The three types of societies described by Alvin Tofer, the American philosopher of historical and societal development, are as follows: §? The First Wave (Agrarian) was the society after the Agrarian Revolution, which gradually replaced nomadic tribes. Agrarian societies have been the most common form of socio-economic organization in human history. §? The Second Wave (Industrial) brought with it the Industrial Revolution, (17th century-mid-20th century). The Second Wave society was based on industrial-scale production, distribution, consumption, education, media, recreation, entertainment, and weaponry. §? The Third Wave (Informational) describes the modern, postindustrial society, which began in the late 1950s. It was shaped by high-tech, individualized modes of production, distribution, and consumption, combined with greatly increased speed of computerbased communication and transportation. 

The three main periods were the Agricultural Period, the Industrial Period and the present PostIndustrial Period

’ Kievan Rus’ was a loose federation of the East Slavic principalities which thrived under the reign of the Rurik dynasty from the late 9th to the mid-13th century CE. The evolution of Kievan Rus ended with the Mongol invasion.

The two iterations were the Russian Empire, which existed under the rule of the Romanovs (17211917) and the Soviet Union (1922-1991).

Today, the Eastern civilization is undergoing the Post-Industrial Period, and is represented by the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as other predominantly Slavic Eastern Orthodox countries and diasporas in Europe and throughout the world.

 According to the The Primary Chronicle (or, the Tale of Bygone Years) in 1113 CE, the origin of the first East Slavic state is the ‘invitation’ of the Slavs to the Scandinavians to rule over them because there was no order in their country.

They appeared in European history between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE.

The predominantly agricultural tribes of East Slavs built an alliance with the Scandinavian warriortraders who were known as the Vikings. They established routes from the north along the rivers Dnieper, Don, and Volga to Byzantium, Arabia, and the Orient as early as in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. After the alliance with the East Slavs, the Scandinavians founded a state, called Kievan Rus, in the 9th century with its center at Kiev

This happened in 1054 when Yaroslav the Wise –Prince Vladimirs son- died and his sons divided the state into parts waging war against each other.

The Kievan principality declined further because of disputes, conflicts between regional princes, invasions from Asia together with the collapse of commercial ties between Byzantium and Europe. During the 12th century, the Crusades opened new trade routes from Europe to the Orient through the Crusader states of the Middle East. However, the decisive blow to this first stage of the Eastern civilization was the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century.

The Mongol army was successful because of excellent organization, mobility, numerical superiority and fighting innovations such as the use of stirrups.

The Mongol Empire destroyed important parts of the state. The principalities of Rus became part of the Golden Horde and the remaining rest was absorbed by Poland and Lithuania. Only the Republic of Novgorod stayed autonomous. One of the consequences of the invasion was the rise of the Grand Princicipality of Moscow.

The Novgorod Republic and the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal were among the successor states of Kievan Rus

It flourished between the 12th and 15th centuries CE. It was a successful port on the eastern side of the Hanseatic League trade network. Novgorod was governed by the veche – an early democratic institution of East Slavs- until it was subsumed by the Grand Principality of Moscow in 1478.The veche had been an ancient instrument of self-governance originating from the tribal gatherings in the region.

It was established in 1721 by Peter I.

The social upheavals between the 16th and 17th century include the shift from the Rurik to the Romanov dynasty, a lengthy war with the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth and the beginning of the Russian exploration of Siberia. The period between the demise of Feodor, the last Czar of the Rurik dynasty, in 1598 and the accession to the throne of Michael Romanov in 1613 is called the Time of Troubles.

The sons of Czar Ivan IV died which brought the Rurik dynasty to an end. It also caused other troubles like a civil war, famine and epidemics. During the Polish–Russian War (1605–18), Russia was occupied by the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1610, the king of Poland wanted to claim the throne of the Czar, and this set off the nationwide movement of liberation. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and merchant Kuzma Minin organized a volunteer army and drove out foreign invaders from Moscow, and finished the Time of Troubles in 1612.

There were several reasons for Russia’s expansion: 

• The landlocked nation needed access to the sea. 
• The ruling class of Russia was a land-rich aristocracy, which profited from territorial expansion. 
• The empire may have continued to expand almost accidentally - by the need to bridge already conquered territories, by the desire of the monarch or even of the colonizing generals. The instrument for the expansion was industrialization.

It started with the accession to the throne of a young and energetic Romanov scion – Peter I, also known as Peter the Great (1682–1725). He was born in the medieval and backward environment of 17th century Moscow and was captivated by the atractions of the modern West – people, ideas, tools, and even clothes.

The major exception was the absence of parliamentary rule.

He initiated a vast expansion in mining and manufacturing, particularly of weapons. The result of several mostly successful wars was the expansion of the Czardom into a much larger empire, the rise of which occurred simultaneously with the descent of the competing neighbours: the Swedish Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. Peter’s reforms made a lasting impact on Russia.

Serfs were unfree peasants who had been reduced to various degrees of servitude since the times of the Kievan Rus.

