Historical features of the territorial organization of the economy. Changes in territory and population growth Features of the territorial and geographical location of the Russian Empire

^ FEATURES OF THE GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION IN TIME

2. 1. Features of the situation in Russia

during the period IX - XVII centuries.

The combination of favorable natural conditions, the development of crafts, trade and transport, military affairs, the establishment of stable trade routes on the territory of the East European Plain and the Black Sea region since ancient and early medieval times contributed to the emergence and development of statehood here. On the lands of the European part of Russia at different times there existed Scythia, the Bosporan Kingdom, Sarmatia, Alania, the Turkic Khaganate, Great Bulgaria, the Khazar Khaganate, Volga Bulgaria and a number of other state formations. The process of formation of the main features of the Russian people was shown in more detail and more comprehensively by other historians by L. Gumilyov, who, following the Russian Eurasians, emphasized the radical difference between Muscovite Rus' in ethical, ethnic and cultural-social terms both from other Slavic formations and from Kievan Rus, which remained an ordinary provincial Eastern European state without any special Eurasian geopolitical features.

The Russian state was founded in the 9th century, when the profitable Volga trade of Khazaria attracted the attention of the Varangians, who founded a number of fortresses along the Gulf of Riga, around Ladoga and in the Volga-Oka interfluve, on the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” In 882, the Varangian prince Oleg gathered under his command the two end points of the Greek-Varangian route - Holmgard (Novgorod) and Konugard (Kyiv). But at the end of the 10th century, in the heat of a dispute over control of the only group of Slavs who still paid tribute to the Khazars, the Kiev prince Svyatoslav destroyed the capital of the Khazar Khaganate in the Volga delta and opened the way to the Black Sea steppes for hostile Turkic tribes. The Pechenegs and Polovtsians, who attacked trade caravans traveling along the Volga, gradually brought to naught trade between Kiev and Constantinople (Constantinople). The importance of Kyiv fell, and its destruction by the Tatar-Mongols in 1240 only emphasized this crisis.

The Russian state arose in a very complex region. The difficulties awaiting Russia were twofold, natural-geographical and historical-political. Nowhere, with the exception of the northern circumpolar regions, did the country have natural boundaries that could serve as its natural boundaries and at the same time obstacles to external threats. Moreover, in the west and south, the Baltic and Black Sea represented excellent springboards for foreign aggression, and in the east, the Great Steppe continued to be a source of constant military danger. At different periods, Kievan Rus faced various geopolitical tasks. During the period of centralization, the main geostrategic directions of Rus''s foreign policy were:

● Southern Byzantine with the task of achieving the most profitable trade agreement with Byzantium and at the same time raising its political weight;

● Western European with the task of maintaining the border with Hungary and Poland and wresting Galician Rus' from the influence of the latter;

● Eastern European with the task of crushing Volga Bulgaria and the Khazar Khaganate and taking possession of the Volga route to the East (Persia, Arab Caliphate);

● Northern in order to hold back the onslaught of the Normans (Varangians);

● North-Eastern with the aim of developing new territories and controlling the peoples living there (Perm, Samoyeds).

After their first devastating raid on Rus', the Mongols began to rule Russian lands from their capital Sarai on the Volga. To avoid Mongol domination, the Western Russian princes entered into an alliance with Lithuania and recognized the power of the Catholic Church. The eastern princes, on the contrary, saw loyalty to the Mongol khans as the only way to protect Russian lands and the Orthodox faith. The Moscow princes were able to gradually win the special favor of the Great Khan. They served him faithfully as tribute collectors, simultaneously interfering in the affairs of neighboring Russian principalities. While the wealth and political prestige of the Moscow Principality increased, the Golden Horde weakened more and more due to internal turmoil. Moscow Prince Vasily I received the Great Reign of Vladimir according to his father’s will, as “his fatherland,” and after that the Horde khans stopped issuing labels to any other (non-Moscow) princes. During the reign of Ivan III, dependence on the Horde (city) was eliminated and the unification of Russian lands around Moscow was completed. After the overthrow of the Horde yoke, Russia faced the following geopolitical problems:

● Strengthening the eastern border and advancing to the Volga region, the Urals, and then to Siberia;

● Expanding access to the Baltic Sea (from the Treaty of Stolbov in 1617 - recapturing the lost access to the Baltic);

● The struggle with Poland and Lithuania for Western Russian lands and the reunification of Ukraine and Belarus with Russia;

● Defense of the southern borders and subsequent advance to the Black Sea.

In 1480, under Ivan III, Moscow became an independent state. Ivan III laid claim to the former lands of Kievan Rus, which Lithuania received, achieved control over the strategic Smolensk passage into the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and conquered the rich trading Novgorod with its huge colonial capital, providing access to the Baltic coast and Siberia.

Since the time of Ivan IV, our state has been faced with three major geopolitical problems, without solving which the very existence of Russia would have been impossible. This:

● The need to provide the Russian state with free access to the Baltic. Breakthrough of the “cordon sanitaire” around Russia in a westerly direction;

● The need to have convenient military and commercial access to the Black Sea. Breakthrough of the “cordon sanitaire” around Russia to the south;

● The need to ensure the security of the Caucasian-Central Asian strategic direction, the boundaries of which coincide with the civilizational fault line between the Slavic-Orthodox and Turkic-Muslim civilizations.

The primary importance of these particular tasks was dictated by the fact that Moscow’s geopolitical opponents initially sought to lock it on the continental expanses of Eurasia, depriving it of access to the seas. Therefore, the most important task of Russian geopolitics, the task set before us by nature itself, was the achievement by the Russian state of its natural borders, which made it possible to ensure the security and viability of the country.

In the first half of the 17th century, after the conquest of the Astrakhan and Kazan Khanates, the colonization of Siberia, begun by the campaign of Ermak Timofeevich in 1584, was facilitated. In 1649, the Russians reached the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The Russian zone of influence in the Far East, officially recognized by the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, was limited to a forest belt, since in the south its expansion was restrained by China and its Buryat vassals. The border between the Russian and Chinese zones of influence became the Stanovoy Ridge. This "leap" into Siberia, which took only 75 years, was Russia's decisive step towards great power status.

^ 2. 3. External priorities of the Russian Empire.

The history of the Russian Empire is another stage in the history of Russia. This is the three-hundred-year history of a country that has gone through a difficult historical path. Russia can rightfully be considered a great power, because never in the world has there been such a huge, majestic country that could unite the countless diversity of cultures, traditions and peoples that are completely different from each other. The Russian Empire was formed on the basis of the Russian centralized state, which in 1721 Peter I declared an empire. The Russian Empire included the Baltic states, Right Bank Ukraine, Belarus, part of Poland, Bessarabia, and the North Caucasus. Since the 19th century, the empire also included Finland, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Pamirs. The official vassals of the Russian Empire were the Bukhara and Khiva khanates. In 1914, the Uriankhai region was accepted under the protectorate of the Russian Empire (see Appendix IV, VI).

