ssorov

Chating here I've found out that many people keep in mind USSR is equal to Russia. So I've been impressed that you may be don't know anything about non-USSR period of Russian history.
I would be grateful if you'll show me I'm wrong.

Brother Oz

Do you mean before the formation of the USSR, or after it's end?

__________________
... I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all. You know, as I know, that I bought this constituency... may God's curse light upon you and may it make your women as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your scoundrel corporation.
I have the honour to be... your obliged humble servant, Anthony Henley
- MPs reply to constituent, mid 1700s

ssorov

Both before & after.
May be not everything but main events

ssorov

So I'm not wondered.
High probably, I was right thinking that all of you know nothing.
Threat may be closed

africanhope

I find rusia a mystical place almost, and love the history, but I do not know much of the history before Peter the Great. Some of the events before that offcourse, like the Mongols, and all that offcourse.

AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

ssorov

So that's not bad.

Brother Oz

Well, let's see. Originally the area was similar in nature to Scandinavia, in terms of how people lived. Then Princeships grew up around the major towns. The Mongols came and conquered the area, and the Princes paid them taxes. The Prince of Muscovy became more and more powerful, and then when the Mongol empire collapsed, conquered more territory, and the area started to spread out, and eventually you had Russian Tsars, from Caesar, since they'd got many influences from Byzantium, due to missionaries. The people were still far behind western Europe in terms of technology, medicine, and so forth. Peter the Great had been all around western Europe trying to raise support against the Swedish Empire which was threatening his lands, and he brought back European styles of living, and science, to Russia, modernising it. He reorganised the government, creating a very Autocratic state, where all the nobles relied on the Tsar.
He conquered more and more land, and beat the mighty Swedish Empire.
By the 19th century, however, Russia was still behind western Europe in terms of technology, so Nicholas I and his son (Alexander III? Can't remember) tried to modernise by building the trans-Siberian railway, emancipating the serfs, and promoting industry in Moscow and St Petersburg to try and create an industrial revolution. There were also wars against Turkey, as Russia tried to gain access to the Dardanelles.
In the early 20th century, the workers lived in appaling conditions, and Russia was shamed by losing a war to the tiny nation of Japan. People began agitating, and there was an abortive uprising to try and set up a democracy. The Tsar created a parliament, the "Duma", with a very complicated representation system, in order to satisfy demands for an elected assembly without actually losing any power. But even with skewed representation for the pro-Tsar bits of the population, the Duma was too demanding for Nicholas II, and he closed it.
Then there was WW1, in which many Russians died, with appaling tactics and underequipment. The Tsar was forced to abdicate, and a provisional government set up. But the Duma (elected assembly) had little power compared to the Soviet, which represented workers and soldier's groups. And 6 months later, there was the Bolshevik revolution.

__________________
... I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all. You know, as I know, that I bought this constituency... may God's curse light upon you and may it make your women as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your scoundrel corporation.
I have the honour to be... your obliged humble servant, Anthony Henley
- MPs reply to constituent, mid 1700s

ssorov

Very well! (better than my English )
Thank you! Russia vs Others 0:1

ambermosquito

I wrote a response and realised it was practically identical to yours. (Except it was Alexander the 2nd that got on with all the reforms, and that the Crimean war persuaded him of the necessity of them.)

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You can't help people being right for the wrong reasons. This fear of finding oneslef in bad company is not an expression of political purity; it is an expression of a lack of self-confidence.

Artinam

Unfortunatly I can't be so positive, at the moment I know little about pre-Communist Russian history besides a very general view. Ow and to not cheat I haven't read the small summaries some members seem to have posted.

At some points the Mongels managed to conquer it.
Pre-Communism it was rules by a Monarchy called the Tzars. Belows was a very Feudal type of society with local Lord and peasants working on a very argricultural society. Industrialization came relatively late in Russian society, a Russian Tzar Alexander made the first attempts at modernizing society. Pretty much the only reason i know this is because this person had good relations with the Dutch as such he is mentioned a few times.

Then you have the Communist era, after this you have the whole Pelostrojka by one of the last leader of the USSR. Lead to the fall of the USSR, after this Boris Jeltsin managed to start reforms.

I'm really sorry I don't know more and some of it is probably flawed. I' m definatly interested in learning more about it though.