State territory of Russia (8th grade) - Hypermarket of knowledge. Formation of the political map of Russia

Years
1552- 1557	Military campaigns	Accession Kazan Khanate (1552), Astrakhan Khanate (1556); The peoples of the Volga and Urals regions became part of Russia- Udmurts, Mari, Mordovians, Bashkirs, Chuvash.	The liquidation of these khanates removed the threat to Russia from the East. Now the entire Volga route belonged to Russia, crafts and trade began to actively develop here. After the liquidation of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, nothing restrained Russia's advance to the east.
1581-1598	Conquests of Siberia (The campaign of Ermolai Timofeevich)	Annexed to Russia Western Siberia	The beginning of a systematic Russian offensive in the Trans-Urals was laid. The peoples of Siberia became part of Russia,Russian settlers began to develop the region. Peasants, Cossacks, and townspeople rushed there. The Siberian Khanate was of great interest to Russian feudal lords (new lands, obtaining expensive furs).

At the beginning of the 16th century, the process of unification of Russian lands was completed, the Russian centralized state was formed, the Great Russian nationality was formed on the basis of the East Slavic peoples living on the territory of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and the Novgorod-Pskov land. Russia also included other nationalities: Finno-Ugric, Karelians, Komi, Permyaks, Nenets, Khanty, Mansi. The Russian state was formed as a multinational one.

In the 16th century, our state was called differently in official documents: Rus', Russia, the Russian State, the Muscovite Kingdom.The creation of a single state led to the expansion of its territory. Ivan III in 1462 inherited a territory of 430 thousand km, and a hundred years later the territory of the Russian state increased more than 10 times.

XVII century

Years	Under what conditions did the annexation of new territories take place?	Territories that became part of the Russian Empire	The significance of Russia's acquisition of new territories
1653 1654 1654-1667 1686	The fight against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for the return of Russian lands The decision of the Zemsky Sobor to include Little Russia into Russia and declare war on Poland. Taking the oath of allegiance to the Russian Tsar by the Ukrainian Rada Russian-Polish War (Andrusovo Truce) "Eternal Peace" with Poland	They went to Russia Left bank Ukraine and Kyiv on the right bank. Returned Smolensk, Chernigov-Seversky lands.	Having reunited with Russia, Ukraine retained broad autonomy: it had an elected ataman, local government bodies, a local court, class rights of the nobility and Cossack elders, the right of foreign relations with all countries except Poland and Turkey, a Cossack register of 60 thousand was established. The return of Smolensk was necessary to ensure the security of the country from the north. Thus, the unification of the former lands of Kievan Rus began. The security of Ukraine was strengthened; it was easier to fight against Turkey in a single state.Russia's southern borders have become more secure.
2nd floor XVII century	Expeditions of Russian explorers V. Poyarkova (1643-1646) S. Dezhneva (1648-1649) E Khabarova (1649-1651) V. Atlasova (1696-1699)	Annexation of territoriesEastern Siberia and Far East (Amur region)	Moscow established its own fairly strong power in Siberia. Siberia, according to the famous historian A.A. Zimin. , was a kind of valve into which the forces of an unreconciled and rebellious people went. Not only merchants and service people flocked here, but also runaway slaves, peasants, and townspeople. There were no landowners or serfdom here, and tax oppression was milder than in the Center of Russia. The development of Siberian ores began. Gold, salt mining. Income from furs amounted to in the 17th century. ¼ of all government revenues. Russian explorers and sailors made a great contribution to geographical discoveries in the East. The colonization of Siberia doubled the territory of Russia.
1695-1696	Azov campaigns (Peace of Constantinople)	The Turkish fortress of Azov at the mouth of the Danube was taken	The construction of a fortress and harbor for the future navy began. Russia managed (but not for long) to gain a foothold on the Azov shores.

FORMATION OF THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN XVIII century

Years	Under what conditions did the annexation of new territories take place?	Territories that became part of the Russian Empire	The significance of Russia's acquisition of new territories
1711	Prut campaign	The war is lostAzov returned to Turkey.
1722-1723	Persian campaign	Joined western and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea.	The annexation of these territories meant the assertion of Russian influence in Transcaucasia, with subsequent plans for the development of trade with India.
1700-1721	North War (Nystadt Peace)	Accession Estland, Livonia, Ingermanland, part of Karelia and Finland with Vyborg.	The long struggle for the sea coast is over. Russia received a reliableaccess to the Baltic Sea, became a maritime power.Conditions were created for the further economic and cultural development of the country. Establishing control over the Baltic Sea ensured not only trade interests, but also the security of the northwestern borders of the state.
1735-1739 1768-1774 1787 1791	Russo-Turkish wars (Belgrade Peace) (Kuchuk-Kainardzhiysky world) (Peace of Jassy 1791)	Azov is returned. The lands betweenDnieper and Yu. Bug. The lands betweenYu.Bug and Dniester. Annexation of Crimea (1783)	Russia received the right to sail merchant ships in the Azov and Black Seas, the Black Sea straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles; Russia became a Black Sea power. The development of new southern regions began, cities were built - Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sevastopol (base of the Black Sea Fleet), Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don.
1741-1743	Russo-Swedish War (Abo peace)	Russia received a number of fortressesin Southern Finland.	Contributed to ensuring border security from the North. The Russian-Swedish border along the river was established. Kyumene.
1772 1793 1795	Sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth First Second Third	Joining: Eastern Belarus Central Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine Western Belarus, Lithuania, Courland, part of Volyn.	The economic integration of Ukraine and Belarus into the Russian economy began, manufactories were built, cities grew, and trade developed. The Ukrainian and Belarusian nations began to take shape. Serfdom was introduced in Ukraine.
1784	Discovered by Russian explorers	Territory Alaska and parts of the Aleutian Islands	The first Russian settlements appeared on the American continent. The Russian-American company, created in 1799, received the right to monopoly use of fields and minerals.

FORMATION OF THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN 19th century

Years	Under what conditions did the annexation of new territories take place?	Territories that became part of the Russian Empire	The significance of Russia's acquisition of new territories
1801	“Manifesto” of Alexander I on the deprivation of the Georgian dynasty of the throne and the transfer of control of Georgia to the Russian governor. Which was a response to the request of the Georgian Tsar George XII to accept Georgia under the protection of Russia.	Georgia	The Georgian reigning dynasty of the Bagrations passed into Russian citizenship. The annexation of Georgia brought Russia into conflict with Persia (Iran) and the Ottoman Empire.
1804-1813	Russian-Iranian war. (Gulistan Peace Treaty)	All connectedNorthern Azerbaijan, khanates: Gandji, Karabakh, Tekin, Shirvan, Derbent, Kubin, Baku, Talysh, later transformed into the Baku and Elizavetpol provinces.	Russia has strengthened its position in the Transcaucasus
1806-1812	Russo-Turkish War (Peace of Bucharest)	Accession Bessarabia and a number of regions of Transcaucasia.
1808-1809	War with Sweden (Peace of Friedrichham)	All connectedterritory of Finland and the Åland Islands.	As part of the Russian EmpireFinland received a special status -Grand Duchy of Finland; The Russian Emperor became the Grand Duke. The representative of the supreme power in Finland was the governor-general, appointed by the emperor. In the Grand Duchy of Finland there was an elected representative body - the Sejm; without its consent, the emperor could not issue a new law or repeal an old one, or introduce taxes.
1814-1815	Congress of Vienna.	went to Russia central part of Poland, together with Warsaw (the territory of the former Duchy of Warsaw). All Polish lands within Russia were subsequently called the Kingdom of Poland.	Russia's position as the strongest European power has been strengthened.Russia's influence on politics in Europe has become prevalent. In November 1815, Alexander 1 approved the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland.The Russian Emperor simultaneously became the Polish Tsar. Management was transferred to the royal governor. The Kingdom of Poland had its own government. The highest legislative power belonged to Sejm . Only Poles were appointed to government positions; all documents were drawn up in Polish.The Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland was one of the most liberal in Europe.
1817-1864	Caucasian War	annexed to Russia Caucasus A number of peoples (Kabarda, Ossetia) accepted Russian citizenship voluntarily. The peoples of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ossetia, and Adygea met Russia's colonial expansion with stubborn resistance.	Mountain peoples became part of Russia. Mass emigration of highlanders from the Caucasus began, and at the same time there was an active settlement of the Caucasus by Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Civil wars stopped, slavery was abolished, and trade grew. Commodity-money relations began to develop The Caucasus has become a springboard for Russia to carry out its Eastern policy. The war turned out to be a tragedy for both the Russian and mountain peoples (the losses of the Russian army and the civilian population of the Caucasus, according to historians, amounted to more than 70 million people)
1826-1828	War with Iran (Turkmanchay world)	The Erivan and Nakhchivan khanates went to Russia(Eastern Armenia)	A strong blow was dealt to England's positions in Transcaucasia.
1828-1829	War with Turkey (Treaty of Andrianopole)	annexed to RussiaSouthern part of Bessarabia, Black Sea coast of the Caucasuswith the fortresses of Anapa and Poti, as well as the Akhaltsikhe Pashalyk.	Russia received very strategically important territories Russia's position in the Balkans has strengthened. Türkiye became diplomatically dependent on Russia.
1853-1856	Crimean War	Russia lost southern Bessarabia with the mouth of the Danube	Russia's defeat in the war led to a change in the balance of political forces in Europe; Russia's positions were undermined. The southern borders of Russia remained unprotected. The results of the war influenced the internal development of Russia and became one of the main prerequisites for the Great Reforms.
1877-1878	Russo-Turkish War (Treaty of San Stefano)	Russia returned southern Bessarabia, acquired a number of fortresses in Transcaucasia: Kars, Ardahan, Bayazet, Batun.	Turkey's dominance in the Balkans has been undermined. Victory in the war contributed to the growth of Russia's authority in the Slavic world.
1864-1885	Russia's military penetration into Central Asia. Conclusion of contracts.	As a result of a series of military operations towards RussiaKazakhstan annexed And significant part of Central Asia: Kokand Khanate (1876), Turkmenistan (1885). The Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva (1868-1873) came under Russian protectorate.	For the first time in its practice, Russia applied the friendship treaties that were concluded with Bukhara. The “conquest” of Central Asia proceeded relatively peacefully The annexation of Central Asia strengthened Russia economically (new markets and raw materials) and politically, however, it was very costly for Russia: for example, in the first twelve years after accession, government costs were three times higher than revenues. Through Central Asia it became possible to expand and strengthen trade with Iran, Afghanistan, India, and China. It was possible to resettle Russians to these territories, which became especially important after the reforms of 1861. In addition, penetration into this region of England was limited. The road from Krasnovodsk to Samarkand, built in the 80s, significantly contributed to the integration of the region into Russia.
1858, 1860	Agreements with China Beijing Treaty Aigun Treaty	Russia acquiredUssuri region.	Russia's position in the Far East has strengthened, which gradually complicated Russian-Japanese relations. Economic development of these territories began.
1875	Treaty with Japan	Fr. went to Russia. Sakhalin
1867	Russia decides to cede its American possessions to the United States.	Sale by Russia to USAAlaska and the Aleutian Islands.