Catherine II (the Great) continued with the policy of Western-style modernization. The country expanded quickly by conquest, colonization, and diplomacy, and achieved the status of a great European power. Catherine ruled nearly thirty million subjects with a firm hand. However, army draft and the state economy continued to depend on the existence of serfdom, and the heavy-handed demands of the state and private landlords led to a number of insurrections, including the massive Pugachev Rebellion.

The French invaded Russia in 1812. Napoleon wanted to force Czar Alezander I to stop trading with Britain. After a battle at Borodino, Napoleon entered Moscow. When Alexander I refused to negotiate, Napoleon had to retreat. The heroism of the Russian people and the hard winter conditions almost annihilated the French army.

Serfdom in Russia was abolished on March 3, 1861.

Young Russian officers who had visited Europe during the war, witnessed the existence of modern constitutional forms of government. When they returned to Russia, they formed secret societies, and on December 14, 1825, they rebelled, demanding a constitution for Russia. The new Czar, Nicholas I (1796-1855) supressed the rebellion and declared that democracy or a constitution was out of question The secret police enforced the emperor’s will by executions and exile of dissidents.

Czar Alexander II pardoned the Decembrists, abolished corporal punishment, instituted trial by jury, relaxed censorship, chartered new industries, and commissioned a railway to the Black Sea. In the last years of his reign, he even supported the idea of a parliamentary rule. Among numerous reforms of his reign, the most noticeable was the emancipation of 23 million serfs in 1861.

According to the American historian Crane Brinton, the periods of a major social revolution may have some periods. These are the Old Regime, a Moderate Phase, a Radical Phase, and a reactionary time called Thermidor.

At the beginning of the 20th century Russia was rapidly industrializing. The working class was exploited and the peasantry, was still oppressed despite the recent abolition of serfdom.

The ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre in 1905 was a peaceful demonstration in Saint-Petersburg, but it set off nationwide strikes, which paralyzed the economy. The emerging political forces organized a common front against the government, requiring the establishment of a constitution and a legislature. However, with the czar’s government controlling the electoral rules and assuring that an obedient legislature would be created, the country missed a chance to develop a more representative political system.

World War I created a big crisis , but the monarchy could not meet the challenge. Because of massive demonstrations and strikes, the Duma made efforts to form a Provisional Government, which intended to govern until a Constituent Assembly could be elected. In the meantime, the Soviets were formed, now constituting a separate governing body from that of the Duma (“dual power”). Since the Provisional Government and the Soviets represented different social forces, their decisions often contradicted one another. While the peasants began to conquer the land, soldiers, most of whom were peasants, began to desert the army in increasing numbers.

Nicholas II abdicated in February 1917. This was the end of the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty

In November1917, the Bolsheviks carried out a successful revolt. After the coup, they consolidated their control over the Soviets, and, as the Bolsheviks were in the minority in the newly elected Constituent Assembly, the Red Guard dissolved it by force.

After the Bolsheviks’ seize of power there was an armed conflict between the Bolsheviks and several rival groups. The war effort against Germany collapsed, and the new Soviet government was forced to accept the terms of the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. When the “Reds” fought against several “White” armies, the country had to face three years of civil war which was accompanied by foreign intervention by several outside powers, including American, French, and British troops in the northern and the western parts of Russia. In the end, the Bolsheviks managed to hold power with determination and established a one-party dictatorship.

After Lenin’s death in 1924, his successor Joseph Stalin suppressed his political opponents, introduced his own crude version of MarxismLeninism.The nation underwent a period of rapid industrialization which was accompanied by the brutal collectivization of peasants into factory-like communes called kolkhozy and sovkhozy between 1928 and 1940. There were wide disparities between the lifestyles of the elite and those of ordinary citizens.

The country experienced a half-century period of relative liberalization and stabilization. At its zenith, the Soviet Empire consisted of 15 Soviet republics and 16 countries outside of the USSR proper.

In the late 1950’ the Post-Industrial Wave emerged in the West. The outdated Marxism-Leninism ideology was not able to cope with the growing pressure of the rapid change along the lines of PostIndustrialization world which created powerful sociocultural strains. Starting in Poland, the wave of the Revolutions of 1989 removed the Soviet Union, with its basis in communist doctrine and its huge international system, from the arena of history by the end of 1991.

The Chernobyl disaster was one the reasons which led to the fall of the Soviet Union. The reasons were 

• design flaws, 
• low quality of equipment, 
• personnel incompetence, 
• “storming” to meet unwarranted deadlines, 
• negligence of safety and security, 
• the state’s misinforming the public and unwillingness to admit the truth. 

Greece, Southern Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania accepted Western values and are already members of the NATO. Serbia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine would like to belong to the EU and Montenegro’s membership was approved in 2017.

Ukraine first attempted to gain a status of an independent state in 1917 when the Declaration of Independence on 23 June 1917 led to the formation of modern Ukraine’s predecessor- the Ukrainian People’s Republic (Ukrainian National Republic). A civil war and a foreign invasion by the foreign powers followed. In 1921 most of what is now Ukraine was annexed by the Soviet Union.

