The Russian culture has a vast and elegant past, present, and future, but it also has a dark side like every other place on earth. Stained with the blood, sweat and tears of all those who helped sculpt it. “Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny” (Thomas Jefferson). In the past there has been tyrants that “helped” shape countries into what they are today, one key leader in the Russian culture is none other than Ivan Chetvyorty Vasilyevich IV also known as Ivan the Terrible. During the years 1533-1584 Russia grew exponentially but by no means in a peaceful manner, Ivan the Terrible acquired vast amounts of land for Russia …show more content…
through ruthless and malevolent ways. Intelligent yet short fused, prone to paroxysms, which contributed to his infamous Alias. In doing so, he initially manifested a centrally controlled government by imposing military dominance. During his reign, Ivan the Terrible had implemented self-government in rural regions, which many considered a constructive era as well as reformed tax collection and he even instituted statutory law and church reform. Peter the Great formally known, as Peter Alexeyevich I, was a prominent type of leader.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” ( John Q. Adams). Peter the Great had unwavering willpower, inimitable vision and extraordinary energy, which allowed him to retrieve Russia back from the medieval times. Peter the Great had ongoing reforms over 25 years, technology, culture, industry and administrative sectors which he enhanced. By the time he died in 1725 he had already accomplished more than most, he had modernized Russia’s army, constructed a navy force and conquered a vast empire stretched from the white to the Caspian Sea and from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Which made many considered Russia a leading European state. He had a large demeanor, nearly 7 feet tall, broad and massively powerful. He displayed an authority presence and he ruled as …show more content…
such. “Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Dylan Thomas). History’s leaders that fashioned Russia up to this point had paved a gallant and predominant future which changed due to Joseph Stalin “man of steel”. Born in 18 December 1878 as Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvilli he later altered his name to Stalin which means “man of steel”, and he lived up to it. His regime of terror, as supreme ruler of the Soviet Union, led to the extermination and suffering of tens of millions. “This creature softened my heart of stone; she died and with her death my last warm feelings for humanity” (Stalin, 1907). He achieved dictator status through ruthless means. He still managed convert Soviet Union into a modern industrialized country. He achieved mammoth economic growth by exponentially increasing oil, coal and steel productivity. He ruthlessly enforced strict aspirations which most found impracticable to fulfill. Those who failed, branded saboteurs and imprisoned then executed immediately. Stalin’s next move was on improving the Soviets agriculture. He instigated collectivization and in doing modernized agriculture. Roughly five million people die as a result from a sequence of famines but by 1930s productivity had increased. Stalin Dies on 5 March 1953 due to a stroke, though the great benevolent leader had passed, he achieved in transforming the feudal economy of the Soviet Union into an industrial power house. Building on the foundation is imperative; these leaders constructed an empire by assisting each other in evolving their country. There are many Russian holidays that reflect all aspects of their history as well as their customs and traditions.
Russian holidays fall under 3 categories national holiday, observance and seasonal. Seasonal is self-explanatory, national holidays are non-labor days where as observance is more of a practice and not recognized as a non-labor day. Russia has the same holidays as most with some modifications. New Years is a national holiday which falls on the 1st of January but its 5 days long making it the biggest Russian holiday. Originally it fell on September 1st until Peter the Great, attempting to westernize Russia, changed it to January 1st. Immediately following after New Year’s comes Christmas, January 7, in Russian culture which is also a national holiday. It became an official holiday in 1991but didn’t start gaining popularity till recently, partially because of Russian leader Vladimir Putin annually attending a Christmas liturgy. Defender of the Fatherland is a peculiar holiday as it does not coincide with any historical even. Finally in 1922 it became an honorary holiday as the fourth anniversary of the Red Army and landing on February 23. The last holiday we are talking about is May 1st which is a symbol of class struggle in Russia from about 1890-1990. It became an iconic public holiday in 1918 which known as International Solidarity of Workers. The Russian Parliament renamed it to Spring and Labor Day in
1992. With the few holidays spoken earlier comes everyone’s favorite portion, the meals. Scientific research has claimed that there are more neurons in our intestines then our brain, hence the saying “fastest way to a person’s heart is through their stomach”. Traditional Russian foods are full to capacity with flavor and pleasant to the eye. Cottage cheese pancakes called “syrniki”, Cheesy pancakes. The main ingredient as you can guess is cottage cheese which is “tvorgo” in Russian. The locals eat it with sour cream or jam on breakfast. It’s both healthy and delicious. Russian pelmeni is another traditional cousin. It resembles a dumpling, fried dough, that's jam packed with ground beef and pork mixed with either grounded or grated onions, garlic and seasoned with salt and pepper. Another great pancake is the “bliny” which is like crepes. They are usually cooked for breakfast and eating with sour cream or jam as well and stuffed with an assortment of meats, mushrooms, and or cottage cheese. The last 2 meals are unusual to