Russia
Mr. Green’s Comparative Government
Russia
Comparative
GDPs
2006
Rank Country GDP in $
1 United States 13,201,820,000,000
Comparative 2 Japan 4,340,133,000,000
3 Germany 2,906,681,000,000
GDPs in 4 China 2,668,071,000,000
2006 5 United Kingdom 2,345,015,000,000
6 France 2,230,721,000,000
7 Italy 1,844,749,000,000
8 Canada 1,251,463,000,000
9 Spain 1,223,988,000,000
10 Brazil 1,067,962,000,000
11 Russia 986,939,600,000
12 India 906,268,000,000
14 Mexico 839,181,900,000
29 South Africa 254,991,600,000
31 Iran 222,889,500,000
50 Nigeria 114,686,300,000
2007
The Non-European European
Separation From Europe
– Cyrillic Alphabet
– The Mongol Conquest
– Orthodox Christianity
The East-West Gap
– No Russian Renaissance
– No Russian Reformation
– No Scientific Tradition
– No Industrial Revolution
Russian Political Tradition
Autocracy
Hierarchy
Economic Backwardness
– Serfdom Begin in Russia Just as It Ended in
the West
The Development of Russia
Around 860-1200: The Rise of Kievian Russia
862: Settlement by Vikings
Kiev as Capital
980s: Russian Conversion to Christianity
Orthodox (Greek) rather then Catholic
Adoption of the Cyrillic Alphabet
Kievian Russia
The Development of Russia
1223-1450: The Mongol (Tartar) Empire
1223: Beginning of the Conquest of Russia
By 1250: Establishment of the Golden Horde
The Mongol Empire
The Development of Russia
1348-1462: The Rise of Moscow (Muscovy)
Principality of Moscow
Location Between the Dnieper and Volga Rivers
Capable and Effective Leaders
Relationship to the Tartars
Support of the Russian Church
1378: First Russian Victories over the Mongols
Rise of Moscow
The Development of Russia
1462-1465: Ivan III
Russian National Identity
Claimed to be successor of prince of Kiev
Promised to reclaim ancient lands from Tartars and Poles
The Development of Russia
1462-1505: Ivan III
Russian National Identity
Czar All The Russians
Claimed the mantel of the Byzantine Emperor with the
title of Autocrat after the fall of Constantinople in 1453
The Third Rome with as church as a department of the
state and the Czar as religious leader
Begin the suppression of the nobility and their
replacement by a military nobility dependent on the Czar
Constructed the Kremlin
Rise of serfdom
Ivan III
The Development of Russia
1533-1584: Ivan IV (the Terrible)
Finished Off the Russian Nobility
The Oprichnina: as special military force that waged
relentless war on Nobles confiscating their estates and
exiling or killing them -- forerunners of the Russian and
Soviet Secret Police
Conquered the Tartar Khanates East of Moscow
Ivan IV (The Terrible)
Rise of Moscow
The Development of Russia
1584-1682: Russian Expansion
East Into Siberia
South Toward Turkey
1613: Romanovs Dynasty
The Great Expansion of Russia
The Development of Russia
1682-1725: Peter The Great
Emergence of Russia as a Great Power
Peter the Great
The Development of Russia
1682-1725: Peter The Great
Emergence of Russia as a Great Power
Attempted to modernize (westernize Russia)
Build navy and defeated the Turks -- initiated the dream
of a warm water Russian port
Great northern war (1700-1721) with Sweden – Russia
replaces Sweden as European power
Acquired land on Baltic and build St. Petersburg
Expansion Under Peter
The Development of Russia
1762-1796: Catherine the Great and 1801-1825:
Alexander I
Entertained The Idea Of Enlightenment Reforms
Alexander contemplated establishing a Constitutional
Monarchy with a representative legislature – the Duma.
