Post by GH on Aug 21, 2010 7:20:55 GMT 1
Country: Russia
Real name: Иван Брагинский (Ivan Braginski)
Personality: Ivan might seem innocent and childish, often bearing a warm smile. Some might even say that he looks a bit shy, sometimes sitting away from others and just looking at them go. But the truth is different. When he sits still and glances at people, he observes. Finds amusement in their petty little arguments and chuckles to himself behind that smile, imagining what they would look like under his grip, his control.
He isn't innocent, but he surely enough is childish. Just not in a way you might want.
He has experienced a lot of hardships, wars and bloodshed, and due to all that has been happening to him, he has never gotten the chance to fully grow up. Thus, he isn't even aware that some of the things he does are wrong, after all, he has always done things that way. And it has worked. Most notable of these 'things' is the intimidating and controlling of others. It's not that he does it to be evil, it's just that, in the past, he has resolved many difficult situations using those methods. He loves to be in control, as it makes him feel secure.
Pretty much for the same reason, he also likes to see that his actions have an effect on others, especially if the effect is precisely what expected it to be. It's a game. A serious one, but a game nonetheless. And, according to him, a few other countries exist solely for that purpose; to play with him in a game of power.
He doesn't like to be alone and loathes the cold, as it all reminds him of his past suffering. Thus, he yearns for the company of others, as well as warmth. That's really all he wants, but since he only know one way to get people to do what he wants, he tries to intimidate and force people to be close to him. But that's just because nobody ever taught him how to ask nicely. Not that he'd listen now if somebody tried to teach him; he likes the way he does things now.
He likes his own culture and his proud of it, yet he is very curious as to how others do things as well. He likes to learn about others, even if it sometimes is to gain more information he could later use against them. He doesn't like people planning things behind his back, which is why he sometimes worries over things like the EU, where other countries get to discuss things in secret from him.
Likes:
- Warmth
- Sunflowers
- Vodka
- Being in control
- Some of the buildings in his country; he's very proud of them
- Similarly, the literature his country has produced
Dislikes:
- Winter and cold weather
- When things don't go the way he'd want them to, disobedience
- America, and the fact he always has to poke his nose in his business.
- Being alone
- When people make him look like the bad guy for no reason
- When his people don't get along
History:
Maybe we'll skip the nomadic pastoralist tribes and such, and start from the early east slavs… I'll be brief. I hope.
The ancestors of the Russians, as well as the main part of the inhabitants of Kievan Rus, were the Slavic Tribes. Not much is known about the Early Eastern Slavs from the time prior to where the Primary Chronicle starts, most likely due to the lack of written language (the Cyrillic script hadn't been created yet). Gradually, the East Slavs found their way to Western Russia as well, and settled down there, too. And later, slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugric tribes.
The Medieval state of Rus (aka. Kievan Rus')
A predecessor of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, tradition places it as the starting point of what we today call Russia. It existed from about 860 to the middle of the 13th century before disintegrating. It's still debatable as to when the state was formed. There are several hypotheses, but the two main ones are known as the "Norman" theory and its competitor, the "anti-Norman theory".
The Norman theory is based on the old-Rus chronicles, the Primary Chronicle as well as some other sources. This theory states the year 862 as the establishment year of the state of Rus. According to it, it was created by the Varangians Rurik, Sineus and Truvor.
On the other hand, the anti-Norman theory speaks of the impossibility of creating the state by the Varangians.
According to the Primary Chronicle, the three brothers of Rurik, Sineus and Truvor were actually called back after they, along with other Varangians, had been driven out. The brothers returned and each took a different city to rule, namely and respectively Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk. However, after Rurik's brothers died, he obtained their areas as well.
Kievan Rus' was officially founded by Prince Oleg, who took Kiev and established it as the capital. Previously, Kiev had been owned by the Khazars. The Kievan Rus' was the first Slavic state and controlled the trade routes for things like furs, wax and even slaves between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire.
Speaking of the Byzantine Empire, it had a major and an ongoing influence on the development of Russia. It was also during the Kievan Rus' period that a Slavic version of the Eastern Orthodox religion was introduced. And later, under the rule of Prince Vladimir I, Christianity became the state religion. And yet another few years later the first code of laws called Russkaya Pravda was introduced.
(Okay, this seems to be getting unnecessarily long, so, I think I'll skip a bit. So, to the fall of the Kievan Rus' we go!)
There were many factors that contributed to the eventual fall of the Kievan Rus'. The power succession system brought about hatred and envy, the fall of Kievan Rus' trading partner, Constantinople, and, as a final strike, the Mongolian invasion were all reasons for the state's fall. The Mongols eventually destroyed the old city control, and previously important centers such as Kiev never recovered. Thus, new cities began their rise. Among them, and the most notable, was Moscow.
