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The Early Settlements
Slavs
In the 7th century B.C., nomadic Scythians migrated north into fertile Russian territories. Herodotus the Greek, who visited southern Russia in the 5th century B.C., observed that "Some tribes cultivated the land; the builders of the Parthenon would have gone hungry without Russian wheat; but the ruling element remained nomads, living in tents, yet not altogether eschewing the arts of civilization." These people also began trading furs and honey with Constantinople; eventually, the merchants acted as middlemen between other settlements in the far north (inhabited by Finnish tribes) and the Roman Empire. As these early Slavic people began to cultivate the land, villages and towns sprang up, protected by wooden citadels, or kremlins, cut from the abundant forest timber. The inhabitants gradually occupied an area from St. Petersburg to Kiev and spoke a language (originating from Greek) quite similar to modern Russian.
Varangians
The numerous tribes were united in the 8th and 9th centuries, when the Scandinavians, Vikings known as Varangians, migrated south and began establishing trade settlements with the Slavs, along with their own strongholds. Many of these settlements were situated along the Neva River and Lake Ladoga. When the Norseman Rurik defeated the strongest Slavic settlement, Novgorod, in A.D. 862, the Varangians became the rulers of northern Russia. In the south, the Slavic Prince Kii had formed the Kievan territory. In 880, Rurik's successor, Oleg, conquered the Slavic-ruled Kiev and made the city his capital two years later. With the two areas united, the State of Rus (its name derived from the Viking word ruotsi, meaning "oarsman") became one of the largest kingdoms in the world.

Christianity
Rus was still a pagan state when Prince Vladimir succeeded to the throne in 978. To further unify his large kingdom, the prince decided to select a monotheistic religion for his people. One of the first Russian chronicles. The Story of the Passing Years, describes the experiences of the Russian ambassadors in Constantinople: "We did not know whether we were in heaven or earth for upon earth there is no such sight or beauty; we only know that there. God is present among men." In 988, Prince Vladimir introduced Byzantine Christianity to Russia. It had an overwhelming effect on the country: along with a new religion came Byzantine art, architecture, and culture.

By the 11th century, the two most important towns in Russia were Kiev and Novgorod. The seats of the grand-prince and the metropolitan of the Orthodox Church were in Kiev, where all the splendors of Constantinople were recreated. Novgorod was the northern commercial and religious center. Even though Russian culture was greatly influenced by Byzantium, it took many years to spread the new religion through the pagan states of the north. After the Mongols, headed by Batu Khan (grandson of Genghis), sacked Kiev in 1240, the Russian rulers and church leaders shifted their kingdoms to the north. Through the next few centuries, the Golden Ring towns of Rostov, Vladimir, Suzdal, and Zagorsk became the secular and religious capitals during the Golden Age of Rus.

Early Days of Moscow
As Kiev declined, Russia's northern principalities grew in political and economic importance. The governing ruler of Russia, Kievan Grand-Prince Yuri Dolgoruky ("Long Arms''), wanted to extend and strengthen his rule over the northern territories. His father, Vladimir Monomakh, had succeeded in reuniting the north and south for the first time in centuries. In 1125, Dolgoruky declared Suzdal his northern capital and made himself the prince of the region. Between the Volga and Oka rivers, on the banks of the Moskva River, Dolgoruky established a protective outpost for the Rostov-Suzdal principality. The first reference to Moscow appeared in the Chronicle Ipatyev in 1147, when it was mentioned that Prince Yuri Dolgoruky hosted a feast in Moscow to honor the Prince of Novgorod. In 1156, Dolgoruky built the first wooden kremlin and added a church within the settlement. Since the settlement lay along important trade routes to the Baltic in the north, the Black Sea in the south, and later to Europe in the west, Moscow slowly grew in size and significance, and it eventually became the capital of the Moscovy principality.
Mongols
In the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongols, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, set out to conquer Asia and Europe. The great khan believed that his people "were intended by Heaven to rule the world." In 1237, Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis, invaded Russia from the south; with a vengeance he sacked and burned every town from Kiev to Moscow. The people of Russia were subjugated under the Golden Horde. For the next 250 years, Russia was cut off from the outside world; the khans appointed the princes, controlled the government, and collected taxes on the lands.

Except for the provinces of Novgorod and Moscovy, most of the other areas of Russia were completely devastated. Many people fled to the more isolated areas around Moscovy to escape the pillage of their cities. In 1240, the Scandinavians again invaded from the North, but the prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, defeated the Swedes on the banks of the Neva River. The khan appointed Nevsky grand-prince and his son, Danill, the prince of Moscovy. In 1299, the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church fled the ruined city of Kiev and took up residence in Vladimir, seat of the grandprince since 1157.

Ivans I, II, And III
In 1328, the prince of Moscovy, Ivan I, was appointed grand-prince by the Khan. Ivan I (132840) had a strong economic hold over the other principalities. Since Ivan collected large tributes from the northern territories for the Mongols , he became known as Ivan Kalita, or "Moneybags." At this time, the seats of both the grandprince and the church metropolitan were transferred from Vladimir to Moscow.

During the rule of Ivan II (1353-59), the Mongol yoke was weakened and the khans lost their right to appoint the grand-prince. Ivan II's son, Dmitri, became the first Russian leader to defeat the Mongols, in the decisive battle of Kulikovo on the Don in 1380. Grand-Prince Dmitri Donskoi(of the Don) increased his domain by annexing the Vladimir-Suzdal principality to Moscovy.