This “St. Petersburg” period, when the Romanovs, starting with Peter, formally anathematized the “old way of life” and the “old faith,” turned to the West, renounced the actual Eurasian mission and doomed the people to a veiled, but no less severe “Romano-Germanic yoke.” "(in the words of Prince N.S. Trubetskoy), still carried within himself the tendencies laid down in Moscow. Even if at a different level, the connection with the cradle of national statehood has never been severed. If St. Petersburg was the embodiment of Russian “Westernism”, the capital as close as possible to the West, then Moscow remained a symbol of the Eurasian, traditional beginning, embodying the heroic holy past, loyalty to the roots, the pure source of state history.

Russia's territorial growth was viewed with caution by many European powers. These fears are embodied in a forged document " Testament of Peter the Great", in which Peter I allegedly sets out to his successors a program for seizing world domination. British Prime Minister Disraeli warned "a huge, gigantic, colossal, growing Russia, sliding like a glacier towards Persia, the borders of Afghanistan and India, as against the greatest danger that the British Empire could ever face".

It is known that in Russia there was no division into the metropolis (national state) and the colonial periphery as a donor, typical of multinational Western empires. On the contrary, the colonial nature of the expansion of the Russian Empire contributed to the formation of the “center-province-borderland” system. As a rule, passionate people were concentrated not in overseas colonies, but in capitals and on the dynamic border of the state (frontier, “zasechnye” and other fortified lines). There was a redistribution of material and spiritual (passionary) forces from the center and province to the borderlands.

XVIII century. A distinctive feature of Russia in the 18th century was its high geopolitical activity. The almost continuous wars waged by Peter I in the first quarter of the century were aimed at solving the main national task - Russia's acquisition of the right to access the sea. The geopolitical component of Peter's reforms looked like a transition from a state of economic autarky and socio-ethnic self-development to a state of active interaction with developed European countries, borrowing from them the highest cultural achievements (primarily in the field of science, technology, education).

The first independent foreign policy action of Peter I was an attempt to achieve Russia's access to the southern seas - the so-called. Azov passages.

The Baltic direction of Russian foreign policy took shape. However, a war with such a military power as Sweden alone was as unrealistic as with Turkey. Diplomatic probing allowed Peter I to identify possible allies. The tsar's primary goal in the Northern War (1700 -1721) with Sweden was to seize the lands once lost by Russia in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland (the so-called Ingria) with Noteburg (Oreshok) and Narva ( Rugodiv). As a result of the war, Ingria, Karelia, Estland, Livonia and the southern part of Finland (up to Vyborg) were annexed, founded Saint Petersburg.

Russia also sought to establish closer ties with Central Asia and India. However, the expedition against Khiva was destroyed by the khan's troops, after which the Central Asian direction was abandoned for 150 years.

Under Catherine II, Russia's international influence increased even more, and its main opponents became increasingly weaker. In Poland, the internal crisis was intensifying, Sweden had lost its former power and thoroughly exhausted its modest resources in endless wars, the Ottoman Empire suffered from conservatism and economic stagnation. The main goal of the Russian-Turkish War (1768 - 1774) on the part of Russia was to gain access to the Black Sea sea, Turkey hoped to expand its possessions in the Black Sea region and the Caucasus and capture Astrakhan. The war was preceded by a complex European diplomatic game played against each other by Russia and France, political crisis in Poland. Following the war Crimean Khanate formally gained independence under Russian protectorate, and Turkey paid indemnity to Russia and ceded the northern coast of the Black Sea. Russia received Greater and Lesser Kabarda, Azov, Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn, the adjacent steppe between the Dnieper and Bug.

Russia's geopolitical competition with Lithuania and Poland begins long before the formation of the Russian Empire; back in the 14th-15th centuries, these powers captured a number of western principalities of the disintegrated Kievan Rus. By the 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was in decline, caused by ethnic strife and unsuccessful wars. The steadily increasing pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russia and Prussia ends with three partitions of 1772-1795. During the partitions, the vassal Duchy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also became part of the Russian Empire Courland and Semigallia. As a result of the divisions, Russia includes Belarus, part of Lithuania, part of Ukraine and part of the Baltic lands.

Russia begins to play an active role in Georgia only during the reign of Catherine II, with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish wars. IN that time the king of the largest Georgian state signs Treaty of Georgievsk about a Russian protectorate in exchange for military protection.

Back in the second half of the 17th century, official relations were established between Russia and China, according to which the Russian Empire was recognized as subordinate (barbarian) in relation to the Celestial Empire. Between the states there were “unoccupied white spots” (according to both Russian and Chinese historians), which were later “peacefully” annexed by the Chinese. According to the Treaty of Nerchinsk, all adjacent territories and rivers flowing into the Amur are recognized as Chinese. Under this treaty, Russia lost not only the main territories of the Amur region suitable for agriculture in the Far East, but also the most convenient means of communication with its eastern lands. This concession can be explained by the fact that in those years Russia had a different vector - Europe. To organize relationships with her and benefit from her culture, at that time, money was required. The economic benefits from the treaty exceeded the losses of lands, the real ownership of which was not yet felt in the country.

In the Far East, Russian influence spread to Alaska, where the Russian-American Company founded small fortified settlements (Novoarkhangelsk, Sitka, Fort Ross, etc.), whose residents were mainly engaged in the profitable fishing of sea animals.

XIX century At the beginning of the XIX century, under Alexander I , Russia reached its highest point of development while it was an empire. The process of increasing territory continues through settlement in the east and conquest in the west. The Empire restored good relations with Britain and Austria. The new Anglo-French war of 1803 and the declaration of Napoleon as emperor forced Alexander to support a third coalition, the core of which was an alliance with the “maritime” power, England. At least two geopolitical competitors were completely defeated with the decisive participation of Russia: Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the beginning of the nineteenth century. two geopolitical directions of Russia were clearly defined: the Middle East (struggle for strengthening its positions in Transcaucasia, the Black Sea and the Balkans) and European (Russia’s participation in coalition wars against Napoleonic France).

The voluntary accession of Georgia to Russia in 1801 caused a deterioration in Russian-Iranian relations. In 1804, Iran began military operations against Russia. The war, which turned out to be protracted, ended successfully for Russia, to which Northern Azerbaijan and Dagestan went. In 1806, Ottoman Türkiye, supported by France, launched a war against Russia. In 1812, as a result of the war, Bessarabia went to Russia and the right of commercial navigation along the entire Danube was secured. Russia also achieved the provision of internal self-government to Serbia.

