Russia

## Eulogy

*By Gregory Severin*

Russia, according to Winston Churchill, is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. It is also the largest country in the world, with a surface area covering an eighth of Earth's landmass and roughly equivalent to the surface area of Pluto

The modern Russian flag is inspired by the Dutch flag. Peter the Great really admired the Dutch people's ability to make boats, and thought that it'd be fun if Russia was more like the Netherlands. The guy loved him some Western European powers, what can I say

The Russian state as we know it today began with the Varangians, a group of Vikings who founded the Kievan Rus' in the 9th century. Eventually they converted to Orthodoxy (they considered Islam as well but decided they'd rather drink alcohol), got conquered by the Mongols, and then in the time of King Ivan III ("the Great" they got rid of the Mongols and became known as MUSCOVY. Muscovy became the Tsardom of Russia as Ivan III gave way to Ivan IV ("the Terrible"), and eventually became the Russian Empire under Peter I ("the Great")

Throughout this time Russians continued their great march east. And also south, and sometimes even west (lookin at you, Saint Petersburg). As they did this, the country became home to an even great amount of people considering themselves Russian. Today, the country is home to over 190 ethnic groups, and to help accommodate them Russia has several constituent republics that have larger amounts of autonomy than other federal subjects. Some of them, like Ingushetia or Yakutia, may be familiar to you from previous votes. Others, like Chechnya, may be familiar to you from reading world news, and also from previous votes

Russia has been a major player in several prominent wars, be they Napoleonic, Cold, or World. Well I guess in two of them they were the Soviet Union, but that's a whole other can of worms. Sometimes they fought with the Americans, sometimes they fought against them, and sometimes they just passive-aggressively funded regime change in the third world contrary to the Americans' wishes, and sometimes they allied with Hitler to jointly invade Poland and also annex the Baltic States and parts of Romania while they were at it

After deciding to stop being Communist, Russia became a wonderland of unfettered capitalism. Lots of oligarchs became oligarchs at this time, lots of mafia started doing mafia stuff, and President Boris Yeltsin drunkenly (and nudely) stumbled through the White House in search of pizza while his predecessor was starring in a Pizza Hut commercial. Then Vladimir Putin took office in the early 2000s, invaded a few of his neighbors, and now you can't get Pizza Hut anywhere in the country

Many notable people have come from Russia, as I'm sure you know by now. There's a few authors like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn that you should be familiar with, composers Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, athletes Maria Sharapova, Alex Ovechkin, and Pavel Buchnevich, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and directors Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, the former of whom invented the montage

## Tournament

Russia was defeated by Albania in Round 1 Matchup 123 of FlagVote. As the 241 seed, it was defeated by Hungary in Round 1 Matchup 31 of FlagVote 2. As the 230 seed, it was defeated by Cam in Round 3 Matchup 117 of FlagVote 3 after previously defeating Laos.

## Results

### FlagVote 3

**Round 1:** BYE

**Round 2:** Win over (283) Laos 5-4

**Round 3:** Loss to (27) Cam 7-2