In Russia, the history of East and West intersect primarily for geographical reasons, as the country is located both in Asia and in Europe. Having come into contact with various cultures for a millennium, Russia absorbed and assimilated numerous different ways of managing, government and cultural production.
Rus between East and West. History
From the very beginning of its existence, the Russian state, even in its infancy, took advantage of the borderline state between different cultures.
At the earliest stages, the young Slavic state served as a kind of buffer between the countries of Northern and Western Europe and the countries of the East, in the broadest sense of this term, since the east at that time was understood as Byzantium, which lay in the south of Europe and in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, as well as nomadic tribes that lived in the Volga region and beyond the Urals.
Land development. Russia on the map of Europe
By the time the Russian state first appeared on the world map, most European states already had a long history stretching back to both Roman and Greek antiquity.
However, the neighbors of the Russian state were not only European feudal states, but also the countries of Asia and the Caucasus, and therefore the history of the East is inextricably linked with the history of Russia.
Despite the fact that there is a strong stereotype in society that the development of vast territories of Russia took place exclusively by peaceful means, this statement is not true. Throughout the period of Russian expansion into Siberia, there were numerous clashes with the local population and various successor states of the Golden Horde.
The peoples of the Far North have also been mistreated, forcibly relocated and, quite often, utterly annihilated. Thus, the history of Russia between East and West actually began with the emergence of the Russian state, which at first was located between the northern states and Byzantium, and later began active expansion into Asia, into the territory of the former empire of Genghis Khan.
Conquest of Siberia
In the last quarter of the 15th century, a long process of incorporating Siberia and the Far East into the Russian state began, stretching for almost three centuries. The history of the development of the Far East is full of stories about wars, conflicts and numerous clashes with both the indigenous population and the largest colonial empires,claiming dominance in some territories of the Chinese Empire.
The process of development of the Asian part of the country was a slow advance of the Cossacks and servicemen under the leadership of the governor to new lands. Of course, at the same time, there were constant clashes with state entities that had existed in Siberia since the time of the Mongol Empire.
The first Russian settlers came to Siberia during Yermak Timofeevich's expedition to the Siberian Khanate, which he later defeated.
The defeat of the Siberian Khanate
Ermak Timofeevich's detachment was formed not at the state initiative, but at the request of the Stroganov merchants, who needed to protect their possessions from the raids of the Ostyaks and Voguls, who regularly plundered their possessions. Without informing the tsarist authorities, the Stroganovs invited Yermak and his detachment to make a trip to the lands of the Siberian Khan and pacify him.
In November 1582, Yermak's Cossacks occupied Kyshlyk, the capital of the Siberian Khan. Local residents quite easily accepted the winners, brought them valuable gifts, among which were furs and provisions. Even the local Tatars, who fled to these lands from the conquerors of Kazan, came to bow to the Cossack.
Shortly after receiving the ambassadors, Yermak himself went with an embassy to Moscow to inform Ivan lV about the conquest of the Khanate. The king received his subjects extremely favorably, generously endowed them from his treasury and released them in peace.
Beginning of development of the Far East
So far Russian pioneers in Siberiafaced fragments of the Golden Horde, the conquest of new lands went relatively calmly. However, already in the middle of the seventeenth century, Erofey Khabarov set off from the Yakut prison on an expedition, as a result of which he encountered tribes that were under the jurisdiction of the Chinese empire. Faced with the Cossacks, the Qing tribes turned to the authorities of the Qing Empire for support, which Khabarov also mentions.
Thus, the first military clash between the Russian state and China happened in 1649-1689. As a result of a long conflict, the Nerchinsk Treaty was concluded, which referred to the transfer of the newly created Albazin Voivodeship to the Qing authorities. In addition, the treaty established the rules for diplomatic exchange and trade between the two states.
Throughout the next century, Russian researchers focused on the study of the North-East of Eurasia, that is, on Kamchatka and the shores of the current Okhotsk and Bering Seas. Several Kamchatka expeditions were made.
In Russia, the history of the East is inextricably linked with the development of the shores of the Sea of Japan. Vladivostok was founded in 1869 on the shores of the Amur Bay of the Sea of Japan. It was he who became the largest center of industry and transport communications in the entire Russian Far East, the history of development of which stretched for three centuries.
Caucasian War
One of the most dramatic pages in the history of relations between the Russian and other peoples was revealed at the beginning of the XlX century. It was at this time that the countries of Transcaucasia, includingGeorgian kingdoms, some khanates of Azerbaijan and former lands of the Persian Empire.
However, between the newly acquired lands and the main, well-developed territory of the empire lay the lands of the Caucasian peoples, who, although they swore allegiance to the empire, still continued to raid the villages of Cossacks and Russian settlers.
The Caucasus is the point at which the history of the countries of the East and Russia intersect, since this region has been of great interest for such empires as the Roman, Arab Caliphate, Byzantium and Persia for many millennia. In the XlX century, it became the scene of a struggle between the greatest colonial empires in the history of mankind: Great Britain and Russia.
Result of the Caucasian War
As a result of constant tension in the Caucasus, several Russian-Turkish wars took place, and the Crimean War became the apogee of the conflict, the defeat in which set the country back for many decades.
However, the Caucasian campaign turned out to be much more successful for the imperial authorities. As a result of this long war, the lands of Kabarda, Circassia and Dagestan were annexed to Russia. However, a huge price was paid for this success, many hundreds of thousands of people became victims of the conflict or were forced to leave their inhabited places in order to move to the plains or leave the territory of the empire altogether. The phenomenon of mass resettlement of Circassians from Russia to Turkey went down in history under the name of Turkish Muhajirism.
Ancient Near East
The history of the Middle East occupies a very special place in world material and cultural history, because it was here that one of the earliest centers of human culture appeared, agriculture and writing arose.
In ancient times, the Sumerian state arose in the Middle East, and later the Akkadian and Assyrian empires existed. It was in the Middle East that such important texts for world culture as the Tales of Gilgamesh, the Torah, and later the New Testament were written.
In the north of Mesopotamia, a region that also belongs to the Middle East and is located on the territory of modern Turkey, the oldest known religious building, Göbekli Tepe, is now located. A hill under which a Neolithic sanctuary is buried, in the immediate vicinity of which ancient people began to cultivate wheat and other cereals.
Middle East. Contemporary
On the modern political map, the Middle East seems to glow red from a huge number of unresolved political and many military conflicts. The oldest and most dangerous is the conflict between the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel. Both countries do not recognize the right of their opponents to exist and are making every effort to destabilize the situation.
In addition, the conflicts of the past are becoming increasingly important in the history of East and West, during which the countries of Europe used their dominant position to draw state borders on the site of the former Ottoman Empire. It is believed that suchconflicts like the Lebanese-Israeli one and the civil war in Syria are a direct consequence of the colonialist policies of the European powers.
