The Russian Federation

Quick Facts• Capital – Moscow• Population – 143.5 million• Language – 82% speak Russian• System type – Federal republic with dual

executive• 6.6 million square miles – largest country

(1.8 times larger than US)• Religions – predominantly Russian

Orthodox with significant Muslim, Jewish, and Protestant minorities

Quick Facts• Negative growth rate: -.6%

• 100% adult literacy rate

• Wealth of natural resources – land, minerals, oil, natural gas, timber, gold, coal, and iron

• But lacks wealth and technical expertise to fully exploit these resources, most of which are in Siberia

Political Development• The Russian Empire (15th cent. to 1917)

– PATRIMONIAL (rulers ruled & owned land)

• Liberated from Mongols by Ivan the Great (1440-1505), who set up capital in Moscow

• Under Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584), Russia expanded

• Peter the Great (1682-1725) laid basis for country’s military & industrial growth

Political Development• Russia became European power,

nobility adopted European culture, army & bureaucracy based on European models, and new capital in St. Petersburg (overtly European city)

• Russia remained a feudal system through all these changes though

Political Development• Vast majority of Russian remained

powerless peasants (serfs) & small aristocracy controlled virtually all the wealth

• No free elections or free speech & most lived in abject poverty

• Tsars violently suppressed opposition

Political Development• Last tsar, Nicholas II, failed to

respond to pressures for change

• Popular opposition led by Social Revolutionary Party and the smaller Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP)

• 1903 – RSDLP split into 2 factions: Mensheviks and Bolsheviks

Political Development• Mensheviks (“minority”) advocated

mass membership party

• Bolsheviks (“majority”) more elitist

• Bolsheviks led by Lenin – his idea included vanguard party with tight & disciplined structure and Lenin’s authority at core

Political Development• 1917 Revolutions grew out of 3

interconnected factors (huge losses suffered in WWI, Karl Marx’s theories, & leadership skills of Lenin and Trotsky, who identified themselves with peace, redistribution of land & bread)

• March 1917 - Nicholas II abdicated

Political Development• Provisional Government took over –

made mistake of continuing WWI• Nov 1917 – 2nd “revolution”

(actually a coup rather than popular uprising) staged by Lenin as he & his followers established a one-party socialist state

• Changed name of party to Communist Party, created Red Army

Political Development• Lenin – VANGUARD PARTY• Party leaders claimed they understood

the interests of the working people better than the people did themselves

• DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM – hierarchical party structure in which leaders were elected from below; required strict discipline w/policy implementation

Political Development• March 1918 – Treaty of Brest-

Litovsk – peace treaty Lenin signed with Germany

• July 1918 – Romanovs shot to death

• Civil war began between White Army (former tsarist generals) and Red Army

• 1922 – Whites defeated

Political Development• 1921 – Lenin launched NEW

ECONOMIC POLICY – faced with war-ravaged economy, failing industrial and agricultural output, and public discontent

• NEP based on partly on free enterprise policies designed to encourage peasants & small businessmen

Political Development• Before NEP could be implemented

Lenin died• Succession struggle with Trotsky the

most obvious choice• But he was pushed aside by trio of party

leaders, Stalin being one• Stalin organized & manipulated party

bureaucracy to establish personal control over party & to confirm party’s control over country

Political Development• 1928-1929 – Stalin made his office

of first secretary of the CPSU the most important in party hierarchy & won uncontested control over both party and country

• Stalin Era (1928-1953) – moved farther away from Marxism and toward totalitarianism (Stalinism)

Political Development• Stalinism – absolutist, inflexible, &

highly undemocratic version of communism that demands unquestioning support for the state belief in unchallenged authority of party & its leaders

• Stalin’s priority was to build “socialism in one country”

Political Development• Abandoned Lenin’s idea of global

revolution and concentrated on making USSR a political, industrial, agricultural, and military model for others

