to the commission with instructions from their electors. Catherine turned to the Commission with the Order, which used the ideas of Montesquieu, the Italian lawyer Beccaria on the state and laws. In December 1768, the Commission stopped its work in connection with the Russian-Turkish war. The main goal - the development of the Code - has not been achieved. But this helped Catherine to get acquainted with the problems and needs of the population.

The largest act of Catherine was Letter of Complaint to the nobility and cities in 1785. It determined the rights and privileges of the nobility. It finally took shape as a privileged class. In this document, the old privileges were confirmed - the right to own peasants, lands, subsoil, freedom from the poll tax, recruitment duty, corporal punishment, the transfer of noble titles by inheritance and freedom from public service.

In the Letter of Complaint to the cities, all the rights and privileges of the cities described by previous legislation were listed: the exemption of the top merchants from the poll tax and the replacement of recruitment duty with a cash contribution. The charter divided the urban population into 6 categories and defined the rights and obligations of each of them. The privileged group of citizens included the so-called. eminent citizens: merchants (capital over 50 thousand rubles), wealthy bankers (at least 100 thousand rubles), and urban intelligentsia (architects, painters, composers, scientists). Another privileged group included the guild merchants, which were divided into 3 guilds. The merchants of the first two guilds were exempted from corporal punishment, but the last one was not. The letter of grant to the cities introduced a complex system of city self-government. The most important body of self-government was the city-wide “Meeting of the City Society”, which was assembled once every three years, at which officials were elected: the mayor, burgomasters, assessors of the magistrate, etc. The executive body was the six-vowel Duma, which consisted of the mayor and six vowels - one from each category of the urban population.

Senate reform

It was divided into 6 departments with 5 senators each. At the head of each was the Chief Prosecutor. Each department had certain powers: the first (headed by the Prosecutor General himself) was in charge of state and political affairs in St. Petersburg, the second - judicial in St. Petersburg, the third - transport, medicine, science, education, art, the fourth - military land and naval affairs, the fifth - state and political in Moscow and the sixth - the Moscow Judicial Department. The general powers of the Senate were reduced, in particular, it lost its legislative initiative and became the body of control over the activities of the state apparatus and the highest judicial authority. The center of legislative activity moved directly to Catherine and her office with secretaries of state.

Before the reform, senators could sit back and considered it their task to be present in the institution, and in departments the ability to hide behind others was reduced. The effectiveness of the work of the Senate has increased significantly.

The Senate became the body of control over the activities of the state apparatus and the highest court, but lost the legislative initiative, which passed to Catherine.

Since 1764, Catherine has been holding land secularization and peasants. 1 million peasants were taken away from the church. The church became part of the state machine. In the same year, Catherine liquidated the autonomy of Ukraine.

Catherine tried to solve the peasant issue - to limit the power of the landowners, but the nobles and the aristocracy did not support these attempts, and subsequently decrees were issued that strengthened the power of the landowners.

In 1765, a Decree was adopted on the right of landowners to exile peasants to Siberia without trial. In 1767 - about the prohibition of peasants to complain about the landowners. The time of Catherine is the time of serfdom. Taxes on peasants increased by 2 times. In the 1960s and 1970s, a wave of peasant uprisings swept through.

In 1765, Catherine founded the Free Economic Society - the first Russian scientific society (K.D. Kavelin, D.I. Mendeleev, A.M. Butlerov, P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky), which existed until 1915. It published the first statistical-geographic study of Russia, promoted the introduction of new agricultural techniques in agriculture, and discussed economic problems. By decree of Catherine, the Encyclopedia of Labour, Crafts and Arts, banned in the West, is being translated in Russia.

In 1765, Catherine issued two Decrees: “On General Land Surveying”, according to which the nobles secured the previously received lands and “On distillation”, according to which the nobles received a monopoly on the production of alcohol.

In 1775, the provincial reform. The country was divided into 50 provinces with 10-12 counties in each province. The post of governors, noble assemblies were introduced. A special chamber of public charity was created, which took care of education and health care (schools, hospitals, shelters).

Catherine died in 1796, she reigned for 34 years. By the standards of that time, Catherine lived a long life, died at 66 years old. Her reforms turned out to be ineffective and ineffective, cut off from Russian reality.

To prepare for the seminar

From the Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius:

Catherine, the daughter of Prince Christian-August of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was in the Prussian service, and Princess Johanna-Elisabeth (nee Princess of Holstein-Gottorp), was related to the royal houses of Sweden, Prussia and England. She was educated at home: she studied German and French, dance, music, the basics of history, geography, and theology. Already in childhood, her independent character, curiosity, perseverance and, at the same time, a penchant for lively, outdoor games, manifested itself. In 1744, Catherine and her mother were summoned to Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, baptized according to Orthodox tradition under the name of Catherine Alekseevna and named the bride of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (the future Emperor Peter III), whom she married in 1745.

Catherine set herself the goal of winning the favor of the Empress, her husband and the Russian people. However, her personal life was unsuccessful: Peter was infantile, so during the first years of marriage there was no marital relationship between them. Paying tribute to the cheerful life of the court, Catherine turned to reading French enlighteners and works on history, jurisprudence and economics. These books shaped her worldview. Catherine became a consistent supporter of the ideas of the Enlightenment. She was also interested in the history, traditions and customs of Russia. In the early 1750s. Catherine started an affair with the Guards officer S. V. Saltykov, and in 1754 gave birth to a son, the future Emperor Paul I, but the rumors that Saltykov was Paul's father are unfounded. In the second half of the 1750s. Catherine had an affair with the Polish diplomat S. Poniatowski (later King Stanislaw August), and in the early 1760s. with G. G. Orlov, from whom she gave birth in 1762 to a son, Alexei, who received the surname Bobrinsky. The deterioration of relations with her husband led to the fact that she began to fear for her fate if he came to power and began to recruit supporters for herself at court. The ostentatious piety of Catherine, her prudence, sincere love for Russia - all this contrasted sharply with the behavior of Peter and allowed her to gain authority both among the high-society capital society and the general population of St. Petersburg.

Accession to the throne

During the six months of the reign of Peter III, Catherine's relationship with her husband (who openly appeared in the company of E. R. Vorontsova's mistress) continued to deteriorate, becoming clearly hostile. There was a threat of her arrest and possible deportation. Catherine carefully prepared a conspiracy, relying on the support of the Orlov brothers, N. I. Panin, K. G. Razumovsky, E. R. Dashkova and others. On the night of June 28, 1762, when the emperor was in Oranienbaum, Catherine secretly arrived in St. Petersburg and In the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment, she was proclaimed an autocratic empress. Soldiers from other regiments soon joined the rebels. The news of Catherine's accession to the throne quickly spread throughout the city and was greeted with enthusiasm by the people of St. Petersburg. To prevent the actions of the deposed emperor, messengers were sent to the army and to Kronstadt. Meanwhile, Peter, having learned about what had happened, began to send proposals for negotiations to Catherine, which were rejected. The empress herself, at the head of the guards regiments, set out for Petersburg and on the way received Peter's written abdication from the throne.

Catherine II was a subtle psychologist and an excellent connoisseur of people, she skillfully selected her assistants, not being afraid of bright and talented people. That is why Catherine's time was marked by the appearance of a whole galaxy of outstanding statesmen, generals, writers, artists, and musicians. In dealing with subjects, Catherine was, as a rule, restrained, patient, tactful. She was an excellent conversationalist, able to listen carefully to everyone. By her own admission, she did not have a creative mind, but she was good at capturing any sensible thought and using it for her own purposes. During the entire reign of Catherine, there were practically no noisy resignations, none of the nobles was disgraced, exiled, let alone executed. Therefore, there was an idea of ​​​​Catherine's reign as the "golden age" of the Russian nobility. At the same time, Catherine was very vain and valued her power more than anything in the world. For the sake of her preservation, she is ready to make any compromises to the detriment of her beliefs.