At the beginning of 1808 (by this time Russia had joined the continental blockade of England), Napoleon proposed a joint campaign in India, similar to that planned under Paul I. At the same time, the issue of dividing the Ottoman Empire was discussed. Russia was promised the Danube provinces and northern Bulgaria, France laid claim to Albania and Greece. The stumbling block, however, was the fate of Constantinople and the Black Sea straits, and it was not possible to reach an agreement on this issue. Russia's accession to the “continental blockade” led to hostility with England. Sweden remained perhaps England's only ally on the continent. The threat of an attack by the Swedes and, most importantly, pressure from Napoleon forced Alexander I to declare war on Sweden (1808 - 1809). Also important was Russia’s desire to inflict a final defeat on its long-time enemy and secure St. Petersburg forever. After the victory, Russia forced Sweden to give up all of Finland and the Åland Islands. Thus, as a result of the war, the entire Gulf of Finland became Russian. Alexander I granted autonomy to Finland (it had not enjoyed it before), and Vyborg was included in Finland.

It would be wrong to imagine that Russia's role was limited to a policy of containing Napoleon's aggressive plans. Her own foreign policy guidelines at that time were of a similar nature. The “Greek project” and the related plans to capture Constantinople and create a kind of “Slavic empire” in the Balkans under the patronage of Russia were not forgotten. Russia was not at all happy with the existence of an independent Polish state, and therefore the annexation of the Duchy of Warsaw to Russia became an important foreign policy goal. But in all these areas Napoleon had his own interests, including views of Constantinople; he did not intend to give up the independence of Poland and hoped to use the alliance with Russia primarily to fight England. Thus, France and Russia became rivals in the struggle for world domination. In early 1811, in response to deteriorating Russian-French relations, Napoleon annexed Oldenburg, whose sovereign was Alexander's brother-in-law, and in June 1812 invaded Russia. The Russian campaign of 1812 (in Western names) received the name Patriotic in Russia. At the Congress of Vienna, Alexander received into his possession most of the Duchy of Warsaw as the constitutional Kingdom of Poland.

In 1821, Greek patriots rebelled against Turkey. The support that Russia provided them led to a new Russian-Turkish war. It was successful for Russia, which received the mouth of the Danube, territories along the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the Caucasus, and also strengthened its influence in Moldova and Wallachia. The capture of Mingrelia and Imereti led in 1804 to 1813 to a new war with Iran, which brought Russia most of the Eastern Transcaucasia along the Kura and Araks rivers, as well as the right to strengthen its Caspian fleet. A little later, Iran denounced the peace treaty, but was defeated again and also lost the Khanate of Nakhichevan and Persian Armenia, centered in Erivan. Although the annexation of the Caucasus formally ended, the war with the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan continued for another 30 years. In 1877, after a new defeat by Turkey, Russia received its last conquests in Transcaucasia - the cities of Kars, Ardagan and Batum.

The policy of the Holy Alliance, pursued with such tenacity by the Russian government, led to the fact that the “gendarme of Europe,” as Russia was dubbed, was hated by the entire civilized world, not only liberal Great Britain or France, but even very reactionary Prussia and Austria. Meanwhile, Britain stepped up its diplomatic efforts, seeking to take advantage of the favorable moment to finally oust Russia from the Balkans and the Middle East. The so-called Eastern Question has become aggravated again. Russian influence in Europe, which reached its apogee in 1848, after the suppression of revolutions in Hungary and Romania, sharply declined after the Crimean War (1854 - 1856). The dispute with France and Turkey over control of the holy places of Jerusalem was accompanied by Nicholas I’s demands for guarantees not only for Orthodox Church, but also for the entire Orthodox population of Turkey. Nikolai hoped for a peaceful outcome to the dispute and did not expect an outbreak of Russophobic sentiments in France and Britain. The West sought to end our dominance in the Black Sea and the possibility of our fleet passing through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles into the Mediterranean Sea. For the first time in Russian history, the geographical factor worked against Russia. It had difficulty repelling numerous attacks even from the Far Eastern coast. What geopolitical goals did the anti-Russian bloc of powers set for itself? There are two documents, one ours, the other English. Their comparison allows us to comprehensively understand the goals of the pan-European campaign against Russia. The first document is Nicholas’s manifesto of April 11, 1854, declaring war on England and France: “Finally, throwing away all pretense, England and France announced that our disagreement with Turkey is a secondary matter in their eyes; but that their common goal is to weaken Russia, tear away from it part of its Regions and reduce our Fatherland from the degree of power to which it was elevated by the Almighty Hand..." The second document is a letter from long-time English Prime Minister Henry Palmerston to English politician John Russell. So Palmerston sketched out what he called “a beautiful ideal of war.” “The Åland Islands and Finland are returning to Sweden. Part of the German provinces of Russia in the Baltic is ceded to Prussia. The independent Kingdom of Poland is restored as a barrier between Germany and Russia. Moldavia and Wallachia and the mouth of the Danube are transferred to Austria... Crimea, Circassia and Georgia are expelled from Russia and transferred to Turkey, and Circassia is either independent or associated with the Sultan as overlord.” It is easy to understand that the talk was about the dismemberment of historical Russia and its “reorganization” on principles completely alien to us. For example, the ancient Russian lands on the shores of the Baltic Sea were declared “German,” and Crimea, where for centuries there had been a nest of Crimean Tatars who devastated the entire south of Russia with their raids, was intended to be handed over again to the Turks. By “Circassia” the British understood the eastern coast of the Black Sea from approximately Anapa to Sukhumi. The war, which ended in Russia's defeat, entailed the cession of Bessarabia, the neutralization of the Black Sea and Russian guarantees of the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire. However, the West was dissatisfied with the results of the war.

Among the main reasons for the rapid expansion of the possessions of the Russian Empire in Central Asia in the second half of the 19th century were the occupation of the “natural borders” of Russia, the reconciliation of civil strife and the cessation of “robber raids” that caused trouble on the border lines and trade routes, the desire to civilize the backward Asian peoples, the inclusion of them to the benefits of world civilization. Further Russian advances into the desert and semi-desert areas between the Caspian and Aral began in the 1820s. In 1853, the Ak-Mechet fortress on the Syr Darya was captured, along which a chain of forts was built. Verny (Alma-Ata) was founded in the east. Russia's next step was to attack the Kokand and Khiva khanates and the Bukhara Emirate, with which it already had trade ties. The Turkestan campaigns seemed to complete the task of Russia, which first stopped the expansion of nomads into Europe, and with the completion of colonization, finally pacified the eastern lands. The confrontation between the Russian and British empires for control of India and Central Asia in the 19th century was known in history as the “Great Game”. Another of its active participants was China, while other states were only bargaining chips in this battle. In 1881, Russia captured the Turkmen capital of Geok-Tepe. This step, together with the capture of Merv, caused concern in Britain, and it insisted on jointly delimiting the Russian-Afghan border with Russia. As a result, a long but very narrow strip of Afghan territory remained between Russia and British India, called the Zulfikar (Vakhsh) pass. Establishing control over the high-mountain Pamirs in 1895 completed the Russian expansion in a southern direction.

