Russia

Russia, officially Russian Empire is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, followed by Canada, the United States, and China. Russia borders Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Korea.
==History==
===Before the 20th century===
Russia has a very long history as a country, with some political extremists proclaiming Russia to even be one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, where Aryo-Slavs ruled the steppes and forests and played with unicorns (probably). Then there was the Kievan Rus, the Tsardom of Russia ruled by Ivan The Terrible, and then finally the Russian Empire, led by the famous Tsar Peter the Great, who modernized the Russian society mostly by basing it on the West, also sparking the first of many Russian genocides - on beards.
===Soviet Period===
thumb|250px|Moscow in 1984After the First World War, in a communist revolution, the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union. The perpetrators of the revolution, the Bolsheviks, murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his family. After Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, the next ruler was Joseph Stalin, a cruel tyrant who was responsible for millions of deaths and tragedies, such as the Ukrainian Holodomor, the Kazakh Asharshylyk or purging of many military officers that did not sit well with him.
Russia, now the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, ruled the Soviet Union. It was the place where the Soviet head of state resided, and the place of many important buildings and universities, and the largest and most populous constituent republic of the Soviet Union. Other republics of the Soviet Union were russified, and Russian was the official language of the Soviet Union.
During the Third World War, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was invaded by NATO who reached Moscow by February of 1991. Aleksander Vitalevich Rukov, the Soviet premier, ran away to his secret base in Kamchatka, leaving Konstantin Werner Dorosji in charge of defending Moscow. He was killed by a French agent, named Nicolas Alceste. Aleksander also met his end several days later, killed in Kamchatka by the same agent while activating his Dome Of Light.
===The Caged Bear===
After Minister Yazov signed the Soviet surrender, In place of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, a new entity named Eurokommisariat Rus was established. Ruled by joint German, Polish, French, British and American forces, it was a puppet state, controlled entirely by NATO, not unlike the occupation zones of Nazi Germany.
Once the news of Premier dying reached all the other Republics, they sent in their surrender notices. In a matter of weeks, all of the Soviet Republics ceased to exist. NATO was benevolent to them, as they saw them as less evil and guilty than the Russians, who made up the bulk of the Soviet army. Many of these lesser Soviet republics were abused and crushed beneath the boot of Soviet state, their cultures eradicated, their people subject to genocides, their religions snuffed out, and so, NATO saw many of them as victims of the Soviets, and allowed them to transform into independent states - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
But all of that still left NATO with the Russian Question - what to do with the occupied Eurokommisariat Rus? There were several concepts - first was to divide it into several small countries, such as Chechnya, Altai Republic, Komi Republic, Karelia, and more - all overseen by NATO for the foreseeable future. Some politicians opposed this, fearing that so many countries would be difficult to control and oversee, citing the chaos that erupted in Africa following decolonization as a proof of such events happening. The second concept was proposed by the Polish president, Lech Wałęsa, to join Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia with Poland, but this request was denied at Brussels fairy quickly, with some fearing a Russian or Ukrainian uprising, and others claiming it to be outright absurd. The big question remained - should Russia be dismantled, or just turned into a puppet state? After all, Russia had plenty of natural resources, such as gas and fossil fuels, which they could certainly benefit from if they had a puppet leader installed in the Kremlin.
Then the chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl, brought up a woman by the name of Katarina Aleksandrovna Vulkanova, a young, enthusiastic woman, previously associated with reformist movements in the Soviet government. From the stories told by her grandfathers and her history books, she had a image of a different Russia, different from the hell the Bolsheviks turned her into - a Russia of great artists such as Dostoyevsky, a Russia of elegant palaces and exquisite tastes, where culture thrives and people are intelligent, respectful and well-cultured, instead of working drones drinking themselves until vomiting and worshiping the current Premier like some twisted idol all day.
Kohl believed that Russia could be re-instated as a independent state, under Vulkanova as a Tsar. Many Europeans, most of their countries once being mighty kingdoms in the past - and some still being, such as the United Kingdom - believed that with monarchy comes a far greater responsibility, than with the idea of "Soviet Premierhood". Not only that, but Katarina was an extremely pro-NATO and pro-western reformist, who couldn't possibly do any harm to her country's neighbors. Vulkanova approved of the Tsar title, finding it a natural continuation of the Romanov rule cut short by the Soviets - admittedly, she was a tad bit of an overly optimistic idealist and had a weakness for romanticizing monarchism and the past, willing to overlook the many faults and issues with Tsar Nicolas.
