Russia (World of Imperial Russian Glory)

Great Russian Commonwealth Великое Российское Содружество Velikoye Rossiyskoye Sodruzhestvo OT equivalent: Russian Federation, Baltics, Belarus, Central Asia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, parts of Northeast China
Anthem:  "Великая молитва русского" Velikaya molitva russkogo ("Great Prayer of the Russian")
Capital		Moscow
Official languages		Russian
Government		Constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy
-	Empress	Maria I
-	Generalissmus	Andrey Semyonov (DNP)
-	Chancellor	Viktoria Krupchenka (DNP)
-	Imperial National Advisor	Lyudmila Dietrich-Weidenmann
Legislature		State Duma
-	Upper House	Senate
-	Lower House	Constituent Assembly
Population
-	census	301,302,000
GDP (nominal)		estimate
-	Total	₽25.5 trillion ($25.5 trillion OTL USD)
Currency		Ruble

The Great Russian Commonwealth (Russian: Великое Российское Содружество, Velikoye Rossiyskoye Sodruzhestvo) also known as Russia, and the Russian Empire is a country located in Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Northern Asia and East Asia.

It is the largest nation on Earth, and despite being based off of an East Slavic culture, Russia is a vastly multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation. In addition, while the Romanovs are Russia's current reigning dynasty, it is also governed by other noble families, both Russian and non-Russian and is by-far, considered the world's largest monarchy and has the largest amount of noble houses of any country in the world.

In the aftermath of World War I, the First Russian Empire was rocked by revolutions, that ultimately saw the overthrow of Nicholas II, however his cousin, Cyril I, succeeded him as the Tsar after the White victory over the Reds, and the monarchists in the Russian Civil War, leading to the Russian Empire's resurgence, but as a constitutional monarchy as Cyril I would begin the democratization of the Russian Empire by vesting his powers in elected individuals.

During the Second World War, Russia was attacked by Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy. After the war, it liberated many Slavic countries from German and Axis yoke, forming a pan-Slavic alliance that would later become the Warsaw Pact. During the Cold War, the Russian Empire stood as one of two world superpowers, representing monarchies worldwide, but later expanded its sphere of influence by including non-monarchies in its alliance.

Russia is currently the world-reigning superpower, and has the highest nominal GDP, 2nd-highest GDP per capita, including a high living standard for its citizens. It is a member of many supranational organizations, namely the European Alliance, North Pacific Pact, the United Nations and the African-Russian Zone.

It is considered the wealthiest country in the world.

History

Civil War & World War I 1917-1921

Kiril I Vladimirovich, Autocrat of all Russia from 1921-1938

Nicholas II and family are still slain, After the victory of the White Movement, now came a daunting challenge, of who would become the leaders of the Russian state. The two largest opposing forces of the White Movement were the monarchists, and the republicanists. With Kerensky gone, and Kolchak not well-liked, it appeared quite clear and evident that the monarchists had the upper-ground, and wasted no time enacting the White Terror, and its subset, the White Purge.

Meanwhile, the Russian state remained leaderless.

In order to usurp power and plead his cause, Grand Duke Kiril I Vladimirovich, facing opposition by Grand Duke Nicholas I Nikolaevich, began to appeal to some Leftist and progressive causes. Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel represented those who favored Kiril I, while Baron Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg represented those who favored Nicholas I.

Thanks to Roman's ego-centric, aggressive and divisive attitude, and his absence in Russia, the Asiatic Cavalry Division turned on him, in addition, the lack of presence of Nicholas I also made Kiril I's case easier, wince Kiril I and his group were in Russia attempting to gain people's sympathy, and from there on, all support went towards Kiril I Vladimirovich, who became crowned as the new Tsar of Russia.

Kiril I however, felt bad for having fled overseas, therefore, encouraging him to instead, create a Constitutional Monarchy by vesting his powers in elected individuals.

Under the leadership of Kiril I, and his Procurator-General, Pyotr Wrangel, and Prime Minister Georgy Lvov, the Russian Empire would begin the seeds to its industrialization and modernization. However, Kiril I and Wrangel still wanted Russia to be a representative of European monarchies.

The Polish-Soviet war never happens.

Interwar Period - Industrialization, Golden Age

White Terror and White Purge

The Russian Revolutions had gone to a circle, Baron Pyotr Wrangel soon enacted the White Purge (OTE: Stalin and the Great Purge), a secretive military police operation to assassinate generals, officers, politicians and all other members of the White Movement and non-Whites alike who had partook or advocated the overthrow of the Tsar.

This led to the assassinations of Alexander Kolchak, Alexei Brusilov, Alexander Kerensky, Anton Denikin, Fanny Kaplan, Nikolai Drozdov, Abdul-Tapa Tchermoeff and many more.