In 1850 and 1854, the cities of Khabarovsk and Nikolaevsk were founded on the Amur. Russia annexed the northern bank of the Amur and laid claim to the Ussuri basin, while China ceded both of these territories to it. Vladivostok, founded the same year, became a symbol of Russian power in the Pacific. In 1852 - 1853, the Russians occupied northern Sakhalin and ruled the island jointly with Japan until 1875, when, in exchange for recognition of Japanese sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, all of Sakhalin went to Russia. At the end of the 19th century, in connection with the beginning of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the peasant colonization of Siberia and the ambitious plans of the Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte ( 1849 – 1915) on economic penetration into China, Russia’s interest in the Far East intensified. According to the Russian-Chinese treaty of 1896, Russia gained control of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), which significantly shortened the route to Vladivostok. In 1899, Russia acquired a 25-year concession of the Liao Dun Peninsula with Port Arthur, its first ice-free port on the Pacific Ocean, and a railway with access to the Chinese Eastern Railway in Harbin, founded by Russians and then becoming the largest city with a Russian population in Asia. Since 1808, the capital of Russian America has become Novoarkhangelsk. In fact, the administration of American territories is carried out Russian-American company with headquarters in Irkutsk. The southernmost point in America where Russian colonists settled was Fort Ross, 80 km north of San Francisco in California. Further advance to the south was prevented by Spanish and then Mexican colonists. In 1816, a protectorate was established over Hawaii, but a year later the company left the island due to the aggressive actions of American entrepreneurs and sailors, whose side was also taken by the local royal authorities. Hudson's Bay Companies. Since Russia has developed relations of intense geopolitical rivalry, and sometimes open hostility, with British Empire, the border required constant care and protection in case of a military clash between the two great powers. In 1867, Alaska was sold to the United States for $7.2 million. The sale, priced at 0.0004 cents per square meter, is the cheapest land sale of all time. However, the US Senate expressed doubts about the advisability of such a burdensome acquisition, especially in a situation where the country had just ended Civil War. The feasibility of acquiring Alaska became obvious thirty years later, when the Klondike was discovered gold.

So, we can assume that Russian expansion was a search for access to warm ports, but we can also say that there was a need for the empire to reach strategic boundaries to control all of Eurasia. By the end of the 19th century, the two largest empires in the world - British and Russian - had created a mutually acceptable system for dividing spheres of influence in Asia - although trying to avoid direct confrontation, but nevertheless exerting a strong indirect influence on each other. This mutual deterrence is now called the Victorian Cold War. It should be noted that most of the Russian conquests were remote, poorly accessible and economically unattractive territories. In fact, Russia was seizing what others did not claim. Where there was intense colonial rivalry, Russia's chances would not have been rated very highly. But be that as it may, by the beginning of the 20th century, in the west, Russia owned Poland and Finland, in the south, the Lesser Caucasus and Pamir separated its territory from Turkey, Persia and British India, in the east it bordered China along the Amur and Ussuri with possessions in Manchuria , and in the north – with the Arctic Ocean.

XX century The main directions of Russian geopolitics took shape long before Nicholas II ascended the throne. In the European direction, Nicholas inherited from Alexander III the Franco-Russian alliance, which Alexander considered the cornerstone of the security system in Europe. In the first decade of the reign of Nicholas II, Russia, although it did not move away from the alliance with France, but, largely under the influence of the personal views of the emperor, began to move closer to Germany. Russia had no territorial or other disputes with the latter, and the emperors of Russia and Germany were cousins. Germany acted during this period as the main troublemaker in Europe. Having seriously decided to take part in the redistribution of the world, Germany began to build a huge fleet comparable in power to the British. In London this almost caused panic. Great Britain assessed the extent of the danger and decided to break out of the “brilliant isolation” that had already become traditional for British diplomacy. The southern direction (Ottoman Empire, Balkans and Straits), which was a priority under Alexander III, faded into the background under Nicholas II. The “status quo” in the south and southwest gave Russia the opportunity to actually curtail the efforts of Russian diplomacy in this direction for 10 years and transfer all efforts to the third - the Far East, which is recognized as the main one. The beginning of Russia's active intervention in Far Eastern affairs is associated with the events of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This war was caused by the desire of Japan, which claimed the status of a regional superpower, to establish a protectorate over Korea, which was under Chinese control. China was completely defeated in 1895 and recognized the independence of Korea (which, naturally, fell under Japanese protectorate), ceded the Kwantung Peninsula with Port Arthur, Taiwan to Japan and paid a huge indemnity. Russia was faced with a dilemma - whether to agree with Japan to divide spheres of influence in Northern China or to counter any attempts to penetrate Japanese influence into the mainland. The Foreign Ministry insisted on a cautious line towards Japan and believed that the main thing was not to harm Russian-Japanese relations. However, Witte considered it necessary to play the role of a defender of China and in return extract a number of concessions from it. Seeing the intractability of Russia, and realizing that delay would only lead to the final loss of positions in Korea, Japan, pushed by Great Britain and, partly, the United States, opted for war. For Japan, it was fundamentally important to seize supremacy at sea for the unhindered landing of its troops on the mainland. Therefore, hostilities began with a sudden attack by the Japanese fleet on the Pacific squadron of Port Arthur. The Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1095) was unsuccessful for Russia, costing it the loss of southern Sakhalin and all Chinese concessions. This defeat, which seemed unexpected and accidental to many, in fact meant something much more - the end of Russian territorial expansion and the beginning of a reduction in the territory of the empire.

The First World War, which broke out in August 1914, meant a test of strength that the empire could no longer withstand. Although its military successes alternated with failures, Russia remained faithful to the anti-German coalition and, through its struggle, weakened the onslaught of Germany on the western front. Russia's military goals were the annexation of East Prussia and the reunification of ethnic Poland under the Russian scepter. Turkey's entry into the war on the side of the Middle Powers made it possible for Russia to demand the annexation of Constantinople and the straits, which Britain and France, despite their traditional policies, were forced to agree to.

Analyzing the strategic expediency of Russia's war in a bloc with England against Germany, Russian geopoliticians studied in detail the experience of their Western colleagues (the works of Ratzel, Kjellen, Mahan, etc.). They were well aware of the Anglo-Saxon strategy: not to allow any power to dominate the European continent. Russian geostrategists were aware of the “anaconda ring” policy. The “directive” of the British General Staff was also known, according to which three-quarters of the entire burden of the war on land against Germany was assigned to Russia. As A.E. correctly noted then. Vandam, “As soon as our Pacific tragedy was over, with the speed of a magician, putting on a mask of affability and friendliness, England immediately grabbed us by the arm and dragged us from Portsmouth to Algesiras, so that, starting from this point, with common efforts to push Germany out of the Atlantic ocean and gradually throw it back to the east, into the sphere of Russia’s interests.”. Military tension was one of the reasons for the February Revolution of 1917. After the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, the Provisional Government confirmed its allied obligations within the framework of a new concept without annexations and indemnities. But political and military problems multiplied, and Prime Minister A.F. Kerensky’s attempt to continue the war became one of the main reasons for the October coup.

