Sentence:  Each failed catastrophically in an invasion of <WSD>Russia</WSD> and each brought ruin on the country that worshipped him . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a former empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia created in the 14th century with Moscow as the capital; powerful in the 17th and 18th centuries under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great when Saint Petersburg was the capital; overthrown by revolution in 1917