Russia (Varna)

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The Tsardom of Russia was an Eastern European monarchy which existed during Season 2 of Varna, and a key player in the Eastern theatre of the War of the Leagues. After three wars had taken place involving Russian states, a unified Russia was declared in Ryazan on New Year's Day, 1547.
On the Tatsumaki score ranking, "Russian" is level 12.
== The Grand Duchy of Ryazan ==
=== Pre-Series History ===
{TBA}
=== The Great Russian War ===
Centred around the city of Ryazan, the Grand Duchy begins as a puppet of the Golden Horde until 1475, when they joined Muscovy and Pskov in betraying their oppressor. The three were only able to do this since the Golden Horde was already on the decline, and the previous year a Lithuanian invasion began the Great Russian War, bringing the Mongols that much closer to collapse. Hence, the Russian states began their rebellion. The main Ryazani force captured Voronezh in less than two weeks, before advancing downstream on the Voronezh river to meet the Lithuanians before the final offensive on Sarai, the Golden Horde's capital. Other Ryazani forces helped Lithuania to secure the territories west of the river. 1478 began with the Golden Horde's surrender, and the subsequent Treaty of Azov, which saw Ryazan gain independence and annex Voronezh.
=== The First Don War ===
In late December 1514, the Great Horde was starting to collapse under pressure from the invading Lithuanians, so Ryazan took the opportunity to invade. The Ryazanis joined the Lithuanians, following the Voronezh and Don rivers, as they reached the gates of Sarai together in late February 1515, just like it had happened nearly 40 years ago. In June, they were joined by the Astrakhan Khanate and the Nogai Horde from the east, who created a joint siege of Sarai with Ryazan and Lithuania, before the four of them eventually captured the city. July began with the Great Horde's surrender, and Ryazan gained land as far as Tsimylansk.
=== The Second Russian War ===
In the late spring of 1525, Muscovy was at war with the Novgorod Republic, so Ryazan took the opportunity to launch a surprise invasion of Muscovy. The offensive was initially routed by the Muscovites, so Ryazan split their forces. Ryazan left a few hundred troops at Kolomna as a decoy whilst the main force captured Nizhny Novgorod. A second Ryazani offensive on Moscow was halted, but further east Ryazan was advancing, and soon they met the armies of Novgorod in the city of Moscow in early January 1526. The Grand Duchy of Muscovy was divided as per the Treaty of Moscow. Ryazan entered a period of peace, where they prepared for their expected confrontation with Novgorod. During this time, in 1537, they partitioned the Chuvash Khanate with the Cuman-Kipchak Confederation.
=== The Third Russian War ===
Ryazan spent the entirety of 1546 invading Novgorod and managing a stalemate against them, until the city of Novgorod finally fell in early December. Without waiting to sign a treaty with Sweden to divide the lands, Ryazan began their southward conquest, invading Caucasia (formerly Astrakhan) and the Nogai Horde. After the aforementioned treaty was eventually signed, Ryazan celebrated the beginning of the new year by declaring a unified Tsardom of Russia.
== The Tsardom of Russia ==
=== The Second Don War ===
In the wake of Ryazan's transition into Russia, Caucasia and Nogai stopped fighting each other and joined forces. In only a month, Russian troops besieged both Astrakhan and Saray-Jük, the capitals of Caucasia and Nogai respectively. After the former was sacked by the Russians in March 1547, Caucasia collapsed, and the land was divided between Russia and a few tribal states. Then in early April, the Nogai Horde became a vassal state of Russia.
From 1547 to 1565, the Russians quietly remained within their own borders, structuring the politics and economics of the country, while building strength for future conflicts. No wars were fought in this period, except the early winter of 1552 when Russia conquered Kazan.
=== The Lithuanian Campaign ===
Russia ended their dormancy in 1565 when they declared war on Poland, in order to claim the territories of the former Kyivan Rus' from Lithuania. The Russians had waited since the beginning of the War of the Leagues, until the Poles were distracted by the Hungarian front against the Habsburgs. 
During the war, Russia had set their sights on three cities, namely Smolensk, Kyiv, and Minsk. Since the Lithuanians were unprepared for the attack, Russia breezed through most of north-eastern Lithuania, capturing Smolensk in only a month. However, as Lithuania and Poland began reinforcing the front, Russia's advances slowed, and they were stopped 50 miles from Minsk. They were nowhere near Kyiv, but they secured the north coast of the Sea of Azov. Whatever Russia had occupied was integrated into the Tsardom during the Peace of Prague conference of February 1571.
Category:Varna Countries