Atlas of the Russian Empire 1792
The Russian world is being reborn! It is being revived, despite various difficulties and opposition from our “sworn friends”. And today this is already obvious to the whole world.
Crimea, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have already returned to their homeland. For now - only these small fragments of the destroyed great empire.
But if we work conscientiously and hard, if we preserve traditional moral and spiritual values, if we are united in our goals and opinions, then very soon the rest of the Russian world will again gather into a single multinational empire, in which all peoples will be fraternal equal and will build their common Great Fatherland.
In the meantime, we need to prepare for this future. It is necessary to comprehend Russian culture, learn the Russian language and the history of our Motherland, preserve, increase and disseminate this knowledge so that no one can mislead and lead either us or our descendants astray from the right path.
And now I’ll tell you about what I was actually planning to talk about. About the places that were sprinkled with the blood of a Russian soldier and whose inhabitants swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar, about those states and lands that were once part of Russia, about the fragments of the Russian World.
1. Belarus
As you know, Belarus became an independent state only in 1991. Before Gorbachev’s betrayal, its inhabitants lived quite well within the USSR as an autonomous republic, and before the emergence of the USSR, as part of the Russian Empire.
Belarus was included in the empire through the gradual annexation of lands that were previously part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and if you look even deeper into the past - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ancient Rus'.
Belarus has always been somewhat different from Great Rus' in terms of language features. folk traditions and national costumes. Its cities had broader self-government, similar to the Magdeburg Law, but the inhabitants of this land were Slavs by blood, Orthodox by faith, and always felt themselves to be part of Russia.
2. Ukraine
Ukraine also first emerged as an independent state following the revolution in the Russian Empire in 1918 and, after a year of independence, re-entered the now USSR as one of the republics.
At the same time, in its modern form the country exists only thanks to the efforts of all the peoples of the Russian Empire. Without them, the southeastern half of the country simply would not exist.
Until the 18th century, the territory of modern Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk regions was practically uninhabited due to raids by Tatar hordes from the Crimea. Here was the Wild Field.
Only during the time of Catherine the Great did the Tatar raids completely stop and Crimea became Russian. and the above-mentioned lands were inhabited by His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin by Little Russians and Great Russians from the central provinces. This is how Novorossiya appeared, later administratively included in Ukraine.
Western Ukraine and Hungarian Transcarpathia. populated by Rusyns became Ukrainian thanks to the care of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who again returned these lands to the USSR.
Ukraine. or rather, Little Russia, until the 20th century, had never been an independent state. After the fragmentation of Ancient Rus', its lands constantly changed hands. At different times, different parts of Little Russia and Western Ukraine (formerly the Galicia-Volyn principality of Ancient Rus') were controlled by Poles, Turks and Tatars. Austrians, Hungarians. until finally these lands came together as part of Russia.
Ukraine has also always had its own flavor of Russian culture. customs and language, but a common faith and desire for unity with Russia.
3. Baltic republics
In ancient times, the Slavs settled far into Europe. The western borders of their lands were on the Elbe (Lab). Hence our similarity with the Germans, Poles and Balts. in whose veins a lot of Russian blood flows.
In the Middle Ages, the Slavic tribes of the Lyutichs, Bodrichis and Prussians. living in the territory of modern Germany were Romanized, converted to Catholicism and almost lost their Slavic identity and language. Although some things remain, for example, the name of Leipzig corresponds to the Russian Lipetsk - both are “city of linden trees”.
Baltic Slavic tribes - Estonians. The Livs and Latgalians were Germanized much later, during the time of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, by the Teutonic Order and not as qualitatively as the Germans, and the Lithuanians and Yatvingians initially fell into the zone of Russian influence.
Later, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania arose on the lands of Lithuania, which, due to the feudal fragmentation of Rus', absorbed Belarus and. in union with Poland it became the powerful Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later this state was destroyed. Mainly not by external enemies. but by the internal intrigues of magnates and arrogant gentry.
At the same time, the lands of Lithuania became Russian, along with the lands of Livonia, Estonia, Courland and Latgale, partly seized from the Swedes, partly purchased from them, and partly joined voluntarily.
It also did not have its own statehood until 1991 (the year 1918, when the self-proclaimed “government” illegally declared independence from the Russian Empire for a short period of time, does not count). Respectively. There could be no “occupation” of lands that had been Russian for more than 200 years.
