Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Gilyeat, and I'm going to be your geography teacher for today.

In today's lesson, we are going to be learning about the story of Russia through maps, looking from 1914 to the present day.

So our lesson outcome for today is that you can analyse historical maps to understand how Russia's borders have changed since 1914.

We've got five keywords for today's lesson.

The first one is the USSR, which was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics known as the USSR or the Soviet Union.

It was a large communist country controlled by Russia between 1922 and 1991.

A border is a line that separates places like countries or regions.

Identity is how someone sees themselves shaped by culture, history, beliefs, language and experiences.

Communism is a system where the government owns property and resources are shared equally.

And a democracy is a system where people vote to choose leaders, allowing them to shape laws and decisions.

So we've got two learning cycles for today's lesson.

First of all, we're gonna look at Russia's changing borders and power between 1914 and 1945.

And then we're going to look at the Soviet collapse and modern Russia between 1945 and 2000.

So on the slide here, I've got a GIF which shows maps of Russia and the USSR at various times during the 20th century.

Okay, so the areas that have been shaded in, and you can see the dates on the left-hand side there show the expanse of the country in different time periods.

So looking at that, what can you notice? So you might have spotted that the size and the shape of Russia changes over time.

Now, borders often follow physical features that historically separated different countries or territories.

So I want you to think what kind of physical features and natural things might be used to mark the border between countries.

So mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, can act as as natural borders.

So the Himalayas is a kind of.

Yeah, a natural border between India and China, where the actual country Nepal is within the Himalayan mountain range.

Rivers, such as Rhine, act as borders.

And also lakes and seas can act as borders as well.

So these are natural physical things which show a partition between one country and another.

So what physical features do borders often follow? The answer C there, river, 'cause canals and major roads are human features.

Now, some borders were created by drawing straight lines onto maps, often without considering the physical landscape or the communities already living there.

So here we can see a map of Northern Africa, and we can see that some of the country borders in Algeria, Mali, Niger, the actual borders of the countries are very, very straight lines.

And this was because during the colonial era, European powers divided much of the African continent by drawing straight lines on maps.

As a result, many different ethnic groups and communities were either grouped together within new countries or separated across different ones.

Okay, so these new borders were really quite divisive.

Borders that do not follow natural physical features such as rivers or mountains, are often more likely to change over time.

So why do you think that might be? Pause the video and have a quick chat with your partner.

Okay, so we've got a few answers here.

So there is more likely to be a mix of different communities.

Okay, so if you've put group together people and you've got different communities there, they might not be happy with the border and want to change it.

Okay, they can be easier to redraw.

They might not reflect people's sense of identity.

And also there is no natural barrier to movement or conflict, okay.

So if you imagine if you've got a mountain range separating one country another, it's not going to be easy and people aren't going to really bother or wanting to change that border.

Whereas if there is no physical feature, it's going to be easier to do that.

Now, Western Russia and its neighbouring countries are part of the European.

Sorry, the East European Plain, a vast area of flatland where borders have often changed over time, okay.

So if we have a look on the slide here, we can see the area that's been shaded on the map is the East European Plain, so it has got the western part of Russia in it, and then also a few Eastern European countries, okay.

So it's a large area of very flatland, okay.

On the east side of it, it is the Ural mountains, which kind of are the starting point of the plain.

And we can see underneath the map we have got an elevation, okay.

Or an elevation profile, which shows how many metres above sea level that area is.

So you've got the Ural mountains to the East, okay, and then a very large area of flatland to the west.

Now, maps of Russia at different points in history can be created using GIS.

This allows us to visualise border changes over time.

So we're going to look at how Russia's borders have changed over time.

Okay, so we're gonna look at from 1914 to 1939, 1945, and into the year 2000.

Now, in the 19th century, the Russian Empire had expanded.

By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Russia included areas of what are now Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Georgia.

Okay, so we can see that the shaded areas are what were included within the Russian Empire.

Okay, and that was in 1914.

Losses in the First World War and instability in Russia led to a revolution in 1917 and the creation of the USSR, a communist state in 1922.

The USSR took control of much of the land that belonged to the Russian Empire.

So if we have a look at these two maps here for the Russian Empire in 1914, and the map of the USSR, which was in January 1939, which areas were part of Russia in 1914 but not part of the USSR in 1939? Which ones can you notice? So you might have noticed that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, okay.

And well, half of Belarus, Poland, were now not part of the USSR.

Now the USSR, along with the UK and the USA was one of the victors of the Second World War.

And as a result, the USSR expanded its territory.

So looking at this, we can see some of the countries, which were once part of the Russian Empire, which gained independence, were now back part of the USSR.

So we can see that again, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and pretty much all of Ukraine are now part of the Soviet Union.

So I'd like you to look at the two maps, and I'd like you to name a country or region that became part of the USSR between 1939 and 1945.

Okay, so you could have added any of these, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Western Belarus, and Western Ukraine.

Well done if you spotted those.

Okay, so we're on to our first tasks for this lesson.

What I'd like you to do is use the maps here to describe the changes to the western border of the Russian Empire and the USSR between 1914 and 1945.

Pause the video and have a go at this task.

Okay, here's my model description.

"In 1914, the western border of the Russian Empire extended to include the territories of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, which are known as the Baltic states, Belarus, much of Poland and most of Ukraine.

By 1939, the Russian Empire had collapsed, the Soviet Union had been established, and its western border had shifted eastwards.

The Baltic states had gained independence while the USSR had withdrawn from Poland and parts of Belarus.