The First World War radically changed the geopolitical balance of power. The German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Turkish empires, which had previously been powerful political centers, collapsed. On the ruins of these powerful states, several small states appeared, which the authors of the Versailles system (Entente) believed to include in their sphere of influence. The war, which was accompanied by large territorial and human losses and economic degradation for the Russian Empire, caused a general crisis of power in Russia, which led to revolution, the abolition of the monarchy and the temporary collapse of Russian statehood. The latter entailed a series of coups, the intensification of separatism in a number of territories, a civil war and external intervention. The period ended with the reformatting of the empire into the Soviet Union, the expulsion of the interventionists, the gradual international recognition of the USSR and the renegotiation of international treaties taking into account new realities.

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 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.

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 is 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 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 (Kiev or Vladimir) and declare themselves on this basis the great princes of all Russia. 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 general meeting(evening).

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 - the 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.

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 is 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.

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), Ufa (the first Russian city in the Volga region) were founded Southern Urals). 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 - the main product of Russian export to Europe at that time. Fur was 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.

The fifth period is the development and collapse of the Russian Empire (mid-19th - early 20th centuries). 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 - 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 took place at the end of the 19th century. and already had the character of a conquest. The large 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 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, 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 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 Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Tajik republics 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, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR, the Kaliningrad region and the northeastern part of Finland (Pechenga) became part of the RSFSR, and Transcarpathia became part of 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 (post-Soviet period, starting from 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 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 km 2. 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 over the past 10 years have been completely

settled. And today the entire Russian-Chinese border is confirmed by interstate treaties and delimited - 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.

Conclusion

Thus, the economic and geographical position of Russia is characterized, first of all, by its position between two centers of modern world development - Western Europe and the rapidly growing countries of Asia - Japan, China, South Korea. Being, as it were, a land bridge between them, Russia at the previous stages of its development more often divided than connected Western and Eastern civilizations.

TOPIC 3. NATURAL RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF RUSSIA, ITS COMPOSITION, ASSESSMENT AND USE

Introduction

Humanity has always developed in close interaction with nature, from which it came and of which it is a part. Nature, acting as the geographical basis, environment and resource for the development of human society, is not a passive participant in this interaction. While creating opportunities and conditions for its development, at certain stages it also places visible restrictions on one or another direction of society’s activities. Therefore, different stages of human development are determined by the different nature of its relationships with nature, and the transition from one stage to another is largely associated with emerging natural limitations.

Main part

Mira. What territory does it occupy? What are the main features of the geopolitical and economic-geographical position of Russia?

Basic information about Russia

The modern state of Russia appeared on the world map only in 1991. Although the beginnings of its statehood arose much earlier - about eleven centuries ago.

Modern Russia is a federal type republic. It consists of 85 subjects, varying in area and population. Russia is a multinational state, home to representatives of more than two hundred ethnic groups.

The country is the world's largest exporter of oil, gas, diamonds, platinum and titanium. It is also one of the world leaders in the production of ammonia, mineral fertilizers and weapons. The Russian Federation is one of the leading space and nuclear powers on the planet.

Geographical location area, extreme points and population

The country occupies a huge area of ​​17.1 million square meters. km (first place in the world in terms of territory). It stretches for ten thousand kilometers, from the shores of the Black and Baltic Seas in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. The length of the country from north to east is 4000 km.

The extreme points of the territory of Russia are as follows (all of them are displayed in red symbols on the map below):

• northern - Cape Fligeli (within Franz Josef Land);
• southern - near Mount Kichensuv (in Dagestan);
• western - on the Baltic Spit (in the Kaliningrad region);
• eastern - Ratmanov Island (in the Bering Strait).

Russia directly borders 14 independent states, as well as two partially recognized countries (Abkhazia and South Ossetia). An interesting fact: about 75% of the country’s territory is located in Asia, but almost 80% of Russians live in its European part. Total population of Russia: about 147 million people (as of January 1, 2017).

Physico-geographical position of Russia

The entire territory of Russia is located within the Northern and almost all (with the exception of a small part of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) - within the Eastern Hemisphere. The state is located in the northern and central part of Eurasia and occupies almost 30% of Asia.

In the north, the shores of Russia are washed by the seas of the Arctic Ocean, and in the east by the Pacific. In the western part it has access to the Black Sea, which belongs to the Atlantic Ocean. The country has the longest coastline of any country in the world - over 37 thousand kilometers. These are the main features of the physical and geographical position of Russia.

The country has colossal natural resource potential in terms of richness and diversity. In its vastness there are rich deposits of oil and gas, iron ore, titanium, tin, nickel, copper, uranium, gold and diamonds. Russia also has enormous water and forest resources. In particular, about 45% of its area is covered by forest.

It is worth highlighting other important features of the physical and geographical position of Russia. Thus, most of the country is located north of 60 degrees north latitude, in the permafrost zone. And millions of people are forced to live in these difficult natural and climatic conditions. All this, of course, left its mark on the life, culture and traditions of Russian people.

Russia is located in the area of ​​so-called risky farming. This means that the successful development of agriculture in most of it is difficult or impossible. So, if there is not enough heat in the northern regions of the country, then in the southern regions, on the contrary, there is a moisture deficit. These features of Russia's geographic location have a noticeable impact on the agro-industrial sector of its economy, which is in dire need of government subsidies.

Components and levels of the economic and geographical position of the country

A region is understood as a set of connections and relationships between individual enterprises, settlements and regions with objects that are located outside the country and have a strong influence on it.

Scientists identify the following components of EGP:

• transport;
• industrial;
• agrogeographical;
• demographic;
• recreational;
• market (position relative to sales markets).

The EGP assessment of a country or region is carried out at three different levels: micro-, meso- and macro-level. Next, we will assess Russia's macro position in relation to the surrounding world as a whole.

Features and changes in the economic and geographical position of Russia

The size of the territory is the most important feature and benefit of the economic and geographical position of the Russian Federation, with which many prospects are associated. It allows the country to ensure a competent division of labor, rationally allocate its production forces, etc. Russia borders on fourteen countries of Eurasia, among which are powerful raw material bases of China, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Numerous transport corridors ensure close cooperation with the countries of Western and Central Europe.

These are, perhaps, the main economic features of Russia’s geographical position. How has it changed in recent decades? And has it changed?

