Czars of Russiaor “Tsars”

Russian History…

From Ivan the Great to Nicholas the Last….

What Exactly is a czar?

• The title Tsar is derived from the Latin word for emperor, Caesar.

• The emperors of Russia became known as Czars…it can also be spelled Tsar or Csar.

• Here’s how it all started…

Ivan the Great

• It wasn't until 1480, that Moscow was strong enough to throw off Mongol rule for good. Its ruler at that time was Grand Duke Ivan III, better known as… Ivan the Great.

• Ivan began by taking control of most of Moscow's rival cities, and he was effectively in control of the entire country.

• However, it wasn't until the reign of his grandson, Ivan IV (the Terrible), that Russia became a unified state.

In Russia Ivan was called "Grozny", which has always been translated to "the Terrible”. Grozny's meaning is closer to the original usage of terrible—inspiring fear or terror, dangerous, formidable, threatening, or awesome. Perhaps a translation closer to the intended sense would be Ivan the Fearsome.

Ivan and his no good, very bad, terrible, horrible days…..

IVAN THE TERRIBLE

• Ivan the Terrible became the Grand Duke of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. His mother died when Ivan was eight. For the next eight years, the young Grand Duke was not treated kindly by the boyars (the nobility).

• In 1547, he adopted the title of tsar and set about

crushing the power of the boyars, reorganizing the military, and preparing to smite the Mongols.

• Ivan's Mongol campaigns opened huge new areas

for Russian expansion, and it was during his reign that the conquest and colonization of Siberia began.

IVAN THE TERRIBLE

• Believe it or not, Ivan was not supposed to have been very terrible at all during the early years of his reign. However, as he grew older his temper worsened, and by the 1560s he carried out a pretty horrific campaign against the boyars, taking away their land and executing or exiling those who displeased him.

Ivory throne of Ivan the Terrible.

In 1581, in a rage, he struck his son and heir, Ivan, with an iron rod, killing him.

He had St. Basil's Cathedral constructed in Moscow to commemorate the seizure of Kazan. Legend has it that he was so impressed with the structure that he had the architects blinded, so

that they could never design anything as beautiful again.

• When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, he was succeeded by his son Fyodor, who was not exactly up to filling the shoes of a legend. Fyodor left most of the management of the kingdom to his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov.

• It was not long before Godunov began to work to secure the succession for himself. In 1591, he murdered Fyodor's younger brother Dmitri.

• When Fyodor died in 1598, Godunov was made tsar, but his rule was never really accepted. Finally, in 1613 the boyars unanimously elected Michael Romanov as Tsar.

• The Romanov dynasty was to rule Russia for the next 304 years, until the Russian Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist state.

Transition from the Ivans to the Romanovs…..

Peter IPeter the Great

Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias

• For the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the status quo in Russia, and did very little to bring Russia up to speed with the rapid changes that were taking place in Europe.

• Peter the Great decided to change all of that. Peter was his father's youngest son (usually the oldest would become the next tsar). Tsar Alexis had three other children: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor health brought an early death in 1682.

• The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however, than Ivan's family struck back.

• Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard.

• The outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan. It was soon noticed that Peter possessed a penchant for war games, including especially military drill and siege craft.

• Six years later Ivan died, leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe.

• He spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs, but also travelling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in Holland.

• He learned about western European industrial techniques and

became determined to modernize the Russian state and to westernize its society.

• He returned and began his program to recreate Russia in the image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles (which went against centuries of tradition).

• His new rules hit the country like a hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced military conscription, established technical schools, simplified the alphabet, tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, etc.

• In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his reforms--the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland.

• Over the next nine years, at tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.

A statue of Peter I on the bank of the Moskva River is one of the

tallest outdoor sculptures in the world.

Pictures from St. Petersburg

• Peter had a lot of opposition during his reign. One of the most notable critics of his policies was his own son Alexis. Peter had his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.

• Peter himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Certainly he modernized Russia's military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced into serfdom.

• After Peter's death, Russia went through a great number of rulers in a distressingly short time, none of whom had much of an opportunity to leave a lasting impression.

• It was not until the reign of Catherine the Great that Peter’s desire to make Russia into a great European power was in fact achieved.