Which brings us to our next stop, the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Mongols caused much trouble for Moscow, burning it down in the winter of 1238 and later pillaging it in the 1293, but due to its location, it was remotely safe from attacks. The numerous rivers near it also provided access to a wide range of regions. Not only that, but Moscow was blessed by good, ambitious leaders. Daniel, and after him Yuriy expanded their rule and lands. Then, Ivan, successor of Yuriy regained the title of Grand Duke by cooperating with the Mongols.
It was after Ivan's son took power and began gathering land that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania clashed with them. The Duke of Lithuania undertook three expeditions against Moscow, but didn't manage to defeat it.
In 1350 the country was struck by Black Death, killing young Dmitri Ivanovich's parents. The rule wasn't given to him, however, but to a distant relative. Moscow's ruler formed an alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Dmitri was later to become a national hero, as he united the warring principalities of Russia and defeated the Khan's commander in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. It was a victory against the Mongols, however, only two years later Moscow was sacked and 24, 000 people killed, as Tokthamysh attempted gain back his authority. The Mongolian rule wasn't over, but it had begun to falter.
Even that, though, didn't diminish the respect Dmitri got, nor the influence of his actions. He had given his people hope of breaking free from the Tatars, and becoming free people.
Many leaders of Moscow attempted to gather together Russian land in order to increase their rule. The one that succeeded in this the most was Ivan III, who established the foundations for a Russian national state. He also had a rival; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who again had clashing interests over land. Under Ivan III's rule, the size of the Grand Duchy of Moscow actually tripled in size. His kingdom was even likened to Rome, being called the "Third Rome". Ivan was the one who attacked the already declining Golden Horde and opened the way for its complete defeat.
As the 16th century came along, the rulers of Moscow considered themselves the owners of the entire Russian territory, and Ivan forced lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Moscow, as well as his descendants as the absolute rulers. So, slowly but steadily, the Russian ruler became more and more powerful and autocratic. He would become a tsar. And the first one to officially known himself as such was Ivan IV.
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsar's power reached its peak with Ivan IV (dubbed "Ivan the Terrible"). He kept strengthening his position and forced nobles to bend under his will. And, should anyone oppose him even slightly, he would either exile or execute them without a second thought. Sometimes, he even considered his own cities as his enemies. Novgorod is one example of these, and thus having suffered from the Massacre of Novgorod in 1570. Still, despite his cruelty, he wasn't a bad leader overall; he was told to be a farsighted salesman, who, among other things announced a new code of laws, as well as established the first Russian feudal representative body, Zensky Sobor.
He fought the long Livonian War for the control of medieval Livonia, but failed. But, instead, he managed to take the Khanates of Kazan, Siberia and Astrakhan. Still, Russia also suffered under Ivan; his followers carried out several bloody purges, the military lost men, epidemics raged and harvests were poor. Russia wasn't in the best of shapes, and thus, the Crimean Tatars were able to burn down Moscow, and near the end of Ivan IV's reign, the Polish-Lithuanian and the Swedish armies destroyed parts of the land.
Later on followed the Time of Troubles, during which civil wars raged, and summers were cold, which, through bad crops, led to famine. There was chaos within the country's borders, and the foreign intrusions were anything but favorable. And the more chaos, the more it attracted the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They invaded Russia and reached Moscow, installing the impostor Dmitriy I on the throne. Supposedly, the real Dmitriy had been killed in the past. Later, this impostor was followed by Wladyslaw IV Vasa. Moscow's riots were suppressed and the city itself set aflame.
However, the Russians were not happy with their foreign invaders on the throne, and thus, in 1612, a volunteer army expelled the foreigners. Russia survived the Time of Troubles, though not without casualties and loss of land to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire.
The end of the Time of Troubles brought about the rise of the Romanovs, as the young Mikhail Romanov was elected to the throne. The first thing to do for the new dynasty was the restoration of peace and order. Moscow was in luck, though, as both of its longtime enemies, Sweden and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were fighting with each other now. Thanks to that, Russia was able to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619. Later, Russia formed a treaty with Ukrainian Cossacks called the Treaty of Pereyaslav. The treaty stated that Russia granted protection to the Cossacks state. The area used to belong to Poland, and as such triggered a Russo-Polish War, which ended in 1667 when Poland accepted the loss of Left-bank Ukraine, Kiev and Smolensk.