After the collapse of the USSR, the country deteriorated noticeably. And above all transport. After all, Russia’s access to the strategically important waters of the Black and Baltic Seas was significantly limited in the early 1990s, and the country itself moved several hundred kilometers away from the highly developed countries of Europe. In addition, Russia has lost many of its traditional markets.

Geopolitical position of Russia

Geopolitical position is a country’s place in the world political arena, its relationships with other states. In general, Russia has ample opportunities for economic, political, military, scientific and cultural cooperation with many countries in Eurasia and the planet.

However, these relations do not develop in the best way with all states. Thus, in recent years, Russia’s relations with a number of NATO countries - the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, which were once close allies - have deteriorated significantly. Soviet Union. This fact, by the way, is called the largest geopolitical defeat of the Russian Federation in the new century.

Russia’s relations with a number of post-Soviet states remain complex and rather tense: Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and the countries of the Baltic region. The geopolitical position of the country changed significantly in 2014 with the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula (in particular, in the Black Sea region).

Changes in the geopolitical position of Russia in the twentieth century

If we consider the twentieth century, the most noticeable shift in power on the European and world political arena occurred in 1991. The collapse of the powerful USSR entailed a number of fundamental changes in the geopolitical position of Russia:

• more than a dozen young and independent states arose along the perimeter of Russia, with which it was necessary to establish a new type of relationship;
• the Soviet military presence was finally eliminated in a number of countries in Eastern and Central Europe;
• Russia received a rather problematic and vulnerable enclave - the Kaliningrad region;
• The NATO military bloc has gradually moved closer to the borders of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, over the past decades, quite strong and mutually beneficial ties have been established between Russia and Germany, China, Japan, and India.

As a conclusion: Russia in the modern world

Russia occupies a huge territory, possessing enormous human and natural resource potential. Today it is the largest state on the planet and an important player on the global stage. We can highlight the most important features of the geographical location of Russia, here they are:

1. The vastness of the occupied space and the enormous length of the borders.
2. Stunning diversity of natural conditions and resources.
3. Mosaic (uneven) settlement and economic development of the territory.
4. Wide opportunities for trade, military and political cooperation with various neighboring states, including the leading economies of the modern world.
5. The instability and instability of the country's geopolitical position over the past decades.