Many local nobles (barons of Osten-Sacken for example) were faithful servants of our common Fatherland. and local merchants made a fortune precisely in Russian Baltic trade.
4. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
Here in Georgia the country had its own independent state. During the time of the great Queen Tamara, Georgia generally included almost the entire Caucasus. This country is home to a number of nationalities that speak several languages, but they are all united into a single whole by a common culture and Orthodoxy.
Like the countries described above, Georgia has constantly served as a bone of contention. First between Byzantium and the Persian Empire, then between Persia and the Ottoman Empire. As a result, Georgia was brought to the brink of destruction. And in 1783, Tsar Irakli signed the Treaty of Georgievsk and gave the country under the protection of Russia.
From now on, actually. and since 1801, Georgia was legally part of Russia. Since 1917, it became one of the republics of the USSR and again separated only as a result of the harmful activities of Gorbachev.
Armenia (or, to be precise, Eastern Armenia) was also annexed to Russia at the beginning of the 19th century - during the reign of Nicholas I following the results of the Russian-Persian wars. And she was part of it until that same year.
Armenia has a difficult fate. In the past, it was also a large independent state with a distinctive culture, which in one era united the entire Caucasus. Armenia is a country of pre-Chalcedonian Orthodoxy with its own alphabet, which was repeatedly subjected to genocide by the Turks and Persians.
As a result of all the national cataclysms, a significant part of the Armenians lives in France and Spain, some in Eastern Armenia, and some in Western Armenia, which is now part of Turkey. At the same time, Western Armenia. not an independent state, almost three times the size of Eastern Armenia.
Azerbaijan had its own statehood in Antiquity and... periodically in the Middle Ages. Periodically, because these lands were constantly conquered by other countries: the Mongol Empire, the Persian Empire, Armenia, Georgia.
Finally, at the beginning of the 19th century, this territory became part of the Russian Empire. where she stayed until the familiar year 1991.
5. Kazakhstan
The Kazakhs were a Turkic nomadic people who lived on the territory of the Central Asian steppe. They were part of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, and from the 16th to the 19th centuries they formed their own Khanate, consisting of 3 zhuzes (departments): Senior, Middle and Younger.
Gradually, from the first third of the 18th century, the lands of Kazakhstan began to become part of Russia, through economic and cultural expansion, the founding of Russian cities in the steppe and the integration of Kazakhs into the Russian irregular army. By the middle of the 19th century, all the lands of modern Kazakhstan became part of the Russian Empire.
Kazakhs have preserved their own language and unique culture. which, however, borrowed a lot from Russian culture. Writing and education came to the country along with the Russian population.
6. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
The Khanates of Kokand and Khiva, the Emirate of Bukhara, the regions of nomadic Turkmen and the Pamirs were conquered by Russian troops as a result of “punitive” campaigns in the 19th century.
True, in contrast to the punitive expeditions of the Western powers, which destroyed masses of the native population, Russian troops sought to force the authorities and population of these states to peace and free Russian and Kazakh slaves, because detachments of the above-mentioned Central Asian states regularly ravaged the lands of the Kazakhs and the towns of Russian settlers with raids.
As a result, Russian military contingents had to be introduced into these lands and began to draw them into the orbit of the Russian world. The credit for industrialization, enlightenment and raising the cultural level of Central Asia belongs mainly to the Bolsheviks, although this process began in the Russian Empire.
At the same time, the ancient culture of Central Asia was not suppressed at all. On the contrary, it enriched Russian culture.
7. Moldova
Until the 14th century, the territory of modern Moldova was part of the possessions of various tribal unions and state entities, including Ancient Rus'.
From the 14th to the 16th centuries, the Principality of Moldova was independent until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The country professed Orthodoxy, and was quite rich both culturally and economically due to its favorable geographical location - near the Black Sea and the Danube River - a major European waterway, at the junction of Russian, Turkish and European civilizations.
In 1711, the Moldavian ruler Dmitry Cantemir swore allegiance to Russia in Iasi, however. Due to the unsuccessful Prut campaign of Peter the Great, the principality had to be returned to the Ottomans.
The struggle for it lasted for two and a half centuries. Moldova in parts (Bessarabia, Bukovina, Western Moldova) was again conquered by Russia, became part of Romania, until it finally finally became part of the USSR at the end of World War II. The country, constantly gravitating towards Russia, gained independence in 1991.
