Russia: a VERY Brief History

Russia has a very bloody and tough history, unlike the United States. Russia is notorious for being cold, therefore the inhabitants had to adjust accordingly in order to survive. Many of the citizens were serfs (slaves) to the royalty (Tsars) for a majority of the history of the country. Upon the start of the 20th century, many things started to change for Russia. Russia entered World War I in the early 1900s, and like Germany, lost the war. At the end of the war, Russia went through a major revolution, which was led by Lenin. Lenin helped the country get back on its feet until he died in 1924. Joseph Stalin took over the country when he died. Under Stalin, an estimated 15-40 million Russians were killed if they were thought to be against the Soviet Union or Stalin himself; this is more than the 20 million Russians who were killed in World War II. Stalin ruled the Soviet Union until 1953 when Nikita Khrushchev began to rule. Although in American’s eyes Stalin is viewed as a ruthless dictator, Russians had gained a great deal under his rule: industrialization that caught up to the United States and a huge boom in education that led to what would be the Russians being the first to get to the moon in 1957.

Russia had become such a superpower, that it was in competition with the United States, which helped ignite the Cold War. This was a feared era during both American and Russian histories. The Cold War was a period where the United States would build say 5 missiles, then the Soviet Union would build 5 missiles. The building of destructive weapons went back and forth for many years. It got to a point where the Soviet Union started to go broke, because they put all of their money into war supplies when they did not have consumers buying their goods to make money, unlike the United States. The United States, under Reagan, noticed this and created the “Star Wars Project.” This project supposedly was a laser that was in space that would shoot down any Soviet missiles that were deployed. Eventually the Soviets overworked their budget, so the country fell in 1991. When the Soviet Union fell, pieces of the country were let go and 15 new countries were formed. Today, Russia is much stronger, and houses the most oil and gas reserves in the world. The country stretches over 11 time zones (there are 24 in the world), which is almost half of the world! Vladimir Putin is their President.