Attitude towards religion and the peasant question

Catherine was distinguished by ostentatious piety, considered herself the head and defender of the Russian Orthodox Church and skillfully used religion in her political interests. Her faith, apparently, was not too deep. In the spirit of the time, she preached religious tolerance. Under her, the persecution of the Old Believers was stopped, Catholic and Protestant churches, mosques were built, but the transition from Orthodoxy to another faith was still severely punished.

Catherine was a staunch opponent of serfdom, considering it inhumane and contrary to the very nature of man. In her papers, many harsh statements on this subject, as well as discussions about various options for the elimination of serfdom, have been preserved. However, she did not dare to do anything concrete in this area because of the well-founded fear of a noble rebellion and another coup. At the same time, Catherine was convinced of the spiritual underdevelopment of the Russian peasants and therefore was in danger of granting them freedom, believing that the life of the peasants among caring landowners was quite prosperous.

Catherine came to the throne with a well-defined political program based, on the one hand, on the ideas of the Enlightenment and, on the other, taking into account the peculiarities of the historical development of Russia. The most important principles for the implementation of this program were gradual, consistent, taking into account public sentiment.

the first years of her reign, Catherine carried out reform of the Senate (1763), made the work of this institution more efficient; carried out the secularization of church lands (1764), which significantly replenished the state treasury and eased the situation of a million peasants; liquidated the hetmanate in Ukraine, which corresponded to her ideas about the need to unify administration throughout the empire; invited German colonists to Russia for the development of the Volga and Black Sea regions. In the same years, a number of new educational institutions were founded, including the first in Russia educational institutions for women(Smolny Institute, Catherine School). In 1767, she announced the convening of a Commission to draft a new code, consisting of elected deputies from all social groups of Russian society, with the exception of serfs. Catherine wrote for the Commission "Instruction", which was essentially a liberal program of her reign. Catherine's appeals, however, were not understood by the deputies of the Commission, who were arguing over petty issues. In the course of their discussions, deep contradictions between individual social groups, a low level of political culture and the frank conservatism of the majority of the members of the Commission were revealed. At the end of 1768 the Legislative Commission was dissolved. Ekaterina herself appreciated the experience of the Commission as an important lesson that introduced her to the moods of different sections of the country's population.

The 18th century is a period of a qualitative leap in the history of Russia. Enormous transformations were carried out in its economy, state system, in the organization of the army, in culture. Russia's place in the international arena has changed radically. An important line between medieval Moscow Russia and the Russian Empire is the time of Peter I.

Foreign policy of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century. The main directions and features of foreign policy. The main foreign policy task facing Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century was the struggle for access to the seas: the Black, Azov, Baltic. In setting these tasks, Russia continued the foreign policy of the previous period, but achieved their solution by more advanced military and diplomatic means, with unprecedented perseverance and energy. With his main enemies (Turkey and Sweden), Peter I fought not like his predecessors, now these were coalition, allied wars.

Azov campaigns. The swing of the reign of Peter I (1682-1725) was entirely devoted to the Black Sea problem, so the first major step in his foreign policy was the organization of a campaign to the shores of the Azov and Black Seas. The Black Sea at that time was the inland sea of ​​Turkey, which, in the figurative expression of one diplomat, took care of it "like a pure and immaculate maiden, whom no one dares to touch." Thus, one of the most important tasks of Russian foreign policy at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. there was a struggle for the southern lands, against the Troks and Crimean Tatars, who constantly attacked Russian cities and villages in the south of the country, exposing them to robberies, taking the population into captivity.

In 1695, the first Azov campaign began, the purpose of which was to capture the Turkish fortress of Azov, which blocked access to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. However, after two unsuccessful assaults, they decided to stop the siege of the fortress. The bulk of the Russian troops retreated deep into Russia.

The main reasons for the failure of the 1695 campaign were as follows: the absence of a fleet from Russia, as a result of which the blockade of Azov from the sea was impossible, from where the Turks received reinforcements and supplies; lack of unity of command in the army and mutual support in the assault units; lack of artillery, poor training of troops, especially archers; the paucity of cavalry to fight the steppe Tatars.

At the end of 1695, preparations began for the second campaign near Azov. The mistakes of the first campaign were eliminated: the construction of the fleet began; to ensure unity of command, a commander-in-chief of the ground forces was appointed. In the spring of 1696, the army and navy set out on a campaign, and in July Azov was taken.

This event was the largest foreign policy and military success of Russia, the first step to the seas. The experience of joint operations of the ground forces and the navy during the capture of Azov was then successfully developed during the Northern War. At the same time, the Azov campaigns showed the urgent need for organizing a Russian regular army.

"Great Embassy" At the beginning of 1697, Russia managed to conclude offensive treaties for a period of three years with Austria and Venice against the Crimean Tatars and Turks. In the same year, with the participation of Peter himself, the “Great Embassy” went to Western Europe with the aim of further expanding and strengthening the alliance against Turkey. However, the "Great Embassy" could not fulfill this task. The fact is that due to internal contradictions, Europe at that time was divided into two camps. In addition, Holland and England were interested in trade with Turkey. Under these conditions, it became impossible to attract new members to the anti-Turkish alliance. Moreover, even the former members of this alliance, fearing the strengthening of Russia, were in a hurry to conclude peace with Turkey.

In addition to performing diplomatic tasks, the embassy had to hire sailors, artisans, gunners and other specialists for the Russian service. The embassy was accompanied by representatives of noble youth sent abroad to study naval affairs and shipbuilding.

Beginning of the Northern War. The failure of the "Great Embassy" convinced Peter I that in the broken situation it was impossible to gain access to the Black Sea. Based on the situation, Peter determines a new main direction of foreign policy - to return the ancient Russian lands along the Neva River, captured by the Swedes at the beginning of the 17th century, and thus achieve access to the Baltic Sea.

The war with the Swedes was preceded by some successful Russian diplomatic steps. So, in 1699, agreements were signed with Denmark and the Elector of Saxony, August II, who then occupied the Polish throne, on an alliance against Sweden (Northern Union). These treaties were the first Russian diplomatic acts to have the tsar's personal signature. Prior to this, the treaties were sealed with the signatures of Russian ambassadors and the state seal. At the beginning of 1699, an agreement was reached on a two-year Russian-Turkish truce, and in 1700 a truce was concluded for 30 years.

The war with Sweden, which went down in history under the name "Northern", began in the summer of 1700. However, its beginning was unsuccessful for the participants in the Northern Union. Denmark, after the Swedish landing near its capital, withdrew from the war. The actions of the Polish king were also unsuccessful. The military participation of the Russians began with the siege of the Swedish fortress of Narva, which ended with the defeat of the Russian troops, who lost almost all of their artillery.

The Swedish king, believing that the Russians were defeated and would not recover, sent the main forces of his army against Augustus II. However, Russia managed to eliminate the severe consequences of the defeat near Narva in a short time. The formation of a regular army was accelerated, the production of metal, weapons and uniforms increased. As a result, already in December 1701, the first significant victory over the Swedes was won. Subsequently, the Russian troops began to win one victory after another: several fortresses on the Neva were taken, and in 1704 Narva fell after a second siege.

