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Historical GeographyHistorical GeographySlides for October 15, 2013Slides for October 15, 2013

GEOG 433GEOG 433

Figure 6.1 Territorial Expansion, Blinnikov, p. 69.

Expansion of Russian Empire (Lydolph)

Fig. 1.4 A macrogeography of Russian imperialism

Fig. 1.12 European Russia: changing frontiers to 1939,

sea access

Invaders 240-1945

Fig. 1.5 Territorial Expansion of Moskovite & Russian states

Expansion by Centuries

Expansion of Russian Empire

Emperial “glues”

• Ostrogs as nucleation points for development• Empire diffusion elements:

– Political (tsarists) control– Bureaucracy– Religion– Language– Customs– These features served as core features of USSR’s claim to be

an Asian nation

Historical Geography #1

• Spatial diffusion processes –geopolitical gluing together of Russia

• Geopolitical glue: • a) military-political influence and control• b) political and economic institutions• c) transportation networks• d) language• e) culture

Historical Geography #2

Historical / Geographic Questions:

What were/are sources of the binding agents?

Why did spatial diffusion take certain directions rather than others at certain times and not others?

How and why the political controls were established with such diffusions?

What modifications were there in indigenous cultures and sociopolitical institutions as a result of the successful dissemination of new geopolitical control agents?

Historical Geography #3early “pre-Rus / Russian” centers of civilization

1) Central Asia2) Transcaucasia3) around Black Sea littoral regions (Hellenic settlements)

First Russian State - around current location of Kiev8th Century A.D. Slavic speaking, migrated from Dnieper, Volkhov and upper Volga basins, eastward and northward from the Carpathian regions.

Early 9th Century, invading Norse traders, or Varangiansbegan settling among the Slavs along Volkhov-Dnieper axisboth groups interested in trade and needed protection from marauding steppe nomads

Rus (or Russia) with origin capital of Novgorod, replaced by Kiev in 882.

Waterways of European

Russia/USSR

Historical Geography #4

Environmental settlement factors for Kiev:1) high right bank of Dnieper2) important strategic location from Baltic to Constantinople3) trade in furs, amber, honey, salt, slaves to Byzantium,4) return trade textiles, fruit, wine, gold

5) Kiev situated near forest - steppe boundary 6) Slavs first hunters, trappers, apiarists, then shifting

cultivation7) cereal growing on steppes8) location good for conquest, 9) confederation of loose, linear city-state principalities10)penetration of Eastern Orthodox Christianity from

Constantinople was important “glue”11) St. Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 AD

Growth of the

Russian (Europe

an) Empire

Historical Geography #5

Rapid eclipse of Kiev after death of Vladimir’s successor - Yaroslavl in 1054

Partition of Kiev among Yaroslav’s sonsFamily feud led to independent political units - Vladimir,

Suzdal, Tver (Kalinin), and Moskovy (Moscow) of upper Volga principality of Vladimir-Suzdal.

Novgorod obtained self-government from Kievan Russia in 997, complete independence in 1136.

Kiev - in 1169 raiding party from Suzdal sacked Kiev.Problems for Kiev- Volga Bulgars to the east, marauding

Polovtsi to the south, Khazars and Pechenegs to the southeast become increasingly troublesome

Historical Geography #6

13th Century – invasion of Mongols or Tatars – marked final eclipse of Kievan Russia.After Mongol conquest, indigenous population scattered basically along 2 exodus routes.1)West and northwest to Poland and Lithuania2)North and northwest to the headwaters of the Volga

First group successfully escaped subjugation of Tatars, but fell easy victims to Lithuanian and Polish expansion after 1240. Second group – safe from regular incursion by nomads, Upper Volga region had extremely well-linked natural transportation network, Valday Hills northwest of Moscow are the headwaters region for the rivers that drain into the White, Baltic, Black, and Caspian areas,Radial drainage pattern played no small part in Moscow’s rise to prominence.

Historical Geography #7

Moscow, first mentioned in 1147 at a time that it was within the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal,Less congenial environment than Kiev – poorer soils, heavy forest requiring clearing for agriculture, swampy land, much more severe climate, BUT inhospitable environment ironically increased security of the areas.

Possible, plausible reasons for Moscow rise to dominance1) Moscow’s location near the hub of the radial drainage

network meant that it had a “High connectivity” value2) it seems the early Moscow princes were strong and clever

politicians – a) they collected Tatar tribute from the other Russian cities and principalities, thus Tatar Yoke rested lightly on Moscow.

3) having gained Mongol’s favor, Moscow princes were made the sovereign princes of all Russia

4) the Metropolitan of the Orthodox church moved from Vladimir to Moscow in 1310, this signaled the decline of one of Moscow’s strongest rivals

Historical Geography #8

Important date – 1453, after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, Moscow became the Third RomeEven though Moscow considered herself as belonging to Europe, later events set Russia off on a very different historical path.

i.e., various theological, philosophical, and intellectual currents, often referred to as scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and Reason & Enlightenment – which greatly impacted Europe drawing their Christianity from Rome, but only touched the ruling elite of Russia, as orthodoxy and autocracy went hand-in-hand until the Bolshevik revolution.

Question – could the fall of Constantinople perhaps be the origin of many east-west dichotomies/conflicts?