In the 19th century, the territory of the Russian Empire was more than 18 million km .

By the end of the century, the process of formation of the Russian Empire was completed. Its territory has reached its natural limits: in the east - the Pacific Ocean, in the west - the countries of Europe, in the north - the Arctic Ocean, in the south - the countries of Asia, mainly divided between the colonial powers. Further, the Russian Empire could expand only through major wars.

Reading the map:

Why did the southern direction of settlement disappear from the European part of the country during Soviet times (find the answer in the legends of the three maps)?

1. The southern direction of settlement disappeared from the European part during Soviet times, because the general trend was aimed at the development of the lagging eastern and Central Asian territories of the country, in which industrialization took place precisely during the Soviet period.

What other information can be obtained by working with the maps in Figure 9, and what conclusions can be drawn from it?

2. Using the map, you can obtain data on changes in the area of ​​the country, the direction of population movement and the history of the development of Russia, cities that were developed in different periods. The general conclusion that can be drawn from the map is that the territory of Russia is constantly changing, which is associated with a number of historical processes and the study of existing territories.

1. How did the formation of the territory of Russia proceed?

In general, the growth of Russian territory occurred from west to east. The formation of the territory of Russia proceeded in stages. Lands were gradually added to the territory of the state; as a rule, they were unexplored and sparsely populated, with a harsh climate. The first stage is the formation and development of the ancient Russian state, Kievan Rus was formed (IX-XII centuries), then, in the second stage, the collapse of Kievan Rus into separate principalities followed by the Tatar-Mongol conquest (XIII-XV centuries). In the third stage, the centralization of the Russian state took place (XVI-XVII centuries). The fourth stage is characterized by the formation of the Russian Empire (XVIII - early XIX century), which ended, in the fourth stage, with a reverse process - collapse, as a result of the October Revolution of 1917 (mid-XIX - early XX century). The fifth stage is the creation and development of the Soviet state (1917-1991), which ends with the collapse of the USSR and the transition to the sixth stage (1992 to this day) - the modern development of the country.

2. Which territories that were previously part of our country are located outside its borders? List them using the map in Figure 10.

As a result of historical transformations, the territory of Russia was constantly changing. Many territories (countries) were previously part of Russia, but are no longer included there. These territories include: Finland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Alaska.

3. How did the settlement of the territory of Russia and the USSR proceed in different historical periods?

The settlement of Russia and the USSR proceeded unevenly and in stages, and the following periods can be distinguished:

XVI - XVIII - settlement of the forest-steppe and steppe as the forces of the nomads weakened and the fortified borders of the Russian state moved south. Monastic trade and colonization of the North. Advancement of fortified trade centers to the Southern Urals. Mining settlement of the Urals. The movement of explorers to Siberia for fur and the creation of a system of forts along rivers and on portages. Agricultural colonization of Siberia.

XIX - early XX centuries - re-population of steppe lands in the process of forming commercial farming areas. The same is true in the Volga region. Resettlement of peasants to Siberia and the Far East. Russian penetration into Central Asia. Penetration of the Cossacks into Semirechye. Convict settlements on Sakhalin. Drawing of the population to capital cities and their industrial surroundings.

The Soviet period was the general direction of migration associated with the shift of the economy to the east. Migration mainly to cities associated with the industrialization of Central Asia. Migrations to pioneering areas of Siberia and the Far East. Migrations associated with the development of mineral and forest resources of Komi, Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. Settlement of Southern Sakhalin after the return of this territory to the USSR. Settlement of the Kaliningrad region.

4. Why did the settlement of Russian territory occur mainly to the east and not to the west?

The settlement of Russian territory went mainly to the east, which is due to the fact that these territories were not developed by other peoples due to the severity of climatic conditions. On the path of the pioneers, they encountered only small tribes that lived in territories with very difficult natural conditions. The western part, on the contrary, was well developed by mankind, therefore, in order to expand Russia to the west, it was often necessary to enter into conflicts, but in the eastern territories this was avoided.

5. Using Figure 9, find out when your area was populated. Where did the immigrants mostly come from?

The settlement of the Southern Urals was influenced by a number of events. Firstly, at the beginning of the 18th century, fortified forts and fortresses began to be actively built on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region, which served to protect against attacks by nomadic tribes from the southeast and south. Then, from the 17th century, the Urals began to become the industrial center of Russia, which attracted a large number of people and forced industrialists to move from the territory of the Middle Urals towards the Southern Urals, exploring new mineral deposits. In the 20th century, during the years of industrialization, it was in the Southern Urals that new industrial enterprises were formed, including mechanical engineering, which attracted additional population flows. During the Great Patriotic War, many enterprises were evacuated from the Western part of the country to the Southern Urals, and the population came along with the factories.

6. Using Figure 10, find out when your region became part of Russia. What historical events is this connected with?

The Southern Urals were annexed to the territory of Russia in the period from 1695-1800 and the southern parts of the region from 1801-1860. The annexation of the territory is associated with the exploration and development of new deposits of iron and other metals in the Southern Urals and the need to protect the southern borders of Russia.

7. Compile and fill out the table “Development of Russian territory in various historical periods.”

During the lesson, you will be able to independently study the topic “Development and study of the territory of Russia before the 18th century.” You will learn how, simultaneously with the expansion of the territory of Russia, its exploration and study took place. Consider also the main stages of this study, when and what expeditions were sent to complete this task.

Subject:History of settlement, development and research of Russian territory

Lesson: Development and study of the territory of Russia before the 18th century

The vast territory of modern Russia has been populated and developed over many centuries. Vast Russian spaces contributed to the formation in Russia of a special type of people who conquered the vast expanses of Siberia and reached the Pacific Ocean. In subsequent centuries, thanks to the heroic efforts and courage of explorers and travelers, “blank spots” were erased from the map of our Motherland, and the most remote corners of Northeast Asia, the Far East and the Arctic were explored. The results of geographical territorial and scientific discoveries of domestic scientists brought them well-deserved fame and world fame.

The history of the accumulation of geographical information and the study of Russian territory is usually divided into four periods:

I. Accumulation of initial information in chronicles, descriptions of campaigns and travels before the 18th century, obtained on the basis of chronicle sources, monastery books.

II. The initial period of scientific research on the territory of Russia: from the era of Peter I to the mid-19th century.

III. The period of large expeditionary research, including industrial research, from the mid-19th century. up to 17

IV. The modern period of systematic, sectoral and comprehensive research.

Before the formation of the first Russian state, Finno-Ugric tribes lived on most of the territory of the Russian (East European) Plain, approximately in the area between the Oka and Volga rivers, the center of Russian statehood. Then, in the 9th - 12th centuries, the Slavs who came from Central Europe formed and flourished the Old Russian state of Kievan Rus, which had three areas of settlement:

1. The Middle Dnieper region, where the capital Kyiv and other large cities for that time were located - Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky.

2. Meridional strip along river trade routes, where old Ladoga, Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk were located. (see figure 1)

Rice. 1. Meridional strip along river trade routes

3. “Zalesskaya Ukraine” is an outskirts with the cities of Rostov, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Ryazan. (see Fig. 2)

Rice. 2. "Zalesskaya Ukraine"

Having mastered the nearby lands, the Slavs began to advance further. Various and reliable information about this is found in monastic chronicles.

It is known that starting from the 11th century, Novgorodians settled in the European North, reached the Pechora River, crossed the “Stone Belt” - the Urals (in the 12th century), visited the northern seas - the White and Barents Sea back in the 11th century, and on Grumant (about Spitsbergen) have been there since the 12th century. In the 15th century they visited Novaya Zemlya, and from the 16th century. regularly engaged in fishing on these islands .(see Fig. 3)

Rice. 3. Novgorod colonization

The entire north of Eurasia (with the exception of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Murmansk coast of the Kola Peninsula) was discovered by the Russians. The Russians were the first Europeans to sail freely in the northern seas, several centuries before the British and Dutch, who claim to be the discoverers of these seas. Barents Sea until the 19th century. was called Murmansky, or Russian Sea.

The result of feudal fragmentation was the defeat of the Russian principalities in the fight against the external enemy. That is why in the 14th century the southwestern principalities were captured by Lithuania and Poland, the northeastern ones by the Golden Horde. During this period, in the area between the Oka and Volga rivers, a new center of Russian statehood began to form, which became the small Principality of Moscow. (see fig.4)

Rice. 4. The beginning of the formation of the Moscow Principality

The reasons for the rise of Moscow over other ancient cities were related to the benefits of its geographical position - the Moscow principality was protected by rivers, forests and swamps. Moscow was located at the junction of water and land transport routes from Western and Northern Europe to Asia. The flexible foreign and domestic policies of the ruling princes and the development of crafts and trade played a major role. The Moscow principality became the center around which in the 14th century. the “gathering of Russian lands” began. As a result of the subjugation of other Russian principalities, and then the colonization of sparsely populated territories (mainly in the north and east), the geopolitical space of the Russian state by the end of the 17th century. has expanded significantly.

In the XIV-XVI centuries. Russian colonization continued northern territory. Russian settlers in the North - the Pomors - founded their settlements along the entire coast of the European North. Trade between the Moscow and then the Russian state with European countries was carried out through the Russian North and its largest trading centers (Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk). And in the 14th century, the Komi country became part of the Moscow state, and in the 15th century, “Perm the Great”

South direction of colonization in the XV-XVI centuries. was associated with the development wild field- the forest-steppe part of the Russian Plain, from where nomad raids were constantly carried out. They were created to protect against them. serif lines [L1], behind whose fortifications new cities arose (Voronezh, Tambov, Saransk, Penza, etc.).

With annexation in the middle of the 16th century. The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates (regions of the Kama and Volga regions) included numerous peoples professing Islam (Tatars, Bashkirs, etc.) into the Russian state. The Volga along its entire length became a Russian river. Cossack villages arose on the southern borders of the state - along the Don, Terek, Yaik (Ural) rivers.

In 1654, by decision of the Pereyaslav Rada, Ukraine was united with Russia (after the difficult war of 1654-1667, Poland recognized the loss of Left Bank Ukraine, as well as Kyiv).

During this period, the colonization of the eastern territories by Russians actively continued. . As the borders of the Russian state expand to the east, Siberia is attracting more and more attention.