The Roman Gul-Pyotr Struve reforms

In spite of the political terrors of the White Terror, Russia experienced another golden age of enlightenment that truly kicked off in the 1930s. The liberal policies of Tsar Cyril I had extremely long-lasting effects on Russian society. Roman Gul won the 1929 Senatorial Elections and Pyotr Struve won the Parliamentary Elections, which would literally spawn a new age of Russian modern history, starting the "Era of the New Whites". In spite of criticizing the Old Whites and Old Tsarists, Gul and Struve approved of Cyril, as Cyril trusted Roman with creating and leading a new liberal and progressive party, that would not contain the militant anti-Tsarist rhetoric of the communists.

Well surprise surprise, socialism STILL dominates Russia in the 1930s which begins to truly resemble Swedish and Scandinavian socialist politics.

In the 1930s, Russia once-more, began to finally grow as an empire with global ambitions with the modernizing of Russian railways, and introduction of technologies among the regular people. The Gul-Struve Reforms proved to pave the way for a new era of modernization, never-before seen in Russia, where regular people began to work in factories, and produce technology. Pyotr Struve, along with Cyril I was a huge supporter of the formation of cooperatives, both Russian and autonomous. The liberal troika of the three is known as the "Miraculous Troika" of Russian history.

Once again, Russia began to grow as a huge center, for both Europe and Asia. Roman Gul fomented close relations with Russia's old Japanese rival, and was at the verge of creating an alliance with Japan, as the majority of the Russian elite opposed Sun Yat Sen and supported Yuan Shikai in China, as well as the northern governments that Sun Yat Sen had fought against. Gul hadn't forgotten Japan's involvement in helping the White Army.

In 1937, Roman Gul was assassinated, and Boris Rezhukin replaced him as the Generalissmo. Under immense pressure, and under his order in response for for the Naning massacre, the Russians attacked Japanese forces in Nanjing, and established a joint Russian-Kuomintang base in Nanjing. In 1939, the Russian Empire drove the Japanese out of Khalkin Gol, basically reversing and avenging their Port Arthur loss in the Russo-Japanese war, destroying any hopes for Japan and Russia to have a major reapproachment. In addition, many elite, who held deep ties with Japan and Mongolia, opposed this.

Grand Duke Vladimir I Kirilovich succeeded his father in becoming the Tsar of Russia. In this timeline, Russia and Germany become allies.

Cyril as a result, while presenting himself as an ally of the west, encouraged many anti-American monarchist and ultranationalist movements across Europe, similar to OTL Bolshevik Russia's attempts to spread communism - and also sent forces into the Middle East to establish pro-Russian monarchies. Ultimately however, Cyril goal was to connect the Christian communities of the Middle East with that of Russia, claiming that Russia was the sole representative of Christian states worldwide. However, Cyril was also a multi-culturalist, who believed that Islam and Buddhism too, played a role in Russian heritage, and thus, Russia should also be represented in those religions.

World War II

Russian soldiers of the 3rd South Russia Front, Lviv, 1942

In a similar fashion as World War I, Germany declared war against Russia, and turned a slew of nations against it. Forming an Axis alliance with Italy, Turkey, the Noric and Batlic states, the Axis invaded Poland in 1939. Russia entered the Second World War by send troops into Poland, a Russian ally, who was invaded by Germany as a retaliation for Russia's attack on Japan in Nanjing in 1937 and its attack against them in Khalkin Gol. The Japanese attack on the Russian protectorate in Nanjing on December 7, 1941 opened up the Eastern Front. Boris Rezhukin now realized the futility of green-lighting an attack on Japan. Russia ended up fighting a two-front war, which tainted Rezhukin's image. In 1942, Rezhukin was dismissed as Procurator-General and replaced with ?????, who successfully pushed the German invasion out of western Russia, and liberated the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe. Russia emerged victorious against both Japan and Germany, strengthening its major power image in Eastern Europe, and seemingly double-avenging the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.

In 1944, the Russians and their Polish allies liberated Czechoslovakia but unlike our timeline, a push all the way into Berlin was suicidal given the two-front situation, therefore the Russians signed the Bratislava Treaty, ending Germany's invasion of Russia, and forming a pan-Slavic alliance between Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later Yugoslavia.

After the victory over Germany, the Russians took care of Japan, and conquered swaths of northern Manchuria, such as the city of Harbin and Dalien from the Japanese, extended their influence into the Balkans, helping the Western allies (begrudgingly) in Greece and Yugoslavia and staged the overthrow against the pro-Axis government in Bulgaria, Romania allowed Russian troop movement through its territory, and grew interesting in forming a pan-Orthodox alliance, seeing as to how Poland successfully turned around centuries of war. Romanian and Russian soldiers amassed near the Bulgarian border, causing the Bulgarian government to switch sides, again, declare war on Germany and allow Russian troop movement through Bulgaria en route to Greece, once-again, angering the Western allies who considered Greece part of their sphere of influence.

