Global 10.2 The Rise of Russia

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 * Russia really developed in 3 distinct regions:
 * Northern Forests
 * Frozen area was good for hunting but not farming.
 * Central Farming
 * Warmer region was best adapted to farming
 * Southern Steppes
 * This region was ideal for nomadic people and allowed vast migrations of people from Asia into Europe.
 * When Byzantium sent missionaries to Russia to convert Slavic people to Christianity, it became necessary to create an alphabet so that the people of Russia could have a Bible in their own language.
 * The Cyrillic alphabet created by the Greek monks was an adaption of the Greek alphabet and is still used in Russia and Ukraine today.
 * Russia enjoyed a period of prosperity under "Yaroslav the Wise," an educated teacher who translated many Greek works into Cyrillic. He also wrote a law code and arranged marriages between his children and the royal families of Western Europe.
 * After his death, rival families battled for the throne in Kiev and the power of Slavic people declined severely.
 * Genghis Khan was a Mongol leader that overran lands from China all the way into Eastern Europe. His grandson, Batu, lead the Mongol army, the "Golden Horde," into Russia where they conquered and ruled for 240 years.
 * As Mongol power declined, Moscow rose to the forefront of Russian power. The princes of Moscow eventually banded together to defeat the Golden Horde, reducing the Mongol's power.
 * Ivan III, or "Ivan the Great," brought much of northern Russia under his rule.
 * He limited the power of Russian boyars (landowning nobles)
 * He adopted Byzantine court rituals.
 * He took the name "Czar," which is the Russian word for "Caesar."
 * The grandson of Ivan the Great, continued his grandfather's practices of centralizing power. Ivan IV, or "Ivan the Terrible," was an unstable and sometimes crazed leader that helped to advance serfdom in Russia.
 * He used force and fear to control the people.
 * He killed his own son in a fit of rage.
 * He created the "oprichniki," a group of black-robed soldiers that would enforce his will.