The Russian Empire

The Russian Empire (1721–1917) was the third-largest empire in world history, spanning from Poland in the west to Alaska in the east, encompassing over 100 ethnic groups across 22 million square kilometers. Its combination of autocratic rule, vast territorial ambitions, and deep internal contradictions made it one of the most fascinating and troubled great powers of the modern era.

Russia's expansion was relentless. The empire pushed eastward across Siberia, southward into the Caucasus and Central Asia, and westward into Poland and the Baltics. Serfdom — a form of bondage not abolished until 1861 — provided the labor that sustained the aristocratic elite. The emancipation of the serfs, like much Russian reform, was incomplete: freed peasants received inadequate land and remained bound by communal obligations and redemption payments.

By the early 20th century, Russia was a study in contrasts. St. Petersburg boasted world-class ballet, literature, and music, while the vast majority of the population lived in rural poverty. Rapid but uneven industrialization created a volatile urban working class. The autocracy's refusal to share power with emerging social forces, combined with the catastrophe of World War I, created the conditions for the revolutions of 1917 that would destroy the empire and produce the Soviet Union.