Russian Empire (Alternate Asia)

The New Russian Empire (Russian: Новой Российская Империя; Novoy Rossiyskaya Imperiya), commonly called the Russian Empire or just Russia, is a country in north Eurasia. It shares borders with over 14 countries spanning from Europe to the Far East of Asia. With over 6,500,000 square miles of mainland (not including colonies), it is the largest country on Earth, by quite some distance. Expanding across the whole of North Asia (sharing latitudes at the most western tip with Oman and Yemen, and the most eastern tip with Malaysia). Russia spans nine timezones with a variety of different tips of enviroment.

The nation's history began with that of the  East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD.  Founded and ruled by a  Varangian   warrior elite and their descendants, the  medieval   state of  Rus   arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity   from the  Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture   for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion   and became tributaries of the nomadic  Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow   gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of  Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and  exploration   to become the  Russian Empire, which was the third  largest empire   in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to  Alaska   in North America.

However the populace's faith in the empire waned, and the Russian Revolution took place in 1917, overthrowing Tsar Nicholas and kickstarting a civil war, with the Communist Bolsheviks overwhemingly victorious. The Tsar and his family were executed a year later and the Russian SFSR was born. The leaders of the Bolsheviks (Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky) sought to create a united socialist state in north Asia: the USSR. Lenin, the father of the plan, kept the other two in check until his death in 1924. Soon a power struggle ensued, with Stalin the winner. Trotsky was exiled before being assasinated at Stalin's command. Stalin ruled as a dictator from 1922 to 1945, killing thousands in the so called 'Great Purge', to kill 'imperialists and counter-revolutionaries', in reality any one who disagreed with Stalin or the communist regime. Russia was a key player in WWII first helping, then fighting Nazi Germany, with great losses due to lack of food and medicine. Stalin died on the closing days of the war, poisoned by Georgy Malenkov, as he had desires of ruling the USSR. However Malenkov was found out and arrested, and Nikita Khrushchev was declared leader by the party.

Unlike in our timeline, where the Iron Curtain came down on Eastern Europe, Khrushchev instead lead perestroika and glasnost programs to de-Stalinize and in turn westernize Russia, privatizing the industry and loosening the grip of terror Stalin had left. A cooperative effort between the Americans and Europeans was made to rebuild China, Eastern Europe (including Germany) and Russia and by 1956 the economy and social situation had improved drastically. Khruschev officially announced the end of the USSR, granting the former republics independence and created Ossetia and Chechnya. He found the closest relative of Tsar Nicholas, a teenage Ivan VII and crowned him Tsar, and started his own centre-right party: the Russian Capitalist Party. This party has held power for most of the New Russian Empire's history, except in 1975 due to the canditate being caught up in a sex scandal.

Russia is the world's largest producer of minerals, and this is the thing that ended the post WWII recession. However the powerhouse private sector is primarily led by the automotive industry. Russia is the largest economy in the world, both nominally and by purchasing power parity. The majority of the wealth is centred around the European segment of Russia, as the majority of the factories are located in Moscow. The mineral wealth is mainly centred in Novosibirsk. Russia is a member of the East Asia Mineral Organization, the United Nations, the Sino-Asia pact, the United Asia agreement, the War on Terror Group, the Asian Union and the Soviet commonwealth.

Etymology
 The name Russia is derived from Rus, a medieval state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this proper name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Русская Земля" (russkaya zemlya) which could be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'". In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography. The name Rus itself comes from Rus people, a group of Varangians (possibly Swedish Vikings)   who founded the state of Rus (Русь).

An old Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus' that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus'; Ρωσσία (Rossía) spelt Ρωσία in Modern Greek.



