History of Russia

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When diving into the 19-20 century history of Russia it is important to understand what exactly was Russia in the grand scheme of things for that time. Russian Empire was an important European power and an influential geopolitical force. Some people tend to view it as a colonial empire since it owned lands belonging to ethnic groups different from that of Russia, while the opponents of such ideas claim that since the Russian Empire didn’t own any colonies, it’s wrong to assume them to be colonial. The author of this article thinks that truth is somewhere in between, as the fall of the said empire did create new states that fall fully under the current understanding of a “postcolonial nation”, and it’s not like Russia doesn’t have an extensive history of failed colonies either. At the same time, the relationship the government of Saint Petersburg had with the rest of its population can’t be described as a relationship between that of a metropole and a colony. Instead, it has a lot more in common with how American colonizers treated Native Americans.

Pre-Paul times
In 1682, Peter the Great ascends the throne of the Tsardom of Muscovy, continuing the cycle of reforms begun by the first Romanovs, transforming his Kingdom of Moscow into the Russian Empire. There was but one thing standing between Peter and his dream of European Russia and that was the Swedish Empire that controlled the access to the Baltic Sea. With the help of diplomacy, Peter forms an anti-Swedish coalition between himself, the Elector of Saxony and the King of the Commonwealth August II Frederick and King Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway, starting the Great Northern War.

Initially, this war doesn’t go that well for Russia and Peter loses most of his army during the Battle of Narva, but Charles XII’s decision to concentrate on beating Saxony and neutral Polish-Lithuania, gives him enough time to reform his army and retake his lost positions in the Baltic region, but the momentum is lost as he is forced to repel Swedish offensives from Ingria and the sea. Meanwhile, wanting to weaken Russian meddling in their internal affairs, the Hetmanate ruled by Ivan Mazepa sides with Sweden. This also slows down Russians, giving Charles time to reach the territory of modern Belarus, where the Hetmanate, Sweden, and Russia fought the most brutal battles of the war. In the end, Russia will win, using the coldest winter of the century and scorched earth tactics to their advantage. The Hetmanate accepts defeat and removes itself from the conflict after paying Russia a large sum of money in reparations, leaving Sweden alone.

They will continue their war up to 1721, facing several defeats and the death of their king, Charles XII in Norway. Russia will occupy the lands of modern-day Finland, killing over 5,000 Finns and sending over 20,000 of them into Russia as forced labor. Meanwhile, the Hetmanate from this point on will be ruled by hetmans elected in Russia, de jure ending their independence.

Russian Empire will finally end Hetmanate's sovereignty during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768—1774. The war that was originally just a conflict between Russian Empire and the Polish Bar Confederation grew into a war between Russia and the Ottomans, when a group of Zaporizhian Cossacks under the command of Maksym Zalizniak, entered the city of Balta during their pursuit of Polish troops and razed it to the ground. Though Russia denied its involvement in this, it soon became clear that they wish to neither support nor tolerate Zaporizhian Cossack's existence. And so, Russian forces had entered Baturyn, Zaporizhian Sich, and New Kodak and after deposing the Hetman, placed an official representative of Catherine the Great. A few years later, Russia officially annexes the Hetmanate along with the Crimean Khanate and parts of Poland.

Paul I of Russia (1796-1801)


With the death of Catherine the Great, her son Paul I ascended to the throne and enacted several important reforms, one of which was the cancellation of the Petrin House Law of 1722. This law canceled the traditional royal order of succession and allowed each reigning emperor or empress to designate their successor via their testament. This law maximized the list of potential candidates for the throne, as in essence, the monarch could designate anyone as his successor.

This ambiguity led to the so-called “the Age of Palace Coups”, where future emperors came to power not only with the help of a testament but also with the help of military or noble support. Pauline Laws canceled that, replacing it with a semi-Salic line of succession to the Russian throne, which would pass to a female and through the female (cognatic) line of the dynasty only upon the extinction of all legitimately-born male dynasts. It also banned non-Orthodox from becoming a monarch. However this and many other of his reforms were if not outright cancelled, then simply ignored by his successors. Instead, a sort of a “hybrid” system was used by everyone up to Nicholas the First, where the semi-Salic system was once again abolished in favour of a testament from the previous rules, but numerous conditions and orders were limiting the pool of candidates to Emperor’s direct offspring.

Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
Paul was also the first Russian Emperor to become the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. The Knight Order had a long-standing friendly relationship with Russia, so when Napoleon annexed Malta, during his expedition to Egypt, it was Paul who sheltered a large number of knights in Russia, which partially coincided with his policy of weakening the influence of the Catholic Church in across Russian Empire. In gratitude, these refugee knights have declared Paul as their Grand Master, their Order was accepted alongside other Imperial orders. A special Russian Grand Priory was established specifically for them and three ancient holy relics of Knights Hospitaller were transported from Malta to Gatchina (and later Saint Petersburg). The Priory was accepted by the Catholic Church (at least that’s what the Russian diplomats claim) as the legal continuation of the Malta Order of Saint John of Jerusalem but wasn’t accepted by many other European powers in part because the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was allowed to control a Catholic order. Paul ordered to add the Maltese Cross to the Imperial Coat of Arms as a show of proof of his Grand Master position.

Alexander I of Russia (1801-1825)
Paul’s successor, Alexander I is known firstly for his foreign policy and conquest. During his reign Russia gains Finland, Bessarabia, and Georgia, and gained victories against the Ottomans, Persians, Swedes, and even Napoleon himself, becoming the first foreign army to ever freely enter Paris in the last 400 years. Russian Empire becomes highly prestigious and gains a massive say in geopolitics which almost immediately becomes contested by other Great Powers, which turns into a massive standoff in Asia between Russia and Britain, a destabilization campaign against the Ottomans in the Balkan region, and also a campaign of supporting absolutism and deliberate destruction of any an all movements for national liberation.

Alexander also decides to restructure the Grand Priory, which also would include the restoration of the orders' military nature. In his Hospitaller Act, the Grand Priory was restructured into the Knight Order of the Saint John of Jerusalem or Knights Hospitalier. The Knights were exempted from taxes, rewarded with land, and granted significant social autonomy in exchange for permanent military service, thus making them similar in function to the Orthodox Cossack Hosts. The British Empire was very hostile to such a move and was afraid that this will be used as an excuse for Russia to spread its influence to the Mediterranean (as Knights still had a legal claim to Malta), but after the British liberated/captured Malta in 1800s and turned it into a Crown Colony, they, alongside other nations started to support the Sovereign Military Order of Malta instead. The question of inheritance of the tradition of the medieval military Knights Hospitaller had become a very contested diplomatic question in the British-Russian relationship. This combined with the Great Game in Asia resulted in a secret war between these two empires, during which both sides secretly sponsored any opposition or national movements they could.

Post-Napoleonic changes
After the Napoleonic War, French Catholic prisoners of war were stationed in the territories of the Orenburg Cossack Host and the territories inhabited by the Volga Germans. While the French in Orenburg were quickly “cossacified” and turned Russian by the second generation, the Volga French came under the care of the Order of Hospitalier and were assimilated into their ranks. In the future, many Catholics in exile would find themselves under Hospitalier protection and the area around the Pokrovskaya Sloboda (modern Engels) gradually became the "capital" for the Order of Hospitalier.

Nicholas I of Russia (1825-1855)
Crimean War

During the reign of Nicholas I, the Russian Empire experienced its first wave of nationalist uprisings, so it began to reduce the rights and freedoms of its autonomies: the Kingdom of Poland, the Hetmanate, the Grand Duchy of Finland, etc. Poland and Bessarabia were the most oppressed, the former had their constitution repealed while the latter was deprived of its autonomous status. In Hetmanate the government began to deprive the Cossack nobility of their traditional rights and liberties. Finland seems to have suffered the least, but new decrees and orders had their previously independent army merge (and occasionally replaced) with the Russian one.

