9781422278895

R U S S I A

From Catherine the Great to Communism

Russia has had a volatile history, and has alternately been both a friend and foe to European nations and to the United States. From the 16th cen- tury through the turn of the 20th century, tsars ruled the country. Among them were Ivan the Terrible, who turned Russia into a police state, and Catherine the Great, who established more humane laws. In 1917, though, everything changed. Two revolutions, one after an- other, ended the reign of the tsars and put Vladimir Lenin into power. In a bloody culmination of Russia’s frustration with its ruling class, the revolutionaries executed Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Lenin adhered

Catherine the Great married into the Russian royal family and later became the empress for more than 30 years, helping greatly expand the Russian empire.

1 2