Marvin Woodward
Mrs. Martinez
English IV, 1st hour
March 24, 2016
Ivan the Terrible To many hearing the name Ivan the Terrible just sounds like a history lesson that is about to start, but to those who lived under his reign, just hearing his name spoke struck fear down to their very core. Ivan IV was feared and hated for the many horrible things he did during his reign and the reasoning behind all of his devious acts against humanity started from his disturbed childhood. An uncontrollable rage and massive paranoia was born from a childhood of death, greed, and torture. With this kind of childhood that Ivan the Terrible had come from, caused him to become probably one of the most feared and hated leaders of all time. The reason why Ivan the
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The first years of Ivan’s rule were remarkably positive as he set up all new reforms and gained more control over the surrounding areas to further increase his realm. One of Ivan's first actions as Tsar of Muscovy was to collect a group of individuals to advise him along his rule to insure a better kingdom. Ivan's council of advisors helped him in instituting his many reforms that would bring about a more centralized government for Russia. One of Ivan’s reforms that let him have his first taste of revenge was when he instituted regulations on the Boyar class’s service to the crown which gave Ivan power over those who once treated him so horribly. With the Boyars now submissive to his power, he placed them into his army and takes all their land and redistributed the land to his faithful followers. Those who received rural land from Ivan were in charge of their own land because Ivan the Terrible brought about self-government in the rural regions and so what the owner of the land said went as he/she said too. Even though these people were highly influenced by Ivan, so the land was still pretty much his land. Another one of Ivan's reforms was how taxes were collected to lessen corruption amongst those who used to collect taxes. This reform in tax collection was very appealing to the people as it made them feel that their money was more secure from greedy collectors. Along with reforming tax collection, new statutory laws were made into affect to help standardize the administrative/judicial systems and this brought about new law codes. To further structure the administrative/judicial systems, routine administrative and financial tasks were delegated. Keeping all of this in check, Ivan let the people elect officials of the local area and their duty was keeping law and order within their local area. Sadly, the northern regions of Ivan the Terrible's realm got to enjoy the choice of electing
Both monarchs had a royal background and were put in power with high expectations to continue the stability that the country possessed. Citizens aspire for all government officials to keep the peoples best interest in mind. But sadly, due to Ivan’s brutal childhood, he grew up observing and learning from the mannerisms of the corrupt elite. Ivan predominately gained power through fear and with this tactic was the first to exercise a despotism in Russia. One example of this is the story of the peasants who disturbed Ivan during one of his retreats. They came to him to complain of their governor who they believed was unjust but Ivan was so upset that they had troubled him with such a petty matter that he punished them. The men had their hands tied behind their backs, boiling hot alcohol poured on their heads and then their beards lit on fire with a candle. Apprehension and terror were Ivan’s main tools for keeping his people under control. Despite his totalitarian state of mind, Ivan believed that his decisions were still best for the country and the only way to keep it safe was by leaving it in constant fear. Although not always the most rational, the czar still made the suitable choices to keep the kingdom together. Similar to Ivan, Charles was not always under the influence of his mental disability. During his 42
While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
Ivan the Terrible was the fist tsar of Russia whoes reign, one of the longest of the Russian tzars, transformed the medivial nation state into a Russian Empire .In order to understand what made Ivan the Terrible ruthless and feared, it is important to know his background. Ivan IV Vasilyevich was born on August 25, 1530 in Kolomenskoye, Moscow, Russia. His father died at age 3 from a blood infection, but on his death bead requested that Ivan become the ruler of Russia when he turned 15. After his father died, the boyars took over and paid no attention to Ivan, denying is right to the thrown. Boyars were the highest ranked members in the upper class of medieval Russia, second only to the prince. His mother queen Elena died mysteriously died1538, they believed from an assassination by poison and this left Ivan an orphan at age eight. Ivan remained isolated through out all of this, and his behavior later in life was thought to be a result from being forgotten as a child and also from the abuse that he suffered.
The quote “The ideas and beliefs of philosophers and leaders have led to changes in the nation and regions,” is a perfect example of the changes made by Peter the Great during the time he ruled. Tsar Peter I, better known as Peter the Great lived an adventurous life from the year 1672 to the year 1725. Peter the Great was an absolute ruler who reigned from 1682 to 1689. Peter the Great had many goals, beliefs, and accomplishments that he achieved during this period of time. He took control of Russia, and additionally, was able to change the way of life in Russia during the time he ruled.
