Ethan S. answered • 05/27/20
College Student
Russia was referred to as a backward nation for most of the 1600's due to its general isolation from most of Europe. For most of the 1600's it was boxed in by the then relatively stronger powers of the Swedish Empire, the Poland Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Ottoman Empire.The impact of which was to limit its trade and interaction with the rest of Europe. It wasn't until the Great Turkish War in the late 1600's that Russia finally started interacting with Western Europe on a large scale. Thus during that time it was seen as a backwater nation due to its r isolation. In terms of development it also earned a reputation for being backwards due to its extremely corrupt and reactionary government which was in turn enforcing a feudal serfdom long after other European countries had either abolished serfdom entirely or had more lenient forms of servitude in place instead. From this Russia stagnated behind other countries in terms of innovation and due to its feudal nature it had far less skilled and/or educated manpower to draw from. Which in turn forced Russia to rely on foreign experts, most notably Baltic Germans, to supply deficits created by it demands for skilled or educated workers. This extreme reliance on foreigners as well as its stagnate government and feudal nature as well contributed to its reputation as being backward in the 1600's.