In the second half of the 15th century. In the southern part of Western Siberia, the power of Khan Kuchum strengthened, who subjugated the tribes from the Urals to the Ob, from the lower reaches of the Irtysh to the Barabinsk steppe, and proclaimed himself the Siberian Khan. Kuchum not only attacked Russian people in Western Siberia, but even organized raids into the upper Kama basin. Ermak's detachment was sent to fight Khan Kuchum. Ermak’s campaign in Western Siberia (1581 - 1584) is of great importance not only for the history of the Russian state .(see Fig. 5)

Rice. 5. Ermak Timofeevich

It is an important milestone in the history of Russian and world geographical discoveries, as it marks the beginning the era of great Russian geographical discoveries in the north-eastern part of Asia.

WITH Ermak’s campaign begins a whole series of campaigns of Russian industrialists (commercial people, from the words “industry”, “industry”) and service people, known as land explorers; The period of Russians’ “meeting the sun” begins, ending with access to the Pacific Ocean. Founded in 1587 Tobolsk, for more than two centuries it remained the main city of Western Siberia. In 1610-1619. The Russians were already on the banks of the Yenisei. Soon they crossed to the right bank of the Yenisei and moved further east, to the Lena basin. Their path passed along two large tributaries of the Yenisei - two Tunguska - Lower and Upper (Angara). The discovery of the Central Siberian Plateau began. (see Fig. 6)

Rice. 6. The beginning of the discovery of the Central Siberian Plateau

In 1632 it was founded Yakut prison, which later became the starting point for Russian campaigns not only to the east, but also to the north, to the Icy Sea (Arctic Ocean), and later to the south - to the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean. The first European to reach the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean Ivan Moskvitin in 1639 (see Fig. 7)

Rice. 7. Ivan Moskvitin

Thus, in order to walk through the endless dense taiga, swampy swamps, swim through stormy Siberian rivers and reach the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, i.e. It took the Russians less than 60 years to explore a territory larger than Australia or Canada.

In 1643-46. Vasily Poyarkov (see Fig. 8) left the Aldan basin on Zeya and went down the Amur to its mouth. In 1647, the Okhotsk winter quarters were founded, on the site of which a city arose Okhotsk, became Russia's window to the Pacific Ocean and North America. From Okhotsk until the beginning of the 19th century. Almost all expeditions to the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and to the shores of America were equipped, as well as the first Russian circumnavigation.

Rice. 8. Vasily Poyarkov

In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev (see Fig.9) and Fedot Popov, Having set out on flat-bottomed Koch ships from the mouth of the Kolyma, they circled the continent from the northeast and reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean, proving the lack of communication between Asia and North America. However, S. Dezhnev’s “unsubscribe” about this journey was lost in the Yakut archive and was found only in 1736, i.e. 88 years later.

Rice. 9. Semyon Dezhnev

Rice. 10. The campaign of S. Dezhnev and F. Popov, the opening of the strait between Asia and America ()

Thus, the 17th century. was the century of remarkable Russian geographical discoveries in Northeast Asia. With their legendary campaigns, explorers expanded the geographical knowledge of all mankind. Ordinary service people, the Cossacks became discoverers of new lands. They made descriptions of the territories they discovered and put them on maps. Their “petitions,” “reports,” “fairy tales,” and descriptions contained enormous material about nature and the population, their life and activities, that is, large and valuable geographical material.

As we see, by the time of Peter the Great, Russia already had numerous geographical information about its vast expanses. There was a “Big Drawing for the entire Moscow State” and “Drawing of the Siberian Land” by Pyotr Godunov. These were the first cartographic and geographical documents that had great practical and educational significance not only for Russia, but also for foreign geography. Those abroad obtained information about the nature, population and economy of our country from these sources.

Homework

1. Explain the words of the Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky: “The history of Russia is the history of a country that is being colonized!”
2. Name the main stages of development of Russian territory.
3. What role did Ermak’s campaign play in the development of Russian territory?

1. Geography of Russia. Nature. Population. 1 hour 8th grade / author. V.P. Dronov, I.I. Barinova, V.Ya Rom, A.A. Lobzhanidze
2. Atlas. Geography of Russia. Population and economy / ed. "Drofa" 2012
3. UMK (educational and methodological set) “SPHERES”. Textbook “Russia: nature, population, economy. 8th grade" author. V.P. Dronov, L.E. Savelyeva. Atlas.

Other lessons on this topic

• Development and study of the territory of Russia ().

Find out more on the topic

1. Ivan Moskvitin. Path to the ocean ().
2. A tale about a Russian explorer whose name is Semyon Dezhnev ().
3. Expeditions of Poyarkov, Dezhnev and others ().
4. Siberian land explorers of the 17th century ().

   [L1] The “zasechnye” lines consisted of “zaseks” (barriers made of trees felled crosswise), ramparts, ditches, palisades and natural barriers (ravines, rivers). Strong points were created on the notched lines - forts, and then fortified cities. The Cossacks also built forts during their exploration of Siberia.

Territorial organization of the population is the spatial organization of people's lives that has developed at a certain stage of socio-economic development. It includes:
1) population distribution
2) industries of the production and non-production spheres
3) environmental management
4) territorial division of labor
5) economic or national-ethnic zoning
6) territorial-political and administrative-territorial organization states

Population distribution is the distribution and redistribution of the population over the surface of the earth, resulting in a network of settlements or settlements.

Location of production - geographical distribution of the process of creating wealth, industry, construction, agriculture and transport. The location of production is determined by the dominant method of production (manual and automatic), the form of ownership of the means of production (state, municipal, etc.), the peculiarities of the territorial division of labor, the natural, economic and social conditions of individual regions, as well as the factors of the location of specific industries and industries.

Geographic division of labor is the production specialization of individual economically connected territories of any rank (economic regions, regions, countries), the exchange of products and services between them. This process is determined by the natural, economic, social, national-historical and other characteristics of various territories. International division of labor is the specialization of countries in the production of certain types of goods, for the production of which the country has cheaper labor resources and preferable conditions in comparison with other countries; with such specialization, the needs of these countries are satisfied both by their own production and through international trade.

Topic 1. Territory and borders as a factor in the development of the Russian state

Features of the formation of the state territory of the Russian Empire

The Russian Empire (Russian doref. Rossiyskaya Imperiya; also the All-Russian Empire, the Russian State or Russia) is a state that existed from 1721 until the February Revolution and the proclamation of the republic in 1917.

The Empire was proclaimed following the Great Northern War by Russian Tsar Peter I the Great.

The capital of the Russian Empire was first St. Petersburg in 1721-1728, then Moscow in 1728-1730, then St. Petersburg again in 1730-1917 (in 1914 the city was renamed Petrograd).

The Russian Empire was the third largest state ever formed (after the Mongol and British empires) - stretching to the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Black Sea in the south, to the Baltic Sea in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east. The head of the empire, the All-Russian Emperor, had unlimited, absolute power until 1905.

Throughout the existence of the Russian Empire, its territory steadily increased. Peter I founded the empire following such an important expansion as the conquest of access to the Baltic Sea. However, expansion was not something new for Russia. In fact, it began during the “gathering of Russian lands” around the Grand Duchy of Moscow under the slogan of national and religious liberation of the Russian people, but already Ivan IV the Terrible annexed the foreign and heterodox Kazan and Astrakhan khanates.

In the 18th-19th centuries, the territory of the Russian Empire expanded significantly, which occurred in a fierce struggle with a number of competing empires: Sweden lays claim to dominance in Finland and the Baltic Sea in general, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - in Ukraine, the Ottoman Empire lays claim to the Crimea, and for influence in Transcaucasia Turkey and Persia (Iran) fought. The expansion of Russian possessions in Central Asia brings the empire into a fight with Britain, which feared for its possessions in India, and the annexation of Kazakhstan takes place in the fight with China.

At least two of these geopolitical competitors were completely defeated with the decisive participation of Russia - in Sweden, after the loss of Finland in 1806, the final collapse of the great power policy occurred, and Poland ceased to exist as a state after three partitions.

Some geopolitical projects of imperial expansion turn out to be unsuccessful. Attempts to achieve dominance over the Christian Slavic peoples of the slowly dying Ottoman Empire lead to the lost Crimean War, and in 1867 the empire sold Alaska.

Other unsuccessful projects included the desire to capture Constantinople and the Black Sea straits. In addition, before the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the empire had a project to create the so-called “Zheltorossiya” on the lands conquered from China in Outer and, possibly, Inner Manchuria, the majority of the population of which was supposed to be Slavs due to the influx of Cossacks and peasant colonists . Defeat in the war put an end to these plans, which clearly contradicted Japan's plans to create a pro-Japanese puppet state in Manchuria.

Centuries-long expansion is turning Russia into a multinational empire with a complex structure; Russians make up only 44% of the population (together with Ukrainians and Belarusians - 65%). Its core consists of 29 provinces of the European part of Russia with a Russian (“Great Russian”) majority, which are adjacent to 15 provinces with a Belarusian and Ukrainian majority (“Little Russians”). From the east, 10 provinces (also with a Russian majority) in Siberia and the Far East, and 3 in the North Caucasus, developed during economic colonization, adjoined the “metropolis”.

A number of territories enjoyed significant autonomy and were connected with the metropolises through relations of personal union, vassalage or protectorate: the Grand Duchy of Finland (union until the abdication of Nicholas II), the Kingdom of Poland (union until the 1860s), the Emirate of Bukhara (vassalage from 1868), Khanate of Khiva (protectorate since 1873), Uriankhai region (Tuva, protectorate since 1914). 11 territories of the Cossack troops had broad self-government.

During the expansion, the local aristocracy of a number of regions was equated to the Russian nobility. The most numerous were the aristocrats of Georgia and also the Baltic (“Bestsee”) Germans.

Different territories were at completely different levels of development. The percentage of illiterate people according to the 1897 census was 4.85% in the Estonian province, while in the Ufa province (Bashkiria) it was 93.59%. A number of peoples of Central Asia, Siberia, and the Volga region continued to adhere to a nomadic way of life (Kyrgyz, Kalmyks, etc.), and some could migrate from the Russian Empire to China and back. Until the February Revolution of 1917, among the indigenous non-Russian peoples of Siberia, an archaic tax remained - yasak, levied on furs. At the same time, advanced forms of farming based on the European model are spreading in the Baltic states, Finland and Poland.

Expansion continues even in literally the last years of the empire’s existence: after the victory in China in the 1912 Xinhai Revolution, Mongolia declares independence from China, and in search of a counterbalance to Chinese influence seeks to rely on Russia. Since 1912, Mongolia has actually been under Russian protectorate. Since 1914, a protectorate has been established over Tuva (Uriankhai region).

Russia's territorial growth was viewed with caution by many European powers. These fears are embodied in the forged document “Testament of Peter the Great,” in which Peter I allegedly sets out a program for seizing world domination to his successors. British Prime Minister Disraeli warned of "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."

