First World War 1914–1918 and the October Revolution in Russia, which took place on October 25 (November 7), 1917, led to political changes. The Russian Soviet Republic, created as a result of the October Revolution, was transformed into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. On December 12 (25), 1917, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed (actually formed in March 1919). Bessarabia was occupied in 1918, and Western Ukraine and Western Belarus became part of Poland.
On the former western outskirts of Russia, new states were formed, the borders with which were secured by peace treaties of the RSFSR with (February 2, 1920), (August 11, 1920), (July 12, 1920), (October 14, 1920) , (March 18, 1921).
On April 22, 1918, the Transcaucasian Democratic Republic was proclaimed. However, under the influence of domestic and foreign policy factors, this federation soon disintegrated into the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian bourgeois republics.
In 1920–1921 The Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian SSRs were created. In Central Asia, the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (from October 20, 1923 - Khorezm SSR), Bukhara People's Soviet Republic (October 8, 1920; from September 19, 1924 - Bukhara SSR) were created. On April 22, 1920, the Uriankhai region was transformed into the People's Republic of Tannu-Tuva. On December 30, 1922, the First Congress of Soviets proclaimed the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) consisting of the Byelorussian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Russian SFSR, and the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1924 and 1926 from the RSFSR parts of the territories of Vitebsk, Gomel and Smolensk provinces populated by the Belorussian SSR were transferred. During the same period, minor changes took place in the border between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1924, the national-state delimitation of Central Asia was carried out: the Bukhara SSR and the Khorezm SSR were liquidated. On their territory and the adjacent territories of the Turkmen ASSR, which was part of the RSFSR, the Turkmen SSR and the Uzbek SSR were formed on October 27, 1924. At the III Congress of Soviets of the USSR (May 13–20, 1925), these republics were accepted into the USSR. The Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic remained part of the RSFSR.
In 1925, Japan returned Northern to the USSR.
After the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939–1940. The Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, together with the part of the former regions of Finland that included it, was transformed (March 31, 1940) into the Karelo-Finnish SSR and, thus, left the RSFSR. The remaining part of the areas that separated from Finland became part of the Leningrad and Murmansk regions.
By agreement of June 28, 1940, the Romanian government peacefully transferred Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR, and on August 2, 1940, the Moldavian SSR was formed.
At the beginning of August 1940, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became part of the USSR as union republics. As a result, the USSR in August 1940 included 16 union republics.
During the Great Patriotic War and after its end, subsequent major changes took place in the territory of the USSR. The Tuvan People's Republic entered the USSR on October 11, 1944 as an autonomous region within the RSFSR. At the end of the war, the USSR signed a number of agreements and treaties with Finland, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, which included the resolution of territorial issues.
Finland, according to the armistice agreement of September 19, 1944 and the peace treaty of February 10, 1947, transferred the Petsamo (Pechenga) region to the USSR. According to the Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of June 29, 1945, Transcarpathian Ukraine became part of the USSR and reunited with the Ukrainian SSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, minor changes occurred in the borders between the Union republics. Thus, in 1944, Zanarovye and Pechory from the Estonian SSR, the Pytalovsky district from the Latvian SSR were transferred to the RSFSR, and some territories were transferred from the RSFSR to the Georgian SSR (in 1957 they were returned to the RSFSR).
In 1957, minor changes took place in the borders of the RSFSR and the Estonian SSR, and the territories transferred to the Georgian SSR in 1944 were also returned to the RSFSR. A small section of territory from the Smolensk region of the RSFSR was transferred to the Byelorussian SSR on October 17, 1964. After this, significant There were no changes to Russia's borders.
On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration “On the State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.” The Declaration proclaimed the state sovereignty of the RSFSR throughout its territory and the determination to create a democratic rule of law state within the renewed USSR.
On December 8, 1991, in the city of Minsk, Belarus and the Russian Federation signed an Agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The agreement stated that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, ceases to exist.
The union republics that were part of the USSR became independent states with the borders in which they existed at the time of gaining independence.
The Resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR dated December 12, 1991 “On the denunciation of the treaty on the formation of the USSR” denounced the Treaty on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, approved by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR on December 30, 1922.
By the Resolution of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated March 15, 1996, this resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR was declared invalid.