Creation of a regular army and navy. Peter I carried out a radical reorganization of the armed forces. A newly organized regular army and navy were created. The transformation of the army began with the development of a military charter (1698), the creation of a guard and regular regiments. By 1705, a new system of recruitment into the army had finally taken shape. Since that time, compulsory recruiting, first introduced in 1699, has become the main source of replenishment of the army. Every 20 peasant households had to give one recruit. The soldier's service became lifelong. The local noble militia and the archery army were liquidated. Special schools were opened for the training of artillery and engineering personnel.

At the beginning of the XVIII century. For the first time in the history of Russia, a navy was created. Moreover, the construction of the fleet proceeded at an unprecedented pace and at the level of the best examples of shipbuilding of that time.

Foundation of St. Petersburg. In May 1703, the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress began, which laid the foundation for the city of St. Petersburg, in which, almost from the moment of its foundation, Peter I saw his new capital. Unlike other cities in Russia, the development of which was carried out spontaneously, the construction of St. Petersburg was carried out according to a predetermined plan. Special decrees established the types of buildings, the size of which depended on the solvency of the owner. Wealthy landlords and merchants were obliged to build two-story stone buildings with high rooms and large windows.

Poltava battle. In the autumn of 1707, the Swedish troops began a campaign to the east, the ultimate goal of which was the capture of Moscow. However, the fierce resistance of the Russian army forced the Swedish king Charles III to change the invasion plan. Instead of going to Moscow through Smolensk, he was forced to go to Ukraine, whose hetman, Mazepa, promised him support. But this plan also failed. In September 1708, the Swedish corps, which accompanied a huge convoy with food and weapons for Charles, was defeated near the village of Lesnoy.

In April 1709, the Swedes approached the fortress of Poltava and laid siege to it. For three months the garrison and the townspeople staunchly defended the city. Finally, Russian troops approached, and on June 27, 1709, a battle began in which the Swedes were defeated. Near Poltava, for the first time in military history, the Russian army used a system of field fortifications - redoubts, which brilliantly justified themselves during the battle. The remnants of the defeated Swedish army, led by Charles III, fled in panic to the Dnieper, where they were overtaken and captured by Menshikov. Only the king himself with Mazepa and a small detachment managed to hide in Turkish possessions.

The Battle of Poltava was the decisive battle of the Northern War, its turning point. The military power of Sweden on land was finally broken and she could no longer recover from her defeat. The foreign policy situation also changed: the Northern Alliance was restored and expanded, to which Prussia joined.

Victory of the Russian fleet. After the defeat of the Swedes on land, the fight at sea became of paramount importance, where Sweden had a strong navy, significantly superior to the young Russian one. By the spring of 1714, Russia already had a fairly large fleet in the Baltic. Sweden also energetically prepared for active combat operations at sea.

Russian ships left St. Petersburg in May 1714 and in July attacked the Swedish fleet near the Gangut peninsula. The fierce battle ended in a complete victory for the Russians. The Gangut battle entered the history of the Russian Navy as one of its most brilliant pages. It was the first major victory of the Russian fleet over the Swedish, which until that time had not been defeated. The Battle of Gangut marked the beginning of Russia's power in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish fleet, which previously dominated the Baltic, was forced to go on the defensive.

In July 1720, the Russian fleet won a brilliant victory over the Swedes off Grengam Island. In Russia, they were especially proud of this victory, since the British ships, which were in the Baltic to destroy the Russian fleet, could not prevent the defeat of the Swedes.

The growth of Russia's international influence. Russia's successes in the Northern War forced Charles XII to enter into peace negotiations, which were long and difficult. Finally, in August 1721, in the city of Nystadt, a peace treaty was concluded between Russia and Sweden (Nystadt Peace), which introduced important changes in the balance of power in Europe: Sweden lost its status as a great power; Significant territories that make up modern Estonia, Latvia, part of the Leningrad Region and Karelia were ceded to Russia. Thus, having received access to the Baltic Sea, Russia pushed its northwestern borders far to the west, which from land became maritime.

In 1724, Sweden renounced an alliance with England and concluded an alliance agreement with Russia on mutual assistance. Russia entered the broad international arena and not a single issue of international life could be resolved without its participation.

The entire foreign policy of Russia at the end of the 17th and the first quarter of the 18th centuries. can be divided into two major periods: before the Battle of Poltava and after it. These periods, in turn, are divided into the following stages: the time of the Azov campaigns, the "Great Embassy" to Western Europe and preparations for the Northern War (1695-1699); the first years of the Northern War - the occupation by Russian troops of the Neva River and the cities of Narva and Derpt, the foundation of St. Petersburg, the victory near Lesnaya and, finally, the Battle of Poltava, which was a turning point in the entire Northern War; subsequent 1709-1715, when the capture of the Baltic was completed, a naval victory was won at Gangut; the final stage of the Northern War (1716-1721): amphibious landings on the Swedish coast, a naval victory at Grengam, diplomatic negotiations that ended with the Peace of Nystadt; 1722-1724: conclusion of an alliance treaty with Sweden.

The economic development of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century. The main feature of the Russian economy during this period was the active intervention of the state in the development of the country's productive forces. First of all, this was reflected in industry and trade, although changes were taking place in agriculture.

Industry development. Early 18th century - a significant period in the development of Russian industry. At this time, large-scale manufactory-type production was spreading, which was dictated primarily by the needs of the army and navy. Merchants who founded private manufactories received benefits. Instead of 15-20 manufactories of the pre-Petrine time for the first quarter of the eighteenth century. about 200 enterprises were created (according to other sources - about 100). The main attention was paid to metallurgy, the center of which was the Urals. From 1700 to 1725 iron smelting in the country increased by more than five times.

Cloth, sailing and linen, rope, leather manufactories appeared and rapidly developed, supplying the army with uniforms, and the fleet with canvas and ropes.

The growth of industrial production was accompanied by the intensification of feudal exploitation, the widespread use of forced labor in enterprises. Decrees of 1721 and 1723. private manufactories were cut off by the purchase of peasant families by whole families.

The reforms also covered the sphere of small-scale production. By decree of 1722, a shop device was introduced in the cities. All artisans, headed by an elected headman, were divided into workshops depending on their specialty. The creation of workshops testified to the patronage of the authorities to the development of crafts.

Changes in agriculture. Attempts to reform were also in agriculture. So, by decree of 1721, the peasants were ordered to harvest the grain with scythes instead of sickles. The decree of 1715 contributed to a significant expansion of the sowing of industrial crops (flax and hemp), traditional in Russia. New crops were introduced: tobacco, grapes, fruit trees. In some areas, horticulture acquired commercial importance. In 1720, the construction of the first silk-spinning factory was started. All mulberry trees were taken into account and the death penalty threatened for their felling.

Much attention was paid to animal husbandry. In accordance with government decrees, the development of horse breeding and fine-wool sheep breeding began.

Trade. In the field of domestic and foreign trade, a state monopoly was introduced on the procurement and sale of a number of goods (salt, flax, hemp, furs, lard, caviar, bread, wine, wax, bristles), which significantly replenished the treasury. The development of trade relations with foreign countries was encouraged in every possible way. By the end of Peter's reign, the export of Russian goods was twice as high as the import. At the same time, high customs tariffs (up to 40%) reliably protected the domestic market from competition. Thus, the state policy of mercantilism was clearly manifested in trade, i.e. striving for the accumulation of wealth by exceeding the export of goods over imports, encouraging the development of domestic trade and industry.

