Russia and the Western Republics
by Sergio Loma
historical events
1.The Russian In the ninth century, Vikings from Scandinavia came to the region to established a settlement near what is now Kiev, a city near the Dnieper River. In time, the Vikings adopted the customs of the local Slavic population. Soon the settlement began to expand.
2.Expansion was halted in the 13th century
with the arrival of invaders from Mongolia,
called Tatars. 3.The ferocity of those Mongol war-
riors is legendary. It is said that “like molten lava,
they destroyed everything in their path. ” The
Tatars sacked Kiev between 1237 and 1240.
government in the past and present
2. The government took control of the major sources of the state’s wealth, including land, mines, factories, banks, and transportation systems.
3.Government planners decided what products factories would manufacture, what crops farms would grow, and even what prices merchants would charge for their goods.
the economy
2.The Communists had been inspired by the
work of Karl Marx, a German philosopher who had examined the his- tory of economic systems.3.Communist system would replace capitalism.
the culture
2 Russians make up the largest ethnic group there, with about 80
percent of the total. But nearly 70 other peoples live in Russia, including Finnish, Turkic, and Mongolian peoples.3.the region is home to many other religions, including Buddhism and Islam. Judaism is also an
important religion in the region.