Early periods
In prehistoric times the vast steppes of Southern Russia were home to tribes of   nomadic pastoralists.   Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in such places as   Ipatovo,   Sintashta,   Arkaim<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Pazyryk<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">which bear the earliest known traces of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  mounted warfare<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, a key feature in the nomadic way of life.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In classical antiquity, the Pontic Steppe was known as Scythia. Since the 8th century BC, Ancient Greek traders brought their civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria. The Romans settled on the western part of the Caspian Sea, where their empire stretched towards the east. In 3rd – 4th centuries AD a semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia till it was overrun by Huns. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes, such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars. A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The ancestors of modern Russians are the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pinsk Marshes. The East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev toward present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Merya, the Muromians, and the Meshchera.

Kievan Rus
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Varangians<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Vikings<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Scandinavian<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">origin, who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  to the Black and Caspian<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Seas. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">According to the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Primary Chronicle<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, a Varangian from <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Rus' people<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, named <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Rurik<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, was elected ruler of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Novgorod<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">in 862. In 882 his successor <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Oleg<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">ventured south and conquered <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Kiev<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:11px;line-height:11px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">which had been previously paying tribute to the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Khazars<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, founding Kievan Rus'. Oleg, Rurik's son <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Igor<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and Igor's son <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Sviatoslav<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">subsequently subdued all local <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  East Slavic<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Khazar khaganate<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and launched several military expeditions to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Byzantium<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Persia<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–40, that resulted in the destruction of Kiev and the death of about half the population of Rus'. The invading Mongol elite, together with their conquered Turkic subjects (Cumans, Kipchaks, Bulgars) became known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities; the Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and Volga Bulgaria (modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia) for over two centuries.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation. The Novgorod together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and were largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242, breaking their attempts to colonize the Northern Rus'.

Grand Duchy of Moscow
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">The most powerful successor state to Kievan Rus' was the Grand Duchy of Moscow ("Moscovy" in the Western chronicles), initially a part of <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Vladimir-Suzdal<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the Central Rus' in the early 14th century, gradually becoming the main leading force in the process of the Rus' lands' reunification and expansion of Russia.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Those were hard times, with frequent Mongol-Tatar raids and agriculture suffering from the beginning of the Little Ice Age. As in the rest of Europe, plagues hit Russia somewhere once every five or six years from 1350 to 1490. However, because of the lower population density and better hygiene (widespread practicing of banya, the wet steam bath), the population loss caused by plagues was not so severe as in the Western Europe, and the pre-Plague populations were reached in Russia as early as 1500.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow and helped by the Russian Orthodox Church, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow gradually absorbed the surrounding principalities, including the formerly strong rivals, such as Tver and Novgorod.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Ivan III (the Great) finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde, consolidated the whole of Central and Northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first to take the title "Grand Duke of all the Russias". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russian, coat-of-arms.

Tsardom of Russia
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">In development of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Third Rome<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">ideas, the Grand Duke <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Ivan IV<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">(the "Terrible" <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">) was officially crowned the first <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Tsar<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">(" Caesar<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">") of Russia in 1547. The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws ( Sudebnik of 1550<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">), established the first Russian feudal representative body ( Zemsky Sobor<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">) and introduced local self-management into the rural regions.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">During his long reign, Ivan the Terrible nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of disintegrated Golden Horde): Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga River, and Sibirean Khanate in South Western Siberia. Thus by the end of the 16th century Russia was transformed into a multiethnic, multidenominational and transcontinental state.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade. At the same time the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, the only remaining successor to the Golden Horde, continued to raid Southern Russia. In effort to restore the Volga khanates, Crimeans and their Ottoman allies invaded central Russia and were even able to burn down parts of Moscow in 1571. But next year the large invading army was thoroughly defeated by Russians in the Battle of Molodi, forever eliminating the threat of the Ottoman-Crimean expansion into Russia. The raids of Crimeans, however, didn't cease until the late 17th century, though the construction of new fortification lines across Southern Russia, such as the Great Abatis Line, constantly narrowed the area accessible to incursions.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik Dynasty in 1598, and in combination with the famine of 1601–03 led to the civil war, the rule of pretenders and foreign intervention during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied parts of Russia, including Moscow. In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps, led by two national heroes, merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The Romanov Dynasty acceded the throne in 1613 by the decision of Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of Cossacks. Cossacks were warriors organized into military communities, resembling pirates and pioneers of the New World. In 1648, the peasants of Ukraine joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks in rebellion against Poland-Lithuania during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule. In 1654, the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian Tsar, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). Finally, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper River, leaving the western part (or Right-bank Ukraine) under Polish rule and eastern part (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian. Later, in 1670–71 the Don Cossacks led by Stenka Razin initiated a major uprising in the Volga Region, but the Tsar's troops were successful in defeating the rebels.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes, and by the mid-17th century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the Pacific coast. In 1648, the Bering Strait between Asia and North America was passed for the first time by Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov.