The peculiarities of Russia's geographical location are extremely advantageous. But it is important to learn how to use these benefits (natural, economic, strategic and geopolitical) correctly and rationally, directing them to increase the power of the country and the well-being of its citizens.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire included the Baltic states, Belarus, most of Ukraine, the wall zone, including the Black Sea region and Crimea, and mountainous regions North Caucasus, the northern part of Kazakhstan, the entire vast expanse of Siberia and the entire polar zone of the Far North.
At the beginning of the 19th century. The territory of Russia was 16 million km2. During the first half of the 19th century. Finland (1809), the Kingdom of Poland (1815), Bessarabia (1812), almost all of Transcaucasia (1801-1829), and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (from the mouth of the Kuban River to Poti - 1829) were included in Russia.
In the 60s The Ussuri region (Primorye) was assigned to Russia, and the process of annexing most of the Kazakh lands into Russia, which began in the 30s, was completed. XVIII century By 1864, the mountainous regions of the North Caucasus were finally conquered.
In the mid-70s - early 80s. A significant part of Central Asia became part of the territory of the Russian Empire, and a protectorate was established over the rest of its territory. In 1875, Japan recognized Russia's rights to the island of Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan. In 1878, small lands in Transcaucasia were annexed to Russia. Russia's only territorial loss was the sale to the United States in 1867 of Alaska along with the Aleutian Islands (1.5 million km2), as a result of which it “left” the American continent.
In the 19th century The process of forming the territory of the Russian Empire was completed and the geopolitical balance of its borders was achieved. By the end of the 19th century. its territory was 22.4 million km2. (The territory of the European part of Russia remained unchanged compared to the middle of the century, while the Asian part increased to 18 million km2.)
The Russian Empire included lands with an amazing variety of landscapes and climates. In the temperate zone alone there were 12 climatic regions. Natural-climatic and physical-geographical conditions, the presence of river basins and waterways, mountains, forests and steppe spaces influenced the settlement of the population, determined the organization of the economy and way of life.
In the European part of the country and in southern Siberia, where more than 90% of the population lived, conditions for farming were much worse than in Western European countries. The warm period during which agricultural work was carried out was shorter (4.5-5.5 months versus 8-9 months); very coldy, which had a bad effect on winter crops. There was one and a half to two times less precipitation. In Russia, droughts and spring frosts often occurred, which almost never happened in the West. The average annual precipitation in Russia was about 450 mm, in France and Germany - 800, in Great Britain - 900, in the USA - 1000 mm. As a result, the natural yield of biomass from one site in Russia was two times less. Natural conditions were better in the newly developed areas of the steppe zone, New Russia, in the Ciscaucasia and even in Siberia, where virgin forest-steppe areas were plowed up or deforestation was carried out.
Poland, which received a constitution in 1815, lost its internal autonomy after the suppression of the national liberation uprisings of 1830-1831 and 1863-1864.
The main administrative-territorial units of Russia before the reforms of the 60-70s. XIX century there were provinces and districts (in Ukraine and Belarus - povets). In the first half of the 19th century. There were 48 provinces in Russia. On average, there were 10-12 districts per province. Each district consisted of two camps headed by police officers. Some of the newly annexed territories on the outskirts of the empire were divided into regions. The regional division also spread to the territory of some Cossack troops. The number of regions was constantly changing, and some regions were transformed into provinces.
Some groups of provinces were united into governorates-general and governorships. In the European part of Russia, three Baltic provinces (Estland, Livonia, Courland), Lithuanian (Vilna, Kovno and Grodno) provinces with a center in Vilno and three Right Bank Ukraine (Kiev, Podolsk and Volyn) with a center in Kiev were united into governorships-general. The General Governments of Siberia in 1822 were divided into two - East Siberian with the center in Irkutsk and West Siberian with the center in Tobolsk. The governors exercised power in the Kingdom of Poland (from 1815 to 1874) and in the Caucasus (from 1844 to 1883). In total, in the first half of the 19th century. there were 7 governor generals (5 on the outskirts and 2 in the capital - St. Petersburg and Moscow) and 2 governorships.
Since 1801, governors-general reported to the Minister of the Interior. From the second half of the 19th century. It was widely practiced to appoint military governors instead of ordinary civilian governors, to whom, in addition to the local administration and police, the military institutions and troops stationed in the province were subordinated.
In Siberia, the administration of non-Russian peoples was carried out on the basis of the “Charter on Foreigners” (1822), developed by M.M. Speransky. This legislation took into account the peculiarities of the social structure of local peoples. They enjoyed the right to govern and judge according to their customs, their elected tribal elders and ancestors, and the general courts were subject to jurisdiction only for serious crimes.
At the beginning of the 19th century. A number of principalities in the Western part of Transcaucasia had a kind of autonomy, where former feudal rulers - princes - ruled under the supervision of commandants of Russian officers. In 1816, Tiflis and Kutaisi provinces were formed on the territory of Georgia.
In the middle of the 19th century. the entire Russian Empire consisted of 69 provinces. After the reforms of the 60-70s. Basically the old administrative-territorial division continued to exist. By the beginning of the 20th century. in Russia there were 78 provinces, 18 regions, 4 city governments, 10 governorates-general (Moscow and 9 on the outskirts of the country). In 1882, the West Siberian General Government was abolished, and the East Siberian General Government in 1887 was renamed Irkutsk, from which in 1894 the Amur General Government was separated, consisting of the Transbaikal, Primorsky and Amur regions and the island of Sakhalin. The status of governor generals remained with the capital provinces - St. Petersburg and Moscow. After the abolition of the position of governor in the Kingdom of Poland (1874), the Warsaw General Government was created, which included 10 Polish provinces.
On the territory of Central Asia included in Russia, the Steppe (with the center in Omsk) and the Turkestan governor-general (with the center in Verny) were created. The latter was transformed into the Turkestan region in 1886. The protectorates of Russia were the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara. They retained internal autonomy, but did not have the right to conduct an independent foreign policy.
In the Caucasus and Central Asia, great real power was exercised by the Muslim clergy, who, guided in their everyday life by Sharia, preserved traditional forms of government, elected elders (elders), etc.
Population The population of the entire Russian Empire At the end of the 18th century. was 36 million people (1795), and at the beginning of the 19th century. - 41 million people (1811). Subsequently, until the end of the century, it constantly grew. In 1826, the number of inhabitants of the empire was 53 million, and by 1856 it increased to 71.6 million people. This accounted for almost 25% of the population of all of Europe, where by the mid-50s. there were about 275 million inhabitants.
By 1897, the population of Russia reached 128.2 million people (in European Russia - 105.5 million, including in Poland - 9.5 million and in Finland - 2.6 million people). This was more than in England, Germany and France (without the colonies of these countries) combined and one and a half times more than in the USA. Over the entire century, the share of the Russian population to the total world population increased by 2.5% (from 5.3 to 7.8).
The increase in Russia's population throughout the century was only partially due to the annexation of new territories. The main reason for demographic growth was the high birth rate - 1.5 times higher than in Western Europe. As a result, despite the rather high mortality rate, the natural increase in the empire's population was very significant. In absolute numbers, this increase in the first half of the century ranged from 400 to 800 thousand people annually (on average 1% per year), and by the end of the century - 1.6% per year. Average life expectancy in the first half of the 19th century. was 27.3 years, and at the end of the century - 33.0 years. Low life expectancy rates were caused by high infant mortality and periodic epidemics.
At the beginning of the century, the most densely populated areas were the areas of the central agricultural and industrial provinces. In 1800, the population density in these areas was about 8 people per 1 km2. Compared to Western Europe, where at that time the population density was 40-49 people per 1 km2, the central part of European Russia was “sparsely populated.” Beyond the Ural ridge, the population density did not exceed 1 person per 1 km2, and many areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East were completely deserted.
Already in the first half of the 19th century. the outflow of population from the central regions of Russia to the Lower Volga region and Novorossiya began. In the second half of the century (60-90s), along with them, Ciscaucasia also became an arena of colonization. As a result, the population growth rate in the provinces located here became much higher than in the central ones. Thus, over the course of a century, the population in the Yaroslavl province increased by 17%, in the Vladimir and Kaluga provinces - by 30%, in the Kostroma, Tver, Smolensk, Pskov and even in the black earth Tula provinces - by barely 50-60%, and in Astrakhan - by 175%, Ufa - 120%, Samara - 100%, Kherson - 700%, Bessarabian - 900%, Tauride - 400%, Ekaterinoslav - 350%, etc. Among the provinces of European Russia, only the capital provinces stood out for their high rates of population growth. During this time, in the Moscow province the population increased by 150%, and in St. Petersburg by as much as 500%.
Despite the significant outflow of population to the southern and southeastern provinces of the center of European Russia and by the end of the 19th century. remained the most crowded. Ukraine and Belarus are equal to it. The population density in all these regions ranged from 55 to 83 people per 1 km2. In general, the uneven distribution of the population throughout the country was very significant at the end of the century.
The northern part of European Russia remained sparsely populated, and the Asian part of the country was still almost deserted. In the vast expanses beyond the Urals in 1897, only 22.7 million people lived - 17.7% of the population of the Russian Empire (of which 5.8 million were in Siberia). Only since the late 90s. Siberia and the Steppe region (Northern Kazakhstan), as well as partially Turkestan, became the main areas of resettlement.
The vast majority of Russian residents lived in rural areas. At the beginning of the century - 93.5%, in the middle - 92.0%, and at the end - 87.5%. An important characteristic of the demographic process has become the ever-accelerating process of rapid growth of the urban population. During the first half of the 19th century. The urban population increased from 2.8 million to 5.7 million people, i.e. more than doubled (while the total population grew by 75%). In the second half of the 19th century. The entire population grew by 52.1%, the rural population by 50%, and the urban population by 100.6%. The absolute size of the urban population increased to 12 million people and amounted to 13.3% of the total population of Russia. For comparison, the proportion of the urban population at that time in England was 72%, in France 37.4%, in Germany 48.5%, in Italy 25%. These data indicate a low level of urban processes in Russia at the end of the 19th century.
A territorial-administrative structure and system of cities was formed - capital, provincial, district and so-called provincial (not the center of the province or district) - which existed throughout the 19th century. In 1825 there were 496, in the 60s. - 595 cities. Cities based on the number of inhabitants were divided into small (up to 10 thousand people), medium (10-50 thousand) and large (over 50 thousand). The middle town was the most common throughout the century. With the quantitative predominance of small towns, the number of cities with a population of over 50 thousand people increased. In the middle of the 19th century. 462 thousand lived in Moscow; 540 thousand people lived in St. Petersburg. According to the 1897 census, 865 cities and 1,600 urban-type settlements were registered in the empire. 40% of the townspeople lived in cities with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants (17 were registered after the census). The population of Moscow was 1,038,591, and St. Petersburg - 1,264,920 people. At the same time, many cities were large villages, the majority of whose residents were engaged in farming on the lands allocated to the cities.
Ethnic The ethnic composition of the Russian population was extremely and religiously diverse. It was inhabited by more than 200 nationalities and ethnic groups. The multinational population of the state was formed as a result of a complex process that cannot be clearly reduced to “voluntary reunification” or “forced annexation.” A number of peoples found themselves part of Russia due to geographic proximity, common economic interests, and long-standing cultural ties. For other peoples involved in ethnic and religious conflicts, this path was the only chance of salvation. At the same time, part of the territory became part of Russia as a result of conquests or agreements with other countries.
The peoples of Russia had different pasts. Some previously had their own statehood, others were part of other states and cultural-historical regions for quite a long time, and others were at the pre-state stage. They belonged to different races and language families, differed from each other in religion, national psychology, cultural traditions, and forms of economic management. The ethno-confessional factor, as well as the geographical one, largely determined the uniqueness of the Roman history. The most numerous peoples were Russians (Great Russians), Ukrainians (Little Russians) and Belarusians. Until 1917, the common name for these three peoples was the term “Russians.” According to information collected in 1870, the “tribal composition of the population” (as demographers then expressed it) in European Russia was as follows: Russians - 72.5%, Finns - 6.6%, Poles - 6.3%, Lithuanians - 3.9%, Jews - 3.4%, Tatars - 1.9%, Bashkirs - 1.5%, other nationalities - 0.45%.
At the end of the 19th century. (according to the 1897 census) more than 200 nationalities lived in Russia. There were 55.4 million Great Russians (47.8%), Little Russians - 22.0 million (19%), Belarusians - 5.9 million (6.1%). Together they made up the majority of the population - 83.3 million people (72.9%), i.e. their demographic situation over the last third of the 19th century, despite the annexation of new territories, remained virtually unchanged. Of the Slavs, Poles, Serbs, Bulgarians, and Czechs lived in Russia. In second place in number were the Turkic peoples: Kazakhs (4 million people) and Tatars (3.7 million). The Jewish diaspora was numerous - 5.8 million (of which 2 million lived in Poland). Six peoples had a population of 1.0 to 1.4 million people each: Latvians, Germans, Moldovans, Armenians, Mordovians, Estonians. 12 nations with a population of more than 1 million people made up the bulk of the empire's population (90%).
In addition, a large number of small nationalities lived in Russia, numbering only a few thousand or even a few hundred people. Most of these peoples settled in Siberia and the Caucasus. Living in remote closed areas, consanguineous marriages, and lack of medical care did not contribute to an increase in their numbers, but the extinction of these ethnic groups did not occur.
Ethnic diversity was complemented by religious differences. Christianity in the Russian Empire was represented by Orthodoxy (including its Old Believer interpretations), Uniateism, Catholicism, Protestantism, as well as numerous sects. Part of the population professed Islam, Judaism, Buddhism (Lamaism) and other religions. According to information collected in 1870 (there are no data on religion for an earlier period), the country was inhabited by 70.8% Orthodox Christians, 8.9% Catholics, 8.7% Muslims, 5.2% Protestants, 3.2% Jews, 1.4% Old Believers, 0.7% “idolaters,” 0.3% Uniates, 0.3% Armenian Gregorians.
The Orthodox majority of the population - the “Russians” - was characterized by maximum contact with representatives of other faiths, which was of enormous importance in the practice of large-scale migration movements and the peaceful colonization of new territories.
The Orthodox Church had state status and enjoyed every support from the state. In relation to other confessions, in the policy of the state and the Orthodox Church, religious tolerance (the law on religious tolerance was adopted only in 1905) was combined with infringement of the rights of individual religions or religious groups.
Sects such as the Khlysty, Skoptsy, Doukhobor, Molokan, and Baptist sects were persecuted. At the beginning of the 19th century. these sects were given the opportunity to move from the interior provinces to the outskirts of the empire. Until 1905, the rights of Old Believers were limited. Special rules, starting from 1804, determined the rights of persons of the Jewish faith (“Pale of Settlement”, etc.). After the Polish uprising in 1863, a Spiritual College was created to govern the Catholic Church, and most Catholic monasteries were closed, and a unification (“reverse union” of 1876) of the Uniate and Orthodox churches was carried out.
By the end of the 19th century. (1897) 87.1 million people professed Orthodoxy (76% of the population), Catholics accounted for 1.5 million people (1.2%), Protestants 2.4 million (2.0%). Persons of non-Christian religions were officially called “foreigners.” These included 13.9 million Muslims (11.9%), 3.6 million Jews (3.1%). The rest professed Buddhism, shamanism, Confucianism, Old Believers, etc.
The multinational and multi-religious population of the Russian Empire was united by a common historical destinies, ethnic, cultural and economic ties. Constant population movements, which intensified in the last decades of the 19th century, led to widespread territorial mixing of ethnic groups, blurring of ethnic boundaries, and numerous interethnic marriages. The policy of the Russian Empire on the national question was as varied and varied as the population of the empire was varied. But the main goal of the policy was always the same - the elimination of political separatism and the establishment of state unity throughout the empire.