8. Poland
The statehood and greatness of Poland cannot be doubted. At a certain point in history, this power was so powerful that it was on its basis that the unification of the Slavic world could take place. Then it included many German territories, Lithuania, Belarus, Little Russia, Western Ukraine and even some Great Russian territories.
But Western values - democracy and magnate freedom - ultimately undermined Poland's capabilities so much that it ceased to exist. The confrontation with other major powers - the Austrian Empire, Prussia, Sweden, Russia and Turkey - also played a role.
Poland ceased to exist as an independent state in 1795 following the third partition between Russia, Austria and Prussia. At the same time, Little Russia, Belarus and Lithuania went to Russia, and the indigenous Polish lands and Western Ukraine were divided by Prussia and Austria.
As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the map of Europe was redrawn several times and the Duchy of Warsaw, created by him from the former Austrian and Prussian provinces of Poland, almost completely became part of the Russian Empire under the name of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815.
For a whole century, the Poles were part of Russia, until the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 again led it to independence.
9. Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917. It got there after being torn away from Sweden following the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-1809.
The territory enjoyed such broad autonomy that the Finns did not even have to serve in the Russian army, and the emperor's decrees had to be approved by the Diet of Finland. It was during the period of Russian rule that Finland experienced a rise in national culture and economy.
If you dive deep into history, then in Ancient Rus' the Finns, like the Korelians, Laplanders and other northern peoples, were in the orbit of Russian influence and traded with Novgorod merchants.
10. Liaodong Peninsula
The Liaodong Peninsula with the cities of Port Arthur and Dalniy were leased to Russia by China for 99 years with the right to extend it or purchase these lands.
Porta Arthur was an ice-free military port, and Dalny was a civil harbor on the Pacific Ocean, which was very important for the development of these lands by Russia. As a result of the shameful Peace of Portsmouth, the “half-Sakhalin” Count Witte surrendered this and a number of other Russian territories to the Japanese.
11. Alaska
Alaska. It was discovered by the expedition of the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev in 1648, and later settled by Russian hunters (together with the Aleutian Islands), for the sake of harvesting sea beaver fur (it was this “beaver collar” that Pushkin had in mind in Onegin).
Russian America bordered in the south with the Californian possessions of the Spaniards, not reaching 80 km from San Francisco, where the Russians and the Spaniards were fruitful friends (see the novel “The Great Ocean”, the rock opera “Juno and Avos”).
At the southernmost point of our territory, Fort Ross was established and farmers settled there to supply Alaska with local wheat. There was an active Orthodox mission in Alaska, and Indian children studied in schools along with Russian settlers.
Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, during the war with Great Britain that threatened Russia, since at that time these territories were difficult to defend (the Trans-Siberian Railway and icebreakers did not yet exist).
12. Hawaii
They were part of Russia for only 1 year. But they were. Chief Kaumualii swore allegiance to the Russian Emperor in 1816. In Hawaii, 3 Russian fortresses and 1 trading post were even founded.
But the central authorities did not support the efforts of the Russian-American Company to develop the islands, and by the end of 1817 the Americans seized control over them.
13. Spitsbergen Archipelago and Bear Island
The islands were appropriated by Norway following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Before this, most states recognized Russian ownership of this disputed territory.
In Russian, Spitsbergen is called Grumant. The archipelago was explored by the Vikings and Russian Pomors at the same time - around the 10th century.
The islands were rich in bird and sea animals. but no one really needed them - it was easier to fish around them and kill whales, which is what Russian and European fishermen did until the beginning of the 20th century.
True, Russian fishermen often wintered on the islands, and in some historical periods they had small permanent settlements here. Therefore, the islands should be considered Russian, especially in light of the following information.
14. Eastern Norway
Like Finland, in the 10th century it was included in the orbit of influence of the Old Russian state. The lands of Norway to the east of the Tromsø fjord were considered Russian.
At the beginning of the 11th century, Prince Yaroslav the Wise donated part of the lands east of Tromsø to the future Norwegian king Harald III as a dowry for his daughter.
The remaining Russian lands in Eastern Norway were annexed by Sweden during the period of feudal fragmentation of the Old Russian state.
15. Archipelago Grand Duchy
The archipelago grand duchy arose on the territory of the Ottoman Empire during the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774.