Karl Marx, in the fourth chapter of his work “Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century,” speaks very negatively about Russia (“Muscovy was educated and raised in the terrible and vile school of Mongol slavery. It strengthened only thanks to the fact that it became virtuoso in the art of slavery”), its diplomacy and expansion policy.

Friedrich Engels, in The Foreign Policy of Russian Tsarism, calls the imperial diplomatic corps a “gang of adventurers” and a “Jesuit order,” commenting on imperial expansion in expressions like: “Never before has Russia achieved such a powerful position. But she also took another step beyond her natural boundaries. If in relation to the conquests of Catherine, Russian chauvinism had some other excuses - I don’t want to say justifying - pretexts, then regarding the conquests of Alexander there can be no question of this. Finland is inhabited by Finns and Swedes, Bessarabia by Romanians, Congress Poland by Poles. Here there is no need to talk about the reunification of scattered related tribes bearing the Russian name, here we are dealing with an openly violent conquest of foreign territory, with simple robbery.” and “when you read Russian newspapers, you might think that all of Russia is carried away by the tsarist policy of conquest; everywhere there is sheer chauvinism and pan-Slavism, calls for the liberation of Christians from the Turkish yoke, and the Slavs from the German-Magyar yoke.”

Geopolitical competition with Sweden. Accession of Finland

During the Northern War, Peter I in 1702 annexed Ingria (Ingria, Izhora land) to Russia, which had previously been torn away by Sweden from Muscovite Rus' in 1583. St. Petersburg was founded in 1703. The so-called “Duchy of Ingermanland” (“Duchy of Izhora”) was founded, headed by Menshikov; already in 1708 it was transformed into the Ingermanland province (from 1710 - the St. Petersburg province).

By the end of the war (1721), Russia also returned Karelia, seized by Sweden from Novgorod Rus' in 1617, and also annexed a number of territories that did not previously belong to Russia: Estland, Livonia (Livonia), southern Finland. In fact, Courland, which was formally a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, comes under Russian control.

The direct result of the disastrous Northern War for Sweden is the advent of the Era of Freedom, which is characterized by a reduction in the power of the king and a sharp strengthening of parliament.

In 1741, revanchists win in Sweden and begin a new war to regain lost territories. This war ended by 1743 with the defeat of the Swedes; Russian acquisitions were confirmed.

Swedish King Gustav III carries out a coup d'état in 1772, ending a half-century experiment with parliamentary democracy. This coup was painfully perceived by the Russian Empress Catherine II, who saw in it the machinations of France. The parliamentary democracy of the “Era of Freedom” allowed Russia to actually manipulate Sweden by bribing politicians. After 1772 this became impossible.

A second attempt at revenge was made in 1788, but by 1790 it also ended in failure.

The last Russian-Swedish war was the war of 1808-1809, which ended for Sweden with the loss of Finland and the Åland Islands. Wanting to attract Napoleonic France to its side, Sweden invites Napoleonic Marshal Bernadotte (see Charles XIV Johan), who reigned in 1810, to his throne. However, he dramatically changes his foreign policy course. In 1812, the new Swedish king came into conflict with his homeland - France, and entered into an alliance with Russia, and in 1813-1814, in the ranks of the anti-Napoleonic coalition, he fought with his own compatriots at the head of Swedish troops.

After the annexation of Finland, the empire receives a country whose economy is completely controlled by the local Swedish minority. The Finns did not have their own aristocracy, the Finnish language did not have the status of a state language, and in addition, there was no literature in Finnish. The majority of the population of Helsingfors (Helsinki) were Swedes. The capital, however, was located in Abo (Turku), but its majority was also Swedish.

Fearing Swedish revenge, the Russian authorities in Finland emphasize the national identity of the Finns and provide the principality with significant benefits that Finland did not have under the Swedes. The Finns enjoyed special respect from Emperor Alexander II, who restored the activities of the Sejm and gave the Finnish language the status of a second state language, after Swedish. The appearance of the first literature in Finnish also occurs during the period of Russian rule. In addition, the empire moves the capital of Finland from Abo to Helsingfors, and encourages Finnish migration to the cities with the goal of making Swedes a minority in the cities.

Another important step of the empire was the annexation of the so-called “Old Finland” to the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812, which became part of Russia partly through the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721, partly under the Peace of Abo in 1743. This territory included the cities of Savonlinna, Lappeenranta, Hamina, Sortavala, Vyborg.

This soft policy ended in the 1890s, when the empire adopted a policy of forced Russification of a number of national outskirts, including Finland. Attempts are being made to introduce Russian as the third state language (after Swedish and Finnish), to synchronize the political systems of Finland and the Russian regions proper (which, unlike Finland, did not have either a parliament or a constitution), to synchronize the armed forces, including the Finnish army (which the empire considered unfit for combat) into the Russian army. All these steps caused extreme discontent among the population, and the energetic attempts of Governor General Bobrikov to implement them ended in his murder in 1904.

The sharp dissatisfaction of the Finnish population with the Russification policy of 1898-1914 leads to the fact that after the abdication of Nicholas II, Finland already proclaimed a Constitution in March 1917. By July, Finland came into armed conflict with the troops of the Russian Provisional Government; in November - December 1917 it proclaimed independence, recognized by the Bolsheviks on December 22, 1917.

Sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Kingdom of Poland

Decree on dethronization of Nicholas I, Polish uprising (1863), Russification of Poland

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. The unification of Poland and Lithuania in 1569 into a single state becomes a fatal blow to Russia's first attempt to gain access to the Baltic Sea - the troops of Ivan IV the Terrible are defeated in the Livonian War by the Polish king Stefan Batory.

By the 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was in decline, caused by ethnic strife and unsuccessful wars. The political system, which combined the election of the king with the right of veto for any deputy (see Liberum veto), increasingly led to the paralysis of the state, and created the ground for active manipulation of Polish domestic politics by Russia and Prussia. In 1764, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth tried to abolish the Liberum veto, but these attempts were buried as a result of active Russian intervention. The steadily increasing pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russia and Prussia ends in three sections 1772-1795.

As a result of the divisions, Russia includes Belarus, part of Lithuania, part of Ukraine and part of the Baltic states.

During the Napoleonic wars, Russia already occupied the territory of Poland itself. As a result of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was formed, which entered into a union with the Russian Empire. Not all of Poland was included in it; Thus, Poznan went to Prussia, and Krakow to Austria.

The Poles are becoming one of the most “unreliable” national minorities of the empire. After 1831, the Poles practically became part of the Russian troops in the Caucasus, which was called “warm Siberia.” It is very characteristic that Tsar Alexander II, after the assassination attempt on him on April 4, 1866, asked the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who was captured on the spot, “Are you a Pole?”

The Poles raised a series of uprisings against the tsarist government: the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), the Polish Uprising of 1830, the uprising of 1863.

These uprisings only lead to the gradual collapse of Polish autonomy within the Russian Empire. After the uprising of 1830, the Polish Constitution was replaced by the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland. The personal union is thus replaced by the entry of Poland into Russia. The Polish Sejm and army are dissolved, the Polish zloty is replaced by the ruble, the metric system is replaced by the traditional Russian one.

After the uprising of 1863, Poland was divided into provinces, all-Polish departments ceased to exist, and their affairs were transferred to the imperial government. Poland is also subject to the imperial educational system and judicial organization, the mandatory use of the Russian language in education and office work has been introduced, and the designation of Poland as the “Vistula region” has been extended.

Since the end of 1915, Poland has been occupied by German-Austrian troops. Shortly after the fall of the Russian Empire, on March 29, 1917, the Russian Provisional Government recognized the independence of Poland.

Accession of Georgia

Georgia reaches its greatest prosperity in the 11th-13th centuries, especially during the reign of King David IV the Builder, but by the 1460s it fell into decline and collapsed into several independent states, the main ones being: Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Samtskhe-Javakheti ; they enter into a fight with Turkey and Persia. In 1555 these two powers divided the Georgian kingdoms into their spheres of influence.

The first contacts between Russians and Georgians date back to 1588-1589. Over time, Georgia begins to be perceived in Russia as a Christian country of the same faith, “vegetating” surrounded by powerful empires of other faiths - Turkey and Persia. However, 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 1783, the king of the united kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, Irakli II (unification occurred in 1762), signed the Treaty of St. George on a Russian protectorate in exchange for military protection, but in 1795, Russian troops did not provide any assistance against the Iranian troops invading Georgia.

In 1799-1800, Paul I renewed the treaty and sent troops to Kartli-Kakheti at the request of King George XII. On November 7, 1800, these troops repulsed the invasion of Kakheti by the Avar Khan, but already in December 1800, George XII dies, and Kartli-Kakheti is plunged into a struggle for power. In March 1801, Paul I himself died.

The new emperor, Alexander I, with his manifesto “for the sake of the peace and security of the Georgian people,” abolishes the autonomy of the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and introduces Russian rule in it. General Lazarev is appointed “Governor of Georgia”. A government is established, consisting of four “expeditions” led by Russian officials and Georgian assistants (“assessors”): executive, civil, criminal and state property expeditions. A local government of five districts is formed, headed by Russians and deputies - Georgians. The police and the court are established according to the same scheme.

All the privileges of the Georgian aristocracy are preserved; it is equated with the Russian nobility. In 1802, a Georgian, Russian general Tsitsianov (Tsitsishvili) was appointed “governor of Georgia”.

In 1802 - 1805, the empire forced the aristocracy of the principality to take an oath of allegiance to the Russian throne, and sent a number of representatives of the highest nobility to Russia, who were assigned an imperial pension. Office work is translated into Russian, a language unfamiliar to the local population, and traditional hereditary posts of the highest nobility are abolished. The Georgian population is not subject to conscription; taxes collected in Georgia remain locally.

In 1805, Russian troops in Georgia clash with the Iranian army and put it to flight.

In 1811, the empire abolished the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church and also abolished the title of Catholicos. The church is transformed into the exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by an exarch. Georgian clergy begin to receive salaries from the Russian Holy Synod.

Beginning in the 1820s, non-Georgians were appointed exarchs. Autocephaly and the title of Catholicos were restored only after the February Revolution of 1917.

The Empire encourages Russians, as well as Armenians, Greeks and German colonists, to move to Georgia.

Another Georgian principality, Imereti, repeatedly turned to Russia for help against Turkey in the 18th century. In 1769, a Russian corps arrived in this principality. According to one of the conditions of the peace treaty of 1774, Imereti gets rid of paying tribute to Turkey. In 1784-1798 Imereti plunged into an armed struggle for power; King Solomon II, who won it, is trying to avoid Russian protectorate. In 1804 he was forced by force to sign a protectorate treaty, finally losing by 1810 after unsuccessful attempts to raise an uprising against Russia. In 1811, Imereti became part of Russia, and the power of the Tsar of Imeretia was abolished. Russian rule is introduced in the principality on the model of Kartli-Kakheti.