On December 25, 1991, the RSFSR Law “On Changing the Name of the State of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic” was adopted, according to which the state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is henceforth called the Russian Federation (Russia). The Law of the Russian Federation of April 21, 1992 “On Amendments and Additions to the Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic” enshrines the foundations of the constitutional system of the state “Russian Federation”.
§ 74. Europe and USA
Territorial changes after the First World War.
Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, France returned Alsace and Lorraine and occupied the Rhine region of Germany. The coal mines of the Saarland were transferred to France for 15 years. Belgium and Denmark received small increases, and Poland received significant increases. Danzig (Gdansk) became a free city. Germany had to pay reparations. Universal conscription was prohibited in Germany, the country was not allowed to have submarines or military aircraft, and the size of the voluntary army was not to exceed 100 thousand people.
The treaty with Austria recorded the collapse of Austria-Hungary and prohibited the unification of Austria with Germany. Part of the territory of the former Habsburg monarchy went to Italy, Poland, and Romania. Bulgaria lost some lands to Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia. The Ottoman Empire was losing Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, and almost all of its possessions in Europe. However, after the revolution in Turkey in 1. and the defeats of Armenia and Greece in the wars with Turkey, the latter increased its territory.
New states appeared in Europe: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland.
The German colonies in Africa were divided by Great Britain and France. The Middle Eastern possessions of Turkey also went to them. Iraq was recognized as independent, but actually came under British rule. Japan got the German islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Revolutionary events in Europe.
In Germany, the situation that aggravated during the war years in November 1918 developed into a revolution. It began with the bloody suppression of the sailors' speech in Kiel, where the first Soviets were formed - soldiers' and workers'. Councils began to emerge in other cities. On November 9, the monarchy was overthrown. Power was in the hands of the Council of People's Representatives, headed by the social democrat Friedrich Ebert. The left-wing Social Democrats, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who created the Communist Party in December 1918, advocated deepening the revolution. In January 1919, armed struggle broke out between the government and workers. The troops suppressed the uprising, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed. On April 13, 1919, a Soviet republic was proclaimed in Munich, but it lasted only two weeks.
The government took into account a number of workers' demands in the Constitution adopted in the summer of 1919 by the Constituent Assembly in Weimar. The Weimar Constitution established universal suffrage. The last revolutionary event in Germany was the uprising in Hamburg led by the communist Ernst Thälmann in October 1923. It was also suppressed.
In November 1918, the Communist Party was formed in Hungary, led by Bella Kuhn. On March 21, 1919, the Budapest Council of Workers' Deputies proclaimed Hungary a Soviet republic. Locally, all power was concentrated in the hands of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. Banks, industrial enterprises, transport, and landowners' lands were nationalized. The Entente sent troops from Romania and Czechoslovakia to fight Hungary. On August 1, 1919, Soviet power was liquidated. In fact, the country began to be ruled by Admiral Miklos Horthy, who was proclaimed regent, since Hungary formally maintained a monarchy.
Demonstrations of the dissatisfied took place in all European countries. The struggle was especially intense in Italy. In 1920, workers took over many factories and controlled them for almost a month. Peasants occupied landowners' lands. The government did not dare to use weapons. The authorities promised to pass a law on the introduction of workers' control at enterprises and to increase wages. However, the law did not come into force.
Communist movement.
Events in Russia and the strengthening of the labor movement in many countries led to the strengthening of the positions of the Social Democrats. There was no unity within the social democratic movement. Many believed that workers had already made significant changes and that it was now necessary to move forward through gradual reforms. Others called for active action, taking power following the example of the Bolsheviks. Supporters of this course created national communist parties.
In March 1919, delegates from communist and related parties gathered in Moscow for the Founding Congress, which announced the creation of the Communist Third International (Comintern). Its main tasks were declared to be the struggle for world revolution and the creation of a world Soviet republic. National communist parties were considered sections of the Comintern. The Comintern did a lot of work to propagate communist ideas, create communist organizations, and prepared protests against governments in different countries.
Adherents of moderate views in the social democratic movement united in 1923 into the Socialist Workers' International.
Economic development in 2010 XX century
In the 20s Most Western countries experienced robust economic growth. However, in 1929 an unprecedented economic crisis broke out.