In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, which released the Russian Orthodox Church from Byzantium's domination. Eight years later the Orthodox Church changed the title of the metropolitan of Kiev to the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. For the first time, the Church was run by the grand-prince in Moscow, which further enhanced the power of Moscovy.

Grand-Prince Ivan III (1462-1505) married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor in 1472 and adopted the Byzantine crest of the doubleheaded eagle for Russia. Ivan refused to pay any further tributes to the khans. With Russian armies conquering the remaining Tartar hordes, two centuries of Mongol oppression came to an end. Ivan III, who became known as Veliky (''the Great''), also annexed Novgorod to the Moscovy principality and rebuilt the city of Moscow. He summoned foreign architects to build elaborate churches and palaces within the Kremlin walls. The city grew to such splendor that the patriarch declared Moscow the new Constantinople. In the early 16th century, a monk wrote that "two Romes have already fallen, but the third remains standing and a fourth there shall not be."

The Czarist Empire
Ivan The Terrible
In 1547 Ivan IV (1533-84), grandson of Ivan the Great, was crowned the first czar of all Russia (the term czar was derived from caesar) in the Kremlin's Uspensky Cathedral. In addition, Moscow became the capital of the Holy Russian Empire. Ivan ruled with a deep-seated paranoia and ruthlessness; it's said that he gouged out the eyes of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such beauty could never again be created. The czar's power became absolute when Ivan the Terrible succeeded in conquering the remaining independent principalities. He confiscated the property of the boyars (ruling-class nobles) and granted state property to those who served him. Since the soldiers were tenured to the state for life, their land grants became hereditary. The state also assigned a master to the peasants who worked the lands around an estate; this, in a sense, paved the way for serfdom. Ivan the Terrible organized the Streltsy (members of the army elite) to govern his districts and the Oprichniki (the first police force) to suppress boyar rebellions. In 1582, after the Livonian War with Poland and Sweden, Russia lost her far northern territories and her access to the Baltic. In the same year the czar also killed his son Ivan in a fit of rage. When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, Moscovy was left in a state of almost total political and economic ruin.
Time Of Troubles
Ivan the Terrible's last son, the feeble-minded Fyodor, inherited the crown. Fyodor's brother-inlaw, Boris Godunov, was elected regent and virtually governed the country. In 1598, when Fyodor died (and with him the House of Rurik), Godunov, who wasn't even a member of the higher nobility, was elected to the throne by the Imperial Assembly, which consisted mainly of the discontented gentry. Godunov's reign (1598-1605) ushered in the Time of Troubles: famines swept the land and there was increasing unrest among peasants, boyars, and Cossacks.

In 1591 , the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, Dmitri, mysteriously died. But in 1604, a false Dmitri (claiming he had escaped an assassination attempt) turned up in Poland and claimed to be the rightful heir of Moscovy. Supported by the Russian boyars, gentry (who thought the Poles respected the rights of noblemen), and a Polish army (which also had an eye on the territory), Dmitri advanced on Moscow. Boris Godunov died before Dmitri reached the city, paving the way for Dmitri to claim the throne. He was murdered shortly thereafter. A second false Dmitry attempted to gain control of the city with the remaining Polish army. Russian forces united in fear of a Polish invasion. Headed by the rugged Cossacks, this army emerged victorious. The Council of All Russia elected Mikhail Romanov, from an influential boyar family, their new czar in 1613. The Romanov Dynasty would rule over Russia for the next 150 years.

In 1652, Nikon, during the rule of Mikhail's son, Alexcei I (1645-76), became church patriarch. Nikon immediately set out to reform Russian Orthodoxy. This resulted in a violent schism within the Orthodox Church. Those in favor of reform assembled under Nikon. Those opposed called themselves the Old Believers and were led by the monk Avvakum. Those who rejected the reforms were tortured and hanged; many of the Old Believers fled into the northern woods to escape persecution.

When Alexcei's eldest son, Fyodor, died in 1682 after only six years as czar, a struggle broke out for the throne. Ivan V and his halfbrother Peter I were proclaimed joint czars, with their older sister Sophia acting as regent. When Ivan died. Peter the Great became sole ruler and emperor of all Russia. Moscow, capital of the Russian Empire for almost two centuries, was fated, as Pushkin described, "to bow to a new capital (St. Petersburg) as the Queen Dowager bows to a young Queen."

St. Petersburg
Peter The Great
Peter the Great, one of Russia's most enlightened and driven rulers, pulled Russia out of her dark feudal past to equal status with her European neighbors. With an intense curiosity toward foreign lands, he opened Russia's window to the West and became the first ruler to extensively journey outside of Russia.
When Peter's father. Czar Alexcei, died, his son Fyodor III succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1676 to 1682. During this time, his half-brother Peter, along with the ill-favored Natalya, was sent to live in the country. Instead of the usual staid upbringing within the Kremlin walls. Peter had the freedom to roam the countryside and make friends with peasant children.

When Fyodor died, a rivalry broke out between the two families over which son would gain the throne. Peter won the first battle and was proclaimed czar at the age of 10. But soon Ivan's side of the family spread rumors to the Streltsy (military protectors of Moscow) that the Naryshkins were plotting to kill Ivan. The Streltsy demanded that Peter's half-brother be crowned too. So for a time, the throne of Muscovy was shared by the two boys, the feebleminded Ivan V and the robust, but young. Peter I. But it was Sophia, Peter's older half-sister, who ruled as regent for seven years with the help of her lover. Prince Golitzin.