In 1803, the Principality of Megrelia, seeking to free itself from vassal dependence on Imereti, accepted the Russian protectorate. In 1866, the empire abolished the Megrelian principality; for refusing him, the last prince of Megrel, Nikolai Dadiani, is paid 1,000,00 rubles.

Another principality, Svaneti, was also subordinate to Imereti, but only on paper. In the middle of the 16th century, Svaneti was divided into parts; “Princely Svaneti” annexed Russia in 1833, “Free Svaneti” in 1840. In 1859 the principality was abolished.

The Principality of Guria, which was also formally subordinate to Imereti, was accepted into Russia in 1804 as an integral part of Imereti; in 1810 a separate agreement was concluded.

Abkhazia joins Russia in 1810. In 1866, the Principality of Abkhazia was abolished; its last owner, Mikhail Shervashidze, receives an annual pension of 10 thousand rubles, and is promoted to adjutant general.0

Russian-Turkish wars. Annexation of Crimea, Novorossiya, Moldova and Wallachia

By the time the Russian Empire was founded, one of its main geopolitical competitors was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The constant raids of its vassal, the Crimean Khanate (in 1571, Khan Devlet I Gerey even reached Moscow and burned it) forced Muscovite Rus' to constantly maintain defensive lines (“barrages”) on its southern borders. The very first of them was the “Big Serif Line”, built in the middle of the 16th century from Ryazan to Tula. The unblocked Muravsky Way becomes the favorite route for Crimean invasions. In 1644-1645, Khan Bogadur Girey captured up to 15 thousand prisoners. In 1659, after the Battle of Konotop, Khan Mukhamed Gerey plundered twenty districts, killing and capturing about thirty thousand people. In general, during the first half of the 17th century, the Crimeans drove up to 200 thousand Russians into slavery.

In the 17th century, the Moscow state kept up to 50 thousand border guards on the southern border (Cossacks, local cavalry, then also “regiments of a foreign system”), by the end of the 17th century - up to one hundred thousand. Belgorod becomes the center of defense of the south, in which the “Belgorod discharge” (in fact, a military district) is formed. In general, by the end of the 17th century, large Crimean raids were already becoming extremely difficult. In 1679-1690, the “Izyum Line” was built, 400 km long, between Poltava and Kharkov.

Since 1695, Peter I has been trying to conquer access to the Black Sea, and in 1696 he founded the city of Taganrog. According to the peace treaty of 1699, the payment of tribute to the Crimean Khan, which had been paid since 1571 and amounted to 90,000 chervonets per year, was stopped. By 1711, the attempt to gain access to the Black Sea finally fails when Russia is forced to abandon Azov. In 1717, the Crimean Tatars carried out further raids, reaching Tambov and Simbirsk.

In 1731-1733, the “Ukrainian Line” was built from the Dnieper to the Northern Donets.

In 1736, a fifty-thousand-strong Russian army led by Minikh invaded Crimea, breaking through the Perekop defensive line. In June of this year, Russian troops burned the Crimean capital, Bakhchisarai, along with the Khan's palace. In July 1737, Minikh occupied Ochakov, repelled the Turkish-Tatar counter-offensive in October, but in 1738, due to a pestilence, he left Ochakov and Kinburn.

In peace negotiations with Turkey, Russia unsuccessfully demands all the lands of the Crimean Khanate and the granting of independence to Moldavia and Wallachia. Having failed to achieve a result, in 1739 Minich’s 65,000-strong army marched into Wallachia, occupied Iasi, but then returned to Ukraine. According to the peace treaty of 1739, Russia receives back Azov with a ban on building fortifications and having its own fleet on the Black Sea.

The terrible defeat carried out in the Crimea by Minich's troops finally stopped the large raids of the Crimean Tatars on Ukrainian and Russian lands, the bulk of the Crimeans began to switch to agriculture. Since the middle of the 18th century, the Crimeans have been restoring Bakhchisarai, the fortresses of Perekop and Arabat, the population of Crimea by the end of the century reached 500,000 people.

In an effort to create a reliable barrier to Crimean raids, Russia begins active colonization of the “Wild Field”. In 1752, the colony of New Serbia was founded from Serbian and Hungarian settlers, in 1753 - the colony of Slavic-Serbia. In 1764, both colonies were transformed into the Novorossiysk province. In 1760-1763, the fortress of St. Demetrius of Rostov was built, which actually gave rise to Rostov-on-Don. The increased activity of the empire begins to greatly irritate Crimea, and leads to a clash with the Ottoman Empire in the war of 1768-1774.

As a result of the war (see Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty), Russia receives the strategically important Kerch and Yenikale, blocking access to the Sea of ​​Azov and the lands from the Bug and the Kinburn fortress at the mouth of the Dnieper to Azov with the Kuban and Azov regions, and receives permission to have a fleet in the Black Sea. Türkiye recognizes the independence of Crimea and pays Russia an indemnity of four and a half million rubles; however, the Turkish Sultan retains spiritual authority over Crimea as the Caliph - the head of the Muslims. In fact, he also retains the right to remove the Crimean khans. Türkiye immediately begins to prepare for revenge.

Crimean Tatars are not particularly delighted with the peace terms. They refuse to give up territory to Russia according to the peace treaty, and start several uprisings. Russia is also in no hurry to withdraw its troops from Crimea. In fact, both the Turks and the Russians continue to actively interfere in the internal affairs of Crimea, in violation of the peace treaty. Some Turkish troops do not leave Crimea for several years after the signing of the agreement.

Russia places its protege on the throne, Khan Shagin Gerey, but he quickly begins to cause strong irritation among the local nobility by destroying the independence of aristocratic estates, confiscating Muslim church lands (waqfs), and attempting to organize a European-style army. Turkey appoints a new khan, Selim Gerey III, which sparks a civil war in Crimea, in which Shagin Gerey's opponents are defeated by Russian troops.

On March 23, 1778, Suvorov arrived in Crimea. Under him, Russian troops settled thoroughly on the peninsula, forming four territorial districts with a line of posts along the coast. From May to September 1778, Suvorov resettled 31,000 Christians - Armenians and Greeks - from Crimea to Novorossiya and the Azov region, which caused extreme irritation to the Crimean authorities.

In July and then in September 1778, the Turkish navy appeared in Feodosia, demanding that Russian ships stop sailing along the Crimean coast. However, thanks to the line of fortifications built by Suvorov and the demonstrative maneuvers of the Russian troops following the Turkish ships, a collision did not occur.

March 10, 1779 Russia and Turkey sign the Anaily-Kavak Convention, in which they undertake to withdraw troops and not interfere in the internal affairs of Crimea. Türkiye recognizes Shagin Gerey as the Crimean Khan, confirms the independence of Crimea and the right of Russian ships to pass through the Black Sea straits. In 1779, Russian troops left, leaving a 6 thousand garrison in Kerch and Yenikal.

In 1781, another uprising of the Crimean Tatars, provoked by Turkey, broke out, Shagin Gerey fled under the protection of the Russian garrison to Kerch. Trying to strengthen his power, he carries out mass executions, which only causes new uprisings. Catherine II advises him to renounce the Khanate and transfer Crimea to Russia. In February 1783, Shagin Gerey abdicated the throne; on April 8, 1783, according to the tsar’s manifesto, Crimea became part of the empire. Russian troops occupy Taman, Kuban and Crimea. In June 1783, Prince Potemkin took the oath of allegiance to the Crimean population. On February 10, 1784, Sevastopol was founded. Thus, the terms of the peace treaty of 1774, which was not respected by either side, are finally buried.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in 1783 and the establishment of a protectorate over Georgia under the Treaty of Georgievsk became a serious attack on Turkey's great-power interests. This results in the war of 1787-1792, but the attempt at Turkish revenge fails; Russia confirms its acquisitions, the border between empires is pushed back to the Dniester.

Features of the formation of the state territory of the USSR

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a state that existed from 1922 to 1991 in Europe and Asia. The USSR occupied 1/6 of the inhabited landmass and was the largest country in the world by area on the territory that by 1917 was occupied by the Russian Empire without Finland, part of the Polish Kingdom and some other territories (the land of Kars, now Turkey), but with Galicia and Transcarpathia , part of Prussia, Northern Bukovina, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

According to the Constitution of 1977, the USSR was proclaimed a single union multinational and socialist state.

After World War II, the USSR had land borders with Afghanistan, Hungary, Iran, China, North Korea (since September 9, 1948), Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Finland, Czechoslovakia and only sea borders with the USA, Sweden and Japan.

Consisted of union republics (in different years from 4 to 16), according to the Constitution, which were sovereign states; Each union republic retained the right to freely secede from the Union. The Union Republic had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude treaties with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives, and participate in the activities of international organizations. Among the 50 founding countries of the UN, along with the USSR, there were also two of its union republics: the BSSR and the Ukrainian SSR.

Some of the republics included autonomous Soviet socialist republics (ASSR), territories, regions, autonomous regions (AO) and autonomous (until 1977 - national) okrugs.

After World War II, the USSR, along with the United States, was a superpower. The Soviet Union dominated the world socialist system and was also a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Geopolitical position of Russia at different stages of the country's development

Meanwhile, geopolitics is simply a science, the same as, for example, mathematics. She has her own subject of research - the interaction and mutual relationship of geographical spaces. Geopolitics also has a method - a systematic analysis of the spatial position of geographical factors, understood quite broadly. Science arose at the intersection of several hundred social and natural scientific disciplines. Ontologically, geopolitics is the science of the influence of geographical factors on politics. Well, ultimately, geopolitics is a philosophical doctrine and a section of general philosophy, such as ethics or logic.

One of the main problems of geopolitics is the study of the sphere of relations between states regarding control over territory. And since Russia is a country that occupies 1/6 of the entire landmass, that is, 17,075.4 thousand square kilometers, it simply cannot remain aloof from international relations.

For Russia at the end of the twentieth century, a remarkable phenomenon was the advancement of many geopolitical concepts that differently depicted the position of our country in the world. The difficult transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a powerful superpower, is characterized by an abundance of projects for the “development of Russia,” often too ideological and even completely fantastic. “Westerners” and “Slavophiles” began arguing again, and Eurasians loudly declared themselves. But during heated debates about the fate and future of Russia, academic research on the modern geopolitical situation and real, not imaginary relations with other countries by projectors and ideologists, were actually lost.

In other words, a normal, objective geopolitical analysis accepted in Western science has not yet emerged. In this regard, it seems relevant to study the geographical configuration of the country’s modern external relations and its foreign policy to determine how realities differ from geopolitical projects and what are Russia’s actual geopolitical positions.

