History

In the first millennium BC, the Bosporus state and the Scythian state stood on the land that is now Russia. In the first century AD, part of present-day Russia was occupied by the Turk Kaganate, a state of the Turks’ tribal union. In the 7^th - 10^th centuries AD, the Khazar Kaganate prospered in the Lower Volga region, the North Caucasus and Azov regions, and the Bohai state reigned in the Far East. In the 10^th - 14^th centuries AD, there was a Volgo-Kama Bulgaria state in the Middle Volga and Kama regions.

 The ancient Russian state emerged in the 9^th century. The name “Russia” comes from the Greek “Pωσία,” which was how the name of the Rus state was transcribed in the Byzantine Empire in the 10^th century.  From the end of the 15^th century the word “Russia” was used for the Russian state, which had Moscow as its central city.

The Moscow principality separated from the Vladimir-Suzdal principality in the 13^th century. Its founder was Daniil, a younger son of Alexander Nevsky, who annexed Kolomna and Pereslavl-Zalessky to the Moscow principality. Later other principalities were annexed, including the Belozersk, Galich, Uglich, Rostov, Suzdal and Nizhni Novgorod principalities, and also the Pskov and Ryazan appanages. In the second half of the 15^th century and the first half of the 16^th century, under grand princes Ivan III and Vasily III, the Grand Moscow Principality became the foundation for the nascent unified Russian state.

 In 988, Rus adopted Christianity as its state religion. The Orthodox Church, which took root in the Russian state, remained under the control of the Constantinople patriarch until the mid-15^th century. Orthodoxy helped to strengthen the feudal system, by providing a religious basis for feudal society.By the mid-17^th century, serfdom was firmly established in Russia (abolished by the 1861 reform).From the early 17^th to the late 18^th centuries, Russia repulsed Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish attacks. Cossack and peasant uprisings led by Ivan Bolotnikov, Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev also characterized this period in Russian history.

The Petrine reforms of the late 17^th century and early 18^th century led to socio-economic and cultural progress. Russia won the Northern War (1700-1721), and as a result gained access to the Baltic Sea.The Russian Empire, a vast multinational state, was formed through the absorption of the Northern, Volga, Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern areas in the 16^th-19^th centuries.

In 1812, Russia defeated Napoleon in the Patriotic War.Russia’s defeat in the Russian-Japanese war (1904-1905) exacerbated problems in the country and led to the first Russian revolution (1905-1907). In the course of the revolution, Russia began its transition to a constitutional monarchy and a State Duma (parliament) was established. Russia participated in World War I as a member of the Triple Entente Alliance (1914-1918).

The 1917 February revolution overthrew the tsarist autocracy. The October revolution of October 25, 1917, proclaimed the power of the Soviets of worker, soldier and peasant deputies. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was formed in January 1918.The hardships of the civil war (1917-1922) and the military intervention helped to affirm military-communist principles. In 1921, a New Economic Policy (NEP) was proclaimed.

On December 30, 1922, the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian Federation formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), much of Russia was occupied by Nazi troops. During perestroika, on June 12, 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. In March 1991, the post of the RSFSR president was instituted (Boris Yeltsin was elected the first president of the RSFSR in the same year).

In December 1991, the leaders of the RSFSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR signed the Byelovezhskaya Pushcha agreements, which ended the USSR and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In 1992, economic reforms signaling transition to a market economy were launched in Russia.In December 1993, the Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted and elections to the Federal Assembly were held. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin was reelected as Russian President for a second term. Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidential elections in March 2000, and was reelected for a second term in 2004.

print page