After World War I, the economic center of the world moved to the United States. New technologies were used here, production was organized in a new way, the latest products were mass-produced: cars, radio equipment, medicines, etc. But it was the United States that became the center of economic chaos in the early 30s.
8. What is F. Roosevelt’s “new course”? List the main activities of this course. What were its results?
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SO THE FIRST STAGE (XV - first half of the XVI centuries). During this period, a territory was formed that became the “cradle” of the Russian people. The Moscow kingdom began to take shape under Ivan III - from the middle of the 15th century. Its initial territory - the Moscow Principality - was small. Ivan III increased the territory of the principality five times. Thus, in 1463, Ivan III annexed the Yaroslavl principality to Moscow. In 1472, the vast Perm region was annexed. In 1478, Veliky Novgorod was conquered, which the Muscovites withstood by siege. Later Tver (1485) and Vyatka (1489) were taken.
At the end of the 15th century. The princes Vyazemsky, Belsky, Vorotynsky and others, dissatisfied with the Lithuanian rule, recognized the power of Moscow over themselves, which conquered Chernigov, Bryansk, and a total of 19 cities and 70 volosts from Lithuania. The statement of Ivan III that the entire territory of Kievan Rus was his “fatherland” led to the centuries-long struggle between Russia and Poland for the Western Russian lands of Kievan Rus. At the beginning of the 16th century. The population of the Moscow kingdom was 9 million people. The formation of the Russian people was underway. The Chud, Meshchera, Vyatichi and other tribes were assimilated. SECOND STAGE (mid-16th – end of 17th centuries). During the time of Ivan IV, there was an urgent need to protect the country's borders in the East. In 1552 Kazan was taken. In 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate recognized its dependence on Moscow without resistance. The Mordovians, Chuvashs, and Bashkirs voluntarily joined the Russian state. Thus, the entire Volga was included in Russia. A stream of Russian colonization rushed to these lands. In the 80s XVI century the cities of Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, Penza, Tambov and others were founded here. Many Tatar khans and nobles were baptized and became part of the elite of the Moscow state. The annexation of the Tatar khanates opened the way to Siberia. A detachment of Cossacks led by Ermak conquered the Siberian Khanate. In 1589 the cities of Tyumen and Tobolsk were founded here. The advance of the Russian people towards the Yenisei, Lena, and the Sea of Okhotsk began. In the West, the Moscow state sought access to the Baltic Sea. During the 16th century. Russia fought about ten wars on its western borders, lasting a total of 50 years. Ivan the Terrible lost the Livonian War and lost the only access to the sea that Novgorod owned. Under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, Boris Godunov returned this territory to Russia through diplomatic means. To protect the state from the South, the Moscow government from the middle of the 16th century. began a systematic advance south from the river. Oki to the Wild Field area. The entire territory from Moscow to Crimea was free. Detachments of Tatars rushed along it, attacking Russian settlements. The Tula defensive line was built. These are cities and villages, with forts between them, i.e. a continuous chain of fortifications. Between Moscow and Tula the land is populated by peasants. Then a new defensive line is built - Belgorodskaya. These are the cities of Orel, Kursk, Voronezh, Yelets, Belgorod. And finally, the third line, represented by the cities of Simbirsk, Tambov, Penza, Syzran. As a result, Moscow was protected and new territories were developed. In 1654, according to the Pereyaslav Rada, Ukraine united with Russia. As a result of this voluntary act and subsequent wars with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Left Bank Ukraine and Kiev became part of a single country. In 1656, in response to the proposal of the ambassadors of Moldova, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent the Moldavian ruler George Stefan a letter of consent to accept the conditions for the transition of Moldova to Russian citizenship. In 1657, representatives of the Transcaucasian peoples - Tushins, Khevsurs and Pshavs - sent a letter to Alexei Mikhailovich with a request to accept them into Russian citizenship. THIRD STAGE (XVIII–XIX centuries). During this period, Russia became an empire (1721). For more than 100 years, Russia fought for the Baltic states in order to gain a foothold on the sea shores. After the victorious end of the Northern War, Peter I annexed the Baltic states and Karelia to Russia. In 1724, the Armenian patriarchs Isaiah and Nerses sent a message to Peter the Great asking him to accept the Armenian people under the protection of Russia. By the good will of the peoples living here, the Nogai (from Orenburg to Yuryev) and Kyrgyz lands were annexed to Russia. The resounding victories of Russian troops under Catherine the Great brought great glory to Russia. In 1774, the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty was concluded with the Turks, according to which Crimea was declared free, and in 1783 it became Russian. As a result of three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), Russia included the lands of central and western Belarus, Right Bank Ukraine without Lvov, most of Lithuania and Courland.