Catherine the Great Born a princess in Germany, Catherine the Great converted to Orthodoxy and was married to the heir to the Russian throne, the Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, grandson of Peter the Great. Though Catherine the Great had the support of Peter's mother, the Empress Elizabeth, she disliked her husband and helped engineer his removal from the throne. She took power as Tsarina or Queen, calling herself Catherine II.

• On December 25, 1761, Peter III, grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Tsar. His wife, Catherine did not go to his coronation.

• The couple had been married for eighteen years. Both had been newcomers to the Russian court as teens, and for a few years after their marriage they had been on friendly terms. By 1762, however, their relationship deteriorated. Peter had grown into a fool, while Catherine had become a complete success, respected as much for her intellect as for her winning personality.

• Everyone knew that Catherine was the more capable politician. By the following summer the conflict between Peter and Catherine had become quite serious. In only six months of rule, he had managed to offend and outrage virtually the entire court. Support for Catherine was widespread, and Peter was suspicious.

• Early on the morning of June 28, Catherine left her estate outside of St. Petersburg, and departed for the city. Everything had been prepared in advance, and when she arrived she was greeted with cheers by both the troops of her supporters and the people.

• The next morning, Peter was confronted with a fait accompli-a prepared declaration of his abdication (stepping down from the throne). A week later, he was dead. Catherine went on to become the most powerful ruler in Europe.

• She continued Peter the Great's reforms of the Russian state. Russia's influence in European affairs, as well as its territory in Eastern and Central Europe, were increased and expanded.

• Catherine was also an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She built and founded the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia, founded academies, journals, and libraries.

• One notable effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine ultimately contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in Russia.

• When Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I. Catherine never really liked Paul, and her feelings were reciprocated by her son.

• Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete disaster.

• Paul was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.

Alexander I

In 1872 the Russian grand duke Alexis Romanoff visited New Orleans at Mardi Gras. A group of businessmen organized the Krewe of Rex to host a parade for the occasion, and appointed a "king for the day" so that the grand duke could have a royal reception. Naming kings and queens at Mardi Gras balls has been a tradition of the krewes ever since. Another tradition began with that royal visit: the Romanoff house colors—purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power—became the official colors of Mardi Gras.

• Tensions were building between Russia and France. Napoleon (ruler of France) wanted to expand. He justified his attempt to take Russia by saying he wanted to liberate the Russian serfs.

• In June of 1812, Napoleon and his army of roughly 500,000 marched into Russia. The French army greatly outnumbered the Russian troops and both suffered considerable losses. Alexander and the Russian people realized that Moscow could not be effectively defended. But, they had no intention of giving in or surrendering.

• When Napoleon got to Moscow, he found the city abandoned, burned, and void of supplies. It was September, 1812. The peasant uprising Napoleon had expected did not materialize.

Alexander I

• Without the support from the peasantry, Napoleon's army could not survive for long. The French were forced to leave Moscow and head for home. The set out in October, unaware of the brutality of the Russian winter. Starvation and disease ravaged Napoleon's Great Army, and only about 20 percent of the soldiers made it back to France. A march of death.

• Not willing to let the matter be, the Russian army went after Napoleon and, in 1814, occupied Paris.

• As a result of this Russian victory, Alexander I had a new-found status in the eyes of the people.

• Alexander died on December 1, 1825, of a fever. His youngest brother, Nicholas became the next tsar.

• Three tsars later, in 1894, Nicholas II would take the throne…destined to be the last tsar ever…

Nicholas II The Last Tsar of Russia

• Nicholas succeeded to the throne following his father's death from liver disease on 20th October, 1894.

• Nicholas was opposed to the Westernization of Russia. He made a speech in January, 1895, denouncing the "senseless dreams" of those who favor democratic reforms.

• Nicholas II faced mounting problems with the people of Russia. The Russian industrial employee worked on average an 11 hour day (10 hours on Saturday). Conditions in the factories were extremely harsh and little concern was shown for the workers' health and safety

Nicholas II The Last Tsar of Russia

• 1904 was a particularly bad year for Russian workers. Prices of necessary goods rose and wages declined. 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went out on strike.

