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History of Our Country

History of Our Country

There were Slavic settlements on the territory of the modern European part of Russia still long before Christ. However, as a beginning of the Russian state the 9th century is held when the Old-Russian state here had been formed.

In 988 Vladimir the Great has accepted the Christianity and have spread this new religion under the Russian population. In the 11th century the "Russia of Kiev" has become a going well state. But later Russian Princes have started to split it, and the 12-13th centuries are described as a period of feudal civil strifes in the Russian history.

In the 13-14th centuries Russia suffered from many Tatar attacks, as well as from Western hostile attacks. The most important events of that time are the Battle at the Neva-river (1240), the Ice Battle (1242) and the Kulikow battle when Russian troops have defeated Tatars for the first time.

Small feudal Russian Princedoms have been vassal states of the Gold Horde nearly for 250 years. But in the 14th century Moscow has become the center where Russian princes have united to throw off the Tatar yoke. During the next centuries the Russian centralized state has formed which has incorporated northern territories, as well as the Volga and Ural areas and the Western Siberia. The capital was Moscow. The head of state had been called the Great Prince until in 1547 Ivan the Terrible (or Ivan the Fourth) has proclaimed himself as the Zar of Russia.

At the end of 16th century the Ryrik dynasty had come to its end, and this event has caused the polisch-lituanian invasion in the early 17th century. But Russian people have defeated the enemies under the leading of Minin and Pozharsky. 1613 Michael Romanov has been elected to the Russian Zar, and he has founded the new Romanov-dynasty that had been ruling Russia until 1917.

The Great Russian Zar, Peter the First, has carried out many important reforms end at the turn of the 17-18th centuries. These changes have concerned the social-economic and cultural development of the country, and also have contributed to the victory in the North War (1700-1721), after which Russia has got the exit to the Baltic Sea.

In the 18-19th centuries the Russian Empire has annexed new lands and has become an international state.

In 1812 Napoleon with his army has come to Russia and has managed to seize Moscow, nevertheless, Napoleon's Russian campaign has been lost.

In 1861 Alexander II has canceled the serfdom which had been a real slavery for Russian peasants since the 16th century.

At the beginning of 20th century Russia was leading the unsuccesful war against Japan. 1905-1907 were the time of the first bourgeois-democratic revolutions in Russia, which were unsuccessful. In 1914-1918 Russia took part in World War First. But the state was weakened by the events of that time, and in February, 1917 a new revolution has began in Russia. As a result Zar Nikolai II has renounced the crown, and the power in the Russian state has been transferred to a temporary government.

In October, 1917 the power has been seized by Bolsheviks. A murderous civil war lasted in Russia in the following two years, finally, the Soviet power has been established almost on the whole territory of the former Russian Empire. In 1922 the USSR has been established.

The first third of the 20th century differed by the collectivization of the agriculture and by uncountable reprisals, and in 1939 World War Second has began. The USSR has finished the war triumphantly, and this was the cause that Europe was divided in "socialist" and the "capitalist" camps. Then the so-called cold war has begun.

In 1991 the USSR has come to the end. A new period in the history of our country has begun, the time of independent Russia.