Financial area. The financial policy of the state was characterized by unprecedented tax oppression. A radical reform of the entire tax system was carried out - the poll tax was introduced, which by the end of the reign of Peter I accounted for more than half of state revenues.

The era of palace coups and the expansion of noble privileges in the eighteenth century. The crisis of power after the death of Peter I. The struggle of noble groups for power. In January 1725, Peter I died without having time to appoint a successor before his death. The nobles who advanced under Peter wanted to see the wife of the deceased emperor, Catherine, on the throne. The old, well-born nobility had its own candidate - the grandson of Peter I, the young Peter - the son of the deceased Tsarevich Alexei. The dispute about the successor was decided by the guards regiments, which since that time have become the main instrument of the struggle for power. With their support, Catherine (1725-1727) was elevated to the throne. Under the empress, the Supreme Privy Council was created, which became the highest institution in the state, pushing the Senate to a secondary position.

After the death of Catherine I, the grandson of Peter I, Peter II, became emperor. Under the young tsar, Menshikov enjoyed considerable influence. As a result of the palace coup, Menshikov was exiled and the old aristocracy came to power, removing the nominees of Peter I from governing the country.

After the death in 1730 of Peter II, the niece of Peter I, the Duchess of Courland, was on the throne. Anna Ivanovna. The Supreme Council, which offered her the crown, tried to significantly limit the power of the new empress, but the performance of the nobility frustrated these plans. The Supreme Soviet was abolished and its members subjected to repression.

In the reign of Anna Ivanovna, the influence of foreigners reached unprecedented proportions, who enjoyed advantages in being appointed to lucrative positions and promotion.

Shortly before her death (1740), Anna Ivanovna appointed her successor - the three-month-old grandson of her niece. But in 1741 there was another palace coup, which was openly directed against the dominance of foreigners. With the weakness of the guard, the protege of the Russian nobility, the daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth (1741-1761), came to power. The Germans lost high positions in the state. The institutions created during the period of Peter's reforms were restored.

After the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, her nephew, the Duke of Holstein, took the throne under the name of Peter III, who was killed as a result of the last palace coup carried out by the guards in the 18th century. The reign of the wife of Peter III - Catherine II (1762-1796) began.

Social policy and serf legislation of Catherine II. History of Russian absolutism in the second half of the eighteenth century. can be divided into two periods: the first - before the peasant war of 1773-1775. (this time is usually called the period of "enlightened absolutism"); the second - the period of open noble reaction, which especially intensified from 1789-1790. in connection with the revolution in France. "Enlightened absolutism" in Russia was a special form of autocracy policy, a characteristic feature of which is some adaptation of the noble state to the requirements of emerging capitalism.

"Enlightened absolutism" was also generated by the aggravation of social contradictions, the class struggle of the peasants. The essence of the policy of "enlightened absolutism" was not only the suppression of peasant movements, but also the desire to prevent them.

The government proceeded from the fact that violent forms of suppressing the protest of the masses are not always effective, so it found it possible to make some concessions to the peasants. For example, the assignment of state peasants to factories, where labor was much harder than in agriculture, was stopped. However, such events did not affect the essence of the feudal-serf system. Exposing herself in words as an opponent of serfdom, Catherine at the same time issued decrees aimed at further spreading serfdom. Under her, the activity of the political detective resumed, inflicting cruel reprisals on all who spoke in defense of the oppressed.

At the same time, decisions were made aimed at preserving and significantly expanding the rights and privileges of the nobles. In 1765, the nobles were granted a monopoly on distillation. This decree made it possible to turn grain into vodka on the spot and hand it over to state taverns, which significantly increased the income of landowners. In the same year, a law is issued that secures to the nobles all the lands they seized from the peasants. As a result, the economic basis of serfdom - feudal landownership - expanded significantly.

A whole series of decrees of Catherine II secured super-preferential conditions for the promotion of nobles to officer ranks, sharply increased funds for the maintenance of class noble educational institutions.

Legal acts of the 60s. they forbade the admission of peasants to the state service, almost doubled the poll tax. In 1765, a decree was issued giving landowners the right to exile their peasants to hard labor without trial. The exile was credited to the landowner for a recruit. Finally, in 1767, one of the most cruel decrees in the entire history of the existence of serfdom was issued, according to which any complaint of the peasants against the landowner was declared the gravest state crime. Those who filed such a complaint were punished with a whip and exile to hard labor. This normative act completed the registration of the unlimited power of the landowners over the peasants.

Secularization of church land ownership, its goals and significance. In 1764, secularization (seizure) of church land ownership was carried out. About two million peasants were taken from the monasteries, who became state-owned. Corvee for them was replaced by a cash quitrent. Most of the lands on which they carried corvee in favor of the monasteries passed to the peasants. The decree significantly reduced the number of monasteries. Of the 957, about 200 remained, which were received by the state. This event significantly strengthened the economic base of the autocracy, put an end to the independence of the church and turned it into a part of the bureaucratic apparatus.

"Laid Commission". One of the most striking manifestations of “enlightened absolutism” was the convening of the Commission for the drafting of a new code (code of laws), since the current “Council Code” of 1649 was completely outdated by that time.

Elections of deputies of the Commission had a class character. The nobles elected a deputy from each county, the townspeople - from each city. The clergy, as well as landlord peasants, did not receive the right to participate in the elections.

One of the central tasks in the activities of the Commission, which was opened in the summer of 1767, was the peasant question. The landowners complained about the exodus of serfs and demanded decisive action.

The merchant class insisted not only on securing their old rights, but also on their expansion; on creating conditions for the growth of industry and trade; demanded to protect them from the competition of trading nobles and the right to own serfs. Deputies from the state peasants asked to ease taxes, to put an end to the arbitrariness of the authorities.

Under the pretext of the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish war, Catherine in 1769 dissolved the Commission.

The period of Russian history after the death of Peter I (1725-1762) is designated as the era of "palace coups", the essence of which is that the change of power occurred mainly with the assistance of the guards. The essence of Russian autocracy in the second half of the eighteenth century. (mainly - until 1773) is characterized as "enlightened absolutism" - a special form of autocracy, characteristic of countries with a relatively slow pace of development of capitalist relations. "Enlightened absolutism" is characterized by liberal phraseology, social demagogy; the use of the ideas of the enlighteners, from which their anti-feudal essence was thrown out; subordination of the church to the state. The main task of the policy of "enlightened absolutism" is the implementation of reforms due to the development of bourgeois relations and the strengthening of class contradictions. The meaning of the transformations carried out was to reduce the level of social class conflicts and strengthen the positions of the nobility. Essentially, “enlightened absolutism” is the balancing of autocracy, firstly, between the nobility and the emerging bourgeoisie; second, between the various factions of the nobility.

The beginning of the decomposition of the feudal-serf economy in the second half of the eighteenth century. New phenomena in the economic life of the country. The beginning of the decomposition of feudal relations and the formation of the capitalist way of life. In the second half of the XVIII century. The feudal-serf system in Russia began to loosen under the influence of the growth of capitalist relations. The traditional methods of organizing the economy and exploiting labor required significant changes. Commodity production began to penetrate into agriculture, which accelerated the property stratification of the peasantry. Hundreds of thousands of ruined peasants broke their connection with the land and looked for work in non-agricultural trades. Consequently, there was a process of formation of a labor market for large-scale industry.