Peter spent most of his time in the country. One fateful day, the young boy discovered a wrecked English boat that could sail against the wind. He had the boat repaired and learned how to maneuver it. Infatuated now with sailing, he also immersed himself in the study of mathematics and navigation. In addition, the young czar loved working with his hands and became an accomplished carpenter, blacksmith, and printer; he even mended his own clothes. As a child, he loved to play soldier and drilled his companions in military maneuvers, eventually staging mock battles with weapons and uniforms supplied by the royal arsenal. Peter was also quite fascinated with the techniques of torture. (Later in his reign, fearing a plot against his life organized by Alexcei, his son. Peter had Alexcei imprisoned and tortured to death.)

Sophia was eventually removed from court affairs and sent off to live in Novodevichy Convent outside of Moscow. When Ivan died. Peter I, at the age of 22, assumed the throne as the sole czar and took up his imperial duties in earnest. On the throne, his first real battle was against the Turks; the plan was to take the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Don River in order to gain access to the Black Sea. Peter built a fleet of ships, and for the first time in her history, Russia led a surprise attack from the water. The Turks were defeated and Russia had her first southern outlet to the sea.

After this successful campaign. Peter traveled to England, France, and Germany, and he worked as a shipbuilder in Holland. Back home, the Streltsy, with the help of Sophia, began to organize a secret revolt to overthrow the Czar. Peter caught wind of their plans; upon his return, he captured and tortured almost 2,000 men and dissolved the corps. By this time, the now cultured ruler had lost interest in his first wife and sent her off to a convent in Zagorsk, the czarist equivalent of divorce.

Peter was greatly impressed by Western ways, and he was determined to pull Russia out of her isolation. He tolerated new religions, allowed the practice of Catholics, Lutherans, and Protestants, and even expressed approval of Galileo's sacrilegious scientific theories. He exercised state control over the Russian Orthodox Church by establishing the Holy Synod. In 1721 , Peter declared himself emperor of all Russia.

During the Great Northern Wars, while chasing the Swedes out of the Baltic, Peter began building the first Russian Navy on the Gulf of Finland. It was during this time that he met and fell in love with a good-natured peasant girl named Catherine, whom he later married; Empress Catherine ruled for two years after his death.

In 1703, Peter began the construction of a new city in the north, where the Neva River drained into Lake Ladoga. The city was built on a myriad of islands, canals, and swamps. The conditions were brutal; nearly 100,000 workers perished the first year alone. But within a decade, St. Petersburg was a city of 35,000 buildings of granite and stone, and the capital of the Russian empire. Peter commissioned many well-known foreign architects, including the Italian Rastrelli, the German Schluter, the Swiss Tressini, and the Frenchman Le Blond, who created Petrodvorets, Peter's summer palace. Montferrand later designed St. Isaac's cathedral, which took over 100 kilos of gold and 40 years to build. Peter brought the majesty of the West to his own doorstep; it was no wonder that St. Petersburg was nicknamed the "Venice of the North."

Golden Age
Peter I introduced Western culture, commerce, and technology and constructed St. Petersburg's first buildings, which included an Admiralty and shipping yards. Every structure had to be made from stone; builders of wooden structures risked banishment to Siberia. Peter immediately brought in 1,000 aristocratic families, 500 families of the best merchants and traders, and 2,000 artisans and craftsmen. Foreign architects designed some of the most splendid buildings that Russia had ever seen. Both Westerners and Russians flocked to the new capital. By 1725, the year of Peter's death, St. Petersburg had over 75,000 inhabitants.

Over the next 150 years, especially during the reign of Catherine the Great, St. Petersburg became the host to Russia's Golden Age and a Mecca to some of the world's greatest dancers, artists, composers, and scientists. It was the home to Lomonosov, Mendeleyev, and Pavlov, and to distinguished architects such as Montferrand, Rossi, and Rastrelli. As the catalyst for Russia's Renaissance, St. Petersburg paved the way for the poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, and Akhmatova, and the novels of Gogol, Dostoevsky, Corky, and Nabokov.

Revolutionary Times
Decembrists
St. Petersburg was also destined to become the cradle of the Russian Revolution. The first general strikes in Russia occurred in 1749 under Empress Elizabeth. After Napoleon was defeated in 1812 during the reign of Alexander I, secret societies sprang up throughout the country calling for the abolition of serfdom. One of these movements, a group of dissatisfied nobles known as the Decembrists, also petitioned for the end of autocracy. On 14 Dec. 1825, they marched into Senate Square with soldiers who had refused to swear allegiance to the new czar, Nicholas I. The uprising was crushed within a few hours and the conspirators immediately hanged. Pushkin, whose personal censor was the czar himself, composed a poem about the event: "He was made emperor, and right then displayed his flair and drive: Sent to Siberia 120 men and strung up five."
Petrashevists
Twenty-three years later, in 1848, another revolutionary circle, known as the Petrashevists, was sparked into action by the writings of Belinsky. Fyodor Dostoevsky became a member of this group. The aim of the society was to prepare for an uprising, and the members secretly printed material that advocated emancipation. But the secret police uncovered their plot, and on 22 April 1849, Count Orlov, Chief of the Gendarmes, had all of them arrested and imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress. With the earlier Decembrist revolt in mind, Nicholas I exiled the conspirators to penal servitude in Siberia. But before the prisoners were to hear their sentences, Nicholas I set up a mock execution. Dostoevsky, along with five others who spent eight months in solitary, was led outside expecting to be executed. Only at the last minute were the prisoners informed that the Imperial Majesty had granted them their lives. In a letter to his brother, Dostoevsky wrote: "Today, December 22, we were driven to Semyonovsky Parade Ground. There the death sentence was read to us all, we were given the cross to kiss, swords were broken over our heads, and our final dress was arranged. Then we were set against the posts so as to carry out the execution."

