Sunday, January 21, 2007
Russian History in two days
Two main themes: 1. Expansion; 2. How much will Russia be like the West and how much will it remain apart from the West?
On p. 409 of your text, the shorthand explanation for Peter III is that "He was retarded..."
This characterization struck me as offensive and overly simplistic . So I did some research:
source: http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/Peter3-Rus.html
I started thinking about how Catherine could carry out this coup and how it would be packaged to the Russian people. These pictures from the Hermitage might help explain some of her P.R. strategy.
On p. 410, our book discusses how Russian explorers made it down the Pacific coast of what is now the U.S. That line made me think of this Restaurant and B&B in California where my wife and I stayed in California a few years ago. It's called St. Orres and with its onion-shaped domes, it looks quite a bit like St. Basil's Cathedral, located near the Kremlin and Moscow's Red Square.
* * *
This is less directly related to Russia (though Russia was a participant), but here's a brief description of the Seven Years War, which came up in one of our classes last week.
On p. 409 of your text, the shorthand explanation for Peter III is that "He was retarded..."
This characterization struck me as offensive and overly simplistic . So I did some research:
| Peter III, czar of Russia |
| 1728–62, czar of Russia (1762), son of Charles Frederick, dispossessed duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his aunt, Czarina Elizabeth. One of his first acts was to take Russia out of the Seven Years War and to conclude an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia, whom he passionately admired. He thus saved Prussia from almost certain defeat and sacrificed all the advantages Russian arms had gained in the conflict. In 1744, Peter had married Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was to become Czarina Catherine II. Although he was dissolute and, it is alleged, mentally unbalanced, Peter’s domestic policy was in some respects liberal. He abolished the secret police and granted greater religious freedom, and he virtually ended the nobles’ obligation to give service to the state. He aroused hostility, however, by his contempt for the Orthodox Church and by his concern with gaining Holstein. In the summer of 1762 a conspiracy against Peter, headed by Catherine’s lover Grigori Orlov and his brother Aleksey, was set in motion. Catherine was proclaimed sole ruler, and the imperial guards, led by Catherine in person (who had donned the guards’ uniform), set out for Peterhof, where they forced Peter to sign his abdication. A few days later he was assassinated by his guards, probably led by Aleksey Orlov. Catherine’s role in this is uncertain. Peter’s claim to ducal Holstein passed to his son Paul (later Czar Paul I), in whose name Catherine ceded it to Denmark in exchange for Oldenburg in 1773. |
source: http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/Peter3-Rus.html
I started thinking about how Catherine could carry out this coup and how it would be packaged to the Russian people. These pictures from the Hermitage might help explain some of her P.R. strategy.
On p. 410, our book discusses how Russian explorers made it down the Pacific coast of what is now the U.S. That line made me think of this Restaurant and B&B in California where my wife and I stayed in California a few years ago. It's called St. Orres and with its onion-shaped domes, it looks quite a bit like St. Basil's Cathedral, located near the Kremlin and Moscow's Red Square.
* * *
This is less directly related to Russia (though Russia was a participant), but here's a brief description of the Seven Years War, which came up in one of our classes last week.
# posted by Mr. G : 3:18 AM