When the Russian fleet burned all the Turkish ships in Chesme Bay, the Greeks of the 27 islands of the Aegean Sea swore allegiance to Empress Catherine II and began to actively help the Russian squadron in the fight against the Turks. The capital of the new Russian province was the city of Auza on the island of Paros. Russian sailors and ground forces began to settle here seriously and for a long time.
But as a result of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty, this conquest of Russia was surrendered to the Turks by our diplomats and the Greeks from the islands, in order to avoid massacre, had to flee to Crimea (and around Europe).
16. Western Armenia
Russia's struggle for the unification of Armenia has been going on for centuries. During the Russian-Turkish Wars, Western Armenia piecemeal joined Russia, only to later return to Turkey and be recaptured again.
Our possessions here reached their maximum in 1916 as a result of the offensive. which was caused by the Armenian genocide by the Turkish army.
Russia then included Trebizond and Kars, Erzurum, Erzincan, Bayazet and Van. However, the Armenians were not destined to be completely reunited. The revolution plunged the Russian Empire into chaos, and Western Armenia again fell to Turkey.
17. Southern coast of the Caspian Sea
Not everyone knows that Russia once owned it too. We received Rasht, Astrabad and the entire southern and western coast of the Caspian Sea as a result of the Persian campaign of Emperor Peter the Great.
Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna returned the southern coast of the Caspian Sea to Persia in exchange for help in the war with the Turks, which she never received.
18. Hokkaido
The last of the lands that were once part of Russia. Hokkaido in ancient times was called Ezo and, along with Sakhalin, was inhabited by the Ainu.
Unlike the Japanese, the Ainu are not Mongoloids, but Caucasians. The people of this ethnic group wore thick beards and mustaches, had a large build, and mostly lived by hunting fur-bearing animals and fishing.
Back in the 17th century, Russian explorers who reached the Far East and Alaska discovered the Kuril Islands, of which there were 22. Moreover, Ezo was considered the 22nd island.
Russian exploration and trade missions repeatedly visited Hokkaido. At the same time, Japan itself considered the island foreign territory. The head of the central government of Japan, Matsudaira Sadanobu, spoke about this in official correspondence back in 1792.
And the first yasak (fur tax) by the Russian Empire was received from the Ainu of Ezo back in 1779, when they were accepted into Russian citizenship.
Ezo was captured and became part of Japan only in 1869 as an overseas territory. At the same time, the island was renamed Hokkaido.
Some of the above lands do not have stable cultural ties with Russia. But each of them was paid for with Russian sweat and Russian blood, which means that someday, in fairness, they should once again be part of Russia.
Russian Empire- monarchical class multinational state of the early 18th - early 20th centuries. It developed on the basis of the Russian centralized state, which in 1721 Peter I declared an empire.
The Russian Empire included: from the 18th century. Baltic states, Right Bank Ukraine, Belarus, part of Poland, Bessarabia, North Caucasus; from the 19th century, in addition, Finland, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Pamirs. By the end of the 19th century. The territory of the Russian Empire was 22,400,000 km².
Population
According to the 1897 census, the population was 128,200,000 people, including European Russia - 93,400,000, Kingdom of Poland - 9,500,000, Grand Duchy of Finland - 2,600,000, Caucasus Territory - 9,300,000, Siberia - 5,800,000, Central Asian regions - 7,700,000. More than 100 peoples and nationalities lived on the territory of the Russian Empire. 57% of the population were non-Russian peoples. Tsarism brutally oppressed non-Russian peoples, pursued a policy of forced Russification, suppression of national culture, and incitement of interethnic hatred. Russian was the official national language, mandatory for all state and public institutions. According to the expression, the Russian Empire was a “prison of nations.”
Administrative division
The territory of the Russian Empire in 1914 was divided into 81 provinces and 20 regions. There were 931 cities. Some provinces and regions were united into governorates-general (Warsaw, Irkutsk, Kiev, Moscow, Amur, Stepnoe, Turkestan and Finland). The official vassals of the Russian Empire were the Khanate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva. In 1914, the Uriankhai Territory (now the Republic of Tyva) was accepted under the protectorate of the Russian Empire.
Autocratic system. Caricature
Structure of power and society
The Russian Empire was a hereditary monarchy headed by an emperor who exercised autocratic power. This provision was enshrined in the “Basic State Laws”. A member of the emperor's family and his relatives constituted the imperial house (see ""). The emperor exercised legislative power through the State Council (since 1810) and (since 1906), and directed the state apparatus through the Senate, Council of Ministers and ministries. The Emperor was the supreme leader of the armed forces of the Russian Empire (see Russian Army, Russian Navy). In the Russian Empire, the Christian Church was part of the state; “primary and dominant” was the Orthodox Church, which was ruled by the emperor through the Synod.
