The Mongols ruled Russian lands along with the rest of their dominions and for a time Russia was just a part of the great Mongolian Empire. But over time resistance grew. One of the Russian provinces, with the city of Moscow as its capital, was strong enough to throw off the Mongol oppression. It was the great Russian leader Ivan III who drove the invaders from the land. In 1547 Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, had became strong enough to take the title of the first Czar or ruler of Russia, uniting much of the land. The Czars began to rule a more unified Russian state as the country began to take on more and more of a national and collective feel, despite her size and diversity. In 1682 Peter the Great became Czar. Under Peter’s rule reform swept through the country. The Czar brought many elements of Western Culture to his homeland, transforming much of Russian history and beginning her move towards becoming a player on the Western European stage. He also moved the capital from Moscow to the newly built St. Petersburg. The terrible cost of lives it took to build St. Petersburg in the marshy land on which it is located has remained a blight on Russian history. The new capital would remain here for many years before moving back to the original city. Catherine II, also named Catherine the Great like her predecessor, Peter, was another leader that helped form a stronger and more united Russia. Catherine began her reign in 1762, and during her rule Russia’s territory was greatly increased. Catherine the Great left a powerful Russian country after her death.

In 1801 Alexander I became Czar. During Alexander’s rule the self-styled ruler of Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded Russia. In 1812 the French Emperor sent a massive army across the Russian border in an attempt to conquer the country. Napoleon did not, however, count on the tenacity of the Russian people, nor did he factor in the intensity of the Russian winter. The Russians adopted the tactics of steadily retreating further into the endless depths of their country as the French army advanced. They burned their crops and lands as they went, leaving no sustenance for the invaders, and they even abandoned Moscow without a serious fight. Then father winter arrived and the harsh cold came howling from the north. The French were not equipped to fight such a winter and the bulk of their soldiers perished. Without directly facing the military might of the French the Russians had defeated the invaders.

After Alexander I came Nicholas I. In 1853 Czar Nicholas brought Russia into the Crimean War, a war Russia lost to Turkey and her allies, primarily England and France.

Czar Alexander II came to the throne after the death of his father, Nicholas I. During his time as Czar, Alaska, still considered part of Russia, was sold to the young, thriving nation of the United States. Also, in 1861, a great step was made in the modernization of Russia. In that year Alexander emancipated the serfs, the virtual slave class of Russia.

In 1894 Nicholas II became the last Czar of Russia. Twenty years later he would lead Russia into the great struggle of World War I.

Russia suffered terribly during the Great War. Great unrest and anger grew as the war dragged on until, in 1917, revolution broke out and Nicholas II was overthrown. In July of 1918 the last Russian Czar met his doom when he and his family were murdered. After a period of struggle a group of the revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks under their leader Vladimir Lenin, seized control. The Bolsheviks came from a new breed of thought that had taken hold in Europe more recently; they were communists. They formed the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The great Empire of Russia was no more.

In 1924 Lenin died, but not before he had reorganized the government into a thoroughly communist entity. After a bitter struggle for power Joseph Stalin became the leader of the new republic. Joseph Stalin would prove to be one of the most diabolical and cruel leaders the world has ever seen, and millions of his own countrymen would perish under his regime. Stalin ruled over a new alliance of countries known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR, in which Russia was the key and most powerful member.

Stalin began a “Great Purge” which would continue for years as he wiped out anyone remotely threatening to his leadership. The purge would severely weaken Russia’s military leadership and would result in the death of countless persons, all for one man’s safety.

In 1939 Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War II. Although Russia and Germany would become enemies before long, in the beginning Russia aided Germany’s invasion of Poland, claiming a part of the spoils for herself. Before long, however, Hitler and the Nazi war machine turned its awful might on Russia’s homeland. In 1941 The German armies swept into Russia, only to be terribly weakened by Napoleon’s greatest enemy, the Russian winter. Despite the horrible winter, the German army was not utterly destroyed and it took a great effort on the part of Stalin and the Russian armies to drive the Nazis back to Germany. It was Russian troops that reached Berlin first, beating the western allies by a slim margin.

Soon after, Stalin declared war on Japan at the same time that the two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces. Japan surrendered and the allies had won the war.

The end of WWII did not usher in an era of “peace,” nor did it bring an end to war. The two major super powers that finished the war strong were the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union, led by Russia. These two powers, which had aided each other to defeat Germany, now began to compete for supremacy. The USA was the symbol of capitalism and the western world while the USSR became the symbol of communism. The Soviet Union’s policies were very strict and they wished to keep out the influence of western culture in their governance of Eastern Europe. Winston Churchill coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” in a speech referring to the seemingly impenetrable border of the communist countries. The USSR became an isolated world where Stalin’s communism continued to have its bitter effect, now spreading beyond the borders of Russia to the other satellite countries within the Iron Curtain.

The Soviet Union and the United States soon become arch rivals on the world stage, facing off like the ancient titans, racing to beat each other in technology, influence, and military might. Neither country came to blows with the other, and Soviet troops never directly fought American soldiers, but the growing “Cold War”, as it was termed, stretched on for decades with ever growing intensity.

In 1949 Russia acquired its first atomic weapon. For the first time in history two different countries had an atomic bomb with which to barter, threaten, and use. In 1953 Stalin died. Nikita Khrushchev took up the standard and the USSR continued to race ahead. In 1957 the Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. This filled the Americans with fear, which was intensified in 1961 when Yuri Gagarin, a Russian astronaut, became the first man to travel to space. That same year a wall was built in Berlin, cutting off the communist controlled half of the city from the western half. Two years earlier, communists led by Fidel Castro had won Cuba, and in 1962 Russia attempted to install short-range missiles on the island country. This was dangerously close to the United States, who demanded that the missiles be removed. This marked one of the closest points during the Cold War that the USSR and the USA came to physical combat. However, before the world was asked to endure a nuclear war, the two powers laid down their pride enough for the Soviets to remove the missiles and the Americans to leave the island communist.

In 1964 Leonid Brezhnev became the leader of the USSR, and soon afterwards war in Vietnam and the struggle there became the new focus of the two superpowers.

By 1985 the USSR was becoming tired. Mikhail Gorbachev now led the communist behemoth, but much of her previous success had disappeared. Americans had caught up and much surpassed the Soviets in space and other technological advances, and the USSR’s coffers were nearly exhausted. In 1989 Gorbachev withdrew communist forces from Afghanistan where they had unsuccessfully fought for a decade. That same year the Berlin wall was torn down and communication was restored between the east and the west. Many saw the fall of the Berlin wall as a physical image of the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Boris Yeltsin became the Russian President in 1990 and a year later the Soviet Union was dismantled. Yeltsin continued to lead Russia until 1999, when he was followed by Vladimir Putin.

The long and rich history of Russia has, without a doubt, left an indelible mark on the great timeline of history. After throwing off the Mongol yoke her people rose to become the great bastion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. When Napoleon’s empire threatened to engulf all of Europe it was the Russian nation that stopped him cold, and again when Hitler’s shadow rose the Russian empire stood firm. Her contributions to the space age and new technologies have been instrumental, and there is no doubt that, through the thick and the thin, God has had his hand on this people, the brave nation of Russia.