Modern geopolitics dates back to the end of World War II and the post-war reconstruction of the world. These historical events not only served as a radical restructuring of the world and the geopolitical paradigm, but also coincided with the invention of a weapon of enormous destructive power - the atomic bomb, which, together with the rocket launcher created somewhat later, began to play not only a military-strategic, but also a geostrategic role. Modern political scientists do not deny the connection between politics and a wide variety of spatial factors. We are talking primarily about natural-physical, geographical space, which, as Ratzel noted, consists of three spheres: the geosphere (land), the hydrosphere (water), and the atmosphere (air). These spheres on the inhabited surface of the Earth (ecumene) intersect and interact in the most diverse and bizarre ways. Indeed, land is connected with water in various ways, forming the banks of rivers, lakes, swamps, seas, oceans, as well as islands, peninsulas, capes, bays, bays, straits, and continents. The air environment, depending on latitude, solar activity, and terrain, creates a climate favorable or unfavorable for human activity: trade winds and monsoon winds with heavy rains or a sultry sirocco from the Sahara, oversaturation of air with oxygen in places of lush vegetation and its lack in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, moderate heating or life-threatening temperatures at the equator. In addition, each of the three spheres in which human life occurs must be considered in its entirety and complexity.

One of the important components of a geopolitical position is the ability to control key spaces and geographical points. This ability is derived from the degree of self-sufficiency (viability) of a geopolitical subject. From the point of view of its geopolitical position, Russia, as the direct successor of the USSR and the Russian Empire, found itself in a new situation. This situation has developed as a result of certain geopolitical patterns. Since the second half of the 1980s. The Soviet Union gradually began to lose control, first over the countries of the socialist camp, and then over the union republics.

After the collapse of the USSR, 17 out of 22 million square meters remained in Russia. km of territory. Russia's capabilities are to a large extent determined by the transport and geographical factor. The territorial mass of Russia no longer corresponds to the frame transport infrastructure that existed in the USSR. The main highways of Russia - Yuzhsib and Transsib - pass through the territory of Northern Kazakhstan (Transsib in the Petropavlovsk region), sections of high-voltage power lines, communications, and pipelines also happen to be there. New geopolitical realities have emerged on the western borders. Russia found itself separated from Europe by a belt of independent states and currently has limited access to the Baltic and Black Seas. The largest ports on the Black and Baltic Seas have become foreign to Russia. Of the major ports on the Baltic, St. Petersburg remains, and on the Black Sea - Novorossiysk and Tuapse. On the western border before the collapse of the USSR there were 25 railway crossings, but modern Russia has only one - from the Kaliningrad region to Poland. The main transshipment railway hubs are located in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Geopolitical changes have affected the borders of Russia. Within the USSR, out of 77 Russian administrative-political units, only 13 were border units; today, more than half are border units. The number of foreign countries bordering Russia has also changed: previously there were 8 neighboring countries, now there are 16. No country in the world has such a number of neighboring states. A significant part of the new borders does not have official state status.

The spatial-geographical narrowing due to the Baltic coast, the Black Sea region, and Crimea returned Russia, as geopoliticians note, to “pre-Petrine times.” These territories provided wide access for the former USSR to the outside world. In the new conditions, Russia in the north-west and south did not retain its previous control over key areas. On the part of the new geopolitical entities - the Baltic countries - there was a tightening of their positions, even to the point of territorial claims; at a number of points the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was growing; a complex knot of contradictions between Moldova and Transnistria has emerged. In the early 90s. 180 territorial-ethnic disputes were recorded on the territory of the former USSR.

Ensuring the processes of forming Russian statehood and protecting its territorial integrity is considered a priority in the field of foreign policy. It is important for Russia to complete the process of becoming a modern Russian state within its current borders. At the same time, strengthening the statehood of such republics as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, as well as economic integration with them on the part of Russia should be supported in the most active manner. It is these three states that are most important from the point of view of Russia’s geopolitical interests.

Area of ​​territory, length of borders

Square
total: 17,075,400 km², including:
sushi: 16,995,850 km²
water surface: 79,400 km²

Borders
total length: 60932 km
for individual areas. .

Countries bordering Russia: Abkhazia (245 km); Azerbaijan (350 km); Belarus (1239 km); Georgia (561 km excluding Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with them - 879.9 km); Kazakhstan (7598.6 km); China (4209 km); DPRK (39.4 km); Latvia (270.5 km); Mongolia (3485 km); Norway (219.1 km); Ukraine (2245.8 km); Finland (1325.8 km); Estonia (466.8 km), South Ossetia (74.0 km). The Kaliningrad region, which is an exclave, borders Lithuania (288.5 km) and Poland (236.3 km). Russia has only maritime borders with Japan (193.3 km) and the USA (49 km).

Coastline length 37,653 km

Maritime Dominions
continental shelf: 200 m or operating depth
exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km) from coastline
territorial waters: 12 nautical miles (22 km) from coastline

1.5. Border states of the “first” and “second” order

Accordingly, countries bordering Russia (having a common border) are countries of the first order

1.6. Delimitation and demarcation of state borders, types of borders with “first” order countries

The lines separating the land territory of one state from the adjacent territory of another state are the state border on land.

The lines separating territorial waters from the waters of the high seas, that is, the lines of the outer limit of territorial waters, as well as the lines delimiting territorial waters between two neighboring states, are maritime state boundaries.

An imaginary surface running along the state border line perpendicular to the earth's surface serves as the border of the airspace of the corresponding state.

The state border is established, as a rule, on the basis of treaties between neighboring states, and where the territorial waters of a state are in contact with the open sea - by internal legislative acts of coastal states in accordance with international law.

Territorial delimitation between states is carried out in stages, during the delimitation and demarcation of the border.

In interstate practice, orographic, geometric and geographical state boundaries are known.

Orographic boundary is a line drawn along natural boundaries taking into account the terrain, mainly along a mountain watershed and river beds.

The geometric boundary crosses the area without taking into account its topography (bypassing populated areas).

A geographic line passes through certain geographic coordinates (may coincide with a parallel or meridian). Geographic boundaries drawn along parallels and meridians are found in Africa and America, where they were established by the metropolitan states for the colonies.

According to the current Law on the State Border of the Russian Federation, the passage of the state border of the Russian Federation is usually established:

on land - along characteristic points, relief lines or clearly visible landmarks;

at sea - along the external border of the territorial sea of ​​the Russian Federation;

on navigable rivers - in the middle of the main fairway or thalweg of the river;

on non-navigable rivers and streams - in their middle or in the middle of the main branch of the river;

on lakes and other bodies of water - along an equidistant, median, straight or other line connecting the exits of the state border to the shores of the lake or other body of water;

on reservoirs of waterworks and other artificial reservoirs - in accordance with the state border line that ran in the area before it was flooded;

on bridges, dams and other structures passing through rivers, streams, lakes and other bodies of water - in the middle of these structures or along their technological axis, regardless of the passage of the state border on water (Article 5 of the Law on the State Border of the Russian Federation).

Border delimitation (Latin delimitatio - establishing boundaries) - determining the general position and direction of the state border between neighboring states through negotiations.

Delimitation decrees are usually part of peace treaties or special agreements on the establishment or modification of state boundaries.

During delimitation, the contracting parties draw up - as a rule, on a map, without carrying out work on the ground - a description of the passage of the border line, which can be an independent article in the agreement itself or in an annex to it.

In accordance with the position of the border line determined in the agreement, it is plotted on a geographical map, which, as a rule, is an integral part of the agreement on border delimitation and, as such, serves as visual evidence of the position of the border line.

Delimitation materials serve as the basis for the subsequent stage of determining the border - drawing it on the ground (demarcation).

The term "Delimitation" is often used in International Space Law.

Border demarcation (Latin demarcatio - demarcation) - drawing a state border line on the ground with its designation with special border signs.

Border demarcation is carried out on the basis of border delimitation documents (agreement, description of the state border line with the attachment of a special map) by joint commissions created on a parity basis.

During demarcation work, a topographic survey or aerial photograph of the area is taken, on the basis of which a large-scale topographic map of the border strip is compiled, boundary markers are installed (poles, wire fences, etc.) and their topographic coordinates are determined. On all actions to demarcate the border, special documents are drawn up: protocols describing the passage of the border line and border signs (diagrams and photographs of these signs are attached to the protocols).

Border markers are not subject to arbitrary movement, and the parties are obliged to ensure that they are maintained in proper condition.

Reviewing a previously demarcated boundary and restoring or replacing destroyed boundary markers is called re-demarcation.

1.7. Territorial claims to Russia

The state border unites the Russian Federation with 16 countries. By land with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, by sea with Japan and the USA. Many of Russia's neighbors are putting forward various claims with the expectation of obtaining one or another part of the territory beneficial to them. According to some estimates, there are currently about seven to nine direct and indirect claims from foreign governments, and there are no territorial disputes with only six states (Finland, Poland, Mongolia, North Korea, Belarus and Lithuania). Some countries link their claims to various historical events, during which, in their opinion, territories were unfairly rejected in favor of the USSR. Others, in the competition for new territorial increments, are guided rather by geopolitical and geo-economic considerations.

One of the most famous stories is Japan's claim to a group of southern islands of the Kuril archipelago (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan islands and a group of unnamed islands of the Lesser Kuril chain, called "Habomai" in Japan), the total area of ​​which is more than half the area of ​​all the Kuril Islands. Russia and Japan do not have a border agreement. There is no peace treaty either. As a condition for concluding the agreement, the Japanese began to demand the transfer to them of all four South Kuril Islands, including the larger and more populated islands of Kunashir and Iturup.

Russia took a step towards Japan, declaring that it was ready to transfer the islands, but subject to the conclusion of a strategic partnership agreement, which would allow establishing investment cooperation and improving trade and economic relations between the countries. Moreover, it is no secret that the United States officially supports Japan’s territorial claims to Russia, and Japan itself may not limit its claims to only the South Kuril Islands and demand the inclusion of all the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin.

China is also a concern. Just recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi signed the latest protocol on demarcating the border between Russia and China along the Amur River. According to this document, China received Tarabarov Island and half of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. The total area of ​​the territories transferred by Russia to the PRC was 174 square meters. km. However, not everyone in China considers the issue of the border with Russia to be finally resolved. On the one hand, at the official level, territorial claims against Russia have been lifted forever. On the other hand, many Chinese citizens believe that Moscow has not yet returned all territories to China. For example, at consultations in Beijing regarding clarification of the border line in 1964, China officially announced that 1,540 thousand square meters. km were torn away by Russia under unequal treaties, including more than 600 thousand under the Aigun Treaty, over 400 thousand under the Beijing Treaty. And this interpretation of history has not changed in China to this day, although officially the leaders of the PRC declare that they have no territorial claims against Russia .