Signs of the beginning of the decomposition of the feudal system, the feudal system were: the beginning of the liquidation of the monopoly of the nobility on landed property; the concentration of large land holdings in the hands of rich peasants and merchants; attempts by some of the landowners to introduce agricultural improvements, to engage in commercial and industrial activities.

Agricultural and industrial development of new regions of the country. Most of the nobles nevertheless sought to increase their incomes without changing the foundations of the economy, by spreading serf relations to new territories. The movement of landowners to the south, to the black earth regions, the formation of farms on unplowed fertile lands began.

At the same time, the seizure of land by the nobles in the Volga region and the resettlement of serfs from the interior regions of Russia continued. The local non-Russian population left for the Trans-Volga and Ural regions. Agriculture began to penetrate even into remote regions of Siberia. The economic development of the Don was especially successful. Farming, previously forbidden here, became the main occupation of the Cossacks. Tsarism encouraged the noble colonization of Ukraine, the Lower Volga region, and the North Caucasus, where huge landowner farms were created.

The economic development of the Northern Black Sea region was distinguished by its originality. In the interests of the rapid development of this region, the government gave up the main privilege of the nobility - the right to monopoly land ownership. Plots of small size here could get everything, with the exception of the serfs. Once deserted lands began to produce surplus grain, exported through the Black Sea ports abroad.

The presence in the newly developed areas of non-noble landownership, an insignificant percentage of the enslaved population created more favorable conditions than in Central Russia for the development of bourgeois relations.

The industrial development of new territories proceeded rather quickly. The Urals is becoming the main center of Russian metallurgy. In the foothills of Altai, silver and lead began to be mined, the geography of the location of the cloth production changed. The centers of this industry have moved to the areas of sheep breeding (Voronezh province, Ukraine).

Development of industry, crafts and trade. Second half of the seventeenth century was a time of further rapid development of industry in Russia. According to some quantitative indicators of large-scale industrial production, Russia was ahead of all continental Europe and was a supplier of iron to European countries.

Organizational forms and types of manufactories changed. An increasing number of state-owned enterprises are transferred to the hands of merchants and the nobility. Along with industry based on various types of forced labor, production using hired workers developed. The number of merchant and peasant manufactories, which were the direct predecessors of the capitalist factory, grew. Manufactories in light industry were large. Among them stood out those that employed up to two or more thousand people. The number of hired workers employed in manufactories, crafts and transport has increased greatly.

However, serfdom hindered technological progress. While England entered the era of the industrial revolution, the technology of Russia remained old. Individual improvements and even major inventions were not widely used and were quickly forgotten.

The development of cities, handicraft and manufactory production, the detachment from agriculture of a large number of peasants caused a growing demand for agricultural products, favored the expansion of the capacity of the domestic market, and an increase in the number of fairs. The development of the all-Russian market was facilitated by the abolition in 1753 of internal customs duties. However, the growth of domestic trade was seriously hampered by the unsatisfactory state of communications.

Positive tendencies have been outlined in foreign trade. The export of goods began to exceed their import. In the structure of exports, the share of finished products grew, although raw materials and semi-finished products still occupied the first place. Among the goods imported into Russia, items of noble consumption continued to dominate: sugar, wines, spices, perfumes.

In order to develop domestic industry, the government continued to pursue a protectionist course. So, in 1766, a new customs tariff was adopted, preventing the import of those goods that were produced in Russia. At the same time, products that were not manufactured in Russia were completely exempted from duties.

For the economy of the second half of the eighteenth century. characterized by the dominance of feudal forms of management. At the same time, signs appear that are characteristic of the production of the capitalist type. Traditional methods and forms of organization of economic activity have changed. The economic development of new regions proceeded at a rapid pace, where the conditions for the development of bourgeois relations in the economy were more favorable than in central Russia. The domestic market was developing more dynamically. The quantitative and qualitative changes in the structure of exports of Russian goods are characterized positively.

Social class struggle in the second half of the eighteenth century. Deterioration of the position of peasants, Cossacks, peoples of national regions. The spread of serfdom to new areas and new categories of the population was accompanied by an increase in corvée, dues and other duties in favor of the landowners and the state. The unlimited arbitrariness of the landlords was legalized. Retail sales of peasants took on a massive scale.

The situation of the non-Russian peoples who inhabited the Volga and Ural regions has significantly worsened. The construction of fortresses and factories in Bashkiria was accompanied by the seizure or buying up of land and forests for next to nothing. The clergy forced the Bashkirs and the peoples of the Volga region to accept Christianity.

In a difficult situation was the bulk of the Yaik Cossacks, whose autonomy was limited from year to year. Among the ordinary Cossacks, who were oppressed by the wealthy elite and royal officials, discontent grew.

Peasant warrior under the leadership of Pugachev. The strengthening of serf oppression led to the aggravation of class contradictions, which resulted in a peasant wave under the leadership of the Don Cossack E. Pugachev.

Arrested by the authorities for attempting to act as a petitioner on behalf of ordinary Cossacks, Pugachev fled and hid on the Yaik River. Here he declared himself Emperor Peter III and in 1773 decided to lead the action of the Yaik Cossacks, who were severely punished by the tsarist government for the unrest of 1772.

At the first stage of the war (autumn 1773 - spring 1774), mainly Cossacks and Tatars were drawn into the movement. The second stage (from March to July 1774) is characterized by the involvement in the struggle of the working people of the Ural factories, who played a major role in the movement.

At the third stage (from July 1774 until the end of the uprising), the whole mass of the serfs of the Volga region rose up. Despite the diverse social composition of the rebels, the uprising, in terms of its requirements and methods of struggle, had a pronounced peasant character.

On September 17, 1773, a detachment of 80 Cossacks led by Pugachev moved to the Yaitsky town, which they failed to take and the detachment headed for Orenburg. Pugachev works without meeting resistance. Cossacks and soldiers went over to the side of the rebels, the garrisons and residents of the cities met them with bread and salt, bell ringing. In early October 1773, after an unsuccessful assault, the siege of Orenburg began. Detachments of Cossacks, bankers, Tatars, Kalmyks, runaway peasants joined the army of the rebels.

Near Orenburg, the organization of the Pugachev army into regiments began, which were divided into hundreds and tens. Cossack, Bashkir, peasant and mining regiments were created.

Pugachev's army had artillery, which was a serious force. The situation with hand firearms was bad. Most of the rebels were armed with axes, scythes, bows, and spears.

In the course of the peasant war, the central body of the rebels arose - the State Military Collegium, which served as the main headquarters, the supreme court and the supply body for the troops. The activities of the military collegium introduced into the uprising elements of organization and order that were absent, for example, in the uprising led by Razin.

During the siege of Orenburg, the slogans of the uprising were more clearly defined. If in his first manifesto (October 17, 1773), addressed to the Yaik Cossacks, there is still not a word about serfdom, landowners and peasants (since the detachment consisted of Cossacks), then the decree of December 1, 1773 directly calls the landowners criminals, villains and calls to deprive them of their lives, and take all their property for themselves, since it was acquired by robbery of the peasants.

The tsarist government, worried about the news of the uprising, sent several detachments of regular troops to the aid of the besieged Orenburg, which were defeated by the Pugachevites in early November 1773. Moreover, many soldiers went over to the side of the rebels.

The uprising was expanding, dozens of detachments operated over a vast territory. The movement spread to Siberia, even in Moscow itself became restless. The growing scope of the uprising forced the government to send large military units to suppress it. Having drawn significant forces to Orenburg, the tsarist troops in March 1774 defeated Pugachev and forced him to retreat.

