Territorial evolution of Russia

The borders of Russia changed through military conquests and by ideological and political unions from the 16th century.

Tsarist Russia

The formal end to Tatar rule over Russia was the defeat of the Tatars at the Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480. Ivan III (r. 1462–1505) and Vasili III (r. 1505–1533) had consolidated the centralized Russian state following the annexations of the Novgorod Republic in 1478, Tver in 1485, the Pskov Republic in 1510, Volokolamsk in 1513, Ryazan in 1521, and Novgorod-Seversk in 1522.^[1]

After a period of political instability between 1598 and 1613, which became known as the Time of Troubles, the Romanovs came to power in 1613 and the expansion-colonization process of the tsardom continued. While Western Europe colonized the New World, the Tsardom of Russia expanded overland – principally to the east, north and south.

This continued for centuries; by the end of the 19th century, the Russian Empire reached from the Baltic Sea, to the Black Sea, to the Pacific Ocean, and for some time included colonies in the Americas (1732–1867) and an unofficial colony in Africa (1889) in present-day Djibouti^[2] that lasted only a month.

Expansion into Asia

The first stage from 1582 to 1650 resulted in North-East expansion from the Urals to the Pacific. Geographical expeditions mapped much of Siberia. The second stage from 1785 to 1830 looked South to the areas between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The key areas were Armenia and Georgia, with some better penetration of the Ottoman Empire, and Persia. By 1829, Russia controlled all of the Caucasus as shown in the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829. The third era, 1850 to 1860, was a brief interlude jumping to the East Coast, annexing the region from the Amur River to Manchuria. The fourth era, 1865 to 1885 incorporated Turkestan, and the northern approaches to India, sparking British fears of a threat to India in the Great Game.^[3]^[4]

Historian Michael Khodarkovsky describes Tsarist Russia as a "hybrid empire" that combined elements of continental and colonial empires.^[5] According to Kazakh scholar Kereihan Amanzholov, Russian colonialism had "no essential difference with the colonialist policies of Britain, France, and other European powers".^[6] Qing China defeated Russia in the early Sino-Russian border conflicts, although the Russian Empire later acquired Russian Manchuria in the Amur Annexation.^[7] During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russian Empire invaded Manchuria in 1900, and the Blagoveshchensk massacre occurred against Chinese residents on the Russian side of the border.^[7] Russian Empire reached its maximum territory in Asia with the Russo-Japanese War, where after its defeat, Russia ceded Manchuria, southern Sakhalin, Russian Dalian, and Port Arthur to Japan with the Treaty of Portsmouth, though Russia kept the northern portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

Table of changes

Changes in territory to the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, from 1547 to 1905, listed chronologically:

Year	Tsar	Territory taken	Taken from	Background	Map
1552	Ivan the Terrible	Khanate of Kazan	Khanate of Kazan	Russo-Kazan Wars
1556	Ivan the Terrible	Astrakhan Khanate	Astrakhan Khanate	Russian control of the Volga trade route
1583	Ivan the Terrible	Loss of Polotsk and Velizh	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Livonian War
1598	Feodor I of Russia	Khanate of Sibir	Khanate of Sibir	Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir
1582 – 1778	gradual	Siberia	Indigenous people	Russian conquest of Siberia
1617	Time of Troubles	Loss of Ingria and Kexholm County	Sweden	Ingrian War
1619	Time of Troubles	Loss of Severia and Smolensk	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Russo-Polish War (1609-1618)
1634	Michael l of Russia	Town of Serpeysk	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Smolensk War
1667	Alexis of Russia	Smolensk, Left-bank Ukraine, Kiev (temporary), Zaporizhzhia (condominium with Poland)	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
1681	Feodor III of Russia	Qasim Khanate	Qasim Khanate	Death of Queen Fatima Soltan
1686	Peter the Great	Gain of Kiev and Zaporizhzhia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Union with Poland against Ottoman Empire (Great Turkish War)
1700	Peter the Great	Gain of Azov (temporary)	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1686-1700) (During the Great Turkish War)
1711	Peter the Great	Loss of Azov	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1710-1711)
1721	Peter the Great	Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, and Karelia	Sweden	Great Northern War
1739	Anna of Russia	Regain of Azov	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1735-1739)
1743	Elizabeth of Russia	South-West Karelia	Sweden	Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743)
1771	Catherine the Great	Kalmyk Khanate	Kalmyk Khanate	exodus of the Kalmyks to Dzungaria
1772	Catherine the Great	Inflanty Voivodeship and Eastern Belarus	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	First Partition of Poland
1774	Catherine the Great	Southern Bug and Karbadino	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)
1783	Catherine the Great	Crimean Khanate	Ottoman Empire	Annexation of the vassal state
1792	Catherine the Great	Yedisan	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)
1793	Catherine the Great	Right-bank Ukraine and Belarus	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Second Partition of Poland
1795	Catherine the Great	Western Galicia and Southern Mazovia	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Third Partition of Poland
1799	Paul I of Russia	Alaska	Indigenous people	Russian America
1801	Alexander I of Russia	Eastern Georgia	Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti	Annexation of Georgia
1807	Alexander I of Russia	Białystok	Kingdom of Prussia	Napoleonic Wars
1809	Alexander I of Russia	Grand Duchy of Finland	Sweden	Finnish War
1810	Alexander I of Russia	Western Georgia	Kingdom of Imereti	Annexation of Georgia
1812	Alexander I of Russia	Bessarabia (Moldova)	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)
1813	Alexander I of Russia	Duchy of Warsaw (Under Occupation)	France	Napoleonic Wars
1813	Alexander I of Russia	Georgia, Dagestan, parts of northern Azerbaijan, and parts of northern Armenia	Sublime State of Persia	Russo-Persian War (1804–1813)
1815	Alexander I of Russia	Congress Poland	Duchy of Warsaw	Napoleonic Wars
1828	Nicholas I of Russia	Iğdır Province, rest of northern Azerbaijan, and Armenia	Sublime State of Persia	Russo-Persian War (1826–1828)
1829	Nicholas l of Russia	Danube Delta, Anapa, Novorossiysk, Poti, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1828-1829)
1856	Alexander II of Russia	Loss of Danube Delta and Southern Bessarabia	Principality of Moldavia (Ottoman Empire)	Crimean War
1858	Alexander II of Russia	North of the Amur River	Qing Empire (China)	Second Opium War
1859	Alexander II of Russia	Caucasian Imamate	Caucasian Imamate	Caucasian War
1860	Alexander II of Russia	East of the Ussuri River	Qing Empire (China)	Second Opium War
1730–1863	gradual	Kazakhstan	Lesser Horde, Middle Horde, Great Horde	Incorporation of the Kazakh Khanate
1864	Alexander II of Russia	Circassia	Circassians	Caucasian War
1866	Alexander II of Russia	Uzbekistan	Emirate of Bukhara	Russian conquest of Bukhara
1867	Alexander II of Russia	Loss of Alaska	United States of America	Alaska Purchase
1873	Alexander II of Russia	North Turkmenistan	Khanate of Khiva	Khivan campaign of 1873
1875	Alexander II of Russia	Sakhalin	Empire of Japan	border settlement with Japan
1876	Alexander II of Russia	Kyrgyzstan and West Tajikistan	Khanate of Kokand	Annexation of the vassal state
1878	Alexander II of Russia	Regain of Southern Bessarabia	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
1878	Alexander II of Russia	Kars Oblast and Batum Oblast	Ottoman Empire	Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
1885	Alexander III of Russia	South Turkmenistan	Turkmens	Turkmen campaign	Ashgabat Krasno vodsk Chik ishlyar Merv Pandjeh Geok Tepe Bami Kazil- Arvat Chat Bukhara Khiva class=notpageimage\| Turkmen campaign of 1880–85 * Blue=Russian fort; Yellow=Khanate of Khiva.
1895	Alexander III of Russia	East Tajikistan	sparsely populated	Exploration of the Pamir plateau
1905	Nicholas II of Russia	Loss of South Sakhalin	Empire of Japan	Russo-Japanese War

Russian SFSR and Soviet Union

After the October Revolution of November 1917, Poland and Finland became independent from Russia and remained so thereafter. The Russian Empire ceased to exist, and the Russian SFSR, 1917–1991, was established on much of its territory. Its area of effective direct control varied greatly during the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922. Eventually the revolutionary Bolshevik government regained control of most of the former Eurasian lands of the Russian Empire, and in 1922 joined the Russian SFSR to Belarus, Transcaucasia, and Ukraine as the four constituent republics of a new state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which lasted until December 1991.

Territories of the former Russian Empire that permanently or temporarily became independent:

Crimean People's Republic, 1917–1918
Republic of Aras, 1918–1919
Alash Autonomy, 1917–1920
Kingdom of Lithuania (1918), 1918
Ukrainian People's Republic, Ukrainian State, 1917–1921
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918), 1918
First Republic of Armenia, 1918–1920
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, 1918–1920
Republic of Finland, 1917–
Kingdom of Finland (1918), 1918–1919
Belarusian Democratic Republic, 1918–1919
Balagad state, 1919–1926
North Caucasian Emirate, 1919–1920
Republic of Latvia, 1919–1940
Republic of Central Lithuania, 1920–1922
Centrocaspian Dictatorship, 1918
Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918–1921
Moldavian Democratic Republic, 1917–1918
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, 1917–1920
North Ingria, 1919–1920
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, 1918

