back on the territorial evolutions of Russia in history

First there was Ivan the Terrible, who ruled Moscow and its region. He will expand his empire to the East by heading towards Siberia. In 1783, it was Catherine 2 who annexed Crimea, before Ukraine ten years later. The Empire will then expand further west. In 1809, Alexander I conquered Finland, then Poland in 1815. In the 19th century, to the south, Kazakhstan and Turkestan were annexed to gain access to the Caspian Sea. At the dawn of the October 1917 revolution, Tsar Nicolas 2 reigned over an empire of 22 million square kilometers and more than 130 million inhabitants.

Then, it will be the turn of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, created on December 30, 1922 by Lenin and Stalin. Fifteen republics in addition to Russia, which will expand even further. Then will come the communist bloc and the iron curtain. In 1991, Mikail Gorbachev had no choice but to dissolve the Soviet Union and create the Russian Federation. His successor, Boris Elstine will create the CEI, the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 1999 Vladimir Putin came to power. “He dreams of a Russian empire“, sums up Gilles Papin. In 2008, the head of the Kremlin attacked Georgia. In 2014, he will recover Crimea. In February 2022, he attacks the whole of Ukraine.