However, the decision to transfer the islands was made by the Russian leadership in 2004, when relations between Russia and the West began to rapidly deteriorate, and as a counterbalance to this, Moscow began to intensify ties with Beijing, which required the final resolution of all territorial disputes. These islands are not very large and are not rich in natural resources, but they are important for Russia. On Bolshoi Ussuriysky there is a special fortified area that is capable of holding the enemy off Khabarovsk for 45 minutes, and the take-off trajectory of aircraft of the 11th Air Force and Air Defense Army lies above Tarabarov.

Estonia and Latvia also laid claim to part of Russian territory. At the same time, they referred to the peace treaties of 1920, according to which Estonia demanded the return of the Pechora district, and Latvia the Pytalovsky district of the Pskov region. But the conditions for joining NATO are such that members should not have any disputed territories, so the Zstonians and Latvians had to officially renounce their claims.

A significant part of the claims and disputes relate to maritime territories. Russia cannot agree on the status of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of ​​Azov with Ukraine. The Caspian states demand the division of the Caspian Sea and, above all, its shelf, a piece of which not only Kazakhstan, but also Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan want to get. In turn, the Russian side has complaints about the Baker-Shevardnadze agreement on the Bering Strait, which delimited the territorial waters, economic zone and shelf between Russia and the United States. The problems of the Black Sea border with Georgia have not been resolved: territorial waters, an economic zone and a shelf have to be divided here. There are also a lot of problems here on land: border delimitation is complicated by the presence of unrecognized entities - Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

There is an acute problem of delimiting water space in the Arctic, the territory of which is claimed by many European countries (Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden), including Canada and the United States. Heated debates surrounding the Arctic zone flared up after huge reserves of hydrocarbons and other natural resources were discovered at the bottom of the northern seas. The race started after Russia planted a symbolic flag on one of the sections of the underwater sea ridge in August 2007 and declared its territorial claims. In response, Canada announced its readiness to build military training bases in the region and patrol the region from the sea. Denmark and the US have filed international lawsuits.

It is obvious that Russia will firmly defend its right to the continental shelf. In particular, Russian scientists conducted comprehensive geological and geophysical research on the Mendeleev Plateau and Lomonosov Ridge. Acoustic, television and photographic study of the area was carried out from the air and water. From the nuclear icebreaker "Arktika", polar explorers in a bathyscaphe descended to the ocean floor near the North Pole, took soil samples at a depth of more than 4 thousand meters and planted the State Flag of the Russian Federation there. A preliminary analysis of the extracted materials confirmed that the sea ridge and bottom plateau are a continuation of the Russian continental shelf. This means that its borders should be extended.

Thus, it turns out that Russia is in a not entirely favorable position, if we consider that only a few of the 16 countries surrounding it do not have or did not have territorial claims in the past. With all the complexity of the current situation in the country, the Russian authorities seem to be beginning to realize this and, to the extent possible, either defend their rights or make concessions in order to avoid diplomatic or, in the worst case, military conflicts, although it is unlikely that any of Russia’s current neighbors capable of getting involved in a war in order to realize its territorial claims.

1.8. maritime boundaries

By sea, Russia borders on twelve countries. Russia has only a maritime border with the USA and Japan. With Japan, these are narrow straits: La Perouse, Kunashirsky, Izmena and Sovetsky, separating Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands from the Japanese island of Hokkaido. And with the USA, this is the Bering Strait, the border running along which separates Ratmanov Island from Kruzenshtern Island. The length of the border with Japan is approximately 194.3 kilometers, with the United States - 49 kilometers. Also along the sea lies a section of the border with Norway (Barents Sea), Finland and Estonia (Gulf of Finland), Lithuania and Poland (Baltic Sea), Ukraine (Azov and Black Seas), Abkhazia - Black Sea, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan (Caspian Sea), and North Korea (Sea of ​​Japan).

1.9. Geopolitical position of Russia after the collapse of the USSR

1. Geopolitical consequences of the collapse of the USSR for Russia

The significance of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the system of socialism from the standpoint of today is extremely difficult to assess. The time that has passed since the actual collapse of the USSR is too short by historical standards. Therefore, even the borders of Russia cannot yet be considered finally determined. The geopolitical position of the Russian Federation is even more uncertain: its political system, the nature of international relations, and its position in the geopolitical space of the former USSR are very fragile.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of 15 sovereign states can be considered accomplished in the political and legal sense. And not all independent states are eager to find some form of unification with Russia. The connecting link primarily remains the previously established economic ties. All republics of the former USSR suffer from the breakdown of these ties.

For decades, the markets of the republics have been adapted to each other’s goods, the demand for which in the West, Japan, and many Asia-Pacific countries, with the exception of raw materials and some goods, fine technologies, is practically absent or limited. When trying to enter the convertible currency markets with their goods, the CIS republics compete with each other and suffer mutual damage.

Factors that somehow connect the former Soviet republics include: demographic, social, cultural, and psychological.

A very important point in the political, economic and other relations of states in the post-Soviet space is the preservation of a single social space. There are no options for solving this problem yet, but for a start we can take the scheme according to which the European Community is being formed, where the national security of each state is determined by the readiness to act in concert in many spheres of public life and, above all, in the socio-economic sphere.

The destruction of the USSR has more losses than gains:

More than 5 million km 2 of territory were lost (USSR);

The exits to the Baltic (except for St. Petersburg and “enclave” Kaliningrad) and to the Black Sea have been lost;

In terms of resources, the shelves of the seas are lost: the Black, Caspian, Baltic;

- “shift” of our entire territory to the north and east;

Direct land access to Central and Western Europe has been lost;

The emergence of several unviable countries and economically weak neighbors (Armenia, Azerbaijan, etc.) on Russia’s new frontiers. As a result, Russia by the end of the 20th century. forced to remain a donor for them in difficult conditions;

The Russian nation became one of the “dissected peoples in the main zone of settlement, on the main West-East highway”;

In the south, Russia practically plays the role of Europe's defender against Islamic fundamentalism. This confrontation includes the Russian Federation in the military confrontation in Tajikistan, and perhaps by the end of the 20th century. and in other republics of Central Asia;

In the east of Russia there is a “vacuum” in terms of population (only 8 million people live in the Far East) despite the economic saturation of the region. In Siberia and the Far East, in Transbaikalia and Primorye, Russia is opposed by the third most powerful state in the world - the PRC. On both sides of the Amur, the regions differ in population density by two orders of magnitude. Experts estimate Chinese and Vietnamese emigration at figures ranging from 150-200 thousand people to 500 thousand, and sometimes up to 2 million (for example, this is what experts from the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe);

Russia received undeveloped borders;

Consequences of the collapse of the USSR - attempts to confederalize Russia.

The weakening of the country's scientific and technical potential is associated with a “brain drain” caused by the plight of science and education and the destruction of advanced technologies. The number of scientific workers in Russia has decreased by more than 1/3 and now amounts to about 350 thousand people versus 1.2 million.

The consequences of the geopolitical collapse of the USSR also include increasing regional contrasts: the difference in income of the country's population is approximately 1:14. We can expect an even larger income gap in the future. There are several reasons for this:

Strengthening the export of raw materials (oil, gas, ores, diamonds, precious metals, etc.) from resource areas of the country (this is stimulated by the West, China and Japan, and other Asia-Pacific countries);

The influence of a powerful lobby representing the fuel and energy complex, financial structures in Moscow;

More than 95% of Russia's finances are processed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.

The collapse of the USSR resulted in a difficult demographic situation in the Russian Federation. During the years of reforms it became catastrophic. According to the State Statistics Committee, the population of Russia (despite the fairly active immigration of Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians from the “near abroad” countries - the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and other regions) is declining.

The economic, demographic, scientific, and technical weakening of Russia means a decrease in its international role and a catastrophic decline in the country’s image.

Russia's external problems are closely intertwined with internal ones, which are creepingly developing into external ones (Chechnya, Abkhazia, Georgia, and in the future the destabilization of Dagestan, Ingushetia and the entire Caucasus region). In this regard, the problem of the country’s borders arises: with the Baltic states, China, Japan and other states. The following geopolitical aspects are also associated with the problem of borders: access to the seas, inclusion in world communications and spatial position in relation to the centers of current and future world activity.

The problem of access to the seas can be considered in military, foreign economic and resource terms. The real military significance of the Black and Baltic Seas is regional in nature for the country.

Conclusion: Russia’s geopolitical vulnerability is obvious, moreover, it is increasing, and this is especially dangerous in the context of the “third redistribution of the world,” NATO’s advance towards the borders of Russia, and NATO wars in Europe.

1.10 Russia’s position on world transit routes, the economic consequences of this for the country, narrowing the possibilities for implementing transport and geographical connections, possible options for new seaports and land routes

In the former Soviet Union there was an extensive, unified transport space, with common good or bad means, with a clear technical policy, with a reasonable tax system. Unfortunately, today in Russia there is none of this, since as a result of changes in the geopolitical situation in Russia, its transport has found itself in a particularly difficult situation. In addition to the reasons common to the country, this situation is largely due to a misunderstanding of the role of transport in the economic and social life of the country and its specifics as a special structure in the national economy. First of all, this relates to the shortcomings of the legal framework, tax and tariff policies, i.e. the entire range of issues that determine the economic and political basis of transport. The most important factor is the technical level of all types of transport systems, organization and infrastructure, and industry producing products. A high degree of physical and moral wear and tear of fixed assets, primarily transport equipment, is a defining characteristic for all types of transport. To this can be added a significant lag in the development of transport infrastructure, mainly seaports, roads and railways, terminal points, etc.

At the same time, decisive integration transport processes are taking place in Europe and in the world, the most striking manifestation of which is the formation of international transport corridors. And Russia needs to participate in these processes. The concept of “international transport corridor” According to the definition of the UNECE ITC: “A transport corridor is a part of a national or international transport system that provides significant international freight and passenger transportation between individual geographical areas, includes rolling stock and stationary devices of all types of transport operating in this direction, as well as the totality of technological, organizational and legal conditions for the implementation of these transportations."

Trans-Siberian railway line (Trans-Siberian), the Great Siberian Way (historical name) - a railway across Eurasia, connecting Moscow and the largest East Siberian and Far Eastern industrial cities of Russia. The length of the main line is 9288.2 km - it is the longest railway in the world. The highest point of the path is Yablonovy Pass (1019 m above sea level). In 2002, its complete electrification was completed.

Historically, the Trans-Siberian Railway is only the eastern part of the highway, from Chelyabinsk (Southern Urals) to Vladivostok. Its length is about 7 thousand km. This particular site was built from 1891 to 1916.