However, in 1945, the following the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union's Western border once again expanded westwards, regaining control of the Baltic states, Belarus, nearly all of Ukraine and parts of Poland." So you did not have to write exactly what I've put, but hopefully you have got something similar.

Okay, so we're now moving on to our second learning cycle, looking at the Soviet collapse and modern Russia between 1945 and 2000.

So the expansion of the USSR during the Second World War brought millions of people from different ethnic, cultural, and national backgrounds into the Soviet Union.

So if we have a look at the map here, we've got a map of the USSR in 1945.

So we can see now that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and pretty much all of Ukraine are part of the Soviet Union.

Now, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were independent countries, but during the Second World War, they were brought into the USSR without Democratic choice.

Okay, so they didn't vote to be part of the Soviet Union.

Many people in these countries did not want to become part of the Soviet Soviet Union and continue to see themselves as separate nations.

Okay, let's check what we've just learned.

So Estonia became.

Part of the USSR during the Second World War.

Well done if you got that correct.

Now, beyond the USSR's Western border, the Soviet government had significant influence over many countries in Eastern Europe.

It supported communist governments in these places and did not tolerate opposition to Soviet control or ideas.

Okay, so we can see on the slide here, there is a red line, and that red line is the kind of the separating line between communist states to the east and democratic states to the west, okay.

Also known as the Iron Curtain.

Okay, so got democratic countries to the west and communist countries to the east.

So the USSR really supported and they wanted to spread their ideology of communism.

So as we can see on the slide here where it's pointing to, this part of Europe was former known as Yugoslavia, and it was communist but not aligned.

Now, the border between communist and democratic countries during this period was often referred to as the Iron Curtain.

Now, Albania was communist, but had a complex relationship with the USSR.

Okay, let's check what we've just learned.

So the border between communist and democratic countries during this period was often referred to as the Iron.

Curtain.

Well done if you remembered that.

Now during the 1980s, the USSR and the communist countries east of the Iron Curtain were struggling with a mix of economic and political problems. Voices of dissent grew louder, so people were unhappy with the situation and opposed communism.

And this eventually led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

So on the slide here, we can see an image of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened in 1989.

Now, the Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier built in 1961 by communist East Germany to stop its citizens from fleeing to the Democratic West Germany in Berlin.

Now, it became a powerful symbol of the Cold War and the division between east and the west.

Over time, however, growing public protests, mass escapes, and political reforms in the Soviet Union weakened the eastern block.

And on November 9th, in 1989, a mistaken announcement led to crowds gathering at the wall, and the border guards eventually let people through.

This triggered the walls fall, which paved the way for German reunification and the end of control, of communist control, in Eastern Europe.

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania regain their independence.

Now, this caused a major shift in Russia's western border, so it moved further east.

So we can see there a map of Russia in the present day.

Okay, what I'd you to do is name a European country on the western border of Russia that became independent after the fall of communism.

Okay, so you could have had Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, or Ukraine.

Now, many Eastern European countries that were formally part of the USSR or under its influence were keen to build closer ties with Western Europe.

Okay, so Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republics, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania are now all part of the European Union.

Okay, so if we have a look at the slide there, we can see the countries with the European Union flag of the little blue boxes, it's a bit hard to see the stars in the middle there, are all part of the EU.

Okay, but you will notice there that Belarus and Ukraine are not.

In 2014, Russia invaded and took control of Crimea, a region of Ukraine.

Okay, so if you have a look, it's that kind of little bit of, it looks like a peninsula sticking out in the south of the country.

And in 2022, Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

And this conflict is sadly still going on in 2025.

Now, many experts believe that one reason for Russia's action was to prevent Ukraine from forming closer ties with organisations such as the European Union or the EU, and NATO, which is a military alliance of European and North American countries.

Now, the borders of countries are often complex.

Disagreements about where they should be drawn can be influenced by history, identity, and strategic concerns like defence.

Now in democratic countries, people's identity and their right to make decisions about their own future are seen as very, very important.

Okay, so we're on to our final tasks for this lesson.

What I would like you to do, first of all, is annotate the maps to describe changes in the western border of Russia after the collapse of the USSR.

Okay, so pause the video and get annotating.

Okay, and then what I'd like to do is complete the sentences to help explain why the western border of Russia changed between 1914 and the present day.

And then finally, this is the question I'd like you to have a go at.

Why do you think borders can become a source of conflict? So pause the video and have a go at the questions.

Okay, let's have a look at some answers then.

So we've got here a general shift of the border from east to further west.

The Baltic states have gained independence.

Belarus and Ukraine have gained independence.

Okay, and for the sentences, after the First World War, Russia lost territory because of its instability in the country, which led to a revolution in 1917 and the creation of the USSR, a communist state.

After the Second World War, the USSR expanded to the west because Germany had been defeated and the USSR wanted to take control of more land in Eastern Europe.

In 1991, the collapse of the USSR led to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania regaining their independence.

And finally, I've got an answer here about why borders can become a source of conflict.

So borders can become a source of conflict because different groups or countries may want to control or may want control over the same land resources or people, and they may disagree about where the border should be.

Borders can also separate people with the same culture or put different groups together leading to tensions and fights over who should rule or live in those areas.

Okay, so here we've got a summary for today's lesson.

So Russia's borders have changed over time.

Russia lost territory during the First World War and instability led to the formation of the USSR.

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union expanded in Eastern Europe, and the USSR collapsed in 1991, creating independent republics such as Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

And Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an attempt to redraw their western border.

Right, a good bit of history in today's geography lesson.

So that's it from me, and I'll see you next time.

Bye.