Imperial Russia
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Under <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Peter the Great<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721 and became recognized as a world power. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Great Northern War<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, forcing it to cede West <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Karelia<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Ingria<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">(two regions lost by Russia in the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Time of Troubles<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">), <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">as well as <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Estland<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Livland<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, securing Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">On the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Baltic Sea<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Peter founded a new capital called <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Saint Petersburg<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, later known as Russia's <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Window to Europe<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Peter the Great's reforms<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">brought considerable Western European cultural influences to Russia.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The reign of Peter I's daughter Elizabeth in 1741–62 saw Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War (1756–63). During this conflict Russia annexed East Prussia for a while and even took Berlin. However, upon Elisabeth's death, all these conquests were returned to Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Catherine II (the Great), who ruled in 1762–96, presided over the Age of Russian Enlightenment. She extended Russian political control over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and incorporated most of its territories into Russia during the Partitions of Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In the south, after successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, defeating the Crimean Khanate. As a result of victories over the Ottomans, by the early 19th century Russia also made significant territorial gains in Transcaucasia. This continued with Alexander I's (1801–25) wresting of Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time Russians colonized Alaska and even founded settlements in California, like Fort Ross.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In 1803–06, the first Russian circumnavigation was made, later followed by other notable Russian sea exploration voyages. In 1820 a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In alliances with various European countries, Russia fought against Napoleon's France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 failed miserably as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian Winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which more than 95% of the pan-European Grande Armée perished. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly, the Russian army ousted Napoleon from the country and drove through Europe in the war of the Sixth Coalition, finally entering Paris. Alexander I headed Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna that defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The officers of the Napoleonic Wars brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia with them and attempted to curtail the Tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. At the end of the conservative reign of Nicolas I (1825–55), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War. Between 1847 and 1851, a massive wave of Asiatic cholera swept over Russia, claiming about one million lives.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–81) enacted significant changes in the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861. These Great Reforms spurred industrialization and modernized the Russian army, which had successfully liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was killed in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists, and the reign of his son Alexander III (1881–94) was less liberal but more peaceful. The last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), was unable to prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, triggered by the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday. The uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms, including granting the freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalization of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the State Duma of the Russian Empire. Migration to Siberia increased rapidly in the early 20th century, particularly during the Stolypin agrarian reform. Between 1906 and 1914 more than four million settlers arrived in that region.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In 1914, Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia, and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies. In 1916, the Brusilov Offensive of the Russian Army almost completely destroyed the military of Austria-Hungary. However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties, and rumors of corruption and treason. All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts.

Revolution and Russian Republic
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">The  February Revolution<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> forced Nicholas II to abdicate; he and his family were imprisoned and  later executed<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> during the  Russian Civil War<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the  Provisional Government<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. An alternative socialist establishment existed alongside, the  Petrograd Soviet<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workers and peasants, called  Soviets<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. The rule of the new authorities only aggravated the crisis in the country, instead of resolving it. Eventually, the  October Revolution<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, led by  Bolshevik<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> leader  Vladimir Lenin<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, overthrew the Provisional Government and gave full governing power to the Soviets, leading to the creation of the world's first  socialist state.

