Rusian History

A detailed Summary of Rusian History

Russia has always played a major roll in global politics, economics and thought. However, in the past two centuries, Russia has had probably the greatest influence on the international world in modern times, surpassed only by the United States. The Russia that we've known this century though, has its roots in last centuries Russian. At the end of the nineteenth century, Russia experienced great changes internally, politically, socially and spiritually. The half century leading up to the Communist revolution in 1917 was a time filled with sweeping changes, literary triumphs and military defeat. All of these factors played in the eventual revolution and not only affected politics and thought in Russia, but in every nation on earth.

After the defeat of the Russian army in the Crimean War, Russian realized that it needed to modernize its country, socially and militarily. Alexander II realized that to modernize mean that Russia needed to westernize. So in 1861 he emancipated the serfs from bondage. The emancipation was mean to bridge the gap between the elite and the general population, but was not the first of such liberal western type reforms. Catherine and Peter the Great had also made western type reforms during their respe

The other main political force of the day was the populists. This relatively new ideology was based in socialism, and shared some views with nihilism. They were anti-orthodoxy and steeped in the scientific thinking of the west. However, instead of the material positivism of the nihilists, the populists relied upon idealist moral principals of social justice, social duty and human integrity. The populists wanted Russia to achieve socialism, but without passing through the capitalist stage like many of the western nations were currently in.

The Slavophiles were probably the oldest of the political schools at the time. The Slavophiles during the reign of Alexander II were of the second generation, and they were the ones to turn the Slavophile myth of old into a real modern political program. This program included the endorsement of the Orthodox religion and a patrimonial monarchy. The Slavophiles believed in the inherent virtue and goodness of the Russian people and culture. A main part of this culture was the ideal of 'sobornost', that is, the communal spirit. The Slavophiles saw this in action in the peasant communes, and believed that communalism in conjunction with Christian communal worship would become the source of Russia's sorely needed moral and cultural regeneration. In accordance with Russia's regeneration, Slavophiles saw the west as corrupt and immoral. They saw Russia's destiny as one in which it would save the west from spiritual decay.

A Panorama of Russian Literature by Janko Larvin

ctive reigns. All of their reforms, and especially Alexander's, were influenced by western thought. These thought were introduced into Russia by its Western European educated ruling class. Under Alexander II, the ruling class

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Approximate Word count = 1175
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History