The uprising has entered a new stage. Now the factories of the Southern Urals and Bashkiria have become its strongholds. However, in this region, devastated and devastated, Pugachev failed to gain a foothold. The main part of the Cossacks remained on Yaik and the majority of the army of the rebels now consisted of the peoples of the Urals and ascribed peasants.

After a series of battles in the middle Urals, the main forces of the rebels moved to Kazan, to the main areas of landownership and serfdom. This plunged the landowners into a panic, forced the government to rush to end the Russo-Turkish war, and mobilize all forces to fight the rebels.

In early July 1774, Pugachev's army captured Kazan. Only the Kazan Kremlin remained unoccupied. The rebels were preparing to storm it, but at that moment government troops approached and as a result of a fierce battle, the rebels suffered a crushing defeat. With a small detachment, Pugachev, pursued by the tsarist troops, withdrew in a southerly direction. It was during this period that the peasant war reached its highest scope and acquired a pronounced anti-serfdom character. Pugachev's transition to the right bank of the Volga was the signal for a grandiose peasant uprising.

At the end of July 1774, Pugachev published a manifesto, which most fully reflected the ideology of the peasantry. In this document, Pugachev guaranteed liberation from serfdom, the abolition of duties, free Cossack self-government, and the transfer of all land to the peasants.

In August 1774, Pugachev approached Tsaritsin, but could not take him, and a few days later he was defeated and left for the Volga.

Seeing that the uprising was failing, the wealthy Yaik Cossacks seized Pugachev in September 1774 and handed him over to the authorities. Soon he was taken to Moscow and executed in January 1775.

After the execution of Pugachev, the struggle of the masses continued in the Volga region, the Kama region and the Urals until August 1775, but fierce repressions extinguished these last centers of the uprising. The massacre of the punishers took the form of real terror. The landowners and the tsarist authorities took cruel revenge on the participants in the uprising. This revenge assumed such proportions that the government was forced to moderate the ardor of the punishers, fearing that terror would lead to a renewal of the uprising. Thus ended the last peasant war in the history of Russia, in which the Russian peasant, the mining worker and the Cossack, the peoples of the Volga region, the Udmurts and the Bashkirs opposed the feudal system.

The spread of feudal relations in breadth caused a significant deterioration in the situation of the peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, part of the Cossacks; exacerbated class contradictions and began to cause the largest popular uprising in the history of Russia.

Peasant War 1773-1775 had a number of features compared with the uprisings led by Bolotnikov and Razin. If there were a lot of nobles in Bolotnikov’s army, which indicated the absence of a clear social demarcation, then Pugachev ordered all gentlemen to be “executed by death”, and all their property “to be taken as a reward”. For Razin, in the sphere of administration, things did not go beyond the Cossack circle, and for Pugachev, along with the Cossack circle, a Military Collegium was created, which was the first attempt to lead the uprising from a single center. The originality of the Pugachev uprising was given by participation in the movement of working people of the mining Urals.

Foreign policy of Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century. The main directions and tasks of foreign policy. Russia's foreign policy in the second half of the 18th century was aimed at solving traditional problems inherited from the previous time: the reunification of all Ukrainian and Belarusian lands with Russia; approval on the Black Sea coast and the elimination of the danger from Turkey and its vassal - the Crimean Khan; consolidating positions in the Baltic Sea.

A new characteristic feature of Russia's foreign policy, compared with the previous period, was a sharply increased activity and a significant increase in the influence of the Russian state on international affairs. The desire of the ruling circles to weaken the beginning disintegration of the feudal system by foreign policy successes became more and more noticeable; through the acquisition of new lands, to mitigate internal contradictions, to suppress the struggle of the serf peasantry.

The balance of power in Europe. Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War. An indicator of the increased influence of Russia on international life was its active participation in the largest international conflict of the middle of the 18th century. - the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which was waged by two opposing coalitions of European states: Austria, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia and Saxony - on the one hand; England, Portugal and Prussia on the other. Thus, almost all European states participated in this war. The goals of the fighting factions diverged sharply. England and France fought for colonies and dominance on the sea routes. Prussia waged war to expand its territories in Germany at the expense of Austria and Saxony. Russia did not want to further strengthen Prussia, as this posed a threat to Russian possessions in the Baltic states.

In 1756, Prussia attacked Saxony, captured its capital and defeated the Austrian army coming to the aid of Saxony. This forced the Austrian government to ask Russia for help. In the summer of 1757, Russian troops fought in East Prussia and inflicted a serious defeat on the Prussian army near Gross-Egersdorf. All East Prussia was occupied by the Russians. In August 1758, the Prussians suffered another defeat at the Battle of Zorndorf. The decisive battle took place in August 1759 at Kunersdorf, where the army of the Prussian king Frederick II was completely defeated. In October 1760, Russian troops entered Berlin.

Russian-Turkish wars in the second half of the eighteenth century. If Peter I achieved a lot in resolving the Baltic problem, then during the reign of Catherine II, major successes were achieved in advancing to the Black Sea. The conditions for the conquest plans of tsarism were very favorable by this time. The Seven Years' War split the whole of Europe into two camps. England broke the power of the French at sea. After the defeat in the Northern War, Sweden could not seriously threaten Russia from the north. In the south, the Turks and their tributaries, the Crimean Tatars, were only fragments of their former greatness. Poland was in a state of complete collapse.

The Black Sea problem had become particularly acute for Russia by that time. The growth of the marketability of Russian agriculture increased the interest of the landowners in the fertile lands of southern Russia. For the development of these lands, it was necessary to make the southern border of the state more durable. The expansion of foreign trade required the possession of the mouths of the Dnieper and Don, cut off from Russia. Thus, the economic interests of the nobility and merchants were closely intertwined with the tasks of strengthening the southern borders of the country.

At that time, the Turkish fleet reigned supreme in the Black Sea, and the Crimean peninsula was a convenient springboard for Turkey's attack on Russia. In 1768, Turkey demanded in an ultimatum the withdrawal of Russian troops from Poland. Having been refused, she declared war on Russia. In the winter of 1768-1769 Crimean Tatars, on the orders of the Turkish Sultan, attacked the southern outskirts of Russia. This last Tatar invasion in Russian history was successfully repelled by Russian troops.

Military operations against Turkey were carried out simultaneously on three fronts: in the southwest (Danube), in the south (Crimea), and in Transcaucasia. Attempts by the Turkish army to break deep into Russia failed. The Turks were stopped by troops under the command of the talented commander Rumyantsev. Thus, the fighting in 1768-1769. ended in failure for the Turks, the Russian army did not achieve much success either. But already in 1770, Russia won major victories in the famous battles of Larga and Kagul, where, under the leadership of Rumyantsev, the Turkish troops were defeated, although their numbers significantly outnumbered the Russian army.

The Russian fleet acted brilliantly. The squadron under the command of G.A. Spiridova made the transition from the Baltic Sea around Europe to the Mediterranean Sea. In June 1770, the Turkish fleet, twice the size of the Russian squadron, was attacked and burned in the Chesme Bay.

In 1771 the Russian army occupied the Crimea. In 1773-1774. A.V. won a number of victories. Suvorov, inflicting huge losses on the Turks. The advance detachments of the Russians advanced beyond the Balkans.