Soviet Russia and civil war
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Following the October Revolution, a  civil war<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> broke out between the  anti-communist<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  White movement<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> and the new  Soviet<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> regime with its  Red Army<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. Bolshevist Russia lost its Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic, and Finnish territories by signing the  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> that concluded hostilities with the  Central Powers<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> of World War I. The  Allied powers<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> launched an unsuccessful  military intervention<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> in support of anti-Communist forces. In the meantime both the Bolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns of deportations and executions against each other, known respectively as the  Red Terror<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> and  White Terror<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">. By the end of the civil war, the Russian economy and its infrastructure were heavily damaged. Millions became  White émigrés<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> and the  Povolzhye famine<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;"> of 1921 claimed up to 5 million victims.

<span style="font-size:16px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Soviet Union

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (called <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">at the time) together with the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Ukrainian<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">,  Byelorussian<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Transcaucasion Soviet Socialist Republics<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  formed<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">(USSR), or Soviet Union, on 30 December 1922. Out of the 4 <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  republics that would make up the USSR<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, the largest in size and over half of the total USSR population was the Russian SFSR, which came to dominate the union for its entire 34-year history.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika was designated to govern the Soviet Union. However, Joseph Stalin, an elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, managed to suppress all opposition groups within the party and consolidate power in his hands. Leon Trotsky, the main proponent of world revolution, was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became the primary line. The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repressions in 1937–38, during which hundreds of thousands of people were executed, including original party members and military leaders accused of coup d'état plots.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Under Stalin's leadership, the government launched a planned economy, industrialisation of the largely rural country, and collectivization of its agriculture. During this period of rapid economic and social change, millions of people were sent to penal labor camps, including many political convicts for their opposition to Stalin's rule; millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The transitional disorganisation of the country's agriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led to the Soviet famine of 1932–1933. The Soviet Union, though with a heavy price, was transformed from a largely agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in a short span of time.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The Appeasement policy of Great Britain and France towards Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia enlarged the might of Nazi Germany and put a threat of war to the Soviet Union. Around the same time the Third Reich allied with the Empire of Japan, a rival of the USSR in the Far East and an open enemy of the USSR in the Soviet–Japanese Border Wars in 1938–39.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In August 1939, after another failure of attempts to establish an anti-Nazi alliance with Britain and France, the Soviet government decided to improve relations with Germany by concluding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, pledging non-aggression between the two countries and dividing their spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. While Hitler conquered Poland, France and other countries actied on single front at the start of World War II, the USSR was able to build up its military and claim some of the former territories of the Russian Empire as a result of the Soviet invasion of Poland, Winter War and the occupation of the Baltic states.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany broke the non-aggression treaty and invaded the Soviet Union with the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history, opening the largest theater of World War II. Although the German army had considerable early success, their attack was halted in the Battle of Moscow. Subsequently the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–43, and then in the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941–44 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendered. Under Stalin's administration and the leadership of such commanders as Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet forces took Eastern Europe in 1944–45 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945 the Soviet Army ousted the Japanese from China's Manchukuo and North Korea, contributing to the allied victory over Japan.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The 1941–45 period of World War II is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. During this conflict, which included many of the most lethal battle operations in human history, Soviet military and civilian deaths were 10.6 million and 15.9 million respectively, accounting for about a third of all World War II casualties. The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater. The Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation but the Soviet Union emerged as an acknowledged military superpower on the continent.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">During the war Stalin attempted to consolidate his position further as leader, angering and or worrying many other Party officials, notably Georgy Malenkov. Also the party itself was being influenced by the Western powers of Britain and the United States, which Stalin had tried so hard to prevent. In the last weeks of the war in Europe, Malenkov poisoned Stalin's drink in a private dinner. Stalin's last recorded words were 'This port tastes like fermented herring dipped in cat piss,' before succumbing to the cyanide. Georgy became acting Premier. However Nikita Khrushchev and Lazar Kaganovich launched an investigation with the NKVD into Stalin's death, including illegally tampering with his body. Soon the plot was uncovered and Malenkov was arrested and imprisoned, with the party electing Khruschev as the acting Premier.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Once the dust had settled, Khrushchev addressed the people to show that Stalin was a tyrant and communism didn't work in the long run. Khrushchev had NKVD disbanded, the majority of party members arrested and tried for corruption and closed down all of the slave labour camps Stalin had built to inter 'counter-revolutionaries'. Khrushchev also allowed foreign radio and news into the nation and privatized the majority of the state-industry. This is known as the Khruschev Thaw. He struck a deal with the UK and Germany to buy only Russian oil and gas at a reduced price, and for the US to consider Russian oil a priority over other oil. This pulled the country out of the recession and started bringing economic prosperity to Russia. Khruschev devoted the majority of taxes to rebuilding the nation that had been butchered by the Nazis. In 1953 he allowed East Germany to unify with the west after he considered it rebuilt enough, and also relinquished control of the other eastern european countries. He also invited many foreign business over to Russia with low taxes and cheap labour. In roughly 9 years (1945-1954), Khruschev had changed Stalin's Russia to a country that resembles OTL China.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;"> New Russian Empire