• A procession of workers reached the Winter Palace (Nicholas’s home) to protest. They were attacked by the police and the Cossacks. Over 100 workers were killed and some 300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody Sunday, started what became known as the 1905 Revolution.

• Strikes took place all over the country and the universities closed down when the whole student body complained about the lack of civil liberties by staging a walkout.

• The protests and unrests went on for years between the Tsar led government and the people of Russia.

• World War I broke out in 1914. In September 1915, Nicholas II assumed supreme command of the Russian Army. He had military failures and during 1917 there was a strong decline support for the Tsar in Russia.

• On March 13, 1917, the Russian Army High Command recommended that Nicholas abdicate (give up his power). Two days later the Tsar gave up the throne.

• The Tsar and his immediate family were arrested, and he and his family were moved to a remote Siberian city where he was held captive by a group of Bolsheviks. Nicholas and his family were executed in July 1918.

• There has not been a tsar in Russia since.

• But there’s more…or is there…?

Anastasia…

• Nicholas II youngest daughter, Anastasia, was murdered with her family on July 17, 1918 …or was she????

• According to a note, by a Bolshevik named Yurovsky, on the night of the murders the family was awakened and told to dress. They were told they were being moved to a new location to ensure their safety in anticipation of the violence that might ensue when the White Army reached Yekaterinburg.

• Once dressed, the family and the small circle of servants who had remained with them were herded into a small room in the house's sub-basement and told to wait. Alexandra and Alexei sat in chairs provided by guards at the empress' request.

• After several minutes, the executioners entered the room, led by Yurovsky. The Tsar and his family were told that they were to be executed. The Tsar had time to say only "What?" and turn to his family before he was killed by several bullets to the chest (not, as is commonly stated, to the head; his skull, recovered in 1991, bears no bullet wounds).

• The rest of the family was also executed. Some by shooting, others by bayonets.

• Then, as the bodies were taken out of the cellar room, two of the grand duchesses showed signs of life. Yurovsky wrote that as the bodies were carried out, one or more of the girls cried out and were clubbed on the back of the head.

• Rumors of Anastasia's survival spread with other rumors of trains and houses being searched for 'Anastasia Romanov' by Bolshevik soldiers and secret police.

• Persistent rumors of Anastasia’s possible escape have circulated since her death, fueled by the fact that the mass grave which held the remains of the Tsar, his wife, and three daughters was revealed in 1991, but the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters were not discovered there.

• Several women have falsely claimed to have been Anastasia, the most notorious was Anna Anderson.

• Anna (as in Anastasia???) claimed that she had faked her death amongst the bodies of her family members and servants, and was able to make her escape with the help of a compassionate guard who rescued her from amongst the corpses after noticing that she was still alive. Anna even went to court to prove her claim. The final decision of the court was that Anna Anderson had not provided sufficient proof to claim the identity of the grand duchess.

• Anna died in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994, on available pieces of Anderson's tissue and hair, showed no relation to DNA of the royal family.

• Anastasia’s possible survival has been entirely disproven. In March 2009, the final results of the DNA testing were published by Dr. Michael Coble of the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, proving conclusively that the remains of all four Grand Duchesses have now been accounted for, and no one escaped.

Russian victory over Napoleon and 1812 Overture

1812

1890 Trans-Siberian Railroad

1917 Czar Nicholas II gives up his throne and Vladimir Lenin leads revolution and sets up a communist government.

1922

WWII --Soviets join the US and Britain to fight against the Germans1941

Cold War years—(competition for world influence between the Soviet Union and the U. S—not actually fighting in a war)

1945 until late 1980’s

1985Soviet leader Gorbachev tries glasnost—less government control and more openness

The Soviet Union falls—each of the 15 republics declares its independence-- end of communism in Russia AND…1991

Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, encourages a free market economy—an economy based on competition and private ownership

Russian Timeline

U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) is formed

1. What is the full name of the Soviet Union?

2. During WWII, which countries did the Soviet Union join with to fight against Germany?

3. Who was the first president of Russia after the fall of communism and lead the country toward a free market economy?

4. Compared to American Presidents, do Russian Presidents have more or less power?

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The United States and Great Britain

Boris Yeltsin

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