“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveller.”
Russia’s authoritarian rule is based upon progressively corrupting power (pt. 1)
We must understand Russia’s early history to understand the lack of accountability and power abuse of its ruling class
The political power structure in Russia was never familiar with the concept of accountability or the rule of the law
If we want to understand Russia’s barbaric venture against Ukraine better. Then, we must seek to understand Russia’s and Ukraine’s history first. Or, rather, the history of authoritarianism on Russian soil, which takes us back all the way to the Nomadic empires.
This history is unique and fascinating, and knowing about the details of this history is helpful to understand the motives that drive Russian decision-making today. I will try to answer these two questions in this two part article.
Why have Russians, again and again, missed their chances of democratization?
How did this system, which lacks checks and balances and accountability for the Russian regime, emerge?
Trying to answer this question takes us back over 1000 years in time
There were several nomadic tribes who lived in isolation from one another. They were all highly specialized in nomadic warfare. These tribes became very proficient in that type of warfare over time. Their conquests then resulted in seeing these tribes settling in different areas.
To understand why Russia’s own social, economic, and political development was completely different compared to other regions of Europe. We must first dive deeper into Europe’s own history. Please forgive me as it will get a bit technical here. In Europe we had many tribes, here are some of the very important ones.
· The Magyar tribes, which established the principality of Hungary in 896.
· The Slavic tribes that then founded the Slavic Kingdoms.
· The Seljuk Turks, who then ruled over Persia.
· The Ottoman Turks who migrated from Central Asia.
The Ottomans established their empire under Orhan in 1362 in Northwest Anatolia. The Ottomans crossed the Dardanelles and became known to us as the “Ottoman Empire.” The empire was named after its founder Osman I. The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 then opened the way for further expansion into the Balkan peninsula.
· The Chagatai Turks who settled in today’s central Asia.
· The Mongols subjugated the Chinese empire and then became the first conquest dynasty in Chinese history to rule the entire China proper.
· The Mongols invaded Persia between 1219 and 1258 in the area we know as Iran today.
I would also like to mention the Timurids a late medieval Persianate Turko-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, which comprised roughly of modern Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and most of Central Asia.
So, why am I telling you all of that? Because there is one place missing in these hundreds of years of European history. Russia
Early medieval Russia was not so different from the rest of Europe, as it was a collection of duchies, cities, and dukedoms with no centralized overarching authority. But, all of that changed in the 12th century.
The most prominent of these two were the “Kievan Rus” and Novgorod
The Kievan Rus was a princely state comprised of Eastern Slavs and Norse people. It established itself under prince Oleg of Kiev in the late 9th century with its capital Kiev existed until the mid-13th century. The Kievan Rus was a princely state that had deep trade and economic ties into Europe. Mainly through deep ties with the Byzantine empire.
The state was called Novgorod or “Novgorod the great” and it was another important medieval state in the area
This state existed between the 12th and 15th centuries. It stretched from the Gulf of Finland to the northern Ural Mountains. It served as the northernmost trading post of the Hanseatic league. Novgorod was also deeply influenced by the Byzantine Empire. The people of this state were also heavily influenced by Viking culture and its people.
Then the Mongols and sacked Moscow in 1238. Afterwards the Mongols sacked Kiev in 1240
Modern age historians have the tendency to paint the Mongols in a very positive light. As an institution of trade and tolerance. That is a very oversimplified presentation of the actual course of events, though. In fact, the Mongol empire was a highly extractive institution which lacked any institutions or regulations. The Mongols were tribal people. They entirely lacked a system of what we would call “checks and balances” today.
The Mongols imposed their system on those that they had conquered
The Mongol empire was based on resource extraction. This extractive system was purely predatory in nature. This was a so-called “tributary system.” The mongolian model lacked any institutions and regulations that would limit the power of the local lords over their subjects.
The situation in the rest of Europe evolved in a completely different direction
At the same time , between 1000 and 1500, a system of “rights and obligations” emerged in Europe. This system was based on fealty and personal relationships between the ruler and his subjects.
Feudalism created at least some accountability towards a higher authority (church, king). By contrast, in Russia there was no higher authority which could stop the local lords from abusing their power. Therefore, a system of checks and balances or accountability never emerged.
Those who dared to refuse being conquered by the Mongols paid dearly for it
In 1238, Moscow was but a small, fortified village. Still, they resisted the Mongols, but the Mongols burned down their village. Then the Mongols killed or enslaved what was left of the population. Then they continued their conquest eastwards. The Kievan Rus resisted as well, which led to Kiev being burned to the ground in the year 1240.
The surrounding lands were pillaged, and much of the population was slaughtered by the Mongol invaders. Subsequently, the Rus principalities were forced into vassalage by the “Golden Horde.” This submission lasted from 1242 until 1480 in some cases.