2. 1.What are character traits social structure of Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century. (several answer options are possible):

a) preservation of the class division of society;

b) the simultaneous existence of the main classes of traditional and industrial society;

c) a significant proportion of small bourgeois owners;

d) “crystallization” of the population along class lines?

2.Group the following social groups according to their affiliation with either traditional or industrial society:

a) peasantry; b) nobility; c) bourgeoisie; d) proletariat; e) philistinism; f) merchants; g) farming; h) intelligentsia.

Traditional society: ______

Industrial society: ______

3. 1.Who were called kulaks in Russia at the beginning of the century: (underline)

a) rural moneylenders;

b) wealthy peasants;

c) peasants who separated from the community?

2. What processes were characteristic of the Russian peasantry at the beginning of the 20th century. (several answer options are possible):

a) strong community influence;

b) the predominance of wealthy peasants;

c) social stratification;

d) land shortage;

e) high literacy;

f) the existence of corporal punishment?

4.Which of the following characterizes the position of the Russian proletariat at the beginning of the 20th century:

a) high concentration of workers in industrial enterprises;

b) low working hours;

c) a well-thought-out system of social benefits and guarantees;

d) lack of basic civil rights;

e) draconian system of fines?

5.What was the legally established length of the working day for an adult man in factories and factories in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century:

a) 8 hours; b) 11.5 hours; c) 10 hours

6. Form logical pairs from the provisions below that are interconnected as cause and effect:

a) lack of labor legislation;

b) high concentration of labor;

c) poor technical equipment of enterprises;

d)massive discontent among workers.

7. 1.Which of the following was a feature economic development Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. (several answer options are possible):

a) the leading role of the state and state regulation in the economic life of the country;

b) wide attraction of foreign capital into the country;

c) significant scale of capital export from the country;

d) high level of concentration of production and labor;

e) predominance industrial production over agriculture;

f) diverse economy?

2.What explained Russia’s special interest in attracting foreign capital:

a)excessive amount of unproductive expenses;

b) the predominance of the agricultural sector in the economy;

c) the desire to integrate into the world economy ?

3.In which industries did foreign investors invest:

a)in agriculture;

b) in the light and food industries;

c) in heavy industry;

d) in railway transport;

e) to arms factories?