Freedom Group
In 1861 , under increasing pressure and protests, the next czar, Alexander II, signed a decree abolishing serfdom. This action, however, fell far short of revolutionary goals. Words by the Russian poet Nekrasov show that the people were still disenchanted with their way of life. "Do not rejoice too soon! Tis time to march ahead. Forget your exultation. The people have been freed. But are the people happy?" With the publication in Russia of Karl Marx's Das Kapital in 1867, the first Marxist groups were formed within the country. Revolutionary activities mounted, and on I March 1881, the Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will or Freedom Group") succeeded in assassinating Alexander 11-but not in stopping czarist oppression. The country remained in a state of turmoil. Six years later, five students, including Lenin's older brother, tried to kill Alexander III, but their attempt failed. All were hung in the Kronstadt Fortress.

Bloody Sunday
Czar Nicholas II, fated to be the last czar, began his reign by marrying Alexandra, granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Nicholas, a weak and superstitious man, held a paranoid and deep dislike for the intelligentsia and politicians. Proletarian organizations continued to gather. The Social Democratic Labor Party was founded in 1898. In 1903, the Labor Party Congress split into two factions: the Mensheviks, led by Martov, and the Bolsheviks, headed by Lenin. Two years later Nicholas presided over Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. In the same year, 1905, Russia's first revolution received a bloody baptism. On 9 Jan. a huge procession of dissatisfied workers, headed by Father Capon, marched into Palace Square. By carrying icons and chanting "God save the czar," the protesters hoped to get Nicholas's attention. In the czar's absence, the director of the police department commanded his men to open fire on the group. Hundreds were massacred. This watershed event is remembered as Bloody Sunday.

A tide of strikes and protests ensued, and the czar was forced to establish a limited consultative parliament called the State Duma. The Soviet of Workers and Soldiers became the organ of the proletariat. To gain some control, Nicholas appointed Stolypin his premier; Stolypin proved ruthless in suppressing any further revolutionary activities. During 190709, at least 2,000 people were executed. Stolypin himself was shot to death in the Kirov Theater in 1911 . Nicholas's hold on the country was further weakened by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Due to anti-German sentiment, the city's name was Russian zed to Petrograd. The notorious Rasputin, brought into the court to heal the Imperial Family's hemophiliac son, had a strong influence over Nicholas and Alexandra and practically ran the country for a few years, until his death in 1916.

The Revolution
In February 1917, a revolution finally overthrow the monarchy and a provisional government led by Kerensky was established. After 10 years of forced exile abroad, Lenin returned by train to Petrograd and planned the Bolshevik takeover. On 24 Oct. 1917, Lenin gave the command from the Smolny Institute, headquarters of the Red Guard, for the start of the October Revolution. The battleship Aurora sailed up the Neva and fired a blank shot near the Hermitage that signaled the famous beginning of what American writer John Reed termed "the ten days that shook the world." Red Army troops stormed the Winter Palace, and the Bolsheviks took control of the new Soviet state. Trotsky, Lenin's main ally, wrote that without Lenin the October Revolution would not have been won." Lenin then changed the name "Bolshevik" to "Communist," and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was elected the first chairman of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1918, Nicholas and his family were executed in the Ural town of Sverdlovsk; that same year, Lenin moved the capital of the Soviet Union to Moscow. When Lenin died in 1924, the city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor.

By the 1930s, membership in the Communist party grew to 3.5 million. At its height, 19 million Soviets claimed Party membership, seven percent of the total population. Membership was open to any citizen who did not "exploit the labor of others," abided by the Party's philosophy, and gave three percent of their monthly pay as dues to the Party. Members were also required to attend several meetings and lectures every month, provide volunteer work a few times a year, and help with election campaigns. Of the 19 million, one percent were apparatchiks, fulltime officials paid by the Party. The Komsomol, or Communist Youth Organization, had 40 million members. Twenty-five million younger schoolchildren once belonged to the Young Pioneers. Eligibility for full Party membership began at age 18.

Stalin.
The Secretary of the Communist Party who followed Lenin was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, who adopted the last name of Stalin, meaning "steel." Stalin ruled for almost 30 years, up to his death in 1953. In 1928, Stalin initiated the first five-year plan and collectivization of agriculture. Two years later, he began industrialization of the cities. Collectivization, the grouping of all farmlands under state control, proved such a radical departure from the self-ownership rights given to the peasants after the revolution that many chose to burn their crops rather than give up their land. Along with the devastation caused by the revolution, civil war, and WW I, a widespread famine swept the nation, eventually killing 10 million people.
The assassination in 1934 of Sergei Kirov, Leningrad Party Chief, signaled the beginning of the Great Terror. Between 1935 and 1941 , Stalin persecuted anyone thought to be against him or the state. Suspects were arrested and, without proper trial, shot or sent to prison camps. Following Stalin's orders, the head of the secret police, Lavrenti Beria, and his officers rounded up every suspect of society: old Bolsheviks, new party members. Red Army corps, intellectuals, and kulaks (prosperous peasants).

