Early Modern Eastern Europe

A fistful of lively learners rocked our last review session solely devoted to the early modern Europe.  After school tomorrow we will return to the French Revolution, pivot event between early and just plain modern.  So early modern is generally speaking the 15th through 18th centuries.  Review today focused on eastern Europe, especially the rise of the Russian Empire from Ivan the Terrible (r. 1533-1584) through Peter the Great (r. 1689-1725) to Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796).  Here is a quick primer, including the origins of Russian culture before our course begins:


I also did a screencast on this.  Russia expanded greatly under Ivan, Peter, and Catherine, all of whom increased the power of the state and the military.

Although Catherine the Great, played by Becca Timo at our Salon, is considered an Enlightened monarch, she did not end serfdom in the Russian Empire.  Noble land owners gained authority over their peasants during and after the time of Ivan the Terrible.  Tsars controlled the nobility and the nobility controlled their serfs.  Early modern Eastern Europe was socially and economically dominated by noble land owners, and a prominent merchant class did not develop.  This lack of a modernizing bourgeoisie made much of Eastern Europe different than Western Europe.

Catherine did reform the law, by creating a legal code, and supported education, the arts, and the Encyclopedia.  Like other Russian Tsars, however, she was unwilling to take the side of the serfs against the nobles, whose support she needed to stay in power.  This was especially true after the Pugachev Rebellion, a massive peasant uprising that started along the Volga River, and the French Revolution, to which we will turn our attention tomorrow after school.