Instead of Greek communists, we have pan-Orthodox Greek nationalists, who turn against the Western allies, allowing Russia to extent its influence onto Greece, something which now unnerved the Western allies, formally starting the hostility of the Cold War.

Cold War 1945-1993

The Second Russian Empire's greatest extent

During the end of the Second World War, Russia was the leader of what would, become the Warsaw Pact which is twice as powerful and successful in this ATL. An era of war hawkish neo-conservative patriotism in Russia, once-again, nobles and royals dominated the Russian political elite, with nobility being assigned to scientists and engineers. Signed in Warsaw, the Warsaw Pact consisted of Poland, it consisted of Russia herself, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungery and Prussia (OTE: East Germany), Greece and Albania. It also has allies in China, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam and Thailand, unfortunately China broke off its alliance that would trigger the Russo-Chinese conflict, Mongolia joined as an autonomous territory.

In 1949, Russia tested its first atomic bomb, thanks to Klaus von Fuchs, who was ennobled for his role as a Prince.

In the 1960s, Russia finally experienced heights it has never experienced before, and once-again, this is when people began to refer to it as the Russian Empire. It began to establish alliances with other monarchies worldwide, to combat the British Empire, and the United States, basically becoming a reminiscent of the our OTL's Soviet Union, only with Eastern Orthodoxy and monarchy as its rallying cry, instead of communism and State Atheism. Russia emerged as one of the superpowers, as it divided the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa with the United States and China, rivaling against the two (in spite of allying nominally with the latter).

In 1973, the "Russian invasion of Afghanistan" commences earlier in this timeline, in support of the King of Afghanistan against revolutionaries, and in 1978, Russia gained a new ally in Persia, by supporting the Shah in opposition against the Iranian Revolutionaries. This gained Russia an extremely valuable foothold in the Middle East, and helped fostering ties between the Tajik population (a Persian-speaking population) with their Persian and Afghan counterparts.

Tumultuous 1990s

During the late 1980s, the Russian political and military circles once-more, faced the same woes as the World War I era, as society was growing weary of the dominance of nobles and royals. Liberals within the military and political elite, led by Franko Korkunov, declassified the secrets of the White Purge, and this set off a series of tumultuous events that rocked the empire.

The Democratic Opposition (Демократическая оппозиция, Demokraticheskaya oppozitsiya) as well as Russian chapters of Solidarity, formed the United Democratic Front, considering Alexander Kerensky as their political ancestor, and called for the Empress to either step down, or hand over power. Korkunov proclaimed himself as the President of the Russian Federation.

Generalissimo Pavel Grachev ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Warsaw Pact countries, and effectively dissolute it. However - the democratization process only put the Empire in flames of near-civil war once again. NATO supported the democrats, liberals and seperatists, however Generalissimo Grachev's attempts to send troops into the Caucasus and Central Asia failed, and only resulted in large deaths of Russian troops.

Russia now had two governments - once in Moscow, led by "President" Korkunov, and another in Saint Petersburg, led by Empress Maria I. Although the United States claimed in having a neutral stance, clearly sided with President Korkunov.

1993 Constitutional Crisis - Russian Federation

Commonwealth experienced extremely tumultuous events. More armed insurrections occurred in the Baltics, the Caucasus and Central Asia, which Grachev seemingly tried, albeit very miserably to stop. In 1993, Tsaritsa Maria I finally stepped in, deposing of Korkunov, Rasskazov and Grachev, under charges of national treason. However, Korkunov now had a large chunk of the Russian population under his support, and Moscow effectively came under control of Korkunov's "presidency". Therefore, the Imperial government once-again, retreated into Saint Petersburg.

Soon, the foreign powers proclaimed Franko Korkunov as the recognized Russian head of state, however - Western support for Korkunov was countered by his refusal to recognize the Baltics, Chechnya and Central Asia as being independent states. Additionally, the Baltic rebels had turned violent, and resorted to carrying attacks even against NATO and United Nations military officers, similar to Yugoslavia. Therefore, the international community continued to recognize the Baltics, Caucasus and Central Asia as being part of an evidently fledgling Russian state filled with a lot of crime.