One of the most important conditions for the development of modern Russia is its historical past, in particular the historical and geographical features of the formation of the country. Over the long period of the country's existence, the name, ethnic composition, occupied territory, main geopolitical vectors of development and government structure have repeatedly changed. As a result, we can distinguish several periods of the historical and geographical formation of Russia.
The first period is the formation and development of the ancient Russian state of Kievan Rus (IX-XII centuries). This state developed along the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” which was the easternmost “link” between the states of Baltic, or Northern, Europe (Sweden, etc.) and Mediterranean, or Southern, Europe (Byzantium, etc.). Accordingly, it had two main centers: Kyiv, through which the main trade with Byzantium took place, and Novgorod, which was the main center for connections with Northern European countries. Naturally, the main ties (not only economic, but also cultural, political, etc.) of Kievan Rus were directed towards Europe, of which it was an integral part. But the territorial development of the state went in the northern and eastern directions, since there were territories inhabited by small and peace-loving Finno-Ugric peoples (Muroma, Merya, Chud, etc.). In the West at that time there were already relatively densely populated territories of European states (Poland, Hungary, etc.), and in the southeast there were ¾ steppe territories inhabited by warlike nomadic peoples (Pechenegs, Cumans, etc.), against whom defensive lines had to be built on the border of steppes and forest-steppe.
The ethnic basis of Kievan Rus was made up of the East Slavic tribes of the Polyans, Severians, Radimichi, Ilmen Slovenes, etc. Already from the end of the 9th century. Eastern Slavs began to actively develop the Volga-Oka interfluve. The Krivichi from the north-west (from Novgorod) and the Vyatichi from the south-west (from Kyiv) moved here to the lands of the Finno-Ugric tribes. Local peoples were assimilated by the Eastern Slavs, but at the same time became an important component of the emerging Great Russian ethnic group . In the 12th century It was to the northeast of Kievan Rus that the main economic center of the state moved (the cities of Suzdal, Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Rostov, Vladimir, etc.), tied to a new important trade route between the countries of Europe and Asia, laid along the Volga with its tributaries and further along the Caspian Sea . In 1147, the city of Moscow was mentioned for the first time in chronicles on this territory. By the end of the period, the territory of the state amounted to about 2.5 million km 2.
The second period was the collapse of Kievan Rus into separate principalities and the Mongol-Tatar conquest (XIII-XV centuries). Already in the 12th century. Kievan Rus began to disintegrate into separate appanage principalities that were at war with each other. The main (capital) of them was initially considered Kiev, then ¾ Vladimir-Suzdal, but this was only a formal supremacy. In practice, appanage princes, as a rule, did not submit to the main (great) princes, but, if possible, tried to capture the capitals (Kyiv or Vladimir) and declare themselves on this basis the great princes of all Rus'. A special situation arose in Novgorod and nearby Pskov, where not principalities were formed, but “veche republics”, where all important issues were resolved by the wealthiest merchants, but with the formal consent of the majority of citizens, expressed at a general meeting (veche).
Due to disagreements between individual ancient Russian principalities in the middle of the 13th century. They all relatively easily fell under the rule of the Mongol-Tatar conquerors who came from the east. And then (in the 14th century) the western and southern principalities (Polotsk, Kiev, etc.) became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the same time, Mongol-Tatar rule turned out to be less dangerous than Lithuanian (later ¾ Polish-Lithuanian) in terms of preserving culture (but much worse for preserving material values), since the Mongol-Tatars, after their raids and collecting tribute, like all nomads, went back in the steppe, without interfering in the internal life of the Russian principalities. To some extent, they even supported the existing political and religious structure, since it made it easier to collect tribute. While the most important thing for the conquerors coming from the West under religious (Catholic) banners was to subjugate new people and territory forever to their ideas. Therefore, they largely preserved material values, but tried to change culture and religion. Nevertheless, cultural and political ties with the eastern nomadic peoples slowed down the socio-economic development of Russia for a long time.