me, first is the vinegret Russian vegetarian salad. Vinegret meaning mishmash, the salad is simple it consists of boiled potatoes, carrots, beets, kidney beans, salted cucumber or pickled cucumber and salted cabbage. You mince and stir it up and you have yourself a salad. For the final meal we have Russian holodets which is a meat jelly made by cooking the bony and cartilage areas of the animal. Legs, ears, and even hooves are used with vegetable cuts and spices. The last process is to refrigerate the dish for a few hours until it becomes jello The military aspect of the Russian culture is broad. So I’ll be touching the basis on the different branches and operatives within their perspective branch. Like any country it must have a fighting force to defend its people, the Russians have an outstanding force, second to ours of course. In size not many compare to Russia’s army, one of the largest in the world, having approximately 1 million soldiers and largest WMD arsenal after the USA. Peter I organized the Russian Fleet in 1696. It has grown exponentially over the years and comprises of a Northern Fleet, Russian Black Sea Fleet, Baltic Fleet Caspian Flotilla, and a naval Aviation. Like most Navies, they participate in anti piracy operations as well as protection of navigation and industrial actions in territorial waters. As like our navy they have marines also to strategically emplace for offensive or defensive operations. They also have “frogmen” formally known as Russian Marine Commandos equivalent to our Navy SEALs. They are in charge of secret/special operations. They operate covertly as our special operation units do so minimal to no information known about these groups. Another high speed branch of the Russian military is there Vozdushno-Desantnye Voiska or VDV, which means “air-landing forces”, that forms the basis of their mobile force. These mobile units consist of airborne operations, air-assault missions and amphibious troops. This is key in a strategic possibility preemptive strike or quick response to national emergencies. Just like our airborne units, they are the immediate reaction forces with high strategic mobility and assault capabilities within airlift range in short notice. With that level of flexibility resupply and sustainability, supported by heavy ground troops, is a must as they lack the ability to “carry on the fight” past X amount of weeks. The next groups of soldiers are the meats and potatoes of any military branch, the ground forces. Russia’s queen of battle is the designed to repel any opposition that attempts to invade their home country. They defend their nation’s interests as well as territorial integrity from any threat, foreign or domestic. Just like our units, they to need to ensure their readiness for mobilization and deployment, participating with natural disaster recovery, maintaining combat potential and troop readiness is up to par during peacetime. While a wartime they build up, improve, mobilize troops and territorial defense. All these units along with Strategic Missile Forces, Air Forces and Aerospace Defense Forces can’t do it alone. Each unit has special weapons, gadgets, state of the art jamming technology, missiles, artillery and aircraft as combat multipliers. The need to defend ones national interest’s triggers technological advancements. One of Russia’s amphibious war machines is the Bora-class guided missile hovercraft. Never underestimate this hovercraft as it can hold its own; armed with 8 mosquito missiles and 20 anti-aircraft missiles. It can cruise land or see at an impressive 100kmph. Another terrifying piece of equipment in the Russian arsenal is the Pantsir-S1. This rolling thunder comes equipped with 12 surface-to-air guided missiles and two 30mm automatic guns designed to transform helicopters, planes, ballistic and cruise missiles into Swiss cheese. Last but not least is the pride of mother Russia, the T-14 Armata Tank. This rolling fortress comes equipped with 125mm smoothbore cannon which in terms of muzzle energy, it’s at the top of her class to date. The main gun is an automatic loader with 32 rounds ready to use, she can also fire laser guided missiles and is equipped with 57mm grenade launcher, 12.7mm machine gun and 7.62mm machine gun. For crew protection she’s incased in reactive armor that includes millimeter-band radar to intercept anti-tank munitions. Under all that protection the final front is an internal armor capsule to increase survivability for the crew. The Russian Culture is vast and what I’ve covered only scratches the surface. Like all cultures each one has a unique background, a past, present and future. As long as humans continue to evolve and advance in technology so will our cultures, we perfect or carry on traditions. The best way to experience all of this is to be a part of it, embrace it. Visiting and actually living among the natives and locals will give you a better understanding and appreciation for who they are.
Peter the Great was trying ultimately to make the Russian Empire more Europeanized or Westernized. He wanted to protect and enhance the vulnerable Russian Empire. Peter the Great saw that other European countries are colonizing in other regions like the New World, Asia, and Africa. Peter saw this as a threat and didn’t want for the Europeans to conquer Russia. Through decrees to shave and provisions on dress, he was trying to make them European. He also wanted to make military and economic reforms that could help the empire itself. If they built factories, they didn’t need to get supplies from Europe.
Absolutism was at its most popular in the 17th century. Monarchs Louis XIV who ruled France from 1643 to 1715, and Peter the Great who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 both secured absolute power in their kingdom. Peter the Great, however, managed to accomplish more during his reign than Louis XIV with politics and military. Peter was able to tax his nobles but still keep their loyalty and also change how his army was run by using Prussian organization and discipline.
