History

A code promulgated in 1649 binds(connects) henceforth the farmer and his descendants to the earth(ground) and to his owner generalizing the serfdom, to the nonsense of the evolution of the status of the farmer in Western Europe. In return, the landowners are forced to serve their sovereign. The dissatisfaction of the farmers and the rising class of workers, exploited(run) by their owners and heavily taxed by the tax system of a State rapidly expanding activate(start) in XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries numerous peasant revolts the most important of which put the trone in danger. The Church in the time(period) plays an essential role in the Russian company(society) and possesses more than two thirds of lands. The reform of the Russian orthodox dogma by the patriarch Nikon ( 1653 ) is at the origin of the schism of the old men - believers severely repressed.

The country, which extends henceforth over 12,5 million km ² and counts 60 million inhabitants, is handicaped by its archaic functioning. Structural reforms are organized by the czar: the most important measure is the abolition of the serfdom ( 1861 ) which includes the allocation(attribution) to the former(ancient) serf of an earth(ground), often too small to feed him(it), at the price(prize) of a long-term debts towards the State. Local advice(council) elected in the census suffrage - Zemstvos - is created as from 1864: endowed to be able to allowing them to manage the local business(affairs) and to build roads, schools and hospitals, they can raise taxes to finance them.Finally the legal code introduces the procedures of charge and defense and creates a justice in theory independent from the power up to the level of the district. The diet(regime) keeps(preserves) nevertheless an autocratic and strongly police character. The reforms are moreover going to instigate the violence of groups of nihilist intellectuals and Alexandre will eventually fall under their knocks ( 1881 ). Under its reign, the empire pursued its colonial expansion in Central Asia: after the annexation of the lands of the Kazakhs finished in 1847, three khanats of the Uzbek territory (Kokand, Bukhara and Khiva) are conquered during three decades following then annexed or placed under protectorate ( 1876 ). This advance(overhang) places the limits of the Russian empire near the British empire in India. The tension ( Big Game(Set,Play)) between both countries is going to remain very lively until an agreement is found in 1907 ( English-Russian agreement(convention)).

When he(it) rises on the throne in 1881, Alexandre III leads in reaction to the murder of his father a politics(policy) of against reforms. The authoritarian capacities(measures) are maintained or strengthened: the political parties and the labor unions(syndicates) are forbidden, the right(law) of traffic(circulation) is limited, the press is censored. On the economic plan, the industry quickly develops grace(favor), among others, in the foreign investments and in the construction of a railroad network which reaches(affects) 30 000 km in 1890. But the plentiful workforce loosened(kicked away) by the abolition of the serfdom and the population growth does not completely find to be used in the industry (3 million workers in 1913).Numerous farmers come to colonize the virgin lands of the empire situated in the South and the East (lower valley of the Volga, Ural, Siberia) of the empire. The Trans-Siberian railway, a first section of which is realized between 1891 and 1901 to open up the immense territories of Siberia, facilitates this migration, whereas at the same time as the French-Russian Alliance(Wedding ring) the financing of the industrialization is mainly made by the Russian loans come especially from France. The agriculture(farming) always has an overwhelming(crushing) weight: in 1897 Russia counts 97 million farmers for a total population of 127 million inhabitants. These do not generally possess the lands which they cultivate (25 % will be owners in 1914). The literacy rate is very low(weak) and the infant mortality is raised(brought up) (approximately 180 out of 1000).

• The soldiers of the Red Army, recruited at first on the basis of bonuses(premiums), undergo then the conscription;
• Implementation of a political police and special courts, asked to stop(arrest) and to judge the enemies of the diet(regime);
• The communist party becomes unique party;
• The censorship of the press and the radio, which(who) fall to the hands of the party;
• The IIIth International (or Komintern) becomes the instrument of the power. The foreign communist parties must be enfeoffed in Moscow and obey blindly.

The revolutions of 1919 in Germany and in Hungary, as well as the strikes in most of the European countries remind the Soviet citizens that the Revolution becomes world. But the destruction of Spartakistes and the resignation of Bela Kun end these hopes.

Thanks to the war communism, Lenin and the communist party succeed in remaining in the power. They take away(gain) the civil war and the danger of a monarchic restoration(catering) is spread(pushed aside). In the term of the civil war, a terrible famine ravages Russia between 1921 and 1922, causing several million deaths. The causes of this famine are complex: drought, requisitions imposed by the various camps during the previous years, disorganization of campaigns(countrysides) following the war and the agrarian reforms, the deportation in the Gulag of numerous workers, blockade of the allied countries. Russia is traumatized by the experience(experiment) of the civil war: the production collapses, numerous engineers, technicians, officers, jurists, men of letters and teachers died during the war or deported in the Gulag. This heavy inheritance will mark the functioning of the USSR until its collapse.

The Second World War bled the USSR (more than 20 million victims whose majority of civilians) and destroy a good part(party) of its industrial installations and its cities. Immediate post-war year is a period of reconstruction. The country finds its level of pre-war industrial production then the double(copy) in 1952. The nuclear industry develops, with the creation of the complex nuclear power Maïak. THE USSR makes its first nuclear test in 1949, so reaching to the rank of second world nuclear power.

At the same time, the personality cult is carried(worn) in its height by Stalin. After the death of this one in 1953, Nikita Khrouchtchev reaches the power and denounces(cancels) the excesses of his(her) predecessor. On the internal plan begin a period of relative prosperity; the rights of the citizens are better respected, it is the beginning of a certain liberalization.THE USSR amazes the world by its advance in the spatial domain by sending into orbit the first Sputnik and by sending it Youri Gagarine, first man in the space. On the international plan, the USSR widens its influence with numerous Third World countries and reaches by massive investments in the armament to be neck and neck with the United States, in particular in the nuclear domain and the ballistic missiles. This period of cold war is translated by numerous conflicts or tensions almost everywhere in the world between both superpowers and their allies. The crisis of Cuba in 1962 nearly degenerates into a nuclear conflict. The tension between both superpowers is bigger in 1979 following the invasion of Afghanistan and Ronald Reagan's arrival to the presidency(chair) of the United States in 1980.

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