Like before, it worked, and NATO was forced to make agreements with Russia and agreements with both the governments in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, agreeing to handle the situation afterwards, therefore, the Russians would provide safety and safely evacuate foreigners into safe zones, NATO also provides aid to the Russians in dealing with separatists. This resulted in the successful evacuation of American, British, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish and German diplomats of hot zones in the country, and an age of cooperation between Russia and NATO.

However, NATO still could not agree on whether to support the republican government in Moscow or the Tsarist government in Saint Petersburg as certain nations within NATO, namely the United Kingdom was supportive of the tsarist government, marking an odd turn where the United States and United Kingdom stood at odds against one another. Additionally, many Imperial German military personnel went rogue, and also stayed in Saint Petersburg to support their government, making NATO's previous support of President Korkunov superficial in reality. Russia temporarily lost Greece, Prussia (via unified Germany), Yugoslavia and Bulgaria as allies, although they did not join NATO and pursued paths of political neutrality, up until Yugoslavia re-joined in 2000, and Bulgaria re-joined in 2004.

Today

In 1997, after experiencing the failure of the Franko Korkunov "presidency", the majority of Russian citizens sided with Saint Petersburg, took over Moscow after the 1997 Coup, which led to the overthrow and abolition of the Russian Federation, and the return of the Great Russian Commonwealth under the leadership of Prince Vladimir Ungern-Sternberg and under the constitutional monarchy of Maria I. NATO also decided to follow suit, agreeing that Korkunov's inefficiency endangered many NATO and U.N. diplomats, and returned international recognition of the Tsarist government.

However, this new tsarist government took on a completely constitutional role, having suffered the result of two absolutist tsarist styles of government. The first democratic elections under the constitutional monarchy took place in 1998, one which was won by conservative Sergey Baburin of the Russian All-People's Union.

However, the country still took significant damage from the 1990s, but much less-so than the World War I, Russian Civil War and World War II. R Albania remained in NATO until 2013. Nonetheless, the country maintained high ties with those nations, the loss of the alliance is a very little-known fact today. Yugoslavia joined the CIS in 2000.

2008 Global Recession and Comeback

The country, maintained its alliances with Persia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt, and many Middle Eastern countries. Additionally, Russia kept its troops stationed in East Turkestan and Tibet, and eventually absorbed the two countries into its sphere of influence. During the 2008 recession in the United States (which still happens in this timeline), marked the beginning of the Russian re-rise to power. Many economic leaders in Russia began preparing to cut ties with the U.S. dollar. This marked a significant shift of European foreign policies to favor Russia, and while the United States doesn't collapse, it performs extremely poorly and becomes an ailing superpower.

Increased cooperation with the Western European nations brought much more wealth into Russia, and its-already existing hegemony in Asia brought it back to superpowerdom, and gradually re-gained its Balkan allies, namely Bulgaria, and an independent alliance with Greece.

Politics

Russia currently runs on a constitutional monarchy. The Romanovs are currently the ruling dynasty in Russia, where the Empress functions as the Head of State and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Emperor in the case of a male. In the case of gender-neutral, the monarch is styled as the Autocrat of all Russia. Constitutionally however, are vested in several elected offices.

War powers and the national defense are vested within the Procurator General, who is the equivalent of a defense minister in other parliamentary democracies. Civil matters are vested in the Prime Minister, who is the Head of Government, and is elected via the Imperial Assembly, and Foreign Relations are vested within the Foreign Minister.

In the case that Prime Minister is a noble, they would be designated as Grand Noble Ministers, as a Prime Minister is truly of democratic origin, as there have been many nobles who have been elected in the Prime Minister position.

Russia is unique in that powers are uniquely separated, the Prime Minister could never declare war, nor dictate the foreign relations. However, the Prime Minister does have control over civil police forces and non-military public services. All Head Ministers and Vice Chairman's of Russia's various Governorates and Grand Duchies answer the Prime Minister, while Governor-Generals and Grand Dukes/Duchesses answer to the Procurator General.

The Procurator-General however, is considered the second-highest position of power in Russia, since ultimately, in the absence of anyone available in the other offices, the Procurator-General can fill in. It is for this reason as to why Procurator-Generals are normally of old age, since most normally require having experience in the other offices, in addition to military experience.

Unlike other constitutional monarchies, the Empress is not a figurehead as commonly-believed, ultimately, the Procurator General, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister all answer to the Empress, and the Empress must sign off on their various actions. Constitutionally-speaking, the Empress does have the full authority to intervene. The Empress is ultimately responsible for the protection of the Russian people and the state and according to the Constitution of 1921, if the Autocrat is incapable of performing duties of protecting and maintaining the integrity of the Russian state, the Autocrat has to either abdicate in favor of a suited Romanov, and if not, must allow the elected positions to use his/her power.