French Revolution and Napoleon
Russia initiates, with Austria, the Holy Alliance to prevent
liberal revolution (or reform) in Europe
1825-1855: Nicholas II
1825: Decembrist Revolt
Russia returns to autocracy
Catherine the Great Alexander I
The Development of Russia
1855-1881: Alexander II
Attempts at Reform
1861: Freeing of the Serfs
1881: Assassination of Alexander
Art and Literature
Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy,
Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol
1881-1894: Alexander III
Reaction and Repression
Creation of the Intelligencia in Exile
Beginning of Russian Industrialization
The Development of Russia
Nicholas II: 1894-1917
Pre-1905
Continued Industrialization and Trans-Siberian Railroad
Continued Reaction
Marxist-Leninism in Switzerland
1904-5: Russo-Japanese War
Defeat of a European power by a non-European power
1905: Revolution
Czar offers constitutional monarchy and installs Dumas
(1906-1914)
Czar Nicholas II
The Development of Russia
Nicholas II: 1894-1917
1914-1917: World War I
Disaster for Russia
1917: First Revolution and the Abdication of the Czar
November 1917: Second Revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks
V.I. Lenin
The Development of Russia
Nicholas II: 1894-1917
1914-1917: World War I
Disaster for Russia
1917: First Revolution and the Abdication of the Czar
November 1917: Second Revolution
Lenin and the Bolsheviks and the Soviet Union
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Soviet Union withdraws from
the war
1917-1921: The Russian Civil War
Creation of the Red Army and the apparatus of terror
1923: Death (and Deification) of Lenin
The Development of Russia
1927-1953: Joseph Stalin
The Development of Russia
1927-1953: Joseph Stalin
The New Autocrat
Central planning
Apparatchik system
Systematic terror: 20 million unnatural deaths?
1927-1941: Five Year Plans
Collectivization and forced industrialization
Purge of the Old Bolsheviks and the Red Army
Art and Literature
Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev,
Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn
The Development of Russia
1927-1953: Joseph Stalin
1941-1945: World War II
June 22, 1941: Surprise attack
August 1942-January 1943: Battle of Stalingrad
1943-May 1945: Defeat of Nazi Germany
1945-1953: Onset of the Cold War
Warsaw Pact
1953: Death of Stalin
20 million unnatural deaths?
Legacy of Paranoia and Death
Soviet Union
The Legacy of
Communism
The Development of Russia
1956-1964: Nikita Khrushchev
The Development of Russia
1956-1964: Nikita Khrushchev
1956: Thaw and condemnation of Stalin
1958: “We will bury you”
October 1963: Cuban Missile Crisis
The Development of Russia
1964-1982: Leonid Brezhnev
The Development of Russia
1964-1982: Leonid Brezhnev
1968: Crack down on Czechoslovakia
1972: Nixon and Detente
1979: Invasion of Afghanistan
Legacy of Economic Decline
The Development of Russia
1985-1991: Mikhail Gorbachev
The Development of Russia
1985-1991: Mikhail Gorbachev
Reform
Perestroika
Glasnost
Relationship with Reagan
Reagan and Gorbachev
The Development of Russia
1985-1991: Mikhail Gorbachev
1989-90: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Fall of Soviet Empire
The Development of Russia
1985-1991: Mikhail Gorbachev
1991: Fall of the Soviet Union
Boris Yeltsin
Fall of Soviet Union
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Fall of Soviet Union
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Yeltsen
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Yeltsen
Western Style Democracy and Market Reform
New parliament elected in 1990
Rise and fall of numerous and amorphous parties
Market Reform
Shock therapy and the string of prime ministers
Rule by decree
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
1993
Parliament and President fail to create a new
Constitution
Yeltsen dissolved the parliament which refused to
disband
Yeltsen forces dissolution by attacking the White House
Attack on Russian White House, December 1993
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
New Constitution
French style strong executive and weak legislative
Privatization
Industrial vouchers and the Land Code
Insider privatization and the Oligarchs
Inflation
1994-1996: War in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Decline of Yeltsen
1996: Reelection victory
1998: Financial meltdown
1999: Appointment of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister
Yeltsin and
Clinton
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin
Former KGB agent
Leningrad Leader
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin
Former KGB leader
Leningrad leader
Election of 2000
Putin captured 53% in the first round
Economic Recovery
Tax cuts, regulatory reform, spending and subsidy cuts
Reigning in the Oligarchs
Revival of the War in Chechnya
The Development of Russia
1991-Present: Russian Federation
Election of 2004
71% in the first round
Another Autocrat?