By 1956 Russia had rebuilt almost completely. The burning crater of Stalingrad now resembled a beautiful, art-deco, futuristic city (renamed Sofiyegrad), the frosty Gulags were now fashionable housing estates and the people's living standards rivaled that of the United States. Khrushchev decided it was time to bring in the final phase of his plan. He sought for the closest living relative of Nicholas II family. However they had all been executed. However he dug further and he discovered the illegitimate son of Tsar Nicholas and a Russian maid who was and born whilst Nicholas was fighting in WWI. The premature child, christened Yakov Grigorievich Petrov was taken away, at the Duma's orders, to Siberia to be brought up quietly so that the Tsar, nor the public would find out about him. Petrov was found to have died in Klooga Labour Camp, a Nazi concentration camp, in 1942. However Petrov had a son, who was born on 5th September 1940, called Ivan. Khruschev traced Ivan down to a small village in Siberia, no doubt where Petrov was sent when he was young. This man, was taken and told of his identity. Khrushchev then announced to the people of Russia that the USSR was no more. On national television he gave independence to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Chechnya and Ossetia and crowned Ivan Petrov as Ivan VII, House of Petrov. He declared Russia to become a constitutional monarchy with a unitary, democratic parliament. He then announced the date of the elections as June 1st 1960. He was met with rapturous appaluse and cheering.

Khrushchev formally disbanded the Communist Party of Russia and founded the Russian Capitalist Party with Lazar Kagonovich and Nikolai Bulgagin. To garner support from the population so used to the USSR, he privatized the healthcare system and ceased the government control (but not financing) over schooling. He built a grand palace for the king in St Petersburg and finally brokered a deal with China and North Korea over oil and natural gas. The economy skyrocketed and the standard of living and GDP per capita overtook the US. Economic growth was a steady 11% each year since the declaration up to the elections, giving the Capitalists a certain victory.

In Khrushchev's first term, he spent his time further freeing up the country, officially allowing emmigration, legalizing homosexuality and later same-sex marriage (much to the chagrin of the Church). He formally allowed other religions to exist, allowing a huge migrant community of European Jews to call Russia home. This benefitted Russia in providing many well educated foreigners to fill tertiary jobs. Russia was often a place for Jews suffering discrimination or attack in Israel as an alternative port in the storm. He had a memorial built to commemorate the war and also cemented an alliance with the West.

In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial (human) satellite. Soon after IRSA (Imperial Russian Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) decided to join up to form a Joint Space Program and Joint Aerial Advancement Program, the former based around space exploration for scientific benifit, the latter based around advancement of aerial technology on earth for both military and civilian purpose. This saved a huge amount of money compared to OTL where the space programs were developed independently from each other. The first manned space flight was in 1959, in a Vostok spacecraft commandeered by Yuri Gagarin. The expedition to the moon in 1962 also involved Gagarin, but was comandeered by Neil Armstrong on US rocket Saturn V.