Political+and+Economic+Changes


 * Political Changes **

**Characterized by 3 distinct time periods:** **1.) Autocratic rule by tsars – 14th to early 20th century; Romanov family rule from 17th century on; generally violent rule** **2.) Communist Rule – 20th century beginning in 1917; Vladimir Lenin and Bolsheviks took control after tsar Nicholas II; ended in 1991 with a failed coup** **3.) Change to democracy and free market – 1991; Boris Yeltsin used Western Ideas to create Russian Federation**

**Change in Russia is not a gradual process and usually happens quick and dramatically with chaos, violence, protest, or revolution.** **The Tsars** **-autocratic rule starting in 14th century** **-Headed the Russian Orthodox Church – wanted to be political and religious leaders.** **-Late 17th century = tsar Peter the great; began influence of western culture and technology** **-Catherine the Great – 18th century – enlightened despot – ruled absolutely but with the good of the country in mind**

**-There was a change in the 19th century tsars – Decembrist revolt of 1825 – Caused by Russian intellectuals who saw no room for change because of tsar Nicholas I and his absolutism.** **-Russia was defeated in Crimean War and people became more dissatisfied so tsars became stricter. Beginning of secret police to execute or exile dissenters.** **-Alexander II supported reform and freed the serfs but was still criticized and killed in 1881.**

**Revolution of 1917** **-1905 riots began by people protesting Russian losses in Russo-Japanese War.** **-Tsar Nicholas II was weak and could not contain riots and state collapsed in 1917. Russia was also in the middle of WWI adding to the weakness.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Vladimir Lenin and Bolsheviks took control after revolution with formation of USSR.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-He argued for “democratic centralism” – leadership group to lead revolution in name of the people.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-1918 Civil War between White army and Red Army** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-White = Russian military leaders; supported by Allies** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Red = Lenin** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Reds won and Lenin’s New Economic Policy was put in place. It allowed private ownership to exist but only under a centralized leadership**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**Stalinism** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Lenin died in 1924 and the communist party took control.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Only 7% of population was actually in the Communist Party but they ruled everything.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Politburo was heart of communist party made up of 12 men that essentially ran the country.**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**Stalin was the head of the Politburo and he took control.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**- He started collectivization and industrialization along with his First Five Year Plan – production of heavy industry like oil, steel, and electricity.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Everything was carried out by Gosplan – the central state planning commission who determined production and distribution of all goods.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-He also began purges, or the execution of millions of citizen, and he even killed his own party members.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Stalin held total power until death in 1953.**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**Khrushcev** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-1956 – deStalinization – loosened gov. censorship of press, decentralization of economic decision making, and restructuring collective farms** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-He was replaced by conservative Brezhnev** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-1985 Mikhail Gorbachev** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> **-glasnost** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> **-perestroika** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> **-democratization**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**Revolution of 1991** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-Brought about by conservatives who wanted to abandon Khrushcev’s reforms. This led to a coup d’etat but failed because of protestors** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-USSR was over and Yeltsin took control of Russian Federation** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**-The constitution of 1993 created a 3 branch government and was a small attempt at** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">**democratization.** **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">Putin became president in 2000 until 2008 when he became prime minister and Medvedev is now the current president. Putin however is running for election again in 2012. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 110%;">Putin's authoritarian influence is still strongly seen in Russia and any real aspect of democratization is not seen. Russia's political history, especially the fact that it is a former communist country, all explain why Russia is having such a hard time becoming more democratic. The Russian government would require a huge change to truly begin democratization. **



<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 160%; line-height: 23px;">**Economic Changes**

media type="custom" key="12459858" align="right"**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">The Russian economy has generally abrupt changes that come with the change in government. However, the economy of Russia is very bad and has ** **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">consistently been that way for several years because the more liberal reforms that are promised do not actually take place. **

**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">This graph compares the average amount of economic freedom between the US and Russia. The red line represents Russia and shows that it can almost be considered repressed because of the way the government controls the economy. The US has a much higher average freedom index rating and is represented by the green line. Although Russia is supposedly moving towards democratization, you can see that the economic freedom has not changed and is still tightly controlled. **

**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Lenin’s NEP – private ownership existing under a centralized leadership; brought prosperity to farmers **

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**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Stalin’s Collectivization and Industrialization – tight government control on economy **

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 130%;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Khrushchev – deStalinization; collective farms **

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**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gorbachev – Perestroika – transferred economic power of central government to private hands and the market economy **

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**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Yeltsin – “shock therapy” for Russia with an immediate market economy – Resulted in 1998 Russian Financial Crisis where the inflation and debt were so high and the ruble value decreased, so the stock market crashed. **

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**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Putin and Medvedev– “attempt” at democratization and liberalization of economic ideas to revive economy although this has not really happened. **

**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">[|Gap Minder] ** **<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">The Gap Minder graph shows the percent of people in poverty in Russia from 1988 to 2005. You can see that during the Financial Crisis of 1998, Russia was at its peak of amount of people in poverty. The number then begins to decrease around 2001, but this shows that the economy of Russia is not constant nor stable. **

media type="youtube" key="d302W7nRycQ" height="315" width="560" <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 110%;">This video deals with the demographics of Russia and how the birthrate is so low but the death rate is very high. A big issue is the fact that abortion is legal and the Population Research Institute reports that women on average have 7 abortions. PRI relates this to the legacy of the Soviet Regime so this is a very interesting video on the way that has effected the current state of Russia. PRI works to increase the population of Russia which could really effect Russia's future in a positive way.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 17px; line-height: 21px;">**By: Shea Chuey**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 17px; line-height: 21px;">**Sources:**

[] [|http://www.gapminder.org/world] [] [] [] [] Russia packet