The succession of Autocrat of all Russia unlike in past traditions, is no longer gender-specific, male-line that is. Ultimately, the current Autocrat chooses who will succeed him or her, a tradition taken from the Manchu Aisin Gioro and Qing Dynasty tradition.

Gerrymandering remains a huge issue in Russia, in governorates under the figurative rule of a noble, even the elected leaders must often-not, be in the favor of those nobles as they retain large-scale influence in Russian society. Despite nobles avoiding directly becoming prime ministers, they often-not guide the policies of elected figures under the table.

Political divisions

Territorial administrations of Russia

Russia is divided into Grand Duchies & Grand Principalities (OT equivalent: Federal District), followed by Principalities & Governorates (OT equivalent: republics), and in the case of Governorates under the rulerships of a nobility, a Principality. The Grand Duchies are all ruled by a Grand Duke, hailing from the male line of the Romanovs, hence Grand Dukes, while Grand Principalities are ruled by non-Romanov nobilities or in the case of the Grand Principality of the Urals, someone from the non-male line of the Romanovs, and Governorates are ruled by a Governor-General as the local Head of State with a Head Minister as the local Head of Government, who is titled as so in official Russian documents.

1. Central Russia Governorate
2. Volga Grand Principality
3. Southwestern Governorate
4. Smolensk Grand Principality
5. Northwestern Grand Duchy
6. Baltic Grand Principality
7. Belarus Grand Principality
8. Northern Governorate
9. Ural Grand Governorate
10. Rostov Grand Principality
11. South Caucasus Grand Principality
12. Central Asia Governorate
13. Grand Duchy of Siberia
14. Grand Khanate of Mongolia
15. Grand Principality of Manchuria
16. Far Eastern Governorate

Sphere of influence

The Russian Empire took the United States' place, as the global superpower and "that country" everyone either loves or hates.

Allies

Europe

• Czech Republic
• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Greece
• Hungary
• Poland
• Slovakia
• Ukraine
• Yugoslavia

Asia

• Afghanistan
• Armenia
• East Turkestan
• India
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Korea
• Laos
• Lebanon
• Persia
• Syria
• Thailand
• Tibet

Africa

• Angola
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Nigeria
• Sudan
• South Africa

North America

• El Salvador
• Guatemala

South America

• Colombia
• Venezuela

Russia-friendly states (not grouped by region)

• Brazil
• Indonesia
• Sweden
• Finland
• Norway
• Denmark
• Mongolia
• France
• Germany

Military

The Russian Armed Forces are the official fighting force. It is currently considered one of the world's military superpowers, with the largest air force, ground force, and second-largest navy. It also has the largest rocket arsenal. Its yearly defense-spending is ₽455.4 billion (equivalent $455.4 US OTL).

It is divided into the Army, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Forces, Commissariat, Cossacks, Space Force. It has its own indigenous arms industry and is considered one of the world's most advanced technologically, rivaled only by that of United States and China. It also has the world's largest arms export. In terms of its overseas presence, Russia currently has 66 overseas bases.

Russia is currently the world's only operator of an Aerial Aircraft Carrier.

Noble titles and hierarchy

Cyril I created Russia's modern-day hierarchal system in order to solidify and simplify the various nobilities of Russia.

Emperor/Empress of all Russia

The highest title of nobility and authority is the Emperor (and in this case, the Empress) of all Russia. The gender-neutral case is known as the Autocrat (Самодержец) or Samoderzhets. They are officially designated as Imperator (Император) or Imperatritsa (Императрица). However, the much-famed title Tsar (Царь) or Tsaritsa (Царица) is still used and is the most common, and is a cognate to the German Kaiser, taken from the Latin word ceasar.

Grand Duke/Grand Prince/Khan

The Grand Duke, or Grand Duchess is currently the highest royal title in Russia below the Tsar or Tsaritsa. They are known as veliki gertzog (великий герцог) or velikaya gertzoginya (великая герцогиня) for females. A Grand Duke can only be so with military leadership experience, and this title can only be bestowed upon someone by the Tsar himself. The power to being a Grand Duke is that carries a legitimate political and military power behind it. In the Russian military ranks, a Grand Duke is two levels higher than a Marshal and is the royal equivalent to a Generalissmo, which acts the non-hereditary counterpart. In the case that a Grand Duke cannot rule a Grand Duchy, a Marshal Regent will take his/her place. The non-military experienced equivalent are known as grand prince translate as veliki knyaz (великий князь) or velikaya knyaginya (великая княгиня). They are rulers of territories known as Grand Duchies. The non-Romanov or non-Rurikid equivalent would be a Grand Prince, who rules territories known as Grand Principalities. The only true difference between a Grand Duke and a Grand Prince is that a Grand Prince is one who does not have military leadership experience and within the scope of political power, Grand Dukes wield more than Grand Princes, especially in military affairs.

