The Enigma Of Russian Identity Essay

Empress Catherine the Great ruled Russia for approximately thirty years from 1762 to 1796 when she died. She was known throughout the world as an unusual ruler, having taken over the throne after the brutal death of her husband Peter the third. There she was made Empress of all Russia, this was unusual because instead of being made regent for her son they circumnavigated the rules and she was made Empress Regnant. During her time on the throne she made many radical and life changing decisions. She was a voracious reader and writer, often helping to translate others works into Russian. She herself was inspired by Voltaire, Diderot, and Montesquieu. All of which culminated in her greatest work “Great Instruction”, which was the beginning of basically all her future endeavors. Catherine the Great was an enlightened ruler who tried to bring about a new way of life in Russia, by allowing certain freedoms and educating the public.

Despite all the work Alexander II did toward reforming Russia, the “Era of Great Reforms” left one crucial aspect unaltered: the power of the emperor. The intentional neglect of this was what kept the reforms from realizing their true potential. This led to dissatisfaction, which encouraged repression, terror, and most importantly: revolution. The first was the Polish Rebellion, caused by the failure of Russian authorities to suppress Polish nationalism. Although the Poles failed, other minorities sprung up for their voice

In 1700 in Eastern Europe, the Russia tsar Peter the Great was the head figure in the government, and this continued up until Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II. In the 1700s, the tsars of Russia practiced absolutism, claiming divine right and having complete authority over their subjects. However, by the 1850s after the embarrassing losses in the Crimean War, due to the fact that Russia was far behind the West in technology, opposition against the tsar began to grow. In the 1860s, when

Catherine the Great, also known as Catherine II, ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796. She ruled for 34 years which was the longest a female ever ruled Russia. Although Catherine the Great is known for putting personal affairs ahead of Russian affairs, she did accomplish a lot during her reign. She brought Western thought processes to Russia which would affect Russia for centuries. She also brought great works of print, art, and literature from the west into Russia. Born in Germany in 1729, she was an eager student of the Enlightenment. She studied and memorized Enlightenment thoughts, concepts, and ideas. Along with Enlightenment thought, Catherine focused on foreign affairs, arts, education, and the expansion of Russian territory. She ruled through reforms, scandal, and corruption. She seemed to want the best for her Russian people. However, while she talked about change, she did not always act on her words. She accomplished a lot but could have accomplished more. Catherine could have made the biggest impact, in Russia, if she abolished serfdom and provided a better quality of life for peasants and the serfs. They were the majority of her population. She was torn between Enlightenment thinking and a love for power. I believe an Enlighted ruler would have wanted the best for all classes of people. If Catherine was truly a great leader, she would have

Lastly, is the politics which would form from a dictatorship government across nations, and the effect that had on the economy. Marks demonstrates how each Russian theme influenced world history by citing before mentioned individuals and the regions which were impacted: United States, England, Mexico, and China to name a few. This is done using studies conducted on revolutionary violence, examinations of Russian characters in Chinese fiction, and visual examples embedded in the text. Counterevidence is not his burden, however had he touched on it more some of his connections would be more concrete, for example anarchism on its own is a stretch. There is a lack of context, or it is brief when he discusses how the topics influenced the world but is understandable as he deals with complex and broad topics. In general the book is an advancement in Russian inclusivity with world history simply by existing, a great addition to a topic long neglected. While it is an interesting read, it may seem incomprehensible to those with limited historical background, it is directed to the academia

When in Russia, Do As the French Do Each country, society, and culture has a unique history, but how unique it is, can easily be questioned. France and Russia have different geographic domains, peoples, and cultures. However, their causes of revolution are similarly manifested in social-political issues, economic crisis, incompetent rulers, and enlightened ideas. Born out of the people’s restlessness for change, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917 were parallel in their initial spark of revolution.

Catherine brought more Enlightenment reforms to Russia such as trying to integrate the theories of Adam Smith with the strong regulatory state of Peter the Great. She created a national legislative commission that was to reform the way that local governments operated and the relationship between the central government and the outlying provinces (Montefiore 2016, 224-225). The most notable example of her reforms would be transitioning education into humanistic liberal education which created the intelligentsia. The intelligentsia would be a force that would cause trouble for future Russia leaders, but that connection allowed her to become one of the most prominent enlightened despots of the era (Blanning 2008,