During the Oriental Crisis of 1839-1841, the Russian Empire took a neutral stance, during the drafting of the Convention of London of 1840. Publicly they supported the Ottoman Empire, but at the same time, they colluded with France in their support of Muhammad Ali. Through secret talks, Muhammad agrees to abide by the Convention of London. He and his heirs gain permanent control over Egypt, Sudan, and the Eyalet of Acre/Sidon, in exchange for remaining a nominal vassal of the Ottoman Empire. The following year, the London Straits Convention was signed, supplementing the Convention of London, stating that in peacetime access to the Bosporus Strait was closed to all warships, except for small ones belonging to the diplomatic corps. At the same time, the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi between the Russian and the Ottoman Empires was rewritten into more general "assistance" in the event of an invasion or at request by the sultan, maintaining the Russian Empire's influence over the Ottomans along with Britain and France.

Nicholas's rule today could in many ways be described as “reactionary”, as it was during his reign Russia began to increase general censorship of secular life. His reign also lay the foundation of Russian nationalism coupled with the infamous concept of "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality", which attributed unity under Orthodox Christianity in spiritual life, the absolute authority of the emperor in state life, and the leading role of the Russian people in secular life. To this end, the Empire began to introduce laws that promoted the Russification of "foreigners". This was especially true of Jews, Poles, and Greek Catholics who were to be converted to Orthodoxy by any means necessary (up to child abduction).

Alexander II of Russia (1855 - 1881)


The reign of Alexander II began during the Crimean War, which left a mark on the young ruler and determined his further policy. He began (and in some places continued) to reform the Russian government and life: abolished serfdom organized judicial and administrative reforms, and generally completed the conquest of the Caucasus, during which, with his consent, ethnic cleansing was carried out. Also as a punishment for disobedience, he abolished the autonomous rights granted to the Hetmanate and the Kingdom of Poland, officially incorporating them into the Russian Empire as provinces and embarking on a policy of Russification and atomization of society that the Russian Empire would continue until its collapse.

The Grand Duchy of Finland was most fortunate in this regard: their support of the Russian government and the participation of Finnish troops in the war for the Åland Islands and Crimea saved them from the vast majority of repression that befell the rest of the European peoples of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, Alexander II continued the policy of "gentle" annexation along with the policy of nationalization of Finland: together with its national currency and the introduction of Finnish as the national language, the Finnish economy was controlled by the imperial secret police, and the economy was “willingly” converted to serve the Russian, not local interest. In addition, the Finnish parliament introduced military conscription for all men a week after Alexander's official decree for the rest of the Russian Empire.

Bearing in mind the West's reaction to the previous crackdown, Alexander II's policy in the newly annexed Poland, was much softer than nationalists had expected, but not much. The Catholic Church had its privileges revoked, their land nationalized, and the Catholics and Greek Catholics themselves subjected to repression and mass deportation. St. Petersburg remained the only place where Catholics could be educated, and their activities were monitored by the secret police. Throughout Russia, except for autonomous Finland, the Latin alphabet was banned by the emperor's decree and replaced by the imperial Russian Cyrillic alphabet based on Russian, and Russian became the language of administration and science. This, in turn, led to a decline in education in Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine, which was offset by the activities of domestic and foreign activists. For Poles and Hetmanate Ukrainians, the faith and their alphabet became a symbol of passive resistance to Russian rule.

Following the reports and advice of researchers from Russian America, Alexander II decided to reform and strengthen Russia's presence there as a continuation of the program of settlement in Russian Siberia. It was reformed into the Siberian region, which belonged to the Priamurskaya Governorate.

Disillusioned by Russian officials, scientist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay decides to protect the local indigenous population on his own. Addressing pro-Russian Panslavists, he announced the recruitment of volunteers to establish a Slavic (Russian) colony on the Maclay Coast of disputed New Guinea. During all this time, he managed to recruit about 4,000 volunteers from Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria and establish Port Alexander. Although Port Alexander later passed into the hands of the German Empire, this successful attempt marked the beginning of the so-called "Era of Slavic Expansion", during which independent Panslavist groups organized their attempts to build or settle existing colonial settlements in hopes of gaining a majority and be incorporated into the larger Slavic states.

