world economy and world market, and that the principles of the market economy penetrated the Russian national economy as early as the eighteenth century, long before the reforms of the 1860s. Hence, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century the general line of Russia’s so-cioeconomic evolution remained unchanged and consisted in commercialization of the economy and enhancement of the role of the market as a production regulator. Serfdom hampered and slowed down but did not prevent the development of capitalism in Russia, just as prior to 1865 slavery did not stop the development of capitalism in the United States. Grain prices exerted substantial influence upon numerous aspects of the economic, social, and political life of the country. They played an important part in the modernization of the national economy, development of social stratification of the peasantry, destruction of the peasant
GRAND ALLIANCE
commune, and urbanization and industrialization of the country. See also: AGRICULTURE; ECONOMY, TSARIST; FOREIGN TRADE; PEASANT ECONOMY.
Herlihy, Patricia. (1986). Odessa: A History, 1794-1914. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Mironov, Boris N. (1992). “Consequences of the Price Revolution in Eighteenth-Century Russia.” Economic History Review 45(3):457-478.
Officially termed the Anti-Hitlerite Coalition by the Soviet Union, the Grand Alliance (1941-1945) was a military and political coalition of countries fighting against the Axis (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan), and their satellites. The alliance evolved during World War II through common understandings and specific formal and informal agreements negotiated between the Big Three (United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain) at wartime conferences, ministerial meetings, and periodic summits between the respective heads of state. In addition to the Big Three, the alliance included China, members of the British Commonwealth, France, and many other countries. While some formal agreements and modest liaison and coordinating bodies existed within the context of these agreements, particularly between the United States and Great Britain, the alliance as a whole formed few formal official policy organs.
Evolving step by step after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the alliance was a virtual marriage of necessity between the two Western democracies and Stalin’s communist government, impelled by the reality of war and a common threat to all three powers, as well as the necessity of joining military and political forces to achieve victory in the war. The motives and attitudes of alliance members varied over time according to the military situation and the member states’ political aims. To varying degrees, the Big Three shared certain wartime goals in addition to victory: for instance, mutual military assistance, formulation of a common unified wartime military strategy, establishment of a postwar international security organization, and elimination of any future threats from Germany and Japan.
The decisive stage in the formation of the Grand Alliance occurred after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, when, prompted by fear that Germany might win the war, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared their support for the Soviet Union as “true allies in the name of the peoples of Europe and America.” Great Britain and the Soviet Union signed a mutual aid treaty in July 1941, and Stalin endorsed the peace aims of Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s Atlantic Charter in September. In November the United States solidified the alliance by extending lend-lease assistance to the Soviet Union. Thereafter, a steady stream of agreements and periodic meetings between unofficial representatives, ministers, and heads of state of the three countries formalized the alliance. The most important ministerial meetings took place in London (September-October 1941) and Moscow (October 1941 and October 1943) and at the Big Three summits at Tehran (November 1943-January 1944), Yalta (Crimea) (February 1945), and Potsdam (July-August 1945). During wartime, tensions emerged within the alliance over such vital issues as the adequacy of lend-lease aid, military coordination among Allied armies, the opening of a second front on mainland Europe, the postwar boundaries of the Soviet Union, the political structure of liberated European countries, Soviet participation in the war against Japan, European reconstruction, and the shape and nature of postwar peace. See also: CHINA, RELATIONS WITH; FRANCE, RELATIONS WITH; GREAT BRITAIN, RELATIONS WITH; UNITED STATES, RELATIONS WITH; WORLD WAR II
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Churchill, Winston S. (1950). The Grand Alliance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Feis, Herbert. (1957). Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin: The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kimball, Warren F. (1997). Forged in War: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and the Second World War. New York: Morrow. Stoler, Mark A. (2000). Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
The title of “grand prince” designated the senior prince of the Rurikid dynasty in Rus principalities from the era of Kievan Rus until 1721.
In scholarly literature on Kievan Rus the term grand prince is conventionally used to refer to the prince of Kiev. Succession to the position of grand prince was determined by principles associated with the rota system, according to which the position passed laterally from the eldest member of the senior generation of the dynasty to his younger brothers and cousins. When all members of that generation died, those members of the next generation whose fathers had actually held the position of grand prince of Kiev became eligible to inherit the position in order of seniority.
Despite common usage of the term in scholarly literature, the absence of the title “grand prince” and even the title “prince” in contemporary sources, including chronicles, treaties, charters, diplomatic documents, seals, and coins, suggests that they were rarely used during the Kievan era. The title “grand prince” in tenth-century treaties concluded between the Rus and the Byzantines has been interpreted as a translation from Greek formulas rather than a reflection of official Rus usage. The title also occurs in chronicle accounts of the deaths of Yaroslav the Wise (1054), his son Vsevolod (1093), and Vsevolod’s son Vladimir Monomakh (1125), but this usage is regarded as honorific, borrowed from Byzantine models, and possibly added by later editors.
“Grand prince” was first used as an official title not for a prince of Kiev, but for Vsevolod “the Big Nest” of Vladimir-Suzdal (ruled 1176-1212). Within their principality it was applied to his sons Konstantin and Yuri as well. Outside of Vladimir-Suzdal, however, recognition of Vsevolod as grand prince, despite his dynastic seniority, was inconsistent, and during the very late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries the title was occasionally attributed to rulers of Kiev.
The title “grand prince” came into more common and consistent use during the fourteenth century. In addition to its use by the prince of Vladimir, it was also adopted by the princes of Tver, Riazan, and Nizhny Novgorod by the second half of the century. The princes of Moscow, who acquired an exclusive claim to the position of grand prince of Vladimir during this period, joined the title to the phrase “of all Rus” to elevate themselves above the other grand princes. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as they absorbed the other Rus principalities into Muscovy and subordinated their princes, they not only monopolized the title “grand prince,” but also began to use other titles conveying the meaning of sovereign (gosudar or gospodar). From 1547, when Ivan IV “the Terrible” was coronated, until 1721, when Peter I “the Great” adopted the title “emperor,” the rulers of Muscovy used “grand prince and tsar” as their official titles. See also: KIEVAN RUS; ROTA SYSTEM; RURIKID DYNASTY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Poppe, Andrzej. (1989). “Words That Serve the Authority: On the Title of ‘Grand Prince’ in Kievan Rus.” Acta Poloniae Historica 60:159-184.
Russia’s relations with Great Britain have been marked by chronic tension. During the nineteenth century, the British were keenly aware of tsarist Russia’s expansion into Central Asia and of the menace it might hold for lands