The entire population was considered subjects of the Russian Empire, the male population (from 20 years old) was obliged to swear allegiance to the emperor. Subjects were divided into 4 estates (“states”):
- nobility;
- clergy;
- city dwellers (honorary citizens, guild merchants, townspeople and townspeople, artisans or guild workers);
- rural inhabitants (that is, peasants).
The ruling class was the nobility. Political power belonged to him. The local population of Kazakhstan, Siberia and a number of other regions of the empire were separated into an independent “state” and were called foreigners (see “”). This category was managed by .
Extensive legislation was collected in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire and the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire had a coat of arms - a double-headed eagle with royal regalia; state flag - a cloth with white, blue and red horizontal stripes; the national anthem, which began with the words: “God save the Tsar.”
Decline and collapse of the empire
In the process of historical development of Russia in the 2nd half of the 19th century. moved from to, and at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. entered the stage. In Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The economic and social prerequisites for a people's revolution have matured. The center of the revolutionary movement moved from Western Europe to Russia. The revolution of 1905-1907 shook the foundations of autocracy and was a “dress rehearsal” for the bourgeois and proletarian revolution. overthrew the autocracy
As a result of the Northern War of 1700-1721, the powerful Swedish army was defeated and the Russian lands captured by Sweden at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries were returned. The city of St. Petersburg is being built at the mouth of the Neva, where the capital of Russia is moved in 1712. The Moscow state became the Russian Empire in 1721, headed by the All-Russian Emperor.
Of course, Russia took a long time to create an empire, and not only the victory in the Northern War contributed to this.
Long haul
At the beginning of the 13th century, Rus' consisted of about 15 principalities. However, the natural course of centralization was interrupted by the Mongol invasion (1237-1240). The further unification of Russian lands took place in difficult foreign policy conditions and was dictated primarily by political prerequisites.
In the 14th century, most of the Russian lands were united around Vilna - the capital of the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia. During the XIII-XV centuries, the principalities of Goroden, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Turovo-Pinsk, Kiev, as well as most of the Chernigov region, Volyn, Podolia, Smolensk region and a number of other Russian lands came into the possession of the great Lithuanian princes from the Gediminovich family. Thus, the individual rule of the Rurikovichs and the clan unity of Rus' became a thing of the past. The annexation of lands took place both military and peacefully.
The end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries became a kind of boundary, after which the lands annexed to Russia formed a single whole with it. The process of annexing the rest of the inheritance of Ancient Rus' lasted for another two centuries, and by this time its own ethnic processes had gained strength.
In 1654, Left Bank Ukraine joined Russia. The lands of Right Bank Ukraine (without Galicia) and Belarus became part of the Russian Empire as a result of the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1793.
“The Russian kingdom (both conceptually, ideologically, and institutionally) had two sources: the “kingdom” (Khanate) of the Golden Horde and the Byzantine Orthodox kingdom (empire).”
One of the first to formulate a new idea of the royal power of the Moscow princes was Metropolitan Zosima. In the essay “Exposition of Paschal,” submitted to the Moscow Council in 1492, he emphasized that Moscow became the new Constantinople thanks to Rus'’s loyalty to God. God Himself appointed Ivan III - “the new Tsar Constantine to the new city of Constantine - Moscow and the entire Russian land and many other lands of the sovereign.” Thus, Ivan IV was the first Tsar crowned king. This happened on January 16, 1547.
Under Ivan IV, Russia managed to significantly expand its possessions. As a result of the campaign against Kazan and its capture in 1552, it gained the middle Volga region, and in 1556, with the capture of Astrakhan, the lower Volga region and access to the Caspian Sea, which opened up new trade opportunities with Persia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. At the same time, the ring of hostile Tatar khanates that constrained Rus' was broken, and the road to Siberia was opened.
