After 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) it was able to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities.

In the early 17th century, continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific was continued by a new Romanov Dynasty.

PETER I (ruled 1682-1725) extended hegemony to the Baltic Sea and renamed the country the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia.

The country defeated in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) which contributed to the Revolution of 1905,

the results of which were the formation of a parliament and other reforms.

The overthrow of the imperial household in 1917 was provoked by repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War. Soon after power was seized by the Communists under Vladimir LENIN, and the USSR was formed.

Tens of millions of lives was the cost of strengthened Communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union under the brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53). In 1970s and '80s there was the Stagnation Era of economy in USSR until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives accidentally released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics.

Since then, in order to replace the social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy. Some progress has been made on the economic front, and Russia' s management of it

s windfall oil wealth has improved its financial standing.

However, recent ye ars h

ave seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and democratic institutions remain weak.

Russia has severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement, although sporadic violence still occurs throughout

the North Caucasus.