The Russian titles gertzog/gertzoginya are borrowed from German herzog/herzogin, also for the same title, introduced during the rule of Catherine the Great. However after World War I, in an attempt to purge German influence, gertzog and gertozginya were replaced by knyaz and knyaginya, which created lots of confusion. Therefore, after World War II, German influence was slowly allowed back, Petrograd re-named back to Saint Petersburg, and gertzog/gertzogina was re-introduced for Grand Duke/Duchess respectively.

In the Manchu Banner system, the Bordered Yellow Banner is the equivalent to a Grand Duke. The titles grand ataman (Великий атаман) and grand atamansha (Великая Атаманша), are a title used by the Cossacks. According to Russian law, they are equal to grand princes and grand dukes in the hierarchy, however are legally recognized as a separate noble class from princely and duchal houses. Originally, the Cossacks were an equestrian and semi-nomadic group, however during the 1960s, the great majority of Cossacks began adopting princely-style etiquette and norms, almost to the point where they became indistinguishable from grand princes and grand dukes. This process began in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War.

Duke/Prince/Ilkhan/Ataman

Below the Grand Dukes and Grand Princes are the Dukes/Duchesses, and they rule Duchies. As per tradition, Dukes and Duchesses can only be granted this title if they have military leadership experience and within the military hierarchy, Dukes are equivalent to the Marshals and a level below the Generalissmo.

A distinction between a Prince and a Crown Prince, in other monarchies, a Crown Prince is normally the eldest son of the monarch, with the Crown Princess being the wife, as well as eldest female issue. However in Russia, they are considered the ultimate local heads of states of Principalities. Ilkhan is used in the Turkic and Mongolic royal systems, and within the Manchu Banner system, the Plain Yellow Banner would be the equivalent.

Boyar/Boyarynya

The boyar and boyarynya (боярин/боярыня) title is a unique noble title of Old Slavic origin used by the Ruthenian nobilities of Chernigov. Within the ancient Ruthenian nobility, they are considered a rank below princes and princesses, almost equitable to a baron but higher. It is known in Russia as the "below a prince but above a count". Sometimes they are also known outside the Ruthenian nobility as "High Counts" ot "Low Princes". Unlike barons, boyars and boyarynyas like princes and princesses have a lot more power and influence, own their own property, whereas counts are subservient to a noble and normally live on property owned by another noble.

Count/Countess

There are also counts and countesses, who are blow princes and dukes, known as graf (Граф) and grafinya (Графиня), also loanwords from German. There are currently three well-established noble families bearing the count/countess title.

Baron/Baronness

The title of baron (барон), baroness (баронесса) for females, especially that of Russian usage is one that has many definitions - truly making it a vague title. A baron is normally one whose lands and property are given to them by other nobles. They are a level below the Counts and Countesses.

Pomenschik/Pomenschitsa

These are generic and general titles of nobility used for anyone of noble descent. However, they are not to be taken lightly, and there is a legal process for having the right to be addressed by such. The Pomenschik class is a legally-recognized class in the Russian Empire. Often-not, these are for those of noble lineage without titles, descendants of barons, or even noble morganatic unions between two nobles of unequal rank/class, only if the head of the higher-ranking family doesn't approve or refuses to recognize the issue. There's been many princely families of morganatic origin, such as the House of Rennenkampf, House of Ungern-Sternberg and House of Livensky, all Russified nobilities all of Baltic German or non-princely origin, thanks to the marriage between Baltic German noblemen and Russian women, regardless of noble status.

These are handled by the Royal Department of Noble Recognition and reviewed by the Imperial Royal Court. However, they only have power to grant or revoke people titles of nobility in accordance with Russian law, and cannot dictate much over native noble traditions. People can only be revoked if they are anti-Tsarist or join a cause considered a "threat" to the Russian Tsarist state. For example, in the case of the House of Alimov, divided between traditionalists (who put an emphasis on Islamic law) and reformists (who put an emphasis on Manghit descent) - in which the Royal KDBP refused requests from either side to grant or revoke titles/heirlooms of nobility since neither of their arguments were covered by Russian national law. However, Prince Karim I Alimovich and Prince Kasim I Alimovich were both disgraced, and had their titles revoked due being high-profile criminals. Many members of the House of Chermoev, a Chechen princely family of beylik (baronial) origin, got their noble titles revoked and all their properties sequestered for partaking in anti-Tsarist and Islamist extremism.