V. Surikov "Conquest of Siberia by Ermak"
The era of Ivan the Terrible also marked the beginning of the conquest of Siberia. A small detachment of Cossacks Ermak Timofeevich, hired by the Ural industrialists Stroganovs to protect against the attacks of the Siberian Tatars, defeated the army of the Siberian Khan Kuchum and took his capital Kashlyk. Despite the fact that due to the attacks of the Tatars, few of the Cossacks managed to return alive, the collapsed Siberian Khanate was never restored. A few years later, the royal archers of the governor Voeikov suppressed the last resistance. The gradual development of Siberia by Russians began. Over the next decades, forts and trading settlements began to emerge: Tobolsk, Verkhoturye, Mangazeya, Yeniseisk and Bratsk.
Russian Empire
P. Zharkov "Portrait of Peter I"
On August 30, 1721, the Treaty of Nystadt was concluded between Russia and Sweden, according to which Russia received access to the Baltic Sea, annexed the territory of Ingria, part of Karelia, Estland and Livonia.
Russia became a great European power. Peter I accepted the titles “Great” and “Father of the Fatherland” from the Senate, he was proclaimed emperor, and Russia - an empire.
The formation of the Russian Empire was accompanied by a number of reforms.
Public Administration Reform
Creation of the Near Chancellery (or Council of Ministers) in 1699. It was transformed in 1711 into the Governing Senate. Creation of 12 boards with a specific scope of activity and powers.
The public administration system has become more advanced. The activities of most government bodies became regulated, and the boards had a clearly defined area of activity. Supervisory authorities were created.
Regional (provincial) reform
At the first stage of the reform, Peter I divided Russia into 8 provinces: Moscow, Kyiv, Kazan, Ingria (later St. Petersburg), Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Azov, Siberian. They were controlled by governors who were in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province, and also had full administrative and judicial power. At the second stage of the reform, the provinces were divided into 50 provinces governed by governors, and they were divided into districts led by zemstvo commissars. Governors were deprived of administrative power and resolved judicial and military issues.
There was a centralization of power. Local governments have almost completely lost influence.
Judicial reform
Peter 1 created new judicial bodies: the Senate, the Justice Collegium, the Hofgerichts, and the lower courts. Judicial functions were also performed by all colleagues except Foreign. The judges were separated from the administration. The court of kissers (an analogue of the jury trial) was abolished, and the principle of the inviolability of an unconvicted person was lost.
A large number of judicial bodies and persons carrying out judicial activities (the emperor himself, governors, governors, etc.) introduced confusion and confusion into legal proceedings, the introduction of the possibility of “knocking out” testimony under torture created the ground for abuse and bias. At the same time, the adversarial nature of the process and the need for the sentence to be based on specific articles of the law corresponding to the case under consideration were established.
Military reforms
The introduction of conscription, the creation of a navy, the establishment of a Military Collegium in charge of all military affairs. Introduction using the “Table of Ranks” of military ranks, uniform for all of Russia. Creation of military-industrial enterprises, as well as military educational institutions. Introduction of army discipline and military regulations.
With his reforms, Peter 1 created a formidable regular army, which by 1725 numbered up to 212 thousand people and a strong navy. Units were created in the army: regiments, brigades and divisions, and squadrons in the navy. Many military victories were won. These reforms (although assessed ambiguously by different historians) created a springboard for further successes of Russian weapons.
Church reform
The institution of the patriarchate was virtually eliminated. In 1701, the management of church and monastic lands was reformed. Peter 1 restored the Monastic Order, which controlled church revenues and the court of monastic peasants. In 1721, the Spiritual Regulations were adopted, which actually deprived the church of independence. To replace the patriarchate, the Holy Synod was created, the members of which were subordinate to Peter 1, by whom they were appointed. Church property was often taken away and spent on the needs of the emperor.
The church reforms of Peter 1 led to the almost complete subordination of the clergy to secular power. In addition to the elimination of the patriarchate, many bishops and ordinary clergy were persecuted. The Church could no longer pursue an independent spiritual policy and partially lost its authority in society.
Financial reforms
The introduction of many new (including indirect) taxes, monopolization of the sale of tar, alcohol, salt and other goods. Damage (reduction in weight) of a coin. The kopeck becomes the main coin. Transition to poll tax.
Increase in treasury revenues several times. But! It was achieved due to the impoverishment of the bulk of the population, and most of this income was stolen.
Culture and life
Peter I led the fight against external manifestations of an “outdated” way of life (the most famous is the ban on beards), but no less paid attention to introducing the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, and translations of many books into Russian appeared. Peter made success in service for the nobles dependent on education.