Ukraine gained independence when the Act of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was adopted by the Ukranian parliament on 24 August.1991. It reestablished Ukraine as an independent state.

The “Orange Revolution” (November 2004January 2005) was a series of protests and political events that took place as a consequence of the corrupted run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election.

The “Euromaidan” was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest which started in Kiev and then went on in other cities (21.11.2013). This stage of the Ukrainian Revolution began with public demands for closer integration with Europe, which then evolved into demands for better government and a fight against corruption.

The Western-leaning interim government had to deal with counter-revolutionary forces (Russia and the ethnic Russians in the eastern and southern regions of the country) and the “radicals” (“The Right Sector”). This caused the country to face the threat of an internal as well as external war.

They called for seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. Diplomatic talks between Ukraine, Russia, the US, and the European Union in Geneva failed to achieve any meaningful results. However, they resumed in Minsk (Belarus) in 2014 and 2015.

Animism perceives all things, for example, animals, plants, rocks, and rivers, as animated and alive. The East Slavic old religious beliefs were animistic. Gradually, however, the Eastern civilization moved to a mystical faith called Orthodox Christianity, which arrived from the Byzantine Empire. Other religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism were also important in Russian history.

Seven pagan divinities are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle: Perun, Volos, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh. According to this early historical work, the Great Prince Vladimir I tried to unify those beliefs into one pantheon, but his efforts were not durable.

Christianity became the state religion in 988 CE. The Great Prince converted his own family and the people of Kiev in 988, and those events have been referred to as the Baptism of Rus since then.

There are 35.000 churches in Russia.

The new capital was St.Petersburg. It was also a foundation of a new, modern society.

Empress Catherine the Great (1729-1796) was known for her thirst for knowledge. In 1764, she started decorating her main palace, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, which was the foundation for one of the greatest public museums of all time. Encouraging education, she chartered schools and universities. Catherine introduced public participation in government, which was the foundations for what is called today civil society. Like her great predecessor Peter I, she encouraged the Russian elite to challenge tradition and supported the revolutionary change in Russia.

The era of Czar-reformer Alexander II was the Golden Age of the Russian literature. In a short span of twenty years Lev Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, and Ivan Goncharov created the genre of a Russian novel, Alexander Ostrovsky – Russian drama, Nikolay Nekrasov – folk poems, and Nikolai Leskov – folk stories. 

The second great conflict in Russian culture was between the Westernizers and the Slavophils. Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating in the 19 century; it sought the development of values and institutions in Russian society derived from its early history. Slavophiles usually supported the official doctrine “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.”

Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I, and Alexander II were “westernizers” and “progressives” among the Romanov monarchs.

Nicholas I, Alexander III, and Nicholas II were the “conservatives” and “retrogrades” among the Romanov monarchs.

The first Russian censorship-free newspaper Kolokol was published by Alexander Herzen (1812-1870) in London

The dominant ideological doctrine of the Russian Empire was formulated during the reign of Czar Nicholas I in the first half of the 19th century. It was known as “Official Nationality” and expressed in a triad: Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.

Alvin Toffler outlines the First Wave 'Agrarian' as the society after the Agrarian Revolution, which gradually replaced nomadic tribes. Agrarian societies have been the most common form of socio-economic organization for most of recorded human history.

The evolution of Kievan Rus ended with the Mongol invasion.

The Russian Empire existed under the rule of the Romanovs from 1721 to 1917. Both the Rurik and the Romanov dynasties were closely tied to, and intermarried with, the ruling elites of their time.

The Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as other predominantly Slavic Eastern Orthodox countries and diasporas in Europe and throughout the world.

The predominantly agricultural tribes of East Slavs found help and protection in an alliance with the Scandinavian warrior-traders known as the Vikings.

One of the Rurik’s descendants – Prince Vladimir (958-1015) – converted his subjects into the Orthodox Christian faith in 988.

The forces of the nomadic Mongol Empire overran Kievan Rus in the 13th century which caused the rise of the Grand Principality of Moscow.

Ivan III (the Great)

Peter I, also known as Peter the Great (1682–1725). 

In February 1917, Nicholas II renounced the throne, ending the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty.

Joseph Stalin's period was the rapid industrialization years. Stalin ordered the collection of peasants into factory-like communes called kolkhozy and sovkhozy between 1928 and 1940.

Starting in Poland, the wave of the Revolutions of 1989 and the failure of the outdated Marxism-Leninism ideology removed the Soviet Union by the end of 1991.

Orange Revolution

The Declaration of Independence on 23 June 1917 led to the appearance from 1917 to 1921 ending with a civil war and a foreign invasion by the foreign powers followed and most of what is now Ukraine was annexed by the Soviet Union.

There were seven pagan divinities: Perun, Volos, Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh.

Vladimir's choosing of Orthodox Christianity in 988.

The USSR attempted a complete switch to atheism.

The era of Czar-reformer Alexander II.

Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating in the 19 century which sought the development of values and institutions in Russian society derived from its early history.

“Official Nationality” : Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.