| |
Capital (and largest city) |
Moscow |
Language | Russian |
Czar | |
Prime Minister | |
Currency | Ruble |
Russia includes just a part of OTL Russia plus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, Iran, as well as Turkish Kurdistan and Eastern Ukraine. It lacks Ingria (Petrograd), Karelia, Kola, and the Eastern third of Siberia.
History[]
During the last half of the 18th Century, Russian campaigns against the Turks were unsuccessful, while the Russo-Swedish War of 1773, severed the situation in the Baltic. Russia was still a regional power in central Europe, up to the Great War of 1812 when, fighting again against Sweden and the Ottomans, Russia lost all access to the Baltic and Black seas.
Except for the Arctic Sea, Russia was practically landlocked, and a great deal of her policies during the 19th century was aimed to get an outlet to the sea at either the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean or the Pacific (or all of them altogether). The opportunity begun after 1830, as the Ottoman Empire begun to weaken.
Finally, Russia got to the Black Sea in 1841, and to the Indian Ocean by 1855 after conquering Persia from the Ottomans. During this period, Russia and Britain rushed for the control of Central Asia in what is called The Great Game.
Russia founded Vladivostok in the Pacific by 1860, and soon begun the construction of a railroad network uniting Moscow, Volgograd, Bushehr, Odessa, and Vladivostok.
In the early 20th century, Russia was hit by a war against Japan, and against Austria-Hungary, leading the the lost of most of eastern Siberia (Vladivostok was, however, preserved as a Russian possession), and all territories west of the Dnieper.