The states were now sanctioning serfdom, which led to state fugitives and that, in turn strengthened the rule of the landlords. That led to heavy taxation. They had to pay, and were unable to leave. This led to a lot of revolts, such as the Salt Riot, Copper Riot and Moscow Uprising. The most notable of the revolts, however, happened in 1667, which was only subdued three years later.
Peter the Great was an important ruler of Russia. He was the one who, through a policy of modernization, turned the Tsardom of Russia that had been in chaos just some time ago into a large Russian Empire, the largest state in the world.
The Ottoman Turks were the target of Peter's first military efforts, after which he desired a northern seaport. Sweden, an old enemy was blocking his way, and thus he made a secret alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark against Sweden. This led to the Great Northern War, which ended in 1721 when Sweden made a peace treaty with Russia. Thus, Peter acquired access to the sea he so wished for. And, in 1703 Russia's soon-to-be capital, Saint Petersburg had already been established. Russia also gained domination over the Commonwealth. Celebrating this, Peter took the title of emperor in addition to a tsar.
Thus the state became known as the Russian Empire in 1721.
The Russian Empire
Peter reorganized his government to resemble that of the West's. He formed a nine-member senate and divided the countryside and told the senate to collect tax revenues. He aimed to make the church a tool of the state and replaced the patriarchate with Holy Synod. Peter died in 1725, leaving the country with a lot of questions and uncertainties, yet also with the base to the modern Russia.
After about forty years later, Catherine II took power. She was a German princess who married the German heir to the Russian crown. Her husband died due to a conspiracy, and from the year 1762 onwards, under her rule, the Russian Empire expanded, its administration was improved and it continued to modernize. She extended control over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and waged war with the Ottomans, as well as pushed the Russian frontier towards central Europe. She died in 1796.
Alexander I continued the same line and took Finland from Sweden in 1809 and Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812.
Napoleon and Alexander I had a dispute, and Napoleon made the mistake of declaring a war and invading Russia in 1812. Napoleon's strategy failed tremendously. He attempted to capture Moscow in winter, yet wasn't prepared for winter warfare. Thus, thousands of French troops were lost, and even when the troops retreated, the Russians pursued them all the way to the gates of Paris. Due to his defeat of Napoleon, Alexander became known as the savior of Europe. Yet, despite its victory, Russia began to lag behind the West.
Alexander was succeeded by his little brother, Nicholas I. Right after his rise to power, he had to cope with a revolt. Namely, the Decembrist Revolt in 1825. It was easily crushed, though, and Nicholas didn't follow through with the Westernization program Peter the Great had begun earlier.
There was to be another big revolt in Congress Poland in 1831 and another one, this time with the Lithuanians involved as well, in 1863.
Not long after the Crimean war had started, Nicholas died. Alexander II came to the throne in 1855. A humanitarian movement similar to that of the abolitionists in the USA attacked serfdom. However, Alexander II didn't wait for revolution to bring about the end of serfdom and instead, decided to do it himself from above. This led to the emancipation of the serfs. However, unlike what Alexander II had intended, revolutionary tensions didn't subside, as the terms of the abolition had been unfavorable to the peasants.
In the 1870s there was the Russo-Turkish War, which also raised tension with Austria-Hungary. Russia expanded its territory again, this time into Central Asia.
The next tsar was Alexander III, a Slavophile who wanted to shut Russia from the influence of the West. He concluded the union with France and continued to Central Asia. His adviser, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, tutor to both him and his son, taught them to hate freedom of speech, democracy and the parliamentary system. Under him followed the Russification.
After his father, Nicholas II came to power in 1894. All the while the Industrial revolution was giving birth to forces that would eventually overthrow the tsar. The opposition forces formed into three parties. One of these parties and the most radical one was the RDSLP, which later split into two wings; the radical Bolsheviks and the moderate Mensheviks. The Mensheviks believed in reaching their goal peacefully and gradually, while the Bolsheviks planned to seize power by force.
Then, the Russo-Japanese War happened, and things started to go downhill. The Russian forces performed poorly and that caused much unrest in the tired, already annoyed peasants. That led to a petition, which didn't go as it was planned. Instead came what is known as the Bloody Sunday. The massacre, however, only angered the people more. Unrest grew and so began the Russian Revolution of 1905. During the same year, Nicholas issued the October Manifesto.
(… Hmm, this is still ridiculously long. Well, next up are the most known time periods, so maybe it'll be alright if I'll be even more brief, for the sake of your eyes and mine.)
Nicholas II was bound by his treaty and thus got involved in the World War I, defending Serbia. In 1914, the Russians attacked Germany and Austria-Hungary.
