Russia
From Slavic.info
The Slavic tribe which formed the nucleus of the future Russian nation was neither larger nor more powerful than any of those which later developed into the Serbian, Czech or Croat people. Nevertheless the Russian nation became not only the largest of all Slavic peoples; it even came to outnumber the total population of all other Slavic countries. This was to a large extent the result of Russia's topographical situation.
From the Arctic and Baltic Seas a vast plain, in which mighty rivers form natural highways, extends down to the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas. The northern section consists of rich forestland while the southern steppes give just enough vegetation for the raising of cattle. The middle section of this territory is the largest and richest agricultural area of Europe. It was the granary of the Greek Empire, and in modern times has been one of the principal goals of the Teutonic "Drang nach Osten". As the inhabitants of one zone cannot exist without the natural products of the others, the final unification of the entire area was an economic necessity. It was initiated by a comparatively small tribe of Slavs living in the vicinity of Novgorod. Helpless in their struggles against their neighbors—Finns, Khazars, Lithuanians and Scandinavians, and unable to establish a government of their own, they called on the invading Scandinavians to rule their country.
According to tradition a group of Norsemen headed by the Rurik family founded a principality in Novgorod in 852. A rival principality established shortly afterwards in Kiev by members of the Rurik family was soon united with Novgorod, and became the center of the country.
As Byzantium was the only point of interest within sight of Russia, the Russian rulers tried to establish contact with the Byzantine Empire in every possible way, hostile or friendly. This trend of action had its climax in the Rurik Princess Olga's conversion to the Christian faith, with the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus acting as her godfather (955). But Christianity was not firmly and officially established in Russia until 992 when Olga's grandson Vladimir41 made it the religion of the state.
No other event in Russia's history has had more significance for her cultural life than this attachment to the Greek Church. Had Russia adopted the Church of Rome, her cultural development would have followed the pattern of her Slavic neighbor Poland which became Roman Catholic. However, a common faith proved a stronger link than national brotherhood; and Russia's western boundaries became, so to speak, the borderline between Orient and Occident.
During the next 250 years, throne disputes and civil wars resulted in the supremacy of the principality of Moscow which became the new center of Russia under the regency of the Dolgoruki—Bagoliubski family, descendants of Rurik and the ancestors of the Romanovs. The first prince of Moscow was Daniel, a son of the famous Alexander Nevski.
In the thirteenth century Russia faced two invasions: one, the Teutonic Knights from the West, the other, the Mongols (Tartars) from the East. The former, although it was of tremendous importance for Russia's neighbor, Poland, was but a minor incident for Russia. Alexander, Prince of Novgorod defeated the united Teutonic Knights and Swedes in the Battle of the Neva and earned for this victory the surname Nevski.
Of far greater importance was the Mongolian invasion which began in 1224 and was completed around 1240. To the contemporary observer of this time, when almost all Russia was under Mongol domination, it seemed there was no Russia but only a vast Mongolian Empire. Historians who maintain that the invasion lasted about 250 years are mistaken. After the Battle on the Don (1378), won by the Grand Prince of Moscow with the surname Donskoi (Victor of the Battle on the Don)44 Mongol power decreased considerably; at the Battle on the Oka River (1480) the yoke was broken completely v However the result of the invasion still exists today: the conqueror became the conquered; that is to say the Mongols were actually absorbed, physically and culturally, by the Russians.
The conquest of Constantinople (Byzantium) by the Turks in 1453 was the beginning of what might be called the "second installment" of the Byzantine Empire's cultural contribution to Russia. Thus the quatrocento also proved to be for Russia something of a Renaissance. Priceless treasures of art, science and literature came to Russia from Constantinople, brought by the stream of immigrants fleeing from the Turks. Zoe (Sophia) the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, however, went to Rome, as the Pope wanted her to marry Ivan the Great, the Grand Prince of All-Russia, not in order to add blood of the Roman Caesars to the Russian dynasty but to establish an alliance between the Roman and the Orthodox Church, because he needed outside help in his struggle against the infidel Turks.
Was it his marriage with Zoe, descendant of the Caesars, or the incorporation of the last principality into Russia in 1523, that caused the Grand Prince of Moscow to call himself Czar—the Slavic word for Caesar? One ominous fact stands out: the first Czar, Ivan IV, was given the surname "The Terrible". The civil war following his death in 1585 ended with the accession to the throne of Michael Romanov.
As the history of Russia became more and more the history of the ruling dynasty than that of the people, it can have no place in a book dealing with folk music. The attempts of Peter the Great to westernize his country were not without significance, for although Russian composers wrote for about fifty years in an artificial Italian style which disappeared toward the end of the century, a large part of the architecture, art and literature of this period was based on foreign models, chiefly Italian and French.
The many wars with Prussia, Poland, Turkey and other countries, the Napoleonic invasion of 1812, and even the seemingly disastrous defeat by Japan in 1905 had little effects on the cultural life of the huge Russian state.