Leningrad party leader Andrei Zhdanov, in his campaign of Zhdanovshchina, persecuted Leningrad's writers and artists in what is known as the Leningrad Affair. Eventually the poets Mayakovsky and Yesenin committed suicide. Zhdanov permitted only the art of Socialist Realism, which he said "aided the process of ideological transformation in the spirit of socialism." No one escaped the purges; even Zhdanov fell from Stalin's grace and was executed in 1948. Of approximately 20 million that were arrested, seven million were immediately shot and the others sent off to gulags for rehabilitation. The purges and prisons are described in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago. Stalin wiped out the whole ruling class of Bolsheviks. Half the delegates of the 17th Party Congress were arrested during 1934-39, along with 90% of the military's generals. Within a few decades, the Soviet Union lost an entire generation of its most courageous, creative, and devoted citizens-the brains and soul of the nation.

Invasion In 1941 Hitler invaded the USSR, which now had no more than a skeleton army and a starving, terrorized population. The crippled country battled against the invading German forces; World War II (The Great Patriotic War, as it was caned in the USSR) lasted for four years. Leningrad was surrounded and cut off from the outside world for 900 days. Today, a monument on the outskirts of Moscow (seen on the way into town from the airport) shows how close the Germans came to capturing the city. Every tenth inhabitant of the USSR was killed-more than 20 million people. One must understand the turmoil experienced by this generation to comprehend why the war continues to play such a significant part in people's lives today.

Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Stalin in 1953. During the 20th Party Congress in 1956, Khrushchev gave a secret speech, never published, denouncing Stalin. In 1954, after Beria's fall, Khrushchev founded the KGB, Committee for State Security, to establish party control over the secret police. Under the de-Stalinization program, the KGB didn't have the power to hold its own trials, and Party officials were exempt from arrest. Khrushchev's new "thaw'' campaign attempted to shed light on Stalin's atrocities and challenge the Party's position. He opened up the prison camps and brought home five million people. The political thaw was accompanied by an intellectual and cultural one, with greater freedom of expression for artists and writers. But at the same time, two-thirds of the Orthodox churches and monasteries were closed down.
Khrushchev tried to undo the damage of collectivization by implementing new reforms, but he caused havoc several times by again eradieting the peasants' private plots and ordering the widespread planting of maize.

In 1961, Khrushchev met with US President Kennedy. The same year, the Soviets sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space. Congress also voted to remove Stalin's body from its place of honor alongside Lenin in the Kremlin Mausoleum. Khrushchev began to rebuild Moscow, finally, 15 years after the war. Large-scale housing projects (with communal living residences), the Palace of Congresses, Kalinin Prospekt, and the Russia, largest hotel in the world (with 6,000 rooms), were constructed. He also turned the Kremlin buildings into a museum that was opened to the public.

Because of his inconsistent policy changes, economic blunders, and the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco, in 1964 the Party demanded Khrushchev's resignation. His downfall was accelerated by his introduction of Rule 25: No party official should have more than three terms or 15 years in office. The majority of Party members were ready to hold their positions for life. Thus the first inner-Party coup toppled a leader whose insightful ideas weren't realistically considered or implemented until Gorbachev came to power.

Radical Reforms
On 11 March 1985, 54-year-old Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was elected the new general secretary of the Communist Party. Following in the footsteps of such past rulers as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin, and Brezhnev, Gorbachev inherited a stagnating economy, an entrenched bureaucracy, and a population that had lived in fear and mistrust of their previous leaders. Gorbachev's first actions were to shut down the production and sale of vodka and to ardently pursue Andropov's anticorruption campaign; one of the first to go was Leningrad party boss Grigory Romanov.
On 25 Feb. 1986, the 27th Party Congress endorsed new party programs and changes in the selection methods of officials and elected a new central committee. No other Soviet leader in history had consolidated power in the Politburo as quickly as Gorbachev. In 1986, he introduced the radical reform policies of perestroika (restructuring), demokratizatsiya (democratization) and glasnost (openness) that have now become household words. Gorbachev emphasized that past reforms hadn't worked because they didn't stress the "involvement of the people in modernizing and restructuring the country." Perestroika implemented more profit motives, quality controls, private ownership in agriculture, decentralization, and multicandidate elections. Industry concentrated on measures promoting quality over quantity; private businesses and cooperatives were encouraged; farmers and individuals could now lease land and housing from the government and keep the profits made from selling produce grown on private plots: hundreds of ministries and bureaucratic centers were disbanded. A law was passed that allowed individuals to own small businesses and hire workers as long as there was "no exploitation of man by man." In the campaign for demokratizatsiya, open elections were held. Glasnost let truths surface from the Stalin and Brezhnev years.

Integrating The Russian Character When Gorbachev came to power, people were instilled with a lack of incentive and morale, and a fear of expression that carried over from the difficulties of past decades. An entire generation had led a two-faced life-one face for the state and the other for themselves. For the first time in decades, Gorbachev worked on integrating the Russian character. Andrei Sakharov and other political prisoners were released from internal exile. (After winning the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, Sakharov, the physicist and human-rights activist ,was banished for nearly seven years to the city of Corky. He died in Moscow on 14 Nov. 1989.) One hundred Soviet dissidents from 20 cities were allowed to form the "Democratic Club," an open political discussion group. Glasnost swept like a tidal wave through all facets of Soviet life.

For the 40 million Russian Orthodox and people of other religious beliefs, Gorbachev stated that "believers have the full right to express their convictions with dignity." On 1 Dec. 1989, Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to set foot in the Vatican. In a historic meeting with Pope John Paul II, Gorbachev promised to open diplomatic relations with the Vatican and pledged that the government soon would pass a law guaranteeing freedom of religion for all believers. In one of his speeches in Rome, Gorbachev expressed: "We need spiritual values; we need a revolution of the mind. . . . No one should interfere in matters of the individual's conscience.