Alexander III of Russia (1881 - 1894)


Alexander II died on March 13, 1881, during a terrorist attack by the socialist group Narodnaya Volya. He was succeeded by Alexander the Great, who distinguished himself by his reactionary and nationalist policies, correcting and repealing all the decrees of his predecessor that were a threat to the imperial throne.

The first was reforms and laws that granted at least some autonomy to other ethnicities. During the reign of Alexander III, the entire Russian Empire officially rejected the Cyrillic policy and intensified the Russification of its European possessions. From now on, all books in Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, or any other language other than Russian were burned, and distributors could face up to 15 years of prison or exile to America or Sakhalin. Representatives of other faiths were also persecuted, the Old Believers left their inhabited lands en masse and fled to the safe lands of Bessarabia, where they were received by the Old Believer Cossacks who already lived there.

The discovery of gold in the Americas in 1886 caused a gold rush, during which Canada was given the right to develop mines, paying taxes and part of the gold in return. Alexander began to directly support the Canadian colonial government, which in turn did everything possible to limit the arrival of American miners in the region. This worsens diplomatic relations between Canada and the United States, but Russia is not officially interfering in those matters outside of necessity. The discovery of gold is viewed by conservative propaganda as "The grace of God”, glorifying the emperor. With the help of the Trans-Siberian Railway, thousands of migrants and prisoners are being sent to rebuild Russian America, Sakhalin, Amur, and Kamchatka regions.

The Afghan Crisis, also known as the Panjdeh incident, became the biggest problem for the Russian and British Empires and ended the Great Game in Asia. There have always been tensions between the British and the Russians in the Emirate of Bukhara, and the Russian Empire continued its slow incorporation of Turkmen city-states into its territory under the watchful eye of British garrisons stationed near the border with Afghanistan. Taking advantage of the territorial wishes of the recently annexed oasis city, Russian troops attacked (or provoked) Afghan troops and captured Panjeh. After diplomatic manoeuvrers, both empires finally developed a precise border plan for Russian Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. British troops stationed in the Emirate of Bukhara are to be stationed on the borders with Iran and Afghanistan.

For their help in the fight against the Italians, Russia receives (officially buys) the right to deploy their fleet and settle in the city of Tiyo, which in the following years becomes the centre of Russian-Ethiopian relations.

Nicholas II of Russia (1894-1918)
The reign of Nicholas II, for the most part, continued the course begun by his predecessor: Russia finally and officially approved the course of total Russification of Finland, officially annexing it to the Russian Empire. In 1906, the Russian Empire legalized the Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites and began promoting it as an official replacement for the Catholic Church. This support allowed the Mariavites to spread throughout the Russian Empire and successfully lured many Russian Catholics to its cause. The greatest "success" of this was the decision of the Hospitaliers to accept Mariavitism as the official faith, which allowed the church to merge with the large Russian Hospitaliers network.

Russo-Japanese War


Although the Japanese won many military victories during the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II stubbornly continued to fight even after the defeats at Tsushima and Mukden until January 1906. Russian troops launched a moderate counterattack on northern Manchuria, regaining some lost ground, and the war devolved into trench warfare, which only accelerated the desire of world powers to maintain the status quo. Through France and the United States, the Japanese and Russian Empires signed the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of February 15, 1906, under which Japan retained the right to influence Korea, half of Sakhalin, fishing rights in Primorsk, and the ports of the Liaoning Peninsula, while Russia retained significant Russian military presence in northern Manchuria (up to Harbin) and transferred ownership of the railway on these lands to the Japanese. Both sides pledged to withdraw troops from the rest of southern Manchuria, which was returned to China, and Russia did not pay any reparations. Such conditions of peace were perceived negatively by both sides, both the average Russian and the average Japanese see this treaty as a humiliating defeat.

