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The Russian Nationalist Republic (Russian: Националистическая России Республика tr. Natsionalisticheskaya Rossii Respublika), abbreviated to RNR (Russian: HPP tr. NRR) was a nationalist state on the Eurasian continent that existed from 1921 to 1999. Its government and economy were highly centralised. The Russian Nationalist Republic was a one-party state, governed by the Nationalist Party with Petrograd as its capital.
The Russian Nationalist Republic had its roots in the February and October Revolutions of 1917, the latter of which saw the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrow the provisional government that had replaced the Tsar. They established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic beginning a civil war between the revolutionary "Reds" and the counter-revolutionary "Whites", led by Alexander Kolchak. The White Army, supported by millions of battle-hardened and recently victorious German veterans of World War I, entered several territories of the former Russian Empire and helped local counter-revolutionaries take power. In 1921, the Whites were victorious, forming the Russian Nationalist Republic. Kolchak was proclaimed Supreme Leader of Russia that same year. Kolchak suppressed all political opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to extreme Russian nationalism, and initiated a centrally planned command economy. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and post-war dominance of Eastern Europe. Kolchak also fomented political paranoia, and conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents of his from the Nationalist Party through the mass arbitrary arrest of many people (military leaders, Nationalist Party members, and ordinary citizens alike) who were then sent to correctional labour camps or sentenced to death.
Shortly before World War II, Kolchak signed the non-aggression pact with Germany, believing that the fellow right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist regime of Adolf Hitler would prove a natural ally. However, in March 1940 the Germans invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Russian war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the cost of acquiring the upper hand over Central Powers forces at intense battles such as Krasnovgrad. Russian forces eventually forced the surrender of Germany in 1944, and were instrumental in suppressing hardline Nazi insurgents in the German civil war that followed. The territory overtaken by the Russian Army was annexed by the Russian government. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the RNR confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.
Following Kolchak's death in 1950, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as "de-Kolchakization" and "Arkhangelsky's Thaw", occurred under the leadership of Alexei Arkhangelsky. The country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The RNR took an early lead in the Space Race with the first ever satellite and the first human spaceflight. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed when the Russian Nationalist Republic deployed troops in Afghanistan in 1979. The war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters.
In the mid-1980s, the penultimate Nationalist leader, Vladimir Diakov, sought to further reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. The goal was to preserve the Nationalist Party while reversing economic stagnation. The Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 several countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective Russian governors. This led to the rise of strong separatist movements inside the RNR as well. In August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by Nationalist Party hardliners. It failed, with Vladimir Putin playing a high-profile role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1996, Diakov resigned and Putin assumed control of the Nationalist Party and the government. Putin's brief term saw a transition toward a less authoritarian form of government, though there was no democratization to speak of. On 31 December 1999, the Russian Nationalist Republic was officially dissolved, and replaced by the Russian Federal Republic.