The development of new territories during this period was possible only in a northern direction. This is where the Russian settlers moved, quickly reaching the shores of the White and then the Barents Seas. The people who moved to the coast of these seas over time became the basis for the formation of a special Russian subethnic group ¾ Pomors. The territory of all Russian lands by the end of the period was about 2 million km 2.
The third period is the formation and development of the Russian centralized state (XVI-XVII centuries). Already from the 14th century. The Moscow principality began to play a special role among other Russian lands. Thanks to its geographical position (in the center of the most populated Volga-Oka interfluve) and outstanding rulers (Ivan Kalita and others), it was this principality that gradually became the main one in economic, political and religious relations among others subordinate to the state of the Golden Horde created by the Mongol-Tatars. In particular, it was the Moscow princes who received the title of Grand Dukes and the right to collect tribute from all Russian lands to transfer it to the Golden Horde. In 1380, the united troops of the Russian principalities under the leadership of the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich, later called Donskoy, defeated the Mongol-Tatar army for the first time in an open battle on the Kulikovo Field. After this, the rapid territorial expansion of the Moscow Principality began in all directions: to the north (Veliky Ustyug was annexed), east (Nizhny Novgorod), south (Tula), west (Rzhev). As a result, 100 years later (in 1480), Russian troops under the leadership of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III on the Ugra River repelled an attack on Russian lands by the united troops of the Mongol-Tatar khanates, into which the Golden Horde disintegrated. This was an event that formally liberated the Russian principalities (Moscow Rus') from Mongol-Tatar dependence, and the beginning of the territorial expansion of Russian lands to the east and southeast.
By the middle of the 16th century. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan IV (the Terrible), who subsequently took the title of Tsar of All Rus', united under his rule all the Russian principalities that had previously been subordinate to the Mongol-Tatars, and began a further offensive against the remnants of the Golden Horde. In 1552, after a long war, he annexed the Kazan Khanate to the Moscow state, and in 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate. This led to the inclusion into the Russian state of territories inhabited by representatives of other ethnic groups and religions (Tatars, Mari, Bashkirs, etc.), which dramatically changed the ethnic and religious composition of the population of the previously mono-ethnic and Orthodox country. Although individual Tatar princes, together with their subjects, went over to the service of the Moscow principality before that (Yusupov, Karamzin, etc.).
After this, Ivan IV tried to expand the territory of the state to the west, attacking the weak German religious knightly orders in the Baltic states (Livonsky and others). But as a result of the outbreak of the Livonian War, the lands of the orders went to Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the country lost access to the Finnish Sea in the Baltic Gulf. The main reason for the defeats was that during the long Mongol-Tatar rule, the Russian state lost cultural ties with Europe. Therefore, the Russian army turned out to be weakly armed from a technical point of view, while it was the perfection of technology that decided the outcome of wars in Europe already at that time.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth launched a new attack on the Russian state at the beginning of the 17th century. (period of the Time of Troubles), first supporting the claims to the Moscow throne of False Dmitry I and II, and then starting direct military intervention. Almost all of Central Russia, including Moscow, was captured by the Poles and Lithuanians. It was possible to defend the country's independence only thanks to popular resistance to the invaders.
After defeats in the west, the vector of development of the Russian state headed east and south. In 1586, the cities of Tyumen (the first Russian city in Siberia), Voronezh (the largest Russian city in the Black Earth Region), Samara (the first Russian city in the Volga region), and Ufa (the first Russian city in the Southern Urals) were founded. Advancement to the south into the steppe regions was carried out with the help of notched lines (lines of forts connected by rows of fallen trees), under the protection of which from the raids of nomads the agricultural development of the most fertile black soil territories took place. In the east, already by 1639, Russian settlers (Cossacks) reached the coast of the Pacific Ocean (Sea of Okhotsk), having built the fort of Okhotsk in 1646. The Cossacks moved along the rivers of the taiga zone, building forts in the most advantageous places for control over the surrounding territories (Krasnoyarsk, Yakutsk, Turukhansk, etc.). The main incentive for their movement was the procurement of furs, which was the main product of Russian exports to Europe at that time. Furs were harvested both by the settlers themselves and by local residents, who gave it to the Cossacks in the form of tribute (yasak). Moreover, in general (with the exception of some cases), the annexation of Siberia occurred peacefully. By the end of the period, the area of the state reached 7 million km 2.