Although having noble descent is preferred (and pretty much a guarantee of such a recognition), people of non-noble origin can be ennobled, if-so they choose. For example, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (who despite the similarity in surname, is not from the House of Gagarin), was ennobled as a Boyar of Smolensk, and native Estonian Mikel "Mikhail" Öpik, who became crowned a Baron for his role in defending the Tsardom from anti-Tsarists in the Baltics.

Legal titles and succession laws

The nobilities in Russia follow three naming systems, two that are uniformly used, the legal name (applies for all citizens), universal noble name and those according to the traditions of that respective nobility. The Russian regnal naming system usually is the given name, followed by their patronymic and home territory. For example, Prince Andrey Eduardovich Rennenkampff (legal name) - Andrew I Eduardovich, Prince of Courland (universal noble name) and Andrew Georg Fürst von Rennenkampff (native name).

In addition, every nobility reserves the right to enact their own laws and traditions of succession and inheritance.

Indigenous royal titles

In addition, every nobility can use their own noble titles as equivalents for their Russian counterparts in addition to exclusively indigenous titles. For example, the Baltic German nobilities use the title Fürst for prince, which is equivalent to the Russian Knyaz or Cossack Ataman. In both Chinese and Manchu, Wuang or Huang is used. The Edler class is also a uniquely-Baltic German noble class, with no Russian equivalent. Many of the Turkic and Islamic nobilities nobilities use Khan (Хан) or Sayyid (Сайид), which too, are equivalents to the Russian knyazhestvo class. The Turkic title bey, beg or bek, as well as the Manchu title Bannermen (Manchu: Гūсa).

Economy

The Moscow Metro Area, Europe's largest metro area, dubbed "New Moscow"

The Russian economy is considered one of the great global economies, and is the largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and GDP per capita. The country is very rich in resources such oil and precious metals and minerals, as well as having a rich agricultural belt in its southern regions.

The Russian ruble is currently one of two of the world's most powerful currencies, and is petrol-oil currency used by many Eurasian, Middle Eastern and African countries.

The economic policies of TBD allowed Russia's economy to grow, domestically and internationally.

Education

Like all superpower nations, the Russian Empire now boasts having the world most-envied education system (other than the German Empire).

The Russian Empire has an adult literacy rate of 99.7%. It grants free education to its citizens by constitution. The Ministry of Education of Russia is responsible for primary and secondary education, as well as vocational education; while the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia is responsible for science and higher education. Regional authorities regulate education within their jurisdictions within the prevailing framework of federal laws. The Russian Empire is the world's most educated nation, and has the highest proportion of tertiary-level graduates in terms of percentage of population, at 92%. It spent roughly 15.7% of its GDP on education in 2018.

The Russian Empire's pre-school education system is highly developed and optional, some four-fifths of children aged 3 to 6 attend day nurseries or kindergartens. Primary school is compulsory for eleven years, starting from age 6 to 7, and leads to a basic general education certificate. An additional two or three years of schooling are required for the secondary-level certificate, and some seven-eighths of Russians continue their education past this level.

Admission to an institute of higher education is selective and highly competitive: first-degree courses usually take five years. The oldest and largest universities in Russia are Royal Grand Moscow University and Royal Grand Imperial Saint Petersburg University. There are many highly prestigious federal universities across the country. Russia was the world's leading destination for international students in 2019, hosting roughly 300 thousand.

In addition, via autonomy rights laws, the Russian Empire also has schools, both primary, secondary and post-secondary that canter to indigenous groups by ethnicity, religion, or other cultural norms. They are all registered and certified by the National Registry of Certified Autonomous Educational Institutions, or the NRSAOU, or in Russian, НРСАОУ, taken from the Russian translation.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Currently, ethnic Russians make up the majority of the country, at 64.5%. Despite being based off of an Eastern Slavic culture, the Russian Empire has taken a trajectory similar to the former United States, namely in becoming a very multi-ethnic nation fueled by globalism. In reality, much of the self-proclaimed ethnic Russian population also comes from non-Russian or partially non-Russian background, mostly notably German and western European ethnicities.

The Russian Empire is also home many indigenous ethnic groups, namely in the Baltics, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Manchuria and the Far East. The Caucasus is home to ethnic Georgians, Azeris, Chechens, Avars, Kumyks and others.

Turkic peoples form the second-largest population after ethnic Russians. Central Asia, is also known as "Turkestan" (Туркестан), and contains the empire's largest-concentration of Turkic-speaking peoples, while Buryatia and Kalmykia are predominantly Mongolic-speaking. In addition, Siberia is also home to many more Turkic-speaking peoples.

The Baltics is home to native Balto-Finnic peoples, mostly in Courland and Livonia (Estonian and Latvian respectively) while ethnic Lithuanians predominate Lithuania. In addition, the Baltics is also home to a large German and Polish minority, with the former having been extremely influential in Imperial Russian society. In the south, there are also ethnic Ukrainians, who are fellow East Slavs.

