Periods of Russian History

Russian history can be categorized into six historical periods. These periods will help us contextualize the cultural artifacts (stories, art, music, etc) we look at this semester.

Read the powerpoint (in pdf format), which briefly presents some of the geographic and political features of the 6 periods of Russian history (outlined in the image below), then watch a video which shows the changes of the borders in Europe throughout history. The video underlines the difficulty in definitively determining the borders of a country. Throughout history, borders have changed, and some countries have appeared and/or disappeared (and reappeared again!).  

1. Powerpoint: Download and read this PDF: Periods of Russian History.pdf Download Periods of Russian History.pdf

2. Video of European borders through history. As you watch, think about the historic events that account for the changes in the borders: The History of Europe: Every Year Links to an external site.

3. (Optional, but recommended): Watch a video which shows the 15 largest European cities from 1 AD - 2019. Again, try to figure out which historic events are responsible for the growth and shrinking of the populations of major European cities. Before you start, write down the names of some cities you expect to be on the list, and some you wouldn't expect to see there. Then check - were you right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_YIQ0jcRoA Links to an external site.