As time passed however, things weren't going so well for Russia itself. The people were turning against the government, and the fact that Russia was effectively blocked from receiving supplies by the enemy forces didn’t help at all. So, soon people were tired of the war, not having enough food or fuel, and casualties kept increasing. People were in unrest, and the distrust towards Grigory Rasputin, a man of considerable influence wasn't a helping factor. His assassination ended the scandal, but it didn't resolve everything. There was a strike on 1917, and as the tsar ordered for the chaos to be stopped, he triggered the February Revolution. Nicholas and his family were placed under house arrest and eventually shot. After Nicholas had been abdicated and a few switches in the leadership had occurred, Lenin returned to Russia from exile. There was the October Revolution, and later Lenin removed his reign from the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Though, later in the same year, it was cancelled by the Soviet government.
The Bolshevik rule wasn't firm, and there were fights against the right-wing "whites", effectively leading to a civil war. In addition, Allied powers sent their own armies to support the anti-Communists, in order to pull Russia back into war. But, by 1921, the Bolsheviks had defeated their enemies and brought most of the countries that had just gained independency back under their rule. There were exceptions, though, such as Finland, the Baltic States, the Moldavian Democratic Republic and Poland.
The Soviet Union and the World War II
The Soviet Union was established in 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party. It was formed of four republics, namely Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belarusian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR. The constitution was adapter in 1924, and the formed body was, in truth, being controlled by the Communist Party.
This brought about great changes in Russia, which brought about opposition. Land, industry and businesses were nationalized, and that didn't please the peasants. In an answer to this, came the NEP. There were critics who weren't happy about how kulaks benefitted from the NEP.
However, that was only the beginning of all the changes Russia was to go through. There were a lot of good things, especially at first. Divorce was made easier and abort legal. The position of women changed, and girls, too, were encouraged to gain education rather than become housewives, and, like with everything, there were attempts to 'bring people together' as a group with communal nurseries. Everything had to be united and shared. The discrimination of national minorities was lessened and medical services were extended.
Also, both atheism and materialism were promoted in an attempt to weaken the influence of the church. Thus Lenin kept gaining power to the extent that there wasn't much limiting him. And after him, in 1928, Stalin followed as the absolute leader, putting in action another, radical wave of industrialization.
It was in that very same year that he came out with the First Five-Year Plan. As a result, the government took control of everything, controlling all economic activity through the collective farms better known as kolhozes. People were forced to move from their own land, to which the peasants answered by slaughtering their own herds. There was unrest, revolts, and people were executed as kulaks. However, the collective farms didn't work quite as well as they were supposed to, and a great famine resulted. A huge amount of people died of hunger. Still, though the peasants suffered, Russia had begun to industrialize at an extremely fast rate.
Then came the NKVD. Numerous people were arrested, deported or executed, and Stalin had the six original members of the 1920 Politburo killed. The Great Purges claimed many lives, and many were sent to Siberia to work on labor camps for various crimes.
The Soviet Union had followed Germany's actions with care from the get-go, and in 1939, they signed the Non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the same year, the Red Army invaded Poland from the east, while Germany invaded it from the west. The Red Army claimed their operation was to protect the Ukrainians and Belarusians. The Soviet Union managed to move its border further to the West, yet elsewhere, the negotiations with Finland about the repositioning of borders failed. And thus began the Winter War, which was a costly war on the Red Army, as they lost a lot of troops against their enemy. Still, it forced Finland to sign a peace treaty and as a result, hand over the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia.
The acquisition of land continued elsewhere, when in 1940 the Soviet Union took land from Romania and occupied the Baltic States. There was tension between Russia and Germany, and eventually the Axis forces attacked Soviet land in 1941. They advanced through Ukraine and threatened the capital, but after two big losses, in Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany didn't have enough strength to continue their attack. And in 1943, the Red Army had reclaimed Ukraine and moved into Belarus. A year later they had advanced into eastern Europe, and finally in 1945 Germany was defeated.
The Cold War
(Okay. NOW I'll be brief. I promise)
After the World War, the conflict of the future of Eastern Europe between the USSR and the USA sparked another war, referred to as the Cold War. Neither right out attacked the other, nor tried to invade.
Still, it wasn't a peaceful time. Both countries were conducting atomic bomb research and projects, and people were fearful. The US sponsored NATO, and the Soviet Union replied to it with the Warsaw Pact. The most important objectives of the USSR were the maintenance and enhancement of national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union crushed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, sent to suppress the Prague Spring in 1968 and thorough the years, opposed the USA in proxy conflicts, such as the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The USSR and the USA had grown to be superpowers, both wanting to beat the other in every way possible.
