Imperial Russia
Prof. Nathaniel Knight
January 14, 2000

The Russian Land: Geography, Ethnography and Early History

I.     The Geographical Context
  	Climatic Zones
       		Tundra, Taiga, Mixed Forest, Forest-Steppe, Steppe, Mountains.
  	Major Rivers
       		Dneipr, Dvina, Don, Volga, Oka, Kama, Neva, Ob', Yenisei, Lena, Amur.
  	Mountain Ranges
       		Urals, Caucasus, Carpathians
  	Outlets to the Sea
       		Baltic Sea, Black Sea (Constantinople) Caspian Sea (Landlocked)

II.    The Ethnographic Context
  	Peoples of the Tundra--Paleoasiatic languages
       		Chukchi, Yukagirs, etc.
  	Peoples of the Forest Finno-Ugric language group
       		Finns, Estonians, Karelians, Komi, Marii, Mordva, Udmurt, Khanty,     
       		Mansi, etc.
  	Peoples of the Steppe Turkic language group
       		Ancient Turkic Civilizations:  Khazars (8th   10th. c), Volga Bolgars. (9-13th c)
        	Tatars, Chuvash, Bashkir, Kazakhs, Uzbek, Turkmen, Azeris, Sakha.
  	Peoples of the Caucasus (Mountain Peoples)
       		Georgians, Armenians, Abkhazian, Ossetians, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardins, etc.
  	Slavic Peoples:
       		Western Slavs:  Poles, Czechs, Slovaks
       		Southern Slavs:  Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Bulgarians.
       		Eastern Slavs:  Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians

     III.   Early History.

  	Kievan Rus'  (9th century to 13th century)
  	The "Mongol Yoke" (1238-1480)
  	Moscovy (14th century to 17th century)
  	Tsar Ivan III  (1462-1505)
  	Tsar Ivan IV (1533-1583)
  	"Time of Troubles" (1605-1613)