In July 1774, as a result of the complete defeat of Turkey, a peace treaty was signed in the village of Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi, according to which the Crimean Khanate was declared independent from Turkey. Kerch, Yenikale, Azov, Kinburn went to Russia. The Black Sea and the straits were open to Russian merchant shipping. Russia received the right to unlimited construction of the fleet on the Black Sea. Turkey recognized Russian patronage over Moldavia and Wallachia. As a result, the southern border of Russia became incomparably stronger both from the side of the Crimea and the Caucasus, where Kabarda passed into the possession of Russia.

However, Turkey did not want to accept the further strengthening of Russia in the south. The aggravation of relations between them led to the second Russian-Turkish war (1787-1791). The first period of the war ended in 1788 with the capture of the strong Turkish fortress of Ochakov. In 1789, Russian troops under the command of Suvorov won brilliant victories at Focsani and Rymnik; at the end of the same year, the Turkish fort Gadzhibey was occupied, on the site of which the most important port of Odessa later arose. The largest battle, in which Suvorov showed his outstanding military talent, and the Russian troops - heroism, was the capture in 1790 of the powerful Turkish fortress of Izmail. The fall of Ishmael had a significant impact on the entire course of the war.

Turkey also suffered setbacks at sea, where a number of victories were won by the outstanding Russian naval commander F.F. Ushakov. Using new tactics, the Russian fleet, quantitatively inferior to the Turks, inflicted crushing defeats on the island of Tendra (1790) and at Cape Kaliakria (1791), as a result of which the Turkish fleet capitulated.

According to the Yassy peace treaty (1791), the Black Sea coast from the Southern Bug to the Dniester was transferred to Russia, the act of 1783 on the annexation of Crimea and Kuban to Russia was confirmed.

Russia's participation in the divisions of Poland. In the second half of the XVIII century. Poland was in deep crisis. While its neighboring countries turned into strong centralized states, feudal anarchy reigned in Poland.

Prussia and Austria had long come up with plans to partition Poland, but the Russian government did not go for it, hoping to extend its influence to all of Poland. However, the threat that Austria and Prussia would implement a set of plans without the participation of Russia forced Catherine II to accept the plan of the Prussian king Frederick II to partition Poland.

As a pretext for intervening in the internal affairs of this country, the issue of granting equal rights with Catholics to the population of the Orthodox and Lutheran faiths was used. Under an agreement signed in 1772, Austria, Prussia and Russia carried out the first partition of Poland. Austria received Western Ukraine, and Prussia - the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea. Eastern Belarus went to Russia.

In 1793, the second partition of Poland took place, as a result of which the central part of Belarus and the Right-Bank Ukraine went to Russia. Prussia captured the entire western part of Poland.

The third partition of Poland was carried out in 1795 after the suppression of the uprising of Polish patriots led by Kosciuszko by the Prussian and Russian troops. Lithuania, Western Belarus, Western Volhynia and Courland went to Russia. Austria captured the southern part of Poland, and Prussia - its central part with Warsaw. Poland as a state ceased to exist.

Russia's participation in coalitions against bourgeois France. The turning point in the foreign policy of tsarism was the bourgeois revolution in France, towards which the overwhelming majority of the Russian nobility took a hostile position. The execution of King Louis XVI in January 1793 led to a final break with France and the beginning of the intervention. In 1793, Russia concluded an agreement with England, Prussia and Austria, pledging to help in their struggle against revolutionary France, participating in its economic blockade. At the end of 1795, the Triple Alliance was concluded between Russia, England and Austria, and Russia was already preparing a corps of 60,000 under the command of Suvorov for the war with France. Catherine's death in 1796 marked the beginning of the intervention.

Paul I, who ascended the throne, continued the struggle with France. In 1798, a new anti-French coalition was created, which included England, Austria, Turkey and Russia, Italy and the Mediterranean were the center of the coalition's military operations, where the fleets of England and Russia were moved. The Russian fleet under the command of F.F. Ushakov in the summer of 1798 entered the Adriatic Sea, captured the Ionian Islands, and then, after a brilliantly conducted siege and assault, forced the strongest French fortress on the island of Corfu to capitulate.

In the summer of 1799, Russian landings, landed in Italy, pass through the entire Apennine Peninsula with battles and drive the French out of Naples and Rome. At the same time, the ground forces under the command of Suvorov in April 1799 began their famous Italian campaign. A.V. Suvorov, with an army that was many times inferior in number to the enemy, won one victory after another. All Northern Italy was liberated from the French.

Fearing the strengthening of Russia's positions in Italy, Austria achieved the transfer of Russian troops to Switzerland. In August 1799, the heroic transition of A.V. Suvorov through the Alps. Having mastered the Saint-Gothard Pass, the Russian troops inflicted another defeat on the French at the Devil's Bridge. The aggravated contradictions between the allies led in 1800 to Russia's withdrawal from the anti-French coalition.

By the end of the 18th century, Russia had solved the main foreign policy tasks: access to the Azov and Black Seas was obtained, the constant aggression of the Crimea and Turkey was put an end to, the fertile lands of the South became part of Russia; the unification in a single state of the absolute majority of Ukrainian and Belarusian lands.

The reforms of Peter I have always caused heated debate in Russian society, in domestic historical science. Estimates of the reforms diverged even during the life of the emperor. There is no unequivocal position even today. The closest associates of Peter I adhered to the opinion, which, in the formulation of M.V. Lomonosov sounded like this: "He is your God, your God was Russia!". At the same time, there was an opinion among the people (especially among the Old Believers) that Peter I was the Antichrist.

Already in pre-revolutionary historiography, two extreme points of view had developed in assessing the consequences of Peter's reforms. Some believed that Peter I violated the "natural" course of the country's development. Others believed that Russia was prepared for transformations by the previous period of historical development (S.M. Solovyov). There were also not so radical approaches. For example, N.Ya. Danilevsky offered a differentiated understanding of the transformations of Peter I, highlighting two aspects of his activities: state and reform (changes in everyday life, mores, customs). “The first activity,” N.Ya. Danilevsky, - deserves the eternal grateful, reverent memory of posterity. “Reformative” changes brought, according to N.Ya. Danilevsky, "the greatest harm to the future of Russia", since "life was forcibly turned upside down in a foreign way."

Diverging in assessing the acts of Peter I, everyone agreed that their result was a radical coup in Russia, which some recognized as beneficial, others as harmful to Russian interests. What some considered a great service to the Fatherland, others considered a criminal departure from traditions. In particular, the historian and writer N.M. Karamzin accused Peter I of betraying the "truly Russian" foundations of life, and called his reforms a "brilliant mistake." Some are convinced that the transformations were “the struggle of despotism against the inertia of the people” (V.O. Klyuchevsky), others believe that the result of the activities of Peter I is the conservation of feudalism in Russia, the inhibition of the emancipation of private property, especially at the most massive, peasant level.

In general, the majority of domestic historians fully appreciate the state activities of Peter I, who "drastically intensified the processes taking place in the country, forced it to make a giant leap."

The transformations of Peter I caused changes in the systemic qualities of political life and the functions of the institutions of the Russian political system; meant the beginning of the modernization of society according to the secondary (retarded) model.