After Stalin's death and the following power struggle, Khruschev rose to power. He was however charged later with Soviet setbacks like the Cuban Missile Crisis, and was replaced by Brezhnev. During the time the two were in charge, the science in the Soviet Union reached its peak and the world's first nuclear power plant was established.
Then there was also the space race, as both superpowers wanted to extend their reach to the space. In 1957, USSR launched the first space satellite, Sputnik, and a few years later, Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel into space in Vostok 1.
But the USSR was already faltering. Gorbachev made a policy which eased the public access of information. However, that led to people finding out about the problems of the state. The revolutions in 1989 costed the USSR his satellites in Eastern Europe. There was an ongoing war in Afghanistan, the public was restless, industry outdated and there was corruption. There were shortages on products, even the most essential ones, and the power the Soviet held began to falter.
There was a power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin. And, in the end, the latter was elected as a chairman of the Russian republic's new Supreme Soviet in May 1990. He was the first president of the Russian SFSR as per the election in 1991. There was a coup against Gorbachev in the same year, but it remained as an attempt and failed.
The Russians were dominant in the Soviet Union, and many considered "Russia" and "Soviet Union" to be practically synonyms before the late 1980s. The Russian SFSR was the only one to lacked things such as its own republic-level Communist Party branch and trade union councils.
Finally, after the Belavezha Accords, the Supreme Soviet of Russia withdrew Russia from the Soviet Union, and not much later, the Soviet Union came to an official end. Thus, the new Russian Federation came to power.
(I… I seriously apologize for the length of this… thing. And I'm also sorry for any possible typos or mistakes in the history. I did read through it, but my eyes just can't catch anything else anymore.
Role Play Example:
Ivan softly pressed his forehead against the frosty glass of the window, wincing a bit from the cold surface against his skin. It was very strange how he was frozen from the snowy top of his head all the way down to his curled up toes, and yet he could still feel the cold. One would think he had gone numb ages ago.
Slowly, gloved hand shaking not from the cold but the sheer fear of what he surely would witness any second now, Ivan brushed his hand across the window, wiping away the snow and frost. It felt like his heart was beating in his throat now, and no matter how many times Ivan swallowed he couldn't calm himself. How many times did this make now? How many houses had he checked before this? There had been a few. So why, oh why couldn't his heart leave him alone already?
With one final, futile attempt to calm himself, Ivan pressed his hands on both sides of his head and leaned forward against the window. He peeked inside, eyes squinted and sore, and saw the exact same view he had seen so many times before.
Empty couches waiting in vain for their owners to return, knocked over furniture as the inhabitants of the house had left in a hurry, lonely fireplaces void of even a single flame. Cold. Empty.
Ivan clenched his chest and took a few, quick steps away from the lonely house.
It hurt. His chest hurt.
Slowly, Ivan fell on his knees, knuckles white as he tightened his grip. Why? How could anyone do something like this? And why did it hurt him so much? Naturally, any passerby seeing such a sad scene would feel something, but to this extent…
Just then, he saw something strange. In front of him, staining the white snow he was sitting on… was something red. Blinking a few times as if to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Ivan reached out his hand to press his fingers on the liquid. And, as he did, he noticed the snow wasn't the only thing stained crimson. His glove, sleeve, and as he took the time to better look at himself, the entire front of his coat… it was all stained. All red.
But why?
"Hey, you!"
Ivan stared at himself, his vision blurring from silent tears welling up his eyes. He shook his head slowly. Why would he be crying? It made no sense…
"Didn't you hear me?"
Ivan snapped from his thoughts and slowly turned his gaze to a man with a uniform standing next to him. He held a gun in his hand and a stern expression on his face.
"Get up, comrade", he ordered and offered his hand, "We've still got work to do. There are still more of 'em, more people against us."
Ivan looked at the man, confused. What did the man mean? These were the houses of their own citizen...
The man left, but Ivan didn't even notice. He was sittings till now, staring into somewhere far, far away. A joke, perhaps? Maybe the man was fooling around. There was no way he could have actually…
Ivan looked at his hands again, but even though the horrible realization had already started to creep into his mind, he refused to accept it. All he ever wanted was for his people to live in peace. Together, united. It was true that he would've done anything to realize that dream, but surely…
He didn't move an inch, his eyes completely fixed on his hands now. He kept staring deep into the red, unable to decide whether the blood on his hands was a good thing or not. After all, the blood was warm; it warmed his hands.
But it froze his heart.
(Mmmkay, that came out a lot longer and more angsty than I had hoped, but… Eh. D:)
Yes, this whole thing is pretty long... Sorry about that. Also, if I did something wrong, I demand you to tell me, so I can fix it 8) And finally, sorry this took so long.