"Christians, Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, and others live in the Soviet Union," he said. "All of them have a right to satisfy their spiritual needs-this is the only way toward a new culture and new politics that can meet the challenge of our time."

Modernization
As Peter the Great had understood, modernization meant Westernization, and Gorbachev reopened the window to the West. With the fostering of private business, about five million people were employed by over 150,000 cooperatives. After 1 April 1989, all enterprises were allowed to carry on trade relations with foreign partners. This triggered the development of joint ventures. Multimillion dollar deals were established with Western companies such as Chevron, PepsiCo, Eastman-Kodak, McDonnell's, Time-Warner, and Occidental Petroleum.

At the 1986 Iceland Summit, Gorbachev proposed to sharply reduce the Soviet stockpile of ballistic missiles. In December 1987, Gorbachev and US President Ronald Regain signed a treaty at the Washington Summit to eliminate intermediate nuclear missiles. "I do think the winter of mistrust is over," declared Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov. In January 1988, plans to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan were announced. Nine months later Andrei Gromyko retired and Gorbachev was elected president of the Supreme Soviet.

During a visit to Finland in October 1989, Gorbachev declared that "the Soviet Union has no moral or political right to interfere in the affairs of its East European neighbors. They have the right to decide their own fate." Soviet spokesman

Gennadi Gerasimov added that Moscow had adopted the "Sinatra Doctrine, 'I Did It My Way.'" And that they did! By the end of 1989, every country throughout Eastern Europe saw its people protesting openly for mass reforms; not in this century had there been such sweeping political change. The Iron Curtain Grumbled, symbolized most poignantly by the demolishing of the wall between East and West Berlin.

In December 1989, Gorbachev met with US President George Bush at the Malta Summit, where the two agreed that "the arms race, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle should all be things of the past." An additional summit was held in the United States in the spring of 1990.

On 26 March 1989, in the Soviet Union, the first general elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies were held. This was the first time since 1917 that the people actually had a chance to vote in a national election. Fifteen hundred delegates were elected, and they were joined by 750 others who were elected by other public organizations. This 2,250-delegate body elected 542 members to form a new Supreme Soviet.
Ousted a year earlier from his Politburo post for criticizing the reforms, congress candidate Boris Yeltsin won 89% of the Moscow district vote to make a historic comeback. Moscow crowds chanted, "Yeltsin is a man of the people" and "Down with bureaucrats," and a surprising number of bureaucrats had, in fact, lost their positions. Andrei Sakharov was also elected. For the first time in Soviet history. Communist Party candidates could lose their elections. In the beginning of 1990 the people once again headed for the polls to elect regional and district officials. For the first time in seven decades, the voters had the opportunity to choose from other independent and pro-democracy movements. Scores of Communist Party candidates suffered defeat to former political prisoners, adamant reformers, environmentalists, and strike leaders. Yeltsin, this time, was voted president of the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union's largest republic, with more than half the country's pop-ulation and the nation's largest city, Moscow, as its capital. In June 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party, stating, "I am announcing my resignation in view of my . . . great responsibility toward the people of Russia and in connection with moves toward a multiparty state. I cannot fulfill only the instructions of the Party."

The Government Under Gorbachev
A New Order
Mikhail Gorbachev unleashed the forces of change and it was expected to be years before the people could witness the full effects of his reforms. "Empty store shelves and housing problems," stated a Soviet economist, "have made the process difficult, but something absolutely vital has taken place in Russian terms: a change in our way of thinking."
In 1990, Time magazine named Mikhail Gorbachev the "Man of the Decade," calling him "the Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud of Communism all wrapped in one" and the man responsible for ending the Cold War. On 7 Feb. 1990, after 72 years of Communist rule, the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee voted overwhelmingly to surrender its monopoly of power. On 15 March 1990, the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies amended Article Six, which had guaranteed the Communist Party its monopoly as the "leading authority" in government. In its revised form, Article Six stated that the Communist Party, together with "other political parties" and social organizations, has the right to shape state policy. During the 28th Party Congress, the Party voted to reorganize its ruling body, the Politburo, to include Communist Party leaders from each of the 15 republics, in addition to the top 12 Moscow officials. Instead of their being selected by the Central Committee, the Party in each republic chose its own leaders, guaranteeing a voice to even the smallest republic. Vladimir Ivashko from the Ukraine was elected the first deputy general secretary, a new position created to assist the general secretary.

Other amendments revised the Marxist view on private property. Individuals were allowed to own land and factories, as long as they did not "exploit" other Soviet citizens. New economic policies replaced direct central planning, instilled new price reforms, and even created a stock exchange; farmers could sell their produce on the open market. Censorship of the mass media was forbidden, and all political movements had access to the airwaves, with the rights to establish their own television and radio stations. The Communist Party no longer had a monopoly on state-run radio and television. These historic votes paved the way for a multiparty democracy and a free-market economy.

Executive President
In one of the most important changes in this country's political and economic system since 1917, Mikhail Gorbachev in February of 1990 was elected by the Congress as the Soviet Union's first executive President. This post, over the old honorary chairman of the Supreme Soviet, had broader constitutional powers; the President now had the right to propose legislation, veto bills passed by Congress, appoint and fire the prime minister and other senior government officials, and declare states of emergency (with the republics' approval). In a speech to the Congress after he was sworn in, Gorbachev stated that "the need for a more radical perestroika is obvious, and I shall use my presidential powers first of all to achieve this."