During Catherine the Great’s rule, she tried to incorporate ideas of European Enlightenment into Russian society. One major aspect of this is her idea of Enlightened Absolutism (Catherine Instruction, 9). This idea was based off the assumption that she was the only Russian capable of enlightened or rational thought and thus she was the only person suitable for making decisions on behalf of the country. In what is known as the Great Instruction of 1767, Catherine describes the extent of her power as an Enlightened Absolute ruler as well as justifying its necessity. Although Catherine recognized that the Autocracy would eventually complicate the progression of a modern state, she did not believe that particular period in Russian history would

Catherine II once said “Power without a nation’s confidence is nothing” (“Catherine the Great Quote”). Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, was one of Russia’s greatest leaders. Although she was German born, Catherine II looked forward to her chance at ruling Russia and changed the country for the better. She tried to create policies that were in the best interest of the Russian people and would help to westernize her country (“World”). Catherine the Great was responsible for expanding Russia and the implementation of political, education, and social reforms that changed the country (“World”). Catherine II fueled Russia with progressive and modern ideas that threw her country into the future.

Catherine the Great In the midst of the Enlightenment of the 1700s emerged one of the greatest rulers in European history: Catherine the Great. Before her reign, Russia was a sluggish country and deemed behind in modernization compared to Western Europe. However, during Catherine’s lifetime from 1729 to 1796, this empress of Russia integrated new ideas that expanded her country in both scope and size (“Catherine the Great”). As a strong supporter of the arts and education, Catherine innovated Russia with Enlightenment teachings that allowed immense social progress and elevated the standing of her country among European powers.

For the Ottoman to progress further it needed a new national mantra for legitimacy in order to earn the respects of its subjects, in addition the empire had to mold a new national ethos . As said before that if “the Empire was to survive in the modern world, it could no longer be a group of disparate communities held together by force and obedience to a ruling family; it needed a unity of consciousness, which would create an active moral link between rulers and the ruled” (Hourani 1991: 52). In this sense the old ways of cementing authority were no longer valid during the mid-nineteenth century. Another country that faced this dilemma was Russia, which ironically, was a longtime rival of the Ottoman Empire for influence in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea, yet just like the Ottoman Empire it also faced the challenges of reconciling the increasingly outdated notion of absolute monarchy to modern civic values. For Russia its answer was to turn to an ideology that would seemingly be a unifying factor for the Slavic peoples in Europe with the Czar as its head similar to that of Pan-Islam followed by Abdul-Hamid. In the Russian case it would follow three principles: Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. This notion was formulated by the late Russian education minister Sergei Uvarov who stated these principles in an 1832 report outlining the future direction of Russian education.

The slavophiles began moving Russia towards nationalism as previously stated. But by the the twentieth century they certainly were still in transit. The slavophiles were purely a movement of the elites. It had no origins or members in the lower classes and certainly not the peasants. In many ways actually the peasants were hostile to the Slavophiles. The romanticism attributed to the peasants was far from the truth. Their lives of folk simplicity and communal perfection was actually a lifee of subsistence farming and dealing with corrupt village elders.18 This only reinforces the reality that the Slavophiles were creating Russian national identity, or imagining it. Slavophiles were trying to create a form of nationalism where there was still

Ethnic groups, and following World War II, the various states within the Soviet sphere of influence refused to assimilate and give up their own identities. The Soviets failed in large part to three factors. One, they did not understand nationalism. Russia had not experienced it and lacked knowledge and thus also understanding of how to undermine the development of nationalism. Two, the Soviets did not stop developing a clearly Russian centered identity based on language and Russian tradition. Finally, when the walls start caving in, such as they began to in the mid-1970s in the Soviet Union, it becomes harder and harder to fully control culture and identity. It was a tasking job to try and force millions of people to assimilate and become endeared

When we hear the term Russian culture many Americans tend to have negative thoughts like the cold war, their government ruling with an iron hand, and the Red Scare. These thoughts do not do the justice to the Russian people or to their long history as a people dating back to INSERT DATE. One of the major themes throughout Russian history and this course is the idea that the Russian people value intangible things more than the tangible. The Russian people have a long rich heritage, they are deep in there Christian faith, and they pride themselves on hospitality and value there community, families, and fellow Russian people. They have learned how to sacrifice from the constant invasions and being forced farther and

Russia, known by most as the Russian Federation, is a federal state in Eurasia. Russia is the largest country in the world at 17,075,200 square kilometres by surface area, covering more than one eighth of Earth 's inhabited land, and the ninth most populous, with over 146.6 million people as of end of March 2016. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the East, with almost eight-tenths of the population living within the European region of Russia. Russia 's capital, Moscow is one of the largest cities in Europe and the world. Its ohter major urban cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.