We’ve all heard of Anastasia, right?, the classical tale of a young girl escaping the brutal execution of her family. Well her father, Czar Nicholas II, was the last Russian emperor and pretty much caused the whole “Anastasia” story to happen in the first place. His story is told more through the book Animal Farm, a novel written by George Orwell. This is an allegorical tale that reflects the events of the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm and Czar Nicholas II is connected to the real life events in the Russian Revolution in that his poor leadership skills affect his rule negatively, Farmer Jones is used to represent him, and his representation is accurate and relatable to readers.
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
Through these decrees we see how Russian social class is very stratified and there are more high official roles but more people in poverty. Russia still had to serfs until 1861. Also the state of the Russian economy was probably very limited to do the fact that there was no manufacturing company to provide for the empire. The Russian economy was very isolated and they go to areas where they can trade. With Russia’s subsistence economy, they were not able to specialize in other areas.
Consequently they were not susceptible to some of the Tsars. discrimination. Also the Nobility who made up just one 1% of the 128. million population owned 25% of the land therefore meaning they had a large amount of power within the country. To try and console his power. The Tsar banned all political parties, thus allowing him to do what ever he wanted to.
Peter the Great, the Russian Czar, inherited his absolutist power from his brother, Ivan V. Born in aristocracy, Peter’s dad was the Czar, and later his brother, and after his brother’s death, him. He was a firm believer in the possible benefits from the control of a single leader to make decisions for the people, and he exercised this divine right to create many renouned institutions. At the beginning of Peter’s reign, Russia was in a poor condition: many rejected modernization from the Renaissance, and large spending from his brother’s reign caused economic droughts. He took advantage of his absolutist power to help ameliorate Russia’s situation and first decided to minimalize power from the other aristocrats. The subduction of the rich allowed
Joseph Stalin became leader of the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin had a government of abstemious communist government. When Stalin came into government he moved to a radical communist society. He moved away from the somewhat capitalist/communist economy of Lenin time to “modernize” the USSR. He wanted to industrialize and modernize USSR. He had overworked his workers, his people were dying, and most of them in slave labor camps. In fact by doing this Stalin had hindered the USSR and put them even farther back in time.
Much like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin was one of the most ruthless and despised people in the recorded history of the world. Stalin though his policies found it fit to abused his people in any way he saw fit. This man started what history now calls "The Great Purges."
Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords, while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite.
The government and reform; the actual character of Nicholas II hindered his time in office, for example his outlooks on situations meant he did not trust a lot of his advisors, he was also seen to have been very lazy with respects to making decisions, other observations included him being, weak, timid and lacked guts. This all adds up to a very weak leader that is vulnerable to opposition, due to his tunnel vision and un-ability to see the main needs of the country. The duma was another challenge to the tsar; after the 1905 revolution the tsar had set up an elected body called the duma, this was a way of showing the public that he could be open minded in that delegating decisions to other people, looking back in hindsight this would also be seen as a challenge to the tsar as he never gave the duma any real power, and were easily dissolved, this meant that people were further angered and he was receiving opposition from all sides, it did however hold off opposition for a small period of time in order for the tsar to retain his power. Other individuals had an influence to the challenges facing the tsar, Nicholas had brought some new people in to try and conquer some problems, these included Rasputin who he had originally appointed to become saviour of family, he managed to influence the tsar in many of his decisions, this inevitably caused there to be conflict as the he was relying on Rasputin to relay details of the state of the country, these were not accurate which meant that tsar could not act upon opposition. Other people did help the tsar for example stolypin and his reforms.
Joseph Stalin is a polarizing figure. Decades after his death his legacy still continues to create debate about his tumultuous years as the leader of the Soviet Union. This is evident throughout the four documents while some praise Stalin as impeccable others criticize his policies and lack of political, economic, and social progress during his regime. Even though Stalin was behind various violations of human rights he was able to maintain the Soviet Union during a time of turmoil both domestically and internationally as a result he has earned notoriety as a great leader and advocate for Marxist ideology.
There are many leaders in the world, but a great ruler is passionate, honorable and one who can inspire even in the most hopeless circumstances. Alexander the Great was a great ruler. Alexander the Great was a ruler that was not only inspiring, but he was fearless, smart, bold and courageous. Alexander the Great inspired his soldiers to crave more. He has inspired people since the day he started ruling. What is inspirational about Alexander the Great is that he inspired his troops to the point that they did not question him when they were outnumbered three to one in a battle, they trusted him with their lives and were willing to die for him (Alexander the Great: man behind the legend).