Russian Empire (Principia Moderni IV Map Game)

Russian Empire
Российская империя
Timeline: Principia Moderni IV (Map Game)
OTL equivalent: Russia

Flag Coat of arms Map of 1689 Russia with labeled provinces
Capital (and largest city)	Novgorod
Other cities	Feodorburg, Tsaritsyn, Rostov, Riga, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Sakhatsk, Gorod Vostok, Port Sibir
Language	Russian
Religion	Orthodox Christianity
Ethnic Groups   main	Russian
others	Germanic Baltic, Polish, Turkic, Ruthenian
Demonym	Russian
Government	Constitutional Monarchy
Legislature	Duma
Population	51 million
Independence	from 1421 (Founding of the Boyardom)
declared	1711 (Russia was declared an Empire)
Currency	Ruble(RUB)

The Russian Empire, commonly known as Russia, is a country in Eastern Europe that extends across northern Asia, colloquially known as Siberia. The Empire stretches from Poland to the Pacific Ocean.

The country was formed by the Novgorod after sparking revolution in Muscovy and other Russian vassal states of the Golden Horde in the 1400s and 1410s. The Timurid Empire would invaded the Horde from the South in the first days of Russian reunification. Russia after the Time of Troubles was Russia's last defining conflict. The False Dimitri Tsar bolstered by the slavocratic Boyars rebelled followed by a Serf Rebellion led by Saltykov and Leon Petrov.

The Civil War (1587-1592) saw the complete destruction of the noble class and the quelling of peasants, Tsar Dimitri became the unquestioned ruler of Russia, taking charge only from him and his advisors. Russia now stands as equals to the Tsardom of Belka, and reigns a showdown over its tributary of the Tsardom of Poland.

History

Ivan and Vladimir II

Portrait of the Mad Tsar Ivan

Rule of Alexander

The Rule of Alexander Rurik begin following the abdication of Vladimir II Putin to advocate settlement in Siberia. Tsar Alexander as a first major act to that of the prince's and the noble extreme minority was to make a compromise between himself and the others for the capital. Novgorod, the historic capital of Russia was to be the Summer capital, whilst Moscow was to become the winter and secondary capital.

Art depicting fighting in Anatolia

Tsar Vladimir in 1633 following the Belkan Grand Patriarch's call to arms for Crusade against the Ottoman Sultanate. Russia did contribute but the total number of soldiers never went past triple digits in the thousands. Russia had sent 60,000 soldiers to Belka which were promptly used to good effect. The Tsar in secret negotiations had to abandon his idea of a Russian controlled Paphlagonia near Pontus, and instead settled for annexing two Black Sea Ports of Antalya (renamed Port Alexander) and Mersin. 

In 1648 the Tsardom reached the Pacific Ocean (the Vostok Sea). This began the Sakha Crisis, with the forced relocation of the Khanates peoples to a special area known as Yakutia located on the Korean border. The Sino-Korean leadership, was enraged at any Russian incursion into Sakha, ignorantly forgetting the 1644 Treaty which they had signed with Russia.  The area of Sakha was colonized, and with it, came the port of Markovgrad, named after the Russian diplomat to China (the city would later be renamed Gorod Vostok or "Vostok City"). Russian expansion would be continually unhindered after the Sakha Crisis.

The Westernizer: Rule of Feodor

The Rule of Feodor would be a time of great change in Russia. One of his first rules was to enact a beard tax on Russia's nobility in a change to make them appear more western. Whilst he didn't really change into western apparel Feodor did often wear western style shirts under his imperial garb. The Tsar, influenced by provocations by the tsardom's neighbors toward other countries led the Tsardom into a successful yet failed, and two failed wars against the Polish and Khanate. In the tsar's autobiography it is claimed in his final days that "if weren't for those Korean yellow men we would've had our people pouring into the 'former' Khanate by now." The War with the Polish was more of a gesture of reluctance as the Russian army was fighting on two fronts 1000 miles away from each other.

The Militarist: Rule of Pyotr

Tsar Pyotr took power in 1680 following the death of Tsar Feodor. With military pressure Pyotr managed to get an increasingly hostile Poland to back down from threats of sparking a continental war against the Russo-Burgundian alliance. Pyotr also modernized the army heavily, adopting western style uniforms and improving the arms industry.

Russian troops at the Battle of Kursk during the Russian Civil War (1702-1711)

Colonization of Arcadia

Painting of the port of Danila in the Aleutia Colony, circa 1685

Western Arcadia by the 1680s was only known up to the point of the lands of Mzer which were under small Iberian influences at the time. In 1682 explorers established the outpost of Danila in a natural harbor on the Island of Unalaska. Danila was a small colony, and would remain a small colony, serving only as a quick pit stop before colonization of the main of Northwest Arcadia. In 1685, mercenaries of the Russian Pacific Company set out to conquer "Danila Island". However, they were stopped by a mass of polar bears who claimed the wilds.

In 1687 a group of RTK soldiers with their families founded Cinigrad on the Tuvov peninsula. The next year in 1688 Cinigrad expanded to where the majority of Cinigrad is today, but at the time it was called Fort St Vladimir. Nestled between the Cinigrad Inlet on the Tuvov Peninsula. In the late 1700s St Vladimir was eventually merged into the Cinigrad area as Cinigrad's borders grew closer to St Vladimir and became the capital for the entirety of Novorossiya.

Culture

Music

String-Baroque

Painting of a Russian String-Baroque guitarist, circa 1682

String-Baroque is a form of baroque that formed in Russia around the late 1670s and early 1680s. String-Baroque has two sub-genres, Vodka-Baroque, usually talking about "crazy" experiences after getting drunk, and the Downs. The Downs usually talks about hardships mainly in work, life or in relationships.