Docx

Harsh Singh

AP World

3rd Hour

Russia Template

What is the best way to govern? This is a question every civilization has looked to answer in order to keep the society functioning. It is an essential question because a stable government has proven to be the most important in a society. Since every civilization was wanting to find that perfect way to govern, Russia was too. It was a case of trial and error for Russia. The chief problem in the Russian civilization was their struggle to find an identity. The outside world considered them to be easterners while others believed Russia was part of the Western world. Russia always looked to grab western ideas and place it into their set of ideas, however their close proximity to the Eastern world allowed them to easily obtain eastern notions. Moreover, their identity crisis fueled Russia’s change in governance as they first started out as an individual and decentralized government, to the Czarist autocracy, and lastly to a communistic society. Throughout the 9th century to the 20th century, Russia faced an identity crisis that drove the changes in their governance style substantiating the importance of the struggle to maintain a single identity.

As civilizations such as China and Europe had already laid out their foundations, Russia was just beginning to announce its entrance into the world. Not having a base to connect their ideas off of, they formulated their own notions and principles to launch their civilization. These ideas created by the Russians allowed them to form a decentralized state known as the Kievan Rus. Kievan Rus was made of cities such as Kiev and Moscow which were home to powerful, lavish princes that fought each other for control of the state. This indicated Russia’s first change in history as they were in a point of a decentralized, fighting provinces. Despite Russia’s time of a relatively disintegrated society, they were able to generate some shades of a democratic society as they had produced...