The fourth period is the formation of the Russian Empire (XVIII - early XIX centuries). Already from the middle of the 17th century. the vector of Russian geopolitics again began to unfold in a western direction. In 1654, by decision of the Pereyaslav Rada, Left Bank Ukraine (the territory along the Dnieper and east of it) was united with Russia, which, as a result of the military actions of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, came out of the subordination of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
But Peter I made especially great efforts to recognize Russia as a European state. At the beginning of the 18th century. As a result of the many years of the Northern War with Sweden, Russia gained access to the Baltic Sea, taking possession of the mouth of the Neva and the territories of modern Estonia and Latvia. In 1712, St. Petersburg, founded on the shores of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, became the capital of Russia, which greatly facilitated Russia’s ties with European countries. In 1721, Russia declared itself an empire. In the second half of the 18th century, after three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the lands of Lithuania, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine became part of Russia. During the same period, as a result of victories over the Ottoman Empire, the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas (Novorossiya) became part of the state. At the beginning of the 19th century. Finland, part of Poland and the territory between the Dniester and Prut rivers (Bessarabia) joined the Russian Empire. By the end of the period, the area of the Russian Empire exceeded 16 million km 2.
Fifth period ¾ development and collapse of the Russian Empire (mid-19th - early 20th century). Further territorial expansion in a western direction became increasingly difficult, as it encountered resistance from developed European states. Therefore, gradually the vector of Russian geopolitics again became southern, southeastern and eastern. In 1800, at the request of the Georgian kings, Georgia became part of the Russian Empire. Also, the territory of Armenia peacefully became part of Russia, since Christian Armenians were threatened with complete destruction from attacks from the neighboring Ottoman Empire and Persia. At the beginning of the 19th century. As a result of the war with Persia (Iran), the territory of modern Azerbaijan was included in Russia. The most difficult thing in the Caucasus turned out to be annexing the lands of the North Caucasian peoples, who resisted joining the Russian Empire for more than 50 years. The mountainous regions of the North Caucasus finally became part of Russia only at the end of the 19th century.
The main vector of expansion of the state’s territorial possessions in the 19th century. became Central Asian. Since the 18th century. The process of Kazakh tribes joining Russia began, united in the Senior, Middle and Small Zhuzes, which at that time did not have a single state. First, the territory of the Junior Zhuz (Western and Northern Kazakhstan) was annexed, then the Middle Zhuz (Central Kazakhstan) and finally the Senior Zhuz (Southern Kazakhstan). The main Russian center on the territory of Kazakhstan was the Vernaya fortress founded in 1854 (later ¾ the city of Alma-Ata). In the presence of individual local conflicts, in general, the Kazakhs voluntarily became part of Russia.
The annexation of Central Asia: the Bukhara, Khiva khanates and other Central Asian lands to Russia ¾ took place at the end of the 19th century. and already had the character of a conquest. Numerous local population did not want to recognize the new government and resisted the aliens. The exception is the peaceful entry into Russia of the Kyrgyz. As a result, the borders of the Russian Empire in this region were expanded to the borders of Persia and Afghanistan.
The third vector of the country's expansion during this period is ¾ eastern. First, at the beginning of the 18th century. The territories of Alaska, located on the North American continent, were annexed. In the second half of the 19th century. The Russian Empire annexed the lands of the Amur and Primorye regions, taking advantage of the weakness of China, weakened by civil strife and defeats from the British and French. Before this, the Chinese Empire objected to the annexation of these territories to Russia, although it did not develop them itself. Thus, in order to avoid new exclusion in the future, these lands needed to be populated and developed. But the military, economic and demographic potential of the country was no longer enough to develop all Russian lands. And in 1867, Russia had to sell Alaska to the United States, which became the first major territorial loss of the Russian Empire. The area of the state began to shrink, reaching 24 million km 2 .
