Introduction
Over the centuries, Russia has undergone many transitions, from czarist rule to a communist party-led federation known as the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) to an illiberal democracy with authoritarian tendencies but also a vibrant and sophisticated civil society.
- Full Country Name: Russia, Russian Federation
- Head(s) of State: President, Prime Minister
- Government: Semi-presidential federation
- Official Languages: Russian
- Economic System: Mixed Economy
- Location: Eastern Europe and Northern Asia
- Capital: Moscow
- Total land size: 6,601,670 sq miles
- Population: 145,478,097
- GDP: $1.710 trillion
- GDP per capita: $11,654
- Currency: Russian Ruble
Monarchical Rule, 1613-1917
For centuries, Russia was a key node in the trade routes that wound throughout Afro-Eurasia. Russian explorers traded furs and other animal products for the goods available along these ancient routes: gold, people, and spices. During the 16th century, political consolidation gained momentum under Ivan the Terrible, who claimed the title of czar and ruled from 1547 to 1584. He joined the powerful House of Romanov by marriage, beginning a three-century period of czarist rule.
During this czarist period, Russia was organized as a feudal state in which power was consolidated in the czar but local power existed in noble houses. Ivan the Terrible consolidated the czar’s power in Moscow through the creation of standing armies and noble councils. In addition, the Orthodox Church provided the religious foundation for political power and state legitimacy. Ivan expanded the territorial reach of Russian rule after defeating khanates in what is now modern-day Russia, along the northwestern shores of the Caspian Sea at the mouth of the Volga River. Subsequent czars, such as Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725), initiated reforms to modernize Russia with military upgrades and the building of a navy, the construction of public buildings in European architectural styles, and support for industrialization.
Throughout these centuries, Russia struggled with forging its own path on a vast continent. To the west, new ideas were bubbling up during the Enlightenment, and industrialization and modernization were taking off. To the east, empires of Asia were economically dynamic and some, such as Japan, were also rapidly modernizing. In comparison to European counterparts, Russia was slow to industrialize.
Yet Russian society was not immune to modern ideas, and the abolishment of serfdom in 1861 presented a break from the past. This action was not enough to contain growing mass discontent with a brittle political system of czars and noble houses, and a revolution broke out in the early years of the twentieth century.
In 1905, mass protests broke out in the cities and resulted in Czar Nicholas II creating a legislature. Unrest continued, presenting a moment for a republican revolution and unprecedented transformation. In 1917, a revolution was led by political parties that adhered to socialism and communism as the path forward for Russia. A vicious civil war ensued, with the Bolsheviks emerging triumphant, Vladimir Lenin taking the mantle as Russia’s paramount political leader, and a new federation being forged under single-party rule.
Single Party Rule, 1922-1991
Organized as a multi-ethnic and multi-national federation, the USSR became the largest sovereign country on the planet, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the eastern shores of Siberia. The USSR’s first leader, Vladimir Lenin, carried out a radical wholescale reorganization of the state and society. State-led modernization and industrialization became the watchwords. The countryside was squeezed for the products that would feed urban industrial centers.
In this single-party system, led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the state was pervasive in all aspects of life. Economically, free markets were abolished and replaced by centralized economic planning: production would proceed according to five-year plans set by a vast planning bureaucracy. The countryside was organized into communes, with production quotas and set prices. The state owned all “commanding heights” of industry, from energy production to steel foundries. Again, production and prices were set, and workers were assigned to workplaces. In this world, there was no inflation and no unemployment – but there existed scarcity and supply-side distortions.
Socially and culturally, the CPSU controlled all aspects of life. The media was entirely state-run, across all communication technologies such as radio, print, and television. The party organized youth groups and women’s federations, as well as provided for leisure spaces. While the party was officially atheist, it permitted state-sanctioned places of worship. There was no independent organized social life for Soviet citizens.
Politically, the party maintained control through a competitive selection process for party membership. The most desirable offices in the party and state bureaucracies were open only to party members. Appointments were carefully controlled through party personnel bureaucracies, which maintained classified files on all citizens. To enforce party rule through force, Lenin created a secret police known as the Cheka, which was the forerunner to the KGB. While there existed paramount leaders within the CPSU, beginning with Lenin and then the disastrous totalitarianism of Stalin, leadership was also collective in some ways. Major party decisions were made through bodies such as the Politburo and disseminated throughout the party and state apparatus.
Communist party rule lasted for seven decades. Internal weaknesses festered, from ethnic resentments to economic distortions to political stagnation. By the 1980s, reform-minded leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev attempted small steps toward loosening economic and social controls. By then, it was too late. In 1989, a string of revolutions in client states led to the overthrow of communist parties in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania, among others. In 1990, there was an attempted coup in Moscow. Through a cascade of shocking events in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved: one after another, republics seceded from the federation and declared themselves independent. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin and the Russian flag replaced it.
In the first map, orange represents the territories and influences of the Soviet Union at its peak. In the second map, blue is the national boundaries of the Federation of Russia after the Cold War ended in 1991. The multicolor shows the various republics that became independent after the Soviet Union collapsed. Source: Wikipedia
Illiberal Regime, 1991-Present
In the decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, institutions created by the CPSU were dismantled. Central planning, state-owned industry, and communes went into the dustbin of history. Russia and many of the fourteen other post-Soviet republics adopted liberal market economies, to varying degrees, and multi-party political systems. The transition was rocky in every case.
The 'new' Russia possessed great energy reserves and mineral wealth, a highly educated population base, along with thousands of nuclear weapons, and a sophisticated military-industrial complex. All of these things were leveraged to maintain Russia’s status as a regional power. Today, Russia is a major energy provider to the European Union, and has maintained client states in Eurasia such as Belarus and Syria. (NOTE: Currently, the Russo-Ukrainian War is being fought, which has affected trade between the EU and Russia. Thus, providing energy and resources is in flex.)
Hope that Russia would join the liberal European fold has been dashed. Since the breakup of single-party rule under the CPSU, Russia has maintained an illiberal regime. Elections are neither free nor fair according to election observers. Non-state organizations are allowed to exist, but they are subject to harassment by state security agencies if they promote rights considered taboo by conservative Russian leaders and the Orthodox Church. While there are some media freedoms in the country, it remains a dangerous, and even deadly, place for investigative reporters. The courts are not independent, nor does it appear that presidents such as Vladimir Putin are subject to the rule of law.
In 2014 and 2022, Russian military assets were used to annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and invade Ukraine in its entirety, respectively. One powerful rationale was to consolidate the Russian nation -- despite popular Ukrainian assertions of a distinct Ukrainian identity -- and Russia's future as a disruptive, undemocratic force remains problematic for the region and beyond.
In summary, Russia has experienced centuries of non-democratic rule, and “varieties of non-democracy” are evident throughout its history. Each non-democratic regime established institutions to maintain social order and economic and political control. Each succeeded for varying lengths of time. Feudal rule under czars persisted for centuries, and Russia’s modernization lagged as a result. Single-party rule by the CPSU created a totalitarian system of large-scale economic tragedies and political repression. Today, there are comparatively more spaces for freedom in illiberal Russia, but they remain highly circumscribed.