Gorbachev himself summarized the results of all his policies. "Having embarked upon the road of radical reform, we have crossed the line beyond which there is no return to the past. . . . Things will never be the same again in the Soviet Union''-or, for that matter, in the whole communist world. Gorbachev's second revolution became one of the most momentous events in the second half of the 20th century.

The Failed Coup of August 1991
Gorbachev's vision of a second revolution never included an actual coup. But events during the year prior to August 1991 led to rumors among even British and American intelligence that some type of coup attempt was highly possible within Gorbachev's government. After Gorbachev was elected president in February 1990, many feared that one man now had too much power, and that another dictatorship was coming to life.
In his last year in office, Gorbachev's actions seemed to contradict all that he had worked for.

During the October 1990 parliamentary session, Gorbachev rejected the "500 Days" plan to convert the centralized economy to a market orientation in less than two years. He had once strongly advocated uskoreniye, acceleration.

This later rejection convinced many friends and advisers that Gorbachev had lost his way. No one knew what to expect from him anymore.

On 11.03.90 Supreme Council of Lithuanian SSR announced independence and restored Republic of Lithuania anexed by Soviet Union in 1940. Gorbachev appointed Boris Pugo as his interior minister in December 1990. Pugo, a Latvian and head of the KGB in Riga and immediately asked "to take the necessary measures against the Baltic to assure that constitutional norms were upheld and the rights of minorities respected." Economic blocade of Lithuania was announced by USSR. On 13.01.91 Soviet troops attacked the main TV center, which left 15 dead and hundreds wounded. On January 20, more Soviet troops clashed with Latvians in Riga, leaving five dead. Not only did the world take notice, but hundreds of thousands of Soviets protested the actions of their own government.

One month earlier, in December 1990, in an unexpected blow to Gorbachev, Foreign Minster Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in front of nearly 2,000 members of the Congress of People's Deputies. Over the previous months, he had voiced increasing apprehension over the way his country was headed. "We are going back to the terrible past," he warned, "Reactionaries are gaining power. Reformers have slumped into the bushes. A dictatorship is coming. No one knows what this dictatorship will be like, what kind of dictator will come to power and what order will be established."

During the Gulf War, many in the Soviet Defense Ministry felt that the presence of US forces constituted a new threat to Soviet security. Vladimir Kryuchkov, chairman of the KGB, charged that the CIA was covertly trying to destabilize Soviet society. The Gulf War made those in the Soviet military much more receptive to the reactionary elements gathering force.

On 17 March 1991, people throughout the Soviet Union voted on a KGB-sponsored referendum on the future of their country. A negative vote would have immediately implied that the people supported Yeltsin more than Gorbachev. Yeltsin was calling for a different approach to attacking the country's problems, and he wanted to speed up reforms. Even though the vote came close to a draw, it strengthened Yeltsin's position and popularity. On March 28, Yeltsin announced he would hold a "rally of support" in Moscow. Interior Minister Pugo called it a "challenge to the authority of Gorbachev" with a "bunch of neo-Bolsheviks wanting to storm the Kremlin."

Gorbachev immediately banned the demonstration and renewed censorship of the print and television media, but the people attended the protest anyway. Gorbachev sent in troops to control the rally, which took place without incident. One of Gorbachev's aides stated, "March 28 was the turning point for Mikhail Sergeyevich. He went to the abyss, looked over the edge, was horrified of what he saw, and backed away." With discontent mounting, Gorbachev had to move closer to an alliance with Yeltsin to keep the support of the people.

Government were becoming uneasy. On June 20, Prime Minister Valentine Pavlov suggested that some of Gorbachev's powers be transferred to him. But the main issue was the upcoming union treaty with the republics. This treaty, if signed, would have taken away much of Moscow's power. Realizing they could lose their jobs, many in the government began thinking of ways to undermine Gorbachev's power. Some of his close advisers, sensing strife in the air, warned Gorbachev of a possible plot. Gorbachev dismissed the idea, saying, "They wouldn't have the courage to mount an attack against me."

Even though he had led a wave of unprecedented changes throughout the world, by 1991 Gorbachev's popularity at home was sliding to zero. After five years of promises, reforms failed to bring even a modicum of improved living standards to Soviet citizens. Gross national product fell by 10% in the first half of 1991 , while prices rose by more than 50%. With a grossly dissatisfied population, disjointed government, and repeated warnings of a plot against him, Gorbachev nevertheless left Moscow for the Crimea to take a brief vacation and to complete the new union treaty. Many said by now Gorbachev had become so out of touch with his own party populace that he never comprehended the power of either force.

August 18 At 4:50 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Gorbachev heard a knock on his door; he was putting the finishing touches on his union treaty. Like count less millions under Stalin who heard a similar knock to whisk them off to the gulags, Gorbachev had no power over his future. His aides were at the door to tell him that Yuri Plekhanov, a top KGB official, had arrived at his Crimean dacha. Gorbachev immediately tried to call from his five phones, but all the lines were dead.

Gorbachev was further taken by suprise when his own chief of staff, Valery Boldin, entered the room. Boldin told Gorbachev that he had been sent by the State Committee of Emergency. Gorbachev said he never authorized such a committee. Boldin stated their demands-Gorbachev must sign a referendum declaring a state of emergency in his country, which would authorize other reform measures. If he did not, the head of the Emergency Committee. Vice President Gennady Yanayev, would take control. Gorbachev told Boldin, "Those who sent you are reckless; you will kill yourselves." Gorbachev refused to go along with any of the demands, vowing silently to commit suicide first.