New confirmation of the state’s weakness was the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, after which Russia lost Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and was forced to stop further territorial expansion in China. The final collapse of the Russian Empire occurred in 1917, when the hardships of a severe external war combined with internal contradictions that led to revolutions and civil war. Independence treaties were signed with Finland and Poland. In fact, the territories occupied by German and Romanian troops, ¾ Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia, were separated from the state. In the remaining territory, centralized government administration was disrupted.
The sixth period is ¾ Soviet (1917-1991). At the end of 1917, the formation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was proclaimed over most of the territory of the Russian Empire, the capital of which moved to Moscow. Later, as a result of the military successes of the Soviet Red Army, Soviet socialist republics were proclaimed in Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia. In 1922, these four republics united into a single state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In the 1920s, administrative reforms were carried out in the USSR, as a result of which the republics of Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Tajik were separated from the RSFSR, and the Transcaucasian Republic was divided into Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan.
During the Second World War and following its results (1939-1947), the USSR included first Bessarabia (on whose territory the Moldavian SSR was formed), the Baltic states (Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR), Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, as well as the southeastern part of Finland (Vyborg and the surrounding area), and then Tuva. After the war, the USSR included Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, the Kaliningrad region and the northeastern part of Finland (Pechenga) ¾ into the RSFSR, as well as Transcarpathia ¾ into the Ukrainian SSR. After this, there were only changes in the borders between individual union republics, the most significant of which was the transfer of Crimea from the RSFSR to Ukraine in 1954. At the end of the period, the area of the state was 22.4 million km 2.
The seventh period is the modern development of the country (since 1992). At the end of 1991, the USSR collapsed into 15 new independent states, the largest of which was the Russian Federation. Moreover, the territory and borders of the country actually returned to the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. But this confirms the fact that modern Russia is not an empire that has forcibly subjugated many surrounding territories, but a historically formed multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state that has prospects for its further socio-economic and cultural development.
The area of modern Russia is about 17.1 million km2. At the same time, initially many neighboring states had territorial claims against the Russian Federation, the presence of which in itself indicates instability and the illegality of including certain territories into the country. The most serious were claims from China and Japan, which could not be resolved during the Soviet era. At the same time, disagreements with China have been completely resolved over the past 10 years. And today the entire Russian-Chinese border is confirmed by interstate treaties and delimited ¾ for the first time in several centuries of political relations between Russia and China. Disagreements between Russia and Japan over the southern Kuril Islands remain unresolved, which hinders the development of economic, social and other ties between our countries.
The claims of the newly independent states were of a completely different nature. During the existence of the USSR, the borders between the RSFSR and other republics were purely administrative in nature. More than 85% of the borders were not demarcated. Even during documented periods of the country's development, these borders changed repeatedly in one direction or another and often without observing the necessary legal formalities. Thus, the claims of Estonia and Latvia to part of the territories of the Leningrad and Pskov regions are justified by treaties of the 20s. But before this, Estonia and Latvia never existed as independent states. And back in the 12th century. The territories of modern Estonia and Latvia were dependent on the Russian principalities. From a historical point of view, this allows Russia to lay claim to all the territories of Estonia and Latvia.
Already from the end of the 18th century. Western and Northern Kazakhstan were part of the Russian state. And until the end of the 20s of the XX century. Kazakhstan and Central Asia were part of the RSFSR. Naturally, in such conditions, Russia has more historical grounds for annexing part of the territory of Central Asia than Kazakhstan has for annexing part of Russian territory. Moreover, in the northern part of Kazakhstan, the majority of the population is Russians and other peoples close to them in culture, and not Kazakhs.
The situation is similar with borders in the Caucasus, where they often changed depending on specific historical conditions. As a result, today the population of some parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan (Abkhazia, etc.) wants to join Russia, while these states, in turn, make territorial claims to the Russian Federation and support separatists on the territory of our country.
The most difficult is the establishment of the border between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where in many cases ties were cut not only between regions and enterprises, but also between individual families, whose representatives found themselves living on opposite sides of the new state borders. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 21st century. most of the territorial claims against Russia at the state level were lifted. And today they are put forward only by extreme groups of citizens of neighboring states.