Focused on defeating the Japanese, Nicholas II decided to largely ignore the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, believing that further military victories would change public opinion, as well as the strength and stubbornness of local garrisons and police in the worst-case scenario. However, the passivity of the imperial government was instead perceived as a weakness, turning the protests into a full-fledged revolution. Although modern historiography tends to consider this revolution to be unitary, in reality, they were united only by joint anti-tsarist and terrorist activities. In fact, along with political and social movements, there were also nationalist ones, the largest of which were the Polish, Hetman, Finnish and Baltic movements. The formation of Don Cossack and Kryvichi's political culture also began with the revolution of 1905-1907. Only the threat of economic collapse and loss of control over some cities forced the emperor to agree to concessions. A parliament and a constitution were created, and many previous decrees restricting freedom of speech and the rights of the rest of the peoples of the Russian Empire were repealed. However, this parliament did not last long: the radicalism of the Duma and internal conflicts prevented it from working properly and eventually paralyzed it in 1910, so the Russian authorities simply ignored it until it was finally dissolved and Nicholas II abolished the majority of constitutional laws and reforms.

First World War
During the First World War, Russian Empire launched a successful amphibious operation on the Bosphorus and captured Constantinople on September 4, 1915, significantly destabilizing and demoralizing the Ottoman Empire, which moved most of its troops to the Dardanelles, leaving the rest under German protection. Using the Entente forces in Dardanelles to their advantage, Russia is consolidating itself in the occupied territories, sending as many troops into the region as possible. This leads to increased political pressure from the Allies on neutral Greece and hostile Bulgaria. When Romania enters the war on the side of the Entente, the Russian Empire is unable to provide substantial support, limiting itself to fighting against the Bulgarian Navy and logistical assistance. After the catastrophic defeat of Romanian forces by the Bulgarians, Russian troops, together with Serbo-Romanian volunteer battalions, were able to stabilize the front to some extent, but Romanian historians often interpret this position as "leaving Romania to its own devices, allowing the Moldovan Cossacks to establish a new front against them".

Russian Civil War
The February Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd led to the formation of the Provisional Government of Russia, which proclaimed the Russian Republic and republican democracy in place of the monarchy. In response, Nicholas II stubbornly decided to "finish what he started a few years ago" and ordered the expulsion of Republicans from the capital. At the same time, the Bolsheviks established the Petrograd Soviet, which served as a parallel, "left-wing" government to the Republicans and "Monarchists." The five-day battle between republicans and monarchists near Tsarskoye Selo is considered to be the beginning of the Russian Civil War. During this battle, Nicholas’s youngest son and his planned heir Alexei die. This seriously worsens the mental state of Nicholas II leading him and his supporters to become more radical.

Unable to reconcile with the monarchists and communists the Republican government collapsed and the Bolsheviks dissolve the Provisional Government, announcing the creation of the Russian Soviet Republic. The same republic is negotiating with Germany, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking the defeat of Russia and its withdrawal from the First World War. The Russian Empire formally rejected this and any other Soviet agreement, continuing the war with Germany and its allies, denouncing RSR as a "German puppet government." In turn, the Bolsheviks branded them as "agents of the Western bourgeoisie" and, seeing the Empire as a threat to their legitimacy, focused most of their military forces on fighting them.

The scattered nature of monarchist resistance throughout the land, coupled with tense relations between the Russian Empire and other nationalist and moderate leftist forces, led to a series of military defeats against the Bolsheviks, who had most of the combat-ready units of the Russian army. Nicholas II withdrew from direct command in favour of the military council and soon committed suicide. In his last letter, it was written that he "gives Russia to God's mercy." Eventually, the monarchists were pushed back to Manchuria and Russian America, wherein in 1918 they were supported by the United Allied Joint Task Force of Americans, Canadians, and Japanese, who wanted to keep the Bolsheviks from capturing Siberia. The military bases of Japan and Canada are still located in the current Primorsky Governorate.

Having suffered numerous and painful losses in the war against Finland, Estonia, and the military alliance of Kazakia, Ukraine, and Kryvia and plunged into guerrilla warfare against nationalist and anti-Bolshevik uprisings in the occupied territories, the Russian Soviet Republic abandons attempts to capture monarchist controlled parts of Russia, focusing instead on the economic restoration of the new socialist nation.

In 1919, the Russian Empire, under the leadership of the New Government, was renamed into Russian State and moved its capital to New Arkhangelsk. In 1922, numerous communist nation-states created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. No peace treaty has yet been signed between the two countries.