N. Nevrev "Peter I"
A number of measures were taken to develop education: on January 14, 1700, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow. In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, and mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories. In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened. The goals of mass education were to be served by digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, designed to “ teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry" It was planned to create two such schools in each province, where education was to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was created for the training of priests in 1721. Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met fierce resistance and was cancelled. Peter's attempt to create an all-estate primary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death; most of the digital schools under his successors were repurposed as estate schools for training the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.
Peter I created new printing houses.
In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the Academy of Sciences, which was opened after his death.
Of particular importance was the construction of stone Petersburg, in which foreign architects took part and which was carried out according to the plan developed by the tsar. He created a new urban environment with previously unfamiliar forms of life and pastime (theater, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, lifestyle, food composition, etc. have changed.
By a special decree of the tsar in 1718, assemblies were introduced, representing a new form of communication between people for Russia. At the assemblies, the nobles danced and communicated freely, unlike previous feasts and feasts.
S. Khlebovsky "Assemblies under Peter I"
Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study “art” abroad.
On December 30, 1701, Peter issued a decree that ordered full names to be written in petitions and other documents instead of derogatory half-names (Ivashka, Senka, etc.), not to fall on your knees before the Tsar, and in winter, in the cold, to wear a hat in front of the house in which king, don't take it off. He explained the need for these innovations in this way: “Less baseness, more zeal for service and loyalty to me and the state - this honor is characteristic of the king...”.
Peter tried to change the position of women in Russian society. By special decrees (1700, 1702 and 1724) he prohibited forced marriage. It was prescribed that there should be at least a six-week period between betrothal and wedding, “so that the bride and groom can recognize each other.” If during this time, the decree said, “the groom does not want to take the bride, or the bride does not want to marry the groom,” no matter how the parents insist on it, “there will be freedom.”
The transformations of the era of Peter I led to the strengthening of the Russian state, the creation of a modern European army, the development of industry and the spread of education among the upper classes of the population. An absolute monarchy was established, headed by the emperor, to whom the church was also subordinate (through the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod).
In the 1720s. the delimitation of Russian and Chinese possessions continued under the Burinsky and Kyakhta treaties of 1727. In the areas adjacent to, as a result of the Persian campaign of Peter I (1722-1723), the border of Russian possessions temporarily covered even all the western and Caspian territories of Persia. In 1732 and 1735 In connection with the aggravation of Russian-Turkish relations, the Russian government, interested in an alliance with Persia, gradually returned the Caspian lands to it.
In 1731, the nomadic Kyrgyz-Kaisaks () of the Younger Zhuz voluntarily accepted Russian citizenship, and in the same 1731 and 1740. - Middle Zhuz. As a result, the empire included the territories of the entire eastern Caspian region, the Aral region, the Ishim region and the Irtysh region. In 1734, the Zaporozhye Sich was again accepted into Russian citizenship.
In 1783, the Treaty of Georgievsk was concluded with the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (Eastern) on voluntary recognition of the Russian protectorate over it.
In the west of the country, the main territorial acquisitions were associated with three sections (1772, 1793, 1795). The intervention of Prussia and Austria in the internal affairs of Poland led in 1772 to its division, in which Russia was forced to take part, acting to protect the interests of the Orthodox population of Western Ukraine and. Part of Eastern Belarus (along the Dnieper - ) and part of Livonia went to Russia. In 1792, Russian troops again entered the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the call of the Targowica Confederation. As a result of the second partition of Poland in 1793, Right Bank Ukraine and part of Belarus (with Minsk) went to Russia. The third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1795) led to the elimination of the independence of the Polish state. Courland, Lithuania, part of Western Belarus and Volyn went to Russia.
In the southeast of Western Siberia in the 18th century. there was a gradual advance to the south: to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Ob with its tributaries (Altai and Kuznetsk Basin). Russian possessions also covered the upper reaches of the Yenisei, excluding the sources themselves. Further east, the borders of Russia in the 18th century. were determined by the border with the Chinese Empire.
In the middle and second half of the century, Russia's possessions, by right of discovery, covered southern Alaska, discovered in 1741 by the expedition of V. I. Bering and A. I. Chirikov, and the Aleutian Islands, annexed in 1786.
Thus, during the 18th century, the territory of Russia increased to 17 million km2, and the population from 15.5 million people. in 1719 to 37 million people in 1795
All these changes in territory, as well as the development of the state structure of the Russian Empire, were accompanied (and in some cases preceded) by intensive research - first and foremost topographical and general geographical.