As a further cause for alarm, Baldin and his assistants left with the "Black Box," Gorbachev's briefcase that contained the codes to launch all nuclear weapons throughout the country.

Since Gorbachev refused to go along with the coup, the conspirators, known as the Gang of Eight, ordered thousands of troops to head for Moscow, Leningrad, and the Baltics. Most of those in the Gang of Eight owed their jobs to Gorbachev. Ironically, after all the planning, the KGB failed to arrest Boris Yeltsin; he had rushed off to the Parliament Building 45 minutes earlier than us usual.

August 19 At 6:30 a.m. the coup leaders went public. The news agency TASS announced that Yanayev had assumed command because Gorbachev had "serious health problems" and could no longer govern. The Gang of Eight also announced that all strikes and demonstrations were banned and all media under official control. When they later appeared on television, the Emergency Committee appeared nervous and uncertain as to what to say. Yanayev stated, "we must take control since we are threatened by disintegration . . . " But his preferred solution was terrifying -dictatorship.

It became obvious from the onset that the coup was curiously halfhearted and ill-planned. None of the opposition leaders were ever arrested. Gorbachev's lines were the only communications systems downed. Yeltsin was receiving calls from around the world, and even ordered food from Moscow's Pizza Hut.

Yeltsin phoned Yanayev and warned him that "we don't accept your gang of bandits." At this point, Yeltsin went outside and climbed atop a tank in front of 20,000 protesters, asking for mass resistance. He denounced the coup as unconstitutional and called for a general strike, declaring himself the "Guardian of Democracy." Soon the crowds grew to well over I 00,000. Afghan war vets erected barricades in front of the White House and made Molotov cocktails. At the staircase one organizer with a megaphone cried, "all those courageous who are willing to defend the building, come forward!" The building was surrounded by people from all walks of Russian life, from students and defecting soldiers to priests and pensioners.

One old babushka declared, "I have lived through a revolution, two world wars, the Seige of Leningrad, and Stalin, and I will not tolerate another takeover; let the people be in peace I" Another, 72-year-old woman cried, "Give me a Kalashnikov (semiautomatic machine gun) and I'll kill the scum myself!" Thousands of the city's babushkas headed for the front lines. By the end of the day, troops were going over to Yeltsin's side, and many of the elite commando divisions were now protecting the White House. August 20 The Emergency Committee imposed a curfew on Moscow, which none adhered to. The health problems that supposedly afflicted Gorbachev ironically were caught by the coup leaders. Many came down with "coup flu" and stayed home. Crowds of people started to raise the old Russian flag, with its white, blue, and red colors. Rostropovich, the famed cellist, even flew in from Paris and played music within the Parliament building.

Later in the day, those in the Parliament heard that tank divisions were headed their way. Protesters swarmed everywhere to protect the area; two people were shot and one was crushed by a tank. But the tanks retreated.

August 21
Three days after the attempted coup, Yeltsin announced that the coup leaders were trying to flee the country. Two were said to have headed for the Crimea to talk to Gorbachev, who later refused to meet with them. Instead he called Yeltsin. Yeltsin sent officials from the Russian Republic to bring Gorbachev safely back to Moscow. The shaken president returned by plane with his family early the next morning.

All eight members of the State Emergency Committee were arrested: Gennady Yanayev, vice president; Vladimir Kryuchkov, head of the KGB; Dimitri Yazov, defense minister; Valentin Pavlov, prime minister; Oleg Baklanov, of the Soviet Defense Council; Vasily Starodubtsev, member of the Soviet Parliament; and Alexander Tizyakov, president of state enterprises, industrial construction, transport, and communications. Boris Pugo shot himself in the head before he could be arrested.

At the same time, crowds were cheering not for Gorbachev's return, but for the country's savior, Boris Yeltsin. Communism had fallen with the coup. Thousands celebrated as the statue of "Iron Felix" Dzherzhinsky, founder of the secret police after the 1917 Revolution, was toppled from its pedestal in front of the KGB building. A Russian flag was put in its place. Now the monument could stand for the millions who died in prison camps by the hand of the KGB.

End Of Party Rule By the end of August 1991 , Boris Yeltsin stood at the podium inside the White House and declared, "I am now signing a decree suspending the activities of the Russian Communist Party!" Even Communist-run newspapers such as Pravda were temporarily suspended. Gorbachev followed his actions by issuing decrees to end Communist Party rule. These decrees dissolved the party's structure of committees and policymaking bodies, which included the Central Committee. Archives of the Party and the KGB were seized. In addition, the government confiscated all the Party's assists and property throughout the country.

The Collapse Of The Soviet Union On 21 Dec. 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. The great ideological experiment begun by Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution, constituted on 30 Dec. 1922, disintegrated nine days short of its 70th year. "One state has died," said Russian television, "but in its place a great dream is being born." The birth was the 11-member Commonwealth of Independent States.

Gorbachev's Resignation On 25 Dec. 1991, Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, submitted his resignation. "Given the current situation, I am ceasing my activities as president of the USSR." He no longer had a country to govern. But many had considered the Gorbachev era well over even before the coup against him collapsed. A few days before the official resignation, Boris Yeltsin claimed his office in the Kremlin. Yeltsin went to Gorbachev's office, and when he returned two hours later, he said, "It's over. This is the last time I will go and see him." An aide asked, "You mean Gorbachev will have to come to you?" Yeltsin responded, "maybe for his pension." With Gorbachev's resignation, the last rulers of the dying Soviet Union were gone for good.

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