Manchuria is home to the indigenous Manchu people, as well as Chinese. The Manchu language is still alive today thanks to the Russian annexation of Manchuria after World War II.

Germans form the second-largest European ethnic group in the Russian Empire, with 4.5 million Russian citizens reporting themselves as ethnic Germans, and another 9.3 Russians of German descent. Unlike German-Americans, German-Russians have avoided total assimilation, and the majority still speak German on a fluent level as a native language or follow a traditional German church such as the Lutherans, as many German-speaking schools exist in Russia, in addition Germans are heavily influential in the upper echelons of Russian society. After English, German is the third most-spoken Indo-European language in Russia. However, the German-speaking population of Russia is mostly Lutheran, a sizable population have become Eastern Orthodox. The three largest regions with Germans include the Baltics (where the Baltic German nobility operates), the Volga, Manchuria, as well as Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Assimilation issues

Unlike the United States of old, cultural assimilation is heavily-discouraged in the Russian Empire, and the government has encouraged many ethnic groups to form interest groups to protect their cultures. Still, many ethnic groups, especially the Baltic Germans have been prone to assimilation into the broader Russian culture. In reality, the majority who consider themselves ethnic Russian come from non-ethnic Russian ancestry, with German and Mongolic ancestry among the largest-found within the broader gene pool of those who consider themselves ethnic Russians.

Pyotr Bolotnikov, a Russian professor and ethnologist, noted, "Here in Russia, you are now finding almost as many German last names among those who consider themselves only Russian, for many it forms an awe and intrigue, especially for other Slavs to see a fellow Slav coming to visit your nation - bearing a German, Finnish or Swedish surname, but it is also worrisome to many, in fears of a silent genocide, like the United States of old, where there were more German surnames than even English."

In the recent years, Russian domestic policies have been quite successful in reversing the effects of over-assimilation.

Religion

St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, seat of the Russian Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church forms the Russian Empire's largest faith, namely the Russian Orthodox Church, comprising 75% of the population. Despite the Russian Empire constitutionally being a Russian Orthodox state, it is heavily religiously diverse, starting with the religious diversity within the Russian Orthodox itself into autonomous churches, with the Ukrainian and Georgian churches being the two largest autonomous sections. The Russian Orthodox Church is currently governed by the Patriarch of Moscow. While Freedom of Religion is guaranteed, the Russian Orthodox Church is considered the state religion, where the Autocrat and Procurator-General is by law, a Russian Orthodox.

A large number of Protestants, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics and non-denominational Christians exist, who form the majority in the Baltics, with Lutherans dominating Courland and Livonia, while Catholics predominate Lithuania, they are categorized under "Other Christians". Furthermore, many communities of non-Orthodox Europeans, such as Poles, Germans, Italians and French, contribute to the large presence of "Other Christians". The Imperial Statistical Agency recorded there are 5,340,420 Russian citizens self-labeled as "other Christians", while 530,200 ethnic Russians identified as Other Christian.

Islam forms Russia's second-largest religion, and is considered a heritage faith in the country, Russia's Muslims are split between Sunni and Shiite. Islam is practiced predominantly in the Caucasus and Central Asia, with large communities in Siberia. Buddhism forms the third-largest, and is mainly practiced in the Russian Far East, namely Siberia, Buryatia and Manchuria. Within the Turkic-speaking regions, there has also been a growing community of the Tengri Revival (Russian: Возрождение Tенгрианства, Vozrozhdeniye Tengrianstva), influenced by the Native Slavic Religion revival. However, their followers are very low in number.

Native Slavic Religion is the fastest-growing religion in Russia, and is currently the fifth-largest religion, with some 1,302,000 Russians proclaiming in following this religion. The resurgence of native Slavic paganism arose during the rule of Cyril the Reformer, who encouraged the promotion of native Slavic culture, as opposed of the post-Peter the Great culture, which was overtly German and western-influenced.

St. Peter Lutheran Cathedral in Tartu, Courland

Russia has the world's second-largest Jewish population, around 3,600,320 and is currently growing. As a result of reparations towards the descendants of Russian Jews, a large Jewish back-migration to Russia has occurred ever since the turn of the millennium.

Heritage Faiths

The Russian government currently recognizes "Heritage Faiths" (Веры наследия), religions considered as having helped shape the Imperial Russian state. Currently, the government recognizes the Russian Orthodox Church (...duh...), Native Slavic Religion, Islam, Buddhism, Tengrism and Lutheranism as heritage faiths. Judaism and Catholicism are currently undergoing review.