In the 19th century, just like in the previous century, the state territory of our fatherland continued to change, mainly in the direction of expansion. The territory of the country increased especially dramatically in the first fifteen years of the 19th century. as a result of wars with Turkey (1806-1812), (1804-1813), Sweden (1808-1809), France (1805-1815).
The beginning of the century was marked by the expansion of the possessions of the Russian Empire. In 1801, the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom (Eastern Georgia), which had previously been under Russian protectorate since 1783, voluntarily joined Russia.
The unification of Eastern Georgia with Russia contributed to the subsequent voluntary entry into Russia of the Western Georgian principalities: Megrelia (1803), Imereti and Guria (1804). In 1810, Abkhazia and Ingushetia voluntarily joined Russia. However, the coastal fortresses of Abkhazia and Georgia (Sukhum, Anaklia, Redut-Kale, Poti) were held by Turkey.
The Treaty of Bucharest with Turkey in 1812 ended the Russian-Turkish war. Russia retained in its hands all the regions up to the river. Arpachay, Adjara Mountains and. Only Anapa was returned to Turkey. On the other side of the Black River she received Bessarabia with the cities of Khotin, Bendery, Akkerman, Kilia and Izmail. The border of the Russian Empire was established along the Prut to, and then along the Chilia channel of the Danube to the Black Sea.
As a result of the war with Iran, the North Azerbaijani khanates joined Russia: Ganja (1804), Karabakh, Shirvan, Sheki (1805), Kuba, Baku, Derbent (1806), Talysh (1813), and in 1813 the Gulistan Peace Treaty was signed, according to which Iran recognized the annexation of Northern Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Eastern Georgia, Imereti, Guria, Megrelia and Abkhazia to Russia.
Russian-Swedish War 1808-1809 ended with the annexation of Finland to Russia, which was announced by the manifesto of Alexander I in 1808 and approved by the Friedrichsham Peace Treaty of 1809. The territory of Finland up to the river went to Russia. Kemi, including the Aland Islands, Finnish and part of the province of Västerbotten to the river. Torneo. Further, the border was established along the Torneo and Munio rivers, then north along the Munioniski-Enonteki-Kilpisyarvi line to the border with. Within these borders, the territory of Finland, which received the status of an autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, remained until 1917.
According to the Tilsit Peace Treaty with France in 1807, Russia received the Bialystok District. The Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809 between Austria and France led to Austria transferring the Tarnopol region to Russia. And finally, the Congress of Vienna of 1814-1815, which ended the war of the coalition of European powers with Napoleonic France, consolidated the division between Russia, Prussia and Austria of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, most of which, receiving the status of the Kingdom of Poland, became part of Russia. At the same time, the Tarnopol region was returned to Austria.
The Russian Empire existed from 1721 to 1917. It occupied a vast territory, almost 36 million square kilometers, from eastern Europe to Asia (inclusive). The empire had an autocratic type of government and its capital in the city of St. Petersburg. The empire's population was over 170 million people and included over a hundred different ethnic groups. The largest of them are Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The Russian Empire began during the reign of Peter the Great (1694-1725) after Russia won the Great Northern War (1700-1721). In this war, Russia fought against the Swedish and Polish empires.
Most of the population of Russia at that time consisted of serfs. Russian rulers tried to reform the system by abandoning slavery, following the example of Western states. This led to the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The abolition occurred during the reign of Alexander II (1855-1881). The liberation of the peasants did not lead to an improvement in their lives. Disagreements and intrigues in the ruling circles grew and as a result, this led to the fact that Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne on March 15, 1917, during.
Absolute domination over its neighbors in Europe and Asia
The Russian offensive into East Prussia and Austria-Hungary was intended to divert German troops from the western front. In the course of implementing this plan, the Russian Empire suffered catastrophic losses and a number of defeats in 1914-1915. The incompetence of the military leadership and serious problems within the country had an impact. The losses incurred during the war caused widespread unrest, especially among the proletariat, peasantry and soldiers.
This led to mass protests in 1916. The split in the government grew, and the opposition Progressive Bloc was formed. Regardless of all the government's attempts to maintain order and the monarchical system, demonstrators in the capital called for the abolition of autocracy. was forced to abdicate on March 15, thereby ending the existence of the Russian Empire. Seven months later, the Bolshevik Revolution began and the Soviet Union emerged.