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Russia is the largest country in the world, spanning most of Asia and Europe. It has a long history of various tribes and empires, including the Mongols, Kievan Rus, and the Romanov dynasty. After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union was formed, which eventually collapsed in 1991. Since then, Russia has implemented capitalist economic reforms, but the government has become increasingly autocratic. Visitors can explore the country’s deep culture and Orthodox churches, as well as take the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russia is a huge country that encompasses most of Asia and Europe. It covers 6,592,800 square miles (17,075,400 square km), making it the largest nation on earth and nearly twice the size of the United States or China. It borders Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland and Ukraine.
Much of the land that is now Russia has been inhabited for millennia. Early inhabitants such as the Scythians and other tribes made their homes throughout the region. The Greeks arrived in parts of the region in the 7th century BC, and were eventually succeeded by the Bosphorus kingdom. The Bosporans were eventually driven out by various nomadic groups, such as the Huns and Avars, who passed through this area on their way elsewhere.
In the 7th century, a number of Slavic tribes began to arrive, and they settled and populated the region that is now Western Russia. In the 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia began settling the region, eventually forming a confederation of states that was known as Kievan Rus.
The decline in power of Keivan Rus in the face of internal strife meant that the confederacy was ill-equipped to deal with the Mongols’ Golden Horde when it descended from the steppes in the 13th century. While the Mongols destroyed large swathes of the country, they also helped repel invaders from the West who sought to force Roman Catholicism into the region and helped develop a number of key infrastructure, including a cohesive military organization and postal network.
The Moscow principality was formed at the end of the XIII century, rapidly coming to power. By the end of the 14th century the Mongols were essentially driven back and Moscow’s power continued to grow. During the 15th century the Grand Duchy of Moscow continued to acquire land and consolidate its power, completely defeating the Mongols and by the 16th century unifying much of the region.
In the mid-16th century Moscow ruthlessly asserted its claim to control over Russia under the rule of Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, who conquered large amounts of land and extended east into Siberia. When Ivan died, the state fell into disarray, and over the next decade, the country would lose land and power. In the early 17th century a new ruler was elected, Michael Romanov, who established the Romanov dynasty that would continue to rule Russia until its modern revolution.
The Romanovs further consolidated political power and under Peter I (Peter the Great) underwent a massive campaign of Westernization. The Russian Empire under Peter pushed back the Ottoman Turks and secured land from Sweden. In the mid-18th century, Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, seized power, further extending the country’s reach into Central Europe. Her successor conquered Finland and repelled Napoleon in the early 19th century.
Russia became increasingly autocratic and pushed into Ottoman lands in the Balkans. It essentially liberalized during the early 20th century in an attempt to appease growing discontent, but the remaining imperial system, coupled with the staggering loss of World War I, led to a full-blown revolution in the 20th.
Following the Tsar’s abdication, civil war broke out between the various factions vying for control of the new government. The Bolshevik faction eliminated all dissidents and rivals through the Red Army and the secret police, and eventually took control of the government. In 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed under Lenin, establishing a communist government over all of Russia and its possessions.
After Lenin’s death, a power struggle took place at the highest levels of government, leading to the eventual ascension of Stalin. Stalin would brutally rule the Soviet Union until his death in 1953, carrying out massive purges. The Soviet Union, having risen to superpower status, also suffered heavy losses and destruction of infrastructure during World War II.
US concerns about the future path of Eastern Europe after the war led to the Cold War. During the 1980s, serious cracks began to appear in the structure of the Soviet Union. Though formulated as a modern state, in many ways it remained a patchwork of territories acquired after World War I and the successor to the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, with its constituent parts declaring independence, although many of them maintained close ties to the Russian Federation.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has begun implementing more capitalist economic reforms, drastically opening up the country to the West and the rest of the world. The early years of these reforms proved catastrophic, with a severe depression sweeping the nation. Since 1999, the nation has begun to recover economically, although at the same time the government seems to be becoming increasingly autocratic, consolidating power and limiting freedoms.
Russia dwarfs all other countries on Earth in terms of area, so it’s no surprise that there is plenty for a visitor to do. While travelers should avoid conflict zones like Chechnya and Dagestan, that still leaves a lot of territory to cover. Moscow and St. Petersburg are both known for their deep culture and Orthodox churches. Many people like to see the country by taking the Trans-Siberian Railway across the country, nearly 6,000 miles (10,000km), passing Lake Baikal and passing through Irkutsk.