• Systematic use of terror, elimination of human rights, & cult of personality

Political Development• Centrally planned economy – all

activities determined by the state

• Bureaucracy became powerful, monolithic, and inefficient

• Gosplan – economic planning agency – decided what, when, where, and price of goods

• Series of Five-Year Plans

Political Development• Stalin forced millions of farmers into

huge collective farms, eliminating the kulak class (wealthy peasants)

• Caused famine, killing several million

• CPSU infiltrated every part of Soviet life, creating new class of privileged political leaders

Political Development• Cold War (1945-1990) –

Khrushchev succeeded Stalin; priority was to end terror; launched space program (Sputnik 1st satellite); Cuban Missile Crisis

• Khrushchev ousted by CPSU b/c of his repeated policy failures and erratic style of leadership

Political Development• Replaced by Brezhnev – more

conservative• Reforms ceased, USSR leaders

became older, less imaginative, and more concerned with maintaining the status quo

• Major military buildup and USSR helped several nationalists movements in Africa and Asia

Political Development• Brezhnev era culminated in 1979

with invasion of Afghanistan, which led to costly and unpopular war

• Andropov and Chernenko succeeded Brezhnev (all three died in office)

• Gorbachev took over in 1985 – denounced stagnation of Brezhnev era

Political Development• In his own words, he set about

launching the 2nd Russian revolution

• 2 core planks to his program: PERESTROIKA (“restructuring” of Soviet economy and political system) and GLASNOST (“openness” or willingness to encourage more public discussion)

Political Development• By 1988, a third facet was added:

DEMOKRATIZATSIIA (democratization)

• Goal was not dismantle socialist system but to make it more efficient & democratic

• Reduce role of central planning

• However, he faced several problems

Political Development• 1. Lacked legitimacy – preached

democratic accountability but was never popularly elected & insisted on maintaining CPSU monopoly

• 2. Found himself caught b/t liberals who thought his reforms were too timid and conservatives who thought he had gone too far

Political Development• He lost control partly b/c of

entrenched power of Soviet bureaucracy to sabotage & delay his changes and partly b/c of his own caution

• 3. Reforms brought into open the tensions among Soviet republics – nationalist & secessionist movements

Political Development• Aug 1991 – on eve of signing new

union treaty, grp. of communists staged coup in Moscow but failed

• Gorbachev’s credibility undermined so he resigned as prez of USSR on 12/25/91 and USSR ceased to exist 12/26/91

• 15 independent countries formed

Political Development• Russia was largest – just 6 mths

earlier had elected Boris Yeltsin as prez

• Yeltsin had same problems as Gorbachev and attempts were made to unseat him during 1993

• He dissolved Russian legislature (Congress of People’s Deputies)

Political Development• Small grp. of conservatives

barricaded themselves inside Congress bldg & gave acting presidency to Yeltsin’s own VP, his biggest critic

• Yeltsin responded w/military force, attempted coup failed, & VP w/supporters were jailed

Political Development• Constant conflict b/t conservatives

and reformers

• Dec 1993 – constitution “approved” in hurried public referendum & new legislature elected

• 1996 – Yeltsin elected to 2nd term despite all the problems (including his own health)

Political Development• Problems continued• 1. Trust in gov’t fell to all-time low• 2. Legislature failed to be effective

source of policy• 3. Nationalist problems in south

boiled over into renewed war & urban terrorism

• 4. Value of ruble fell w/inflation

Political Development• 5. Wealth & power accumulated in

hands of new elite• 6. Banking system declined• 7. Unemployment grew• 1999 – Yeltsin suddenly resigned• Putin succeeded him – reformist

party Unity given boost in 1999 leg. elections

Political Development• Putin’s bloody response to Chechnya

helped him rise to power but concerned many, esp. after the succeeding actions he has taken regarding gov’t

• Structure of gov’t still “top down” rather than “bottom up” & gov’t still doesn’t listen much to people

Political Development• Infrastructure is in decay

• Population is unhealthy, poorly educated, aging quickly, & shrinking in size

• General trends towards democracy, freer market place, and more cooperative stance on foreign policy issues