Observing that European technological superiority allowed it to enjoy extraordinary benefits, he adopted many European practices to assert his own dominance and increase Russia’s protection against its adversaries. In doing this, Peter the Great formed himself a lasting legacy. Although Peter the Great originally mimicked Louis XIV in his staunch practice of absolutism, he ultimately surpassed Louis XIV in his goal of supremacy. Peter replaced the previous head of the Orthodox Church, and had both religious and earthly supremacy. Thus, Peter achieved something that Louis could never manage: a control of both church and state. Outside of Russia’s borders, Peter succeeded in his endeavors to a much greater extent than Louis XIV. The Great Northern War against Sweden effectively gave Russia access to a warm water port: Saint Petersburg, where Peter created his own Versailles, the Winter Palace, that fulfilled goals similar to those of Louis. Thus, where Louis fell, Peter
I believe that there was so much attention given to Peter the Great because of his extensive reforms. Peter brought both social and economic changes to his country. He wanted to make Russia big. Peter transformed the culture; he wanted his people to wear the western European fashion. Many of the people were not thrilled with the change because they did not like the ways of the western European societies. He made his navy stronger, he reformed his army to meet the western standards, and he gained control over the church.
With the coinciding of a revolution on the brink of eruption and the impacts of the First World War beginning to take hold of Russia, considered analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the fall of the Romanov Dynasty is imperative, as a combination of several factors were evidently lethal. With the final collapse of the 300 year old Romanov Dynasty in 1917, as well as the fall of Nicholas II, a key reality was apparent; the impact that WWI had on autocratic obliteration was undeniable. However, reflection of Russia’s critical decisions prior to the war is essential in the assessment of the cause of the fall of the Romanov Dynasty. No war is fought without the struggle for resources, and with Russia still rapidly lagging behind in the international industrialisation race by the turn of the 20th century, the stage was set for social unrest and uprising against its already uncoordinated and temporarily displaced government. With inconceivable demands for soldiers, cavalry and warfare paraphernalia, Russia stood little chance in the face of the great powers of World War One.
Peter the Great, the Russian Czar, inherited his absolutist power from his brother, Ivan V. Born in aristocracy, Peter’s dad was the Czar, and later his brother, and after his brother’s death, him. He was a firm believer in the possible benefits from the control of a single leader to make decisions for the people, and he exercised this divine right to create many renouned institutions. At the beginning of Peter’s reign, Russia was in a poor condition: many rejected modernization from the Renaissance, and large spending from his brother’s reign caused economic droughts. He took advantage of his absolutist power to help ameliorate Russia’s situation and first decided to minimalize power from the other aristocrats. The subduction of the rich allowed
Absolutists during the 16th and 17th centuries were often times focused too heavily on military or other such rather than the people they were ruling. Peter the Great is a good example of this type of ruler because he did great things for Russia like improving the navy; however, Peter the Great did nothing to help the people of Russia, and according to Michael Gibson in document 8, he "failed to create the large, thriving
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
Peter preferred to live comfortably, and didn’t have a need for extravagance as much as Louis XIV did. But that didn’t mean he didn’t think big. Peter’s main goals were to modernize Russia, and to make it a major European power—a force to be reckoned with—and also to gain control of the church. He tried to achieve these in many different ways. One way he attempted to make Russia more powerful was by westernizing the country. He traveled all over Western Europe, learning about the culture, more modern practices and way of ...
Catherine the Great, one of Russia's most notorious leaders, never once struggled to give Russia the edge it so hoped for. She considered herself to be an enlightened leader and attempted to rule in that fashion. Her reforms transformed Russia into a strong nation for their time. She’s remembered as the greatest reformer of Russia, she continued to westernize Russia, widened the borders, and strengthened the education system. Catherine the Great proceeded to finish what Peter the Great started; she made sure that by the end of her reign Russia was westernized.
While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
The Effect of the Bolshevik Rule on Russian Culture Bolshevik cultural policy was based on spreading their values to the population. They attempted to promote equality to create a classless society. In addition to removing class differences they attempted to give equal status to women and to young people. In order to encourage women to work state funded crèches were established and laws passed to give women parity in terms of pay with men. The state tried to destroy the old concept of families by legalising abortion and enabling people to obtain divorces much more simply.
Peter the Great, was, as his name implies, “great”. He made many accomplishments during his lifetime including expanding Russia’s land, heightening their military, and improving the Russian’s ways of life overall. He assisted with most of the reform in Russia, helped them defeat other countries, and formulated one of the strongest armies in Europe.
Russia has a high crime rate also. Their crime rate is so high that if you were to go to the store like the grocery store, when you walk in the store u have to lock your things up in a locker and shop. When you got through shopping then you were to pick up your stuff out of your locker. The whole time that you are shopping there are people watching your every move. The reason why the crime rate is so high is because they work hard to get paid a little amount of money. Russia’s unemployment rate is very high. There are not enough jobs in Russia for everyone to have a job. For example if you were to get a job at a fast food restaurant, you were only getting paid a little or nothing an hour and that’s not even close to minuan wage in America.
Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords, while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite.