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how did Russia get as big as it is?

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  • 14-02-2011 10:07pm
    #1
    CorkMan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭


    It extends from Western Europe, bordering Finland. To half way across the pacific ocean way past Japan, bordering Alaska. It is also very big vertically too.

    How did this amount of vastness come into one country/constitution? I would have thought war would have made it into many more countries.


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    #2
    RMD
    Registered Users Posts: 2,662 ✭✭✭RMD


    I'm not entirely sure but I know that the Russian Empire has existed since from 1721 and by the end of the 18th century it was a bit bigger than what it is today AFAIK, so they must have just held onto the majority of the empire's landmass. Considering how sparsely populated the Northern / North Eastern regions are and the incredibly hostile climate I doubt there's been much competition for them. An interesting figure though I heard before is that Moscow is closer to New York than it is to the most eastern city in Russia, Magadan. Can certainly imagine a strong urge for independence when your capital is over 5500 miles away.


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    #3
    Artur.PL
    Registered Users Posts: 272 ✭✭Artur.PL


    If you want to know how it happened maybe this site will be helpful:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#History
    it took a lot of time :)


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    #4
    mikemac
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,986 ✭✭✭✭mikemac


    If you're into podcasts there are excellent ones out there

    Type Russian Rulers into itunes for a good series


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    #5
    deise go deo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,677 ✭✭✭deise go deo


    The basic reason is that there was simply nothing to oppose them. They started in Europe as a second rate power and expanded in the face of no oppisition. Even China was just a fragmented rump at the time.

    By the time this was finished their sheer size and population,(as well as their role in defeting Napoleons Grand Armee) ment that they began to play an ever greater role in Europe often being one of the Key players in the various disputes that arose over time.

    Then they got dragged into WW1 and their states power was broken and much of the land they had aquired in the west was lost to Germany. The Tzar was replaced with the Comunist system.

    After the war much of the land they had lost to Germany went on to form the new Poland(Which had been destroyed between Prussia, Austria and Russia during a series of anexations a century earlier)

    Poland then went on to invade Russia in the 20's and beat the red army and took more land from the USSR.

    After that there was the disastours atempt to invade Finland, and then there was WW2. And the rest is history.


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    #6
    passive
    Registered Users Posts: 2,403 ✭✭✭passive


    The rest is history? What was all that then!?


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    #7
    deise go deo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,677 ✭✭✭deise go deo


    passive wrote: »
    The rest is history? What was all that then!?


    The rest is more widely known history that I dont feel I need to go into.;)


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    #8
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    deise go deo wrote: »
    The basic reason is that there was simply nothing to oppose them. They started in Europe as a second rate power and expanded in the face of no oppisition. Even China was just a fragmented rump at the time.

    By the time this was finished their sheer size and population,(as well as their role in defeting Napoleons Grand Armee) ment that they began to play an ever greater role in Europe often being one of the Key players in the various disputes that arose over time.

    Then they got dragged into WW1 and their states power was broken and much of the land they had aquired in the west was lost to Germany. The Tzar was replaced with the Comunist system.

    After the war much of the land they had lost to Germany went on to form the new Poland(Which had been destroyed between Prussia, Austria and Russia during a series of anexations a century earlier)

    Poland then went on to invade Russia in the 20's and beat the red army and took more land from the USSR.

    After that there was the disastours atempt to invade Finland, and then there was WW2. And the rest is history.

    That doesn't really count as history and on this history/heritage forum we expect more detailed and realistic posts than the above. 2/10 for effort.


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    #9
    CorkMan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭CorkMan


    Artur.PL wrote: »
    If you want to know how it happened maybe this site will be helpful:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#History
    it took a lot of time :)

    That link does not contain specifics about how so much land came under the command of one entity. If you found a link that was specific about how Russia became so massive, that would take a lot of time.

    Thanks for the reply deise go deo.


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    #10
    Denerick
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,488 ✭✭✭Denerick


    Its not my area, but the vastness of Russia probably owes to the fact that so much of it is/was sparsely inhabited. For example, Russia didn't really 'own' Siberia for many centuries, they merely claimed it as their own. before the completion of the Trans Siberian railway it was practically impossible for Russian troops or dignateries to penetrate the region in any meaningful way. There were only ever handfuls of indigeneous people living there, and most of the land is/was covered in forest and/or waste like bare plateaus. Witness, for example, that Russian troops travelled via a naval flotilla from the black sea to attack Japan in 1905. No meaningful Russian naval or military resources were situated in Asia. Its quicker to get a boat from the Crimea than to walk across a continent without railways or roads.

    Its richest and most productive lands are in eastern Europe. This is where the vast majority of Russian agriculture and industry is and was located. Its only in recent decades and in the last century that Siberia's economic potential was tapped, and even then it remained sparsely populated due to climate and infrastructural difficulties.

    The reason Russia looks so big - on a map, that is - is because so much of it is essentially waste land. Russia just happened to have a vast area to its east that was useless. Few lived there, and those that did didn't have guns. Simples.

    Thats not to say that Siberia wasn't an important strategic asset during the Cold War, or that its natural resources weren't essential to the Soviet system.


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    #11
    lcrcboy
    Registered Users Posts: 562 ✭✭✭lcrcboy


    I just finished reading a book on the Romanov's called "The Romanovs ruling Russia 1613-1917" by Lindsey Hughes if your interested in Russian history its definitely worth a read plus its gives insight into how Russia expanded its borders although not in huge detail. However I recommend a read of it .


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