Transcript The Setting and People

Russia and the Mongols
The Setting and People
• Large plain in Eastern Europe
• Southern part of the plain is called a steppe
• Grassy, black soil, good for farming
• Carpathian Mountains to Ural Mountains
• Divide Europe and Asia
• Slavs settled mainly in Eastern Europe
• Avars, Huns, Magyars, and Vikings all invaded at
different times
• Made Slavs their servants
• Name Slav comes from the word Slave
• Vikings main purpose was trade
Kievan Russia
• Novgorod and Kiev were cities located along Viking
trade routes
• The Rus people took over Novgorod and Kiev
• Kiev became powerful trade city; Russia’s capital
• Trade treaty with Byzantine Empire
• Government
• Princes governed
• Councils – made up of Boyars (Russian nobility)
• Yaroslav the Wise was a great leader
• Came up with Pravda Russkia (Russian Justice)
• Religion
• Christianity
• Vladimir I sent observers to look into Christianity
• Converted after marriage to Anna, sister of Byzantine Emperor
• Ordered all Kievians to be Christians and destroyed all pagan idols
• Economy
• Farming
• Trade
• Agricultural goods, wood, iron, salt, furs, and honey
Attacks on Kiev
• In-fighting weakened Kiev
• Mongols invaded
• Kievan Russia under the Mongols
• Taxed heavily
• Strong cultural influence
• Kievan Russia and its neighbors
• Lithuania and Poland
• Took away eastern territory, hostile to Slavs, religious conflict
The Rise of Moscow
• Mongols grew weaker
• Ivan I worked with Mongols and was given right to rule
• Under Ivan III or Ivan the Great, Moscow began to be
independent
• Started the absolute monarchy rule of Russia
• Ivan the Terrible
• Came into power at age 3
• Boyars ruled until he was old enough
• Felt himself to be heir to Roman and Byzantium Empire
• Took title of Czar (Slavic monarch, means Cesar)
• Committed many heinous acts
• Destroyed Boyars
• Murdered his oldest son
• Destroyed Novgorod
• The growth of the church
• Financial prosperity
• Major landowner in Russia
• Politically independent of Constantinople
• Chose own church leaders
• Constantinople fell, Russia proclaimed itself as the 3rd Rome