Currently, the Trans-Siberian Railway reliably connects the European part, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East of Russia, and more broadly, Russian western and southern ports, as well as railway exits to Europe (St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Novorossiysk), on the one hand, with Pacific ports and railway connections to Asia (Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vanino, Zabaikalsk).

1.11 Military strategic problems

An assessment of new conceptual documents (National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020 and the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation 2010), defining the main directions of the state’s military policy for the short and medium term, and a comparison of the tasks outlined by these documents with the results of the first stage of the Armed Forces reform Forces in 2008–2009 allow us to draw a number of conclusions about the essence of Russia’s modern military policy and the nature of its influence on the level of military security of the country.

1. The main factors determining the nature of the state’s military policy in the last two to three years are the financial and economic capabilities of Russia and the state of the global security environment.

A new system of international relations that ensures equal security for all states will not be created in the coming years. In the current system of international security, Russia occupies a special position, therefore, when ensuring its own security, it is forced to take into account the need to fend off threats of any nature and scale. This forces Russia to spend huge amounts of money on ensuring national security.

2. The country’s military potential continues to be the main resource for ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation, and it is supported mainly by the combat potential of the Armed Forces.

Therefore, Russia’s military policy as a whole does not go beyond the framework of “national defense.” The indicators of Russia's technical, scientific, demographic and spiritual potentials, which in modern conditions need to be used to ensure military security and whose importance in military conflicts of the future will only increase, are not growing.

The main component of a modern military conflict is informational and ideological, that is, the struggle for public opinion, for the will to resist after the end of the initial stage of armed struggle at a high technological level. To be stable in this component of confrontation, the “defense consciousness” of the country’s population alone is not enough. There is a need for real unity between the army and the people. The protection of public consciousness should become one of the goals of the state's military policy.

3. The theory and practice of Russian military policy today are not interconnected and complementary.

Military theory does not give practice real answers to the questions:

· what is the possible nature of future military conflicts and scenarios for Russia’s participation in them;

· which states are potential adversaries and which are allies;

· what is the essence of new methods and forms of using groups of the RF Armed Forces;

· what are the modern features of organizing the interaction of all elements of the state’s military organization to counter non-traditional threats to national security;

· which non-state actors in international relations may have the potential for armed violence, etc.

The practice of military development, including the latest reform of the RF Armed Forces, does not yet provide military science with practical examples that require scientific justification and implementation.

4. The results of the first stage of the reform of the Armed Forces did not contribute to increasing the level of military security of the state. It will take several more years before new joint groupings of troops (forces) in strategic directions reach the required level of combat readiness. In peacetime, entrusting the tasks of ensuring the military security of the state to nuclear deterrents is not always justified.

Some problems of military security (increasing the authority of the armed forces as a reliable institution of the state, increasing the authority of the state itself, defining a new status of the Armed Forces in Russian society) cannot be resolved within the framework of the military organization of the state, since today the military organization of the Russian Federation is not a system in its classical sense . It is rather a set of individual elements without effective functional connections.

Improving the military organization of the Russian Federation has not become an effective mechanism for the development of the political and economic system of the state, civil society, and therefore is not yet a factor in the sustainable development of Russia.

1.12. State structure and administrative-territorial division of the country

Article 10 of the Constitution establishes that state power in the Russian Federation is exercised on the basis of division into legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative, executive and judicial authorities are independent. Thus, the recognition of the theory of separation of powers is constitutionally enshrined.

Article 11 of the Russian Constitution specifies the following as subjects of the exercise of state power:

President of Russian Federation,

Federal Assembly (Federation Council and State Duma),

Government of the Russian Federation,

Courts of the Russian Federation.

As of 2008, the administrative-territorial structure of Russia included:

21 republics;

• 46 regions;

  2 cities of federal significance (Moscow and St. Petersburg);

  1 autonomous region (Jewish);

  4 autonomous okrugs - subjects of the Federation;

  1866 districts;

  1095 cities;

  329 urban areas;

  1348 urban-type settlements;

  22944 rural administrations;

  154049 rural settlements.

In May 2000, seven federal districts were created in Russia. In January 2010, the North Caucasian Federal District was formed and now there are eight of them:

Central District - Moscow;

Northwestern District - St. Petersburg;

Volga region - Nizhny Novgorod;

Southern District - Rostov-on-Don;

North Caucasus - Pyatigorsk;

Ural District - Yekaterinburg;

Siberian District - Novosibirsk;

Far Eastern District - Khabarovsk.

Each of them is headed by a plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation. These districts do not affect the administrative-territorial division of the country, but serve the purposes of strengthening state power.

The territory of the Russian state was formed through the annexation of new lands both peacefully and by force. From the 14th to the 19th centuries, or more precisely out of 525 years, Russia spent 305 years in wars. Either she was attacked or she was attacked. In the process of formation of the territory of Russia, three stages can be distinguished.
FIRST STAGE (XV - first half of the XVI centuries). During this period, a territory was formed that became the “cradle” of the Russian people. The Moscow kingdom began to take shape under Ivan III - from the middle of the 15th century. Its initial territory - the Moscow Principality - was small. Ivan III increased the territory of the principality five times. Thus, in 1463, Ivan III annexed the Yaroslavl principality to Moscow. In 1472, the vast Perm region was annexed. In 1478, Veliky Novgorod was conquered, which the Muscovites withstood by siege. Later Tver (1485) and Vyatka (1489) were taken.
At the end of the 15th century. The princes Vyazemsky, Belsky, Vorotynsky and others, dissatisfied with the Lithuanian rule, recognized the power of Moscow over themselves, which conquered Chernigov, Bryansk, and a total of 19 cities and 70 volosts from Lithuania. The statement of Ivan III that the entire territory of Kievan Rus was his “fatherland” led to the centuries-long struggle between Russia and Poland for the Western Russian lands of Kievan Rus. At the beginning of the 16th century. The population of the Moscow kingdom was 9 million people. The formation of the Russian people was underway. The Chud, Meshchera, Vyatichi and other tribes were assimilated. SECOND STAGE (mid-16th – end of 17th centuries). During the time of Ivan IV, there was an urgent need to protect the country's borders in the East. In 1552 Kazan was taken. In 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate recognized its dependence on Moscow without resistance. The Mordovians, Chuvashs, and Bashkirs voluntarily joined the Russian state. Thus, the entire Volga was included in Russia. A stream of Russian colonization rushed to these lands. In the 80s XVI century the cities of Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Ufa, Penza, Tambov and others were founded here. Many Tatar khans and nobles were baptized and became part of the elite of the Moscow state. The annexation of the Tatar khanates opened the way to Siberia. A detachment of Cossacks led by Ermak conquered the Siberian Khanate. In 1589 the cities of Tyumen and Tobolsk were founded here. The advance of the Russian people towards the Yenisei, Lena, and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk began. In the West, the Moscow state sought access to the Baltic Sea. During the 16th century. Russia fought about ten wars on its western borders, lasting a total of 50 years. Ivan the Terrible lost the Livonian War and lost the only access to the sea that Novgorod owned. Under Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, Boris Godunov returned this territory to Russia through diplomatic means. To protect the state from the South, the Moscow government from the middle of the 16th century. began a systematic advance south from the river. Oki to the Wild Field area. The entire territory from Moscow to Crimea was free. Detachments of Tatars rushed along it, attacking Russian settlements. The Tula defensive line was built. These are cities and villages, with forts between them, i.e. a continuous chain of fortifications. Between Moscow and Tula the land is populated by peasants. Then a new defensive line is built - Belgorodskaya. These are the cities of Orel, Kursk, Voronezh, Yelets, Belgorod. And finally, the third line, represented by the cities of Simbirsk, Tambov, Penza, Syzran. As a result, Moscow was protected and new territories were developed. In 1654, according to the Pereyaslav Rada, Ukraine united with Russia. As a result of this voluntary act and subsequent wars with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Left Bank Ukraine and Kiev became part of a single country. In 1656, in response to the proposal of the ambassadors of Moldova, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent the Moldavian ruler George Stefan a letter of consent to accept the conditions for the transition of Moldova to Russian citizenship. In 1657, representatives of the Transcaucasian peoples - Tushins, Khevsurs and Pshavs - sent a letter to Alexei Mikhailovich with a request to accept them into Russian citizenship. THIRD STAGE (XVIII–XIX centuries). During this period, Russia became an empire (1721). For more than 100 years, Russia fought for the Baltic states in order to gain a foothold on the sea shores. After the victorious end of the Northern War, Peter I annexed the Baltic states and Karelia to Russia. In 1724, the Armenian patriarchs Isaiah and Nerses sent a message to Peter the Great with a request to accept the Armenian people under the protection of Russia. By the good will of the peoples living here, the Nogai (from Orenburg to Yuryev) and Kyrgyz lands were annexed to Russia. The resounding victories of Russian troops under Catherine the Great brought great glory to Russia. In 1774, the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty was concluded with the Turks, according to which Crimea was declared free, and in 1783 it became Russian. As a result of three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), Russia included the lands of central and western Belarus, Right Bank Ukraine without Lvov, most of Lithuania and Courland. During the war with Sweden (1808–1809), Finland was annexed. In 1814–1815 The Congress of Vienna transferred the Duchy of Warsaw (Kingdom of Poland) to Russia. The struggle for the Caucasus was started by Peter I. He conquered Derbent and Baku. After the death of Peter the Great, the advance into the Caucasus slowed down. In 1799, Georgia, which was being ravaged by Persia, voluntarily became part of Russia. In the 19th century Russian troops moved into Transcaucasia, and by 1810 most of it was incorporated into Russia. This caused resistance from the Caucasian peoples. The war with them lasted 50 years (1917–1864).
In the XVIII–XIX centuries. The lands of Kazakhstan, inhabited by nomadic tribes, were annexed to Russia. Here the Russians began to build cities - Orenburg, Troitsk, etc. With the end of the Caucasian War, advancement into Central Asia began. The Bukhara Emirate, Kokand and Khiva khanates were conquered. Russian troops stopped at the borders of Afghanistan. As already mentioned, Russia’s external expansion was caused by the needs of the Western way of life, but the type of conquest remained Eastern. Russia did not become a metropolis, but the annexed territories became colonies. The conquered lands were included in a single state. The problem of forming the territory of Russia was solved throughout the 20th century. In general, throughout the entire development of the country, one can trace, firstly, the tendency for various peoples to enter the state and leave it with their lands. Secondly, many peoples who inhabited the Russian empire joined it voluntarily, which protected them from physical destruction by their warlike neighbors. Thirdly, Russia’s borders have practically never been in an unchanged state. The “movement” of territories depended on both external and internal factors. The most important internal issue was the question of centralization and decentralization of power. The territory of the country ultimately depended on this.

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