Catherine the Great: This was the empress of Russia who continued Peter's goal to Westernizing Russia, created a new law code, and greatly expanded Russia…
The orchestral introduction of the song no. 2 mm. 1-18 displays the uncertainty of major-minor mode, in which the music sounds as if in an F# minor key, but the E major chords in mm. 16-18 that proceeds to the A major chord in m. 19 provide a certainty that A major is the actual key of the music (fig. 15), whereas the submediant chord at the beginning of the song obscures the actual key and provides the song a minor flavor.…
a)Eastern Slavs converted by missionaries from Byzantine Empire to Orthodox Christianity. Eastern Orthodoxy rejects pope, but else wise is similar to Rom. Cat.…
Stalinism, the term used to embody the form of government experienced by the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule, had a significant and lasting impact on the USSR. Stalinism impacted on several aspects of life. Collectivisation was introduced which assisted in the funding of industrialisation, terror was used to create a communist state. Stalin centralised every aspect of life, from the single leadership of Stalin himself to party control of the state and its functions. Free will disappeared and service to the state was expected. Consequently a Stalinist state which had a major impact on the USSR was created.…
Katz, J. (2003) Shostakovich and the Soviet State (ed.2006) University of Massachusetts Amherst [online] Available at: http://web.mit.edu/jikatz/www/Shostakovich.pdf [Accessed 06/06/12]…
Bibliography: Auty, Robert, and Dimitri Obolensky. 1976. "An Introduction to Russian History (Companion to Russian Studies;1)." Brisol, Great Britain : Cambridge University Press Ltd.…
Andrzej Walicki explains in his History of Russian Thought: From Enlightenment to Marxism that “The term ‘Slavophilism’ was originally used as a gibe to underline a certain narrow tribal particularism”1 that was seen as characteristic of a group of ideologists which was formed in the late 1830’s in direct opposition to Westernism. The conflict between these two groups, the Slavophiles on one hand and the Westernisers on the other, was due in large part to the influence of Chaadaev and Uvarov, who established the “assumption that Russia and Europe were antithetical to one another.”2 Chaadaev’s influence on the Slavophiles went further, for his Philosophical Letter, published in 1836 in the journal Телескоп, was a piece of literature which, along with several others, portrayed Russia in such a negative light as to unite these thinkers behind their common fear of western influences and practices. These were all wealthy, conservative, patriotic, and landed nobles who were influenced to a large degree by German romanticism from the late 18th Century, as well as by two of the philosophers from the movement of German idealism, Georg Hegel and Friedrich Schelling. Hugh Seton-Watson makes note of this curious contradiction; that the Slavophiles held on to essentially western and secular doctrines3 while promoting their idealistic faith in the “native and primarily Slavic elements in the social life and culture of ancient Russia,” as well as in the Orthodox Church. An examination of the views that these men held involves a broad and in-depth look at numerous factors, of which several will now be explored.…
The system of tsarism was based on the idea of absolute authority, where the Tsar - God’s chosen leader, possessed “unlimited executive, legislative and judicial power” (Perfect, Ryan and Sweeney, Reinventing Russia, A Study in Revolution). This system though had its flaws, for example allowing such an immense authority to the Tsar, caused their words to be law and were not to be questioned. The Tsar though was also to blame for the collapse of the autocratic system as Russia was a very large nation with “many nationalities, many languages” (Sergei Witte) that had been governed this way since Ivan the Terrible’s rule in 1547. It was both the outdated system and Tsar of the time that had caused the collapse of the autocratic regime.…
Bibliography: Bernstein, Laurie, and Robert Weinberg. Revolutionary Russia: A History In Documents. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.…
Herzen A (1851) The Russian people and Socialism. A letter to J Michelet. In Gertsen AI (1956) Alexander Herzen: Selected Philosophical Works. Translated from the Russian by L Navrozov. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pages 470-502…
MacKenzie, David, and Michael W. Curran. A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and beyond. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002. Print.…
Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1954, effectively as a dictator. Within the first ten years of his period of rule, Stalin introduced significant change to the Soviet Union in areas of policy such as, industrialization, agriculture, education and culture. Despite the fact that some positive implications were perceived within the nation and soviet society regarding the outcomes of his policies relating to industrialization and education, the impact of his policies in the areas of agriculture, and culture were overwhelmingly damaging to the Russian people, and consequently, the nation as a whole. Thus, it is considered that the period falling from 1928 and 1938 held devastating implications for the soviet society, but less…
The late Tsarist period of Russia lasted between 1825 to 1917 from the reign of Nicholas I in 1825 to the last Tsar Nicholas II in 1917. Russia did not have the same origins as the rest of Europe. Russia developed different social, religious and intellectual traditions in comparison to Western Europe. The Tsar did not share his power, Russia was an autocracy in almost its purest form. The Tsar had the final word, he made all the decisions and formed all the policy in Russia. In the period of Russian history that is covered, strong critics of the Tsarist regime didn't attack the notion of autocracy, but instead criticized the corruption and inefficiency of the Tsar's officials and landlords... The collapse of Tsardom in 1917 had many causes…
The Russian Intelligentsia were thinkers that tried to fix Russian society. Although they promoted their views with protests and rebellions, they wanted to have social reforms to solve Russia’s problems. Due to the Intelligentsia’s efforts, Russia began to consider some social reformations in its…
From the middle of the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century three rulers stand out, remaining significantly more influential than other rulers of the period of Russian history. During the two hundred and fifty year period Russia witnessed three enlightened rulers, Ivan IV, Peter I, and Catherine II. Yet their enlightened dispositions were merely facades to hide ulterior motives of gaining more absolute power. They primarily sought to increase their power on the Russian throne.…