The Mongols were very brutal in conducting their warfare
Medieval sources report about human remains littering the fields even decades after the siege. The burning of Kiev started a profound transformation of what we perceive as Russia today. The Kievan Rus had deep cultural and economic ties into the Byzantine empire. These ties were now violently severed, which also caused a geo-political shift, a cultural shift, and a political shift.
Russia’s center of power was now moving to the North-East
The center of Russia’s power moved to the landlocked plains of Smolensk, Rostov, and Chernikov. Only the “Republic of Novgorod” remained under a stronger European influence. At least until Ivan’s rule of terror and the “massacre of Novgorod.”
The princes that had ruled these lands were formerly ruling mostly irrelevant backwaters in the region
The Mongol conquest now suddenly put them into the center of Russia. At the same time, so in between the 13th and 15th centuries, feudalism started to see a decline in Europe. Europe saw new political institutions emerging. Economic centers started emerging, such as Hamburg, London, Antwerp, Königsberg, Paris, London, Venice, Warsaw, and Novgorod played a big role here. Merchant guilds, barons, artisans, and guilds established themselves. The social contract of feudalism was rewritten.
The Black Plague shook up the established order in its entirety
This dramatic event killed roughly 1/3 of Europe’s population. Without enough peasants to work the land for the lords, the lords needed to start competing for workers. That meant they started paying them money, and a wage-based labor system started to emerge.
The golden Horde’s vassal states on Russian territory remained untouched by these economic and political developments as it remained under Mongol rule
In these 250 years from the beginning of the Mongol conquest to the late 15th century, Russia went into a completely different direction. The princes of Russia were recruited by the Mongols as tax collectors. That meant the Mongols outsourced the extraction of resources from the local peasants to local lords.
This small aristocracy had a lot to lose by not complying with the Mongols if they failed to appease them
There was no legal code in place, nothing that limited aristocratic power. No mechanisms whatsoever, that would somehow limit wealth accumulation. Over the centuries, the local lords became more ruthless and brutal. The Mongols didn’t care about that. That gave the local lords unrestricted opportunities to do with their peasants as they pleased.
In Europe, this framework receded over the centuries, and more checks and balances were introduced
In fact, the church always ensured that the power of a lord was at least to some extent kept in check. In Russia, on the other hand, an increasingly exploitative framework was enforced and reinforced.
A process of urbanization didn’t really take on this territory
The goal of the Mongol system was that as many peasants as possible would work the land. The Russian princes also fought their wars in a completely different way. The armies had cavalry men but not to control the land. The important factor was total control of the peasants.
Summary and conclusion part I
The Mongols had enforced the creation of a system based upon debt patronage
That meant the Russian society was getting ever more tied to their own land. In a way, the Black Plague had the exact opposite effects in Russia compared to Europe. While Europe’s lords started competing for the remaining peasants after the Black Plague and even started paying them wages.
Russian princes tied their peasants to their enormous duchies and kingdoms
There was also a comparably smaller number of lords that controlled an enormous number of peasants. Generally, Russia had a very small aristocracy. Normally, nomads conquered a piece of land and then settled there. That normally led to turning them into whom they conquered.
In the Russian case, by a weird twist of fate, the conquered Russians adapted to the Mongols instead of the other way around
Of course, the Russian princes that served the Mongols weren’t Mongols themselves. These Russian princes didn’t pick up their nomadic lifestyle, or the Mongol power structure of a centralized singular ruler. But Russian princes adopted the Mongol’s warfare tactics. These vassals of the Mongol empire didn’t build stone castles. Instead, they built wooden fortresses. The Russian princes fielded large cavalry armies to protect their land against invaders.
Russia’s armies won’t stop invaders, but the Russian weather will
When they came under attack, Russians would burn everything to the ground
These princes would burn the fields, ransack surrounding villages, and then harass their invaders from horseback. All the while, the invaders had to march through the vastness of Russia, and that rarely ended well for them. But, the vastness of its lands and the absolutist power of Russia’s rulers also makes the ossified system prone to collapse. Russia may very well share the fate of many colonial empires that had overstretched themselves and lost a major war.
Russia’s rulers never had a concept of accountability or responsibility towards their subjects throughout history
Russian aristocrats were fully unshackled from all political accountability to their peasantry. They could rule like the conquerors whom they served. It could have come otherwise, of course, as history is never a one-way road. But, sadly, the events that followed cleared the dark path for this Russian regime that we see today.
In part 2, I will explain how Russia missed out on a central development of European history
As Russia was skipping these processes of checks and balances. The result was an absolutist concentration of power. In the centuries that had followed since the end of Mongol rule around the year 1500, this power had consolidatet in a unique way and was passed on from Tsar, to Politburo and all the way to the totalitarian regime that we see today.
Further Reading:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hungary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Slavs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuk_dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Turks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timurid_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Persia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_of_Novgorod
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Moscow_(1238)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Kievan_Rus%27