And so, but not without sour looks from many European leaders and the US president Bush, Vulkanova became the first Tsar of Russia since Nicholas II. While most Russians were happy to once again be a independent state, not all were pleased - years of communist propaganda permanently wired their brains to despise monarchy of all kinds, while others were just sore in a simpler "they changed the government, now it sucks" way, even if it didn't impact them that much. But that was not important on the global scale, what was important instead was the fact that Eurokommisariat Rus became the independent Russian Empire.
===The Witch called Rossiya reborn===
thumb|250px|Tsarina Katarina Aleksandrovna VulkanovaIn the first weeks, to woo over the Russian populace, a massive PR move was staged by NATO and Vulkanova. Prime Minister Gro Brundtland of Norway and minister Kohl convinced the Finnish government not to take away the rest of Karelia from Russia, and instead stage a show for the world, in which Vulkanova was willing to hand over Karelia to Finland herself, but Finland expressed the belief that Vulkanova will be such a good leader, that she will take great care of the region. While these words were not very honest, and the Finnish president was not supporting that idea at all, it worked, and Vulkanova's international opinion got at least a bit warmer... except in Finland.
Following a massive decommunization campaign by the new government, hammers and sickles were replaced with two-headed eagles, portraits of every Soviet ruler from Lenin to Aleksander, were burned and desecrated, their statues toppled and replaced with those of men more representative of what Vulkanova saw as the "real" Russia, such as Tsar Peter the Great. Because of several NATO legal requirements and conferences, Russia was not allowed to have a standing army until the year 1993. Last NATO troops left Russia in January 1994.
The truth about the Soviet Dome Of Light, built since Stalin's death, never leaked out - the mere idea of such a doomsday device would no doubt cause too big of a chaos. People were aware that Aleksander, after realizing a military conquest was impossible, wanted to destroy human life on Earth and create a new world from it's ashes, but officially, he never did do anything to further this idea. Nobody knew that the Kamchatka eruption consumed the titanic genocide machine. And if it ever got out, Russia would have no chances of fixing their image, even with the puppet government of Vulkanova.
===Bearded people so nice they waged a war twice==
thumb|250px|Russian Imperial Army in ChechnyaIn 1994, Chechnya controversially desired to gain independence from the Russian Empire; Russia intervened, and it escalated into a conflict that was fought from 1994 to 1996. Russia, greatly weakened by the Third World War was unable to fight off the separatists, and bailed out of Chechnya. This was a troublesome conflict for both political parties - Russian Empire and NATO. NATO leaders especially looked on in anger, with many people thinking to themselves - "Not another war..." or "We've let them have a standing army for just ONE year and this is what happens...". NATO leaders were outraged at the Russian invasion of Chechnya and asked Russia to leave the emerging state alone, threathening an armed intervention.
Truth be told, Vulkanova didn't know what to do anymore - first Chechnya, and then what? She was not an imperialist lusting for border expansion like Aleksander, but she did not want her country to dwindle into nothing; yet on the other hand, she feared that another intervention in Chechnya might result in NATO - which was keeping a close eye on Russia after the Third World War - interfering. And this time, there would be no more second chances for Russia, especially as anti-Russian sentiment was at an all-time-high across Europe, with many European political figures, mostly ones representing right-wing, nationalist or right-wing populist political parties declaring that Russia should be outright dismantled, and divided between the nations it once tormented and occupied throughout history. To say that in the 1991-2000 period everyone detested Russia would be an understatement, and the Russo-Chechen conflict did not help at all.
But rampant hatred by other nations and lack of pretty much any allies was not the end of Russia's issues. In 1999 to 2000 they once more battled the Chechens, and this time won, once more incorporating the Muslim land into their borders. Vulkanova decided to ignore NATO's stares of disapproval, even with the constant fear the next day she might hear that NATO troops have once more crossed Russia's borders. This second war in Chechnya was started by Chechen terrorists crossing into Russia's borders, and a series of terrorist attacks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, which killed more than 300 innocent people, and injured more than 1000, putting Russia in a far more sympathetic light than in the case of the First Chechen War.