Crackdown on the press
Interference in the 2004 Ukrainian elections and the
poisoning of President Viktor Yushchenko (dioxin)
Murder of Alexander Litvinenko (polonium 210)
Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko
Alexander Litvinenko
1993 Constitution
Presidential-Parliamentary Structure
Modeled on the French 5th Republic
– Executive
President
Prime Minister
– Legislative
State Duma (Lower House)
Federation Council (Upper House)
– Judiciary
Constitutional Court
Supreme Court
Supreme Arbitration Court
The Executive
The President (Head of State)
– Residence and Offices in the Kremlin
The Kremlin Across From the Moscow River
The Kremlin
The Executive
The President (Head of State)
– Residence and Offices in the Kremlin
– Term
4 years
Limited to Two Terms
– Powers
Nominate the Prime Minister for the Duma’s
Approval
Appoint and Remove the Deputy Prime Ministers
and Cabinet Members
Submit Bills To the Duma
Veto Federal Laws Passed by the Federal
Assembly
The Executive
The President
– Powers, cont.
Dissolve the Duma
– If it rejects President’s nominations for Prime Minister
– Passes a vote of no confidence
Issue Decrees and Directives Binding Throughout
the County
Nominate, with Duma’s approval:
– Chairman of the Russian State Bank
– Justices to Three Highest Courts
Place Referendums Before the Voters
Announce A State of Emergency
Conduct Foreign and Defense Policy and Sign
International Treaties
The Executive, cont.
The Prime Minister
– Term
Serves at the pleasure of the President
Can be turned out by a vote of no confidence by
the Duma
– Powers
Becomes Acting President if President Dies, Is
Incapacitated, or Removed
Prepare Federal Budget for Submission to the
Duma
Ensure Uniform State Policy in Education, Health
Care, Social Welfare, Environment, Science and
Culture
The Executive, cont.
The Civil Service
– Fall of Communism Ended the Apparatchik
system
– Default System: Patron-Client
– Importance of Security Services Under Putin
The Legislative
The State Duma
– Composition
450 Members
– ½ Chosen in Single Member Districts (FPTP)
– ½ Chosen by Proportional Representation From National
Party Lists
– Duties
Hold the Government Accountable
Enact Legislation, Especially the Budget
– Weakness
Weakness and Fragmentation of the Russia’s
Political Parties
The Legislative, cont.
Federation Council
– Composition
Two Members from Each of Russia’s Eighty Nine
Republics, Krais, Oblasts, and Okrugs
– One chosen by local governor
– One chosen by the local legislature
Russia
The Legislative, cont.
Federation Council
– Composition
Two Members from Each of Russia’s Eighty Nine
Republics, Krais, Oblasts, and Okrugs
– One chosen by local governor
– One chosen by the local legislature
– Duties
Approve Legislation passed by the Duma
– Duma can override a Federation Council veto by a ⅔ vote
Must approve declaration of emergency
Exclusive Right to Remove the President if Articles
of Impeachment are passes by the Duma
The Judiciary, cont.
Constitutional Court
– Interpret the Constitution
– Settle Disputes Involving the Competency of
State Institutions
– Determine Whether Law and Activities of the
State Authorities Comply With the Constitution
The Judiciary
Supreme Court
– Hears Appeals from Civil and Criminal Court
Judicial Review can only happen if Appeals are
made from government agencies to Constitutional
Court
Supreme Arbitration Court
– Settles Economic Disputes
Political Parties
Left
– Communist Party
Center
– Unity (Putin’s Party)
Political Parties
Left
– Communist Party
Center
– Unity (Putin’s Party)
Personality Parties
Russia’s Challenges
Former Superpower
Move Toward Democracy or Autocracy
Aging Population
Moslem Minority
The End