Questions for self-control:

1. Describe the main foreign policy tasks of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century.

2. Name the features of the implementation of foreign policy tasks of that period.

3. What was the change in the main direction of Peter I's foreign policy after his visit to Western Europe?

4. What do you know about the victories of the Russian fleet over the Swedes?

5. Describe the results of the Northern War.

6. Give the periodization of Russia's foreign policy at the end of the 17th - the first quarter of the 18th centuries.

7. What are the features of the development of the economy under Peter I.

8. What was the essence of the reforms in industry in the first quarter of the 18th century?

9. List the main changes in agriculture.

10. Define the essence of "enlightened absolutism" in Russia .

11. Describe the policy of Catherine II in relation to the peasantry.

12. Determine the essence of qualitative changes in the feudal-serf system in Russia.

13. What are the new features in the development of agriculture.

14. What were the changes in the organization of industry and trade?

15. What changes have occurred in the position of the masses.

16. Determine the main stages, features and causes of the defeat of the peasant war under the leadership of Pugachev.

17. Describe the main directions of Russia's foreign policy in the second half of the eighteenth century.

18. How did the first Russo-Turkish war end?

19. What are the reasons for Russia's participation in the divisions of Poland.

20. What are the main results of Russia's foreign policy activities in the second half of the 18th century?

1. Akimov V.V. A course of lectures on the history of the Fatherland. M., 1997.

2. Aniskin B.A. 100 great people of Russia of all times and peoples. M., 1997.

3. Beskrovny L.G. Russian army and navy in the 18th century. M., 1958.

4. Vernadsky G.V. Russian history. M., 2001.

5. Dvornichenko A.D. Russian History: A Handbook for Applicants to Universities. SPb., 1997.

6. Dragan G.N. Russian history. M., 1997.

7. Zolotarev V.A. and others. For the glory of the Russian Fatherland: the development of military thought and military art in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. M., 1984.

8. "The Golden Age" of Catherine the Great: Memoirs. M., 1996.

9. History of the Fatherland. M., 2002.

10. History of Russia. M., 2003.

11. History of the Russian state. M., 2001.

12. Kostin V.I. National history. Nizhny Novgorod, 2002.

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The most comprehensive reference table of key dates and events history of Russia in the 18th century. This table is convenient to use for schoolchildren and applicants for self-study, in preparation for tests, exams and the exam in history.

Dates	Main events of Russia 18th century
1700	Death of Patriarch Adrian. Appointment of Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky as Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne
1701	Opening of the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Moscow
	The siege and storming of the Noteburg (Oreshek) fortress by Russian troops
	Publication of the first Russian newspaper Vedomosti
	The capture by Russian troops under the command of B.P. Sheremetyev of the Nyenschanz fortress at the mouth of the Neva
	Founding of St. Petersburg
1703	The publication of the textbook "Arithmetic" by L. F. Magnitsky
1704 summer	The siege and capture of the fortresses of Derpt and Narva by Russian troops
1705	Introduction of an annual recruitment duty
1705 – 1706	Streltsy uprising in Astrakhan. Suppressed by B.P. Sheremetev
1705 – 1711	Bashkir uprising
1706, Mar.	The retreat of Russian troops from Grodno to Brest-Litovsk, and then to Kyiv
1707 – 1708	Peasant-Cossack uprising under the leadership of Kondraty Bulavin, which engulfed the Don, Left-bank and Sloboda Ukraine, the Middle Volga region
	The invasion of the Swedish army of King Charles XII into Russia, crossing the river. Berezina
	Speech by Hetman I. S. Mazepa on the side of Sweden against Russia
1708, 28 Sept.	The defeat of the Swedish corps near Lesnaya by Peter I
	Administrative Reform. The division of Russia into provinces
	Introduction of civil type
1709	Destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich
	Poltava battle. The defeat of the Swedish troops. The flight of the Swedish king Charles XII and Mazepa to Turkey (June 30)
	Union of Russia, the Commonwealth, Denmark and Prussia against Sweden
1710	The capture of Riga, Reval, Vyborg by Russian troops
1710	Podvorno-tax census of the population
	Declaration by Turkey, instigated by Charles XII, of war against Russia
1711, Feb.	Establishment of the Governing Senate
	Prut campaign of Russian troops under the command of Tsar Peter I
	Encirclement of the Russian army on the river. Rod
	The conclusion of the Prut (Iasi) peace between Russia and Turkey. The return of Azov to Turkey, the obligation to destroy the fortresses in the South and the Azov fleet
1712	Decrees of Tsar Peter I on the creation of the Armory Yard in Tula and the Foundry Yard in St. Petersburg
1712, Mar.	The wedding of Peter I with Marta Elena Skavronskaya (after the adoption of Orthodoxy - Ekaterina Alekseevna)
1713	The offensive of Russian troops in Finland. Capture of Helsingfors and Abo
1714	Decree of Tsar Peter I on single inheritance
	Gangut naval battle. The victory of the Russian fleet over the Swedes
1716, Mar.	Adoption of the "military charter"
1716, Sept.	The flight of Tsarevich Alexei abroad

The 18th century in Russian history became the era of the most significant transformations, both political and economic, as well as socio-cultural.
The 18th century in Russia is primarily associated with the reign of Peter I, nicknamed "The Great". His journey begins with his sister Sophia's attempt to maintain the position of ruler, for which she organized a streltsy revolt, which was suppressed, and Sophia was tonsured a nun.

Peter organizes several successful campaigns, but is defeated in battles with Turkey. This, as well as Peter's strong impressions of the state of affairs in Western Europe, push him to carry out reformist activities, designed to make a modern European power out of backward Russia in a short time.
The tsar disbands the regular army of archers and creates mercenary troops, where he calls on European specialists, introduces a new chronology, and also actively fights the traditionalism of his subordinates.
Peter I starts a war with Sweden, which will last more than 20 years.

At the same time, in one of the very first battles, near Narva, Peter's troops were defeated, as a result of which the tsar came up with the idea of ​​the need to modernize weapons. Due to the extremely difficult economic situation in the country, Peter ordered the casting of cannons from church bells, which caused mass discontent, and also actively developed the production of weapons and metallurgy, ship, glass, linen and rope production.

The tsar introduces compulsory military service and sends officers to study in Europe. Peter develops serf labor, introduces extremely tough anti-corruption laws, and in every possible way contributes to the development of trade in the country.
As a result, Russia wins the war with Sweden, and Peter I names himself the emperor of the Russian Empire, in which form it will exist until its end.

Since Peter the Great did not leave an heir, after his death, the further political life of the country turns into a constant leapfrog, which goes down in history as the “Era of palace coups”.
As a result, in 1762, after the death of Emperor Peter III, his wife, Catherine II, also known as the Great, ascended the throne.

Catherine the Great was remembered for numerous reforms in the interests of the nobility, the maximum strengthening of serfdom and a special approach to enlightenment - believing that progress should concern only the upper strata of society. The Empress is actively developing the educational process of the nobility in the country, under her leadership the production sectors are expanding, the economy is constantly growing. Catherine rationally uses the land: she distributes part of the conquered land to the nobles, and part to foreigners for development.

One of the most significant incidents in the history of the reign of Catherine II is the "Pugachev rebellion" - a large-scale uprising of the Russian Cossacks (Yaitsky) and the peasantry led by Emelyan Pugachev. The rebellion was successfully suppressed, and its organizers were executed. After that, the Yaik Cossacks were abolished.
Catherine strengthened the army and navy, conducted personal correspondence with the best European minds, and attracted investments into the country. Science and culture of the country developed with great strides. During her reign, the Black Sea Fleet was founded.
Under the reign of Catherine the Great, there was a multiple expansion of the country's territories. During the Turkish wars, parts of the territories in Kerch, Crimea, the territory of modern Ukraine leave Russia. After the divisions of the Commonwealth - the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The end of the century is marked by the reign of Paul, the son of Catherine, who abolishes a number of Catherine's reforms, and actively participates in the anti-Napoleonic wars in the international arena.
In 1801, Emperor Paul was killed in another coup.