The Russian Revolutions of 1917 By 1917, the people of Russia were heartily sick of World War I, with its terrible casualties at the front, economic hardships at home and no military successes to speak of. The mismanagement of the war effort had utterly undermined confidence in the tsar and his government. Mutinies were spreading […]
Russia
The Steppe Peoples of Central Asia
Introduction Take a step back and look at the history of Eurasia as a whole, however, and a different picture emerges. One sees that the steppes play a central part. Moreover, one can see that their influence is not merely destructive, but contains much that is constructive as well. So what, actually, was going on […]
Imperial Russia
Origins The Russian nation began to take shape in the 8th and 9th centuries CE, when Norse traders established settlements along the great rivers of Russia. In the 10th and 11th centuries these gave rise to a state, the Grand Principality of Kiev, which converted to Christianity at the start of the 11th century. This […]
The Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was not a civilization in the strict sense of the word, but by being the largest land empire in world history it had a huge impact on the Chinese, Islamic and European civilizations.