Internally, from 1991 Russia faced an economic crisis which plunged the country into deep fiancial trouble. Vulkanova, and the Prime Minister of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, tried to fix it, but sadly it took it's toll before they could do so. Much of Russia lived in poverty, and turned to drink even more than in Soviet times to drown their sorrows. The most devastating thing to Vulkanova was the fact that no one pitied the state - no country ever extended a helpful hand to them; not even their former allies nor any states famous for their benevolence and foreign aid, no poverty-aid organization, nobody. The entire world turned their backs on the Russian state - the Third World War proved them one thing: Russians are evil, and should be left alone. Every head of state, especially in Europe knew this - do not buy anything from them, do not interact with them unless you need to, and always keep your army ready. They are dangerous.
===Into the light===
thumb|250px|Moscow in 1999After bouncing back from the economical downfall in 1999, Russia realized they have to work on their image, and have to work fast. In 2000, for the first time in many years, the re-established Russian Red Cross helped in many diseaster relief efforts, such as the 2000 Baku and Turkmenistan earthquakes. Russia wanted to project an image of a gentle giant who wants to help the world, and truth be told, Vulkanova genuinely desired to right the wrongs of the Soviet Union, even spending a large amount of the country's unstable budget on war reparations. And from 1999 onward, Russia's international opinion started to shift upwards. Countries even started to purchase goods from Russia, such as oil or other materials, and it seemed like the sun once more begun to shine upon the Russian land.
Vulkanova's newly-established political party, Pamyat i Pravda (Remembrance and Truth) introduced many controversial reforms and amendments to the Russian law, in order to fix the country. She eradicated the the dedovshchina hazing and abuse system in the Russian military, got rid of corrupt and suspicious elements in the Kremlin, and committed herself to fight against poverty and the epidemic of alcoholism still troubling the nation.
In May 2000, on the anniversary of the Third World War the Bush-Vulkanova Summit took place in front of the White House with President George Bush and Tsarina Katarina Vulkanova shaking hands for the first time. Many Third World War veterans from both sides looked at this event clutching their fists with rage, but most were pleased when President Bush announced that all is well between the former enemies, and that Russia has atoned for it's sins so far, and thus he shall reinstate Russian-American relations once more.
Several other Western countries followed by establishing their businesses in Russia and extending their diplomatic relations with it. Large companies including Levi's, McDonalds and KFC among others started entering Russia, and the country's economy was once again at a stable level. Vulkanova's reforms and removal of potential corruption in the government caused the life standard of an average Russian citizen to improve. Of course, the Tsarina never eliminated poverty and the problems of Russia all-together, but as the world entered the year 2000, for the new changing Russian Empire all was well, with Kazakhstan even granting the Russian Empire permission to use the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
==Military==
thumb|250px|Modern Russian Imperial ArmyThe Russian Imperial Army, reformed from the Soviet Army in 1993, is a completely different beast from what it once was. Gone is the systematic abuse and corruption, and all of the Soviet imagery; with a 1994 amendment to the Russian Law forbidding the Army from flying any Soviet-era iconography, including flags. Still, just like in the Soviet times, it's a conscription-based army. Because of several legal documents and agreements signed by Katarina with NATO, Russian Army was forbidden from further producing any of their highly advanced technology, including Tesla Troopers, Polish-produced Desolator Cannons, Red Mercury weaponry, Tesla Coils, Tesla Reactors, T-1000 Vezdekhod teletanks or Mutants.
Even with many of the issues plaguing it gone, many countries, especially European ones, don't have the best opinion on Russia's military, frequently mocking it, as even under new government, the Russian army is not without flaws, and the distaste for Russians remains fresh among the common populace of Central and Western Europe, with many asking what's the difference between the Soviet Red Army and the new Imperial Army.
So far, the Imperial Army took part in several conflicts; First Chechen War in 1994-1996 and the Second Chechen War in 1999-2000. Tsarina Katarina makes sure the Russian Army will not be used for invading ever again.
Category:Countries Category:Former Communist Countries