In 1919, northern Mhlyn, Novozybkiv, Starodub, and Surazh counties (povits) of Ukraine's Chernihiv Governorate were transferred from the Ukrainian SSR to the new Gomel Governorate of the Russian republic.^[8] In February 1924, Tahanrih and Shakhtinsky counties (okruhas) were transferred from the Donetsk Governorate of Ukraine to Russia's North Caucasus krai.^[9]^[10]

By the end of World War II the Soviet Union had annexed:

Western Belarus and Western Ukraine from the Second Polish Republic (see Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union), annexed in September–October 1939
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, occupied in August 1940
Bessarabia (Moldova), Hertsa, and part of Bukovina, occupied from Romania after an ultimatum in 1940
Parts of Karelia and Salla in 1940, Pechengsky Raion (Petsamo) in 1944, and a 50-year lease on the naval base at Porkkala in 1944
Carpathian Ruthenia, formerly in Czechoslovakia and occupied in 1944
Tuva (independent 1921–1944; previously governed by Mongolia and by the Manchu Empire)
Part of East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast) from Germany, in 1945
The Klaipėda Region, annexed to Lithuania in 1945
The Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin from Japan, occupied in 1945

Of these, Pechenga, Salla, Tuva, Kaliningrad Oblast, Klaipėda, the Kurils, and Sakhalin were added to the territory of the RSFSR.

The Chinese Eastern Railway, formerly a tsarist concession, was taken again by the Soviet Union after the 1929 Sino-Soviet conflict,^[11] the railway was returned in 1952.^[12]

Meanwhile, territories were removed from the Russian SFSR, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 1924, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 1936, and Karelo-Finland from 1945 to 1956. The Crimean oblast and city of Sevastopol were transferred to Ukraine on 19 February 1954 (later annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014).

There were numerous minor border changes between Soviet republics as well.

After World War II, the Soviet Union set up seven satellite states, known as “European colonies”, while remaining independent though their politics, military, foreign and domestic policies were dominated by the Soviet Union:^[13]

People's Socialist Republic of Albania (until 1961)
People's Republic of Bulgaria
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
German Democratic Republic
Hungarian People's Republic
Polish People's Republic
Socialist Republic of Romania (until 1965)

Russian Federation

The dissolution of the Soviet Union has led to the creation of independent post-Soviet states, with the Russian SFSR declaring its independence in December 1991 and changing its name to the Russian Federation.

The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was a secessionist government of the Chechen Republic during 1991–2000. After Russian defeat at the Battle of Grozny, the First Chechen War ended with Russia recognizing the new Ichkerian government of president Maskhadov in January 1997 and signing a peace treaty in May. But Russia invaded again in 1999, restoring a Chechen Republic and the Ichkeria government was exiled in 2000.

The Russian Federation has been involved in territorial disputes with several its neighbours, including with Japan over the Kuril Islands, with Latvia over the Pytalovsky Raion (settled in 1997), with China over parts of Tarabarov Island and Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (settled in 2001), with its coastal neighbours over Caspian Sea boundaries, and with Estonia over the adjoining border. Russia also had disputes with Ukraine over the status of the federal city of Sevastopol, but agreed it belonged to Ukraine in the 1997 Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty, and over the uninhabited Tuzla Island, but gave up this claim in the 2003 Treaty on the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait.

The Russian Federation has also used its armed forces, armed formations, and material support to help establish the disputed breakaway states of Transnistria in Moldova after the Transnistria War, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after the 2008 war in Georgia. In 2008, shortly after announcing the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev laid out a foreign policy challenging the US-dominated "single-pole" world order and claiming a privileged sphere of influence in the near abroad around the Russian Federation and farther abroad.^[14]^[15] Following these conflicts, both Transnistria and South Ossetia have made proposals for joining Russia.

In 2014, when after months of protests in Ukraine, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in the Revolution of Dignity, Russian troops occupied Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, and after a hasty referendum the Kremlin annexed Crimea and Sevastopol. The annexation was not recognized by Ukraine or most other members of the international community. A few weeks later, an armed conflict broke out the Donbas region of Ukraine, in which the Kremlin denies an active role, but is widely considered to be fuelled by soldiers, militants, weapons, and ammunition from the Russian Federation.

On February 21, 2022, the Russian president Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of two Donbas republics in Ukraine, and invaded the region. Two days later, Russian troops openly invaded Ukrainian-held territory of Ukraine, a move widely seen as an attempt to conduct regime change and occupy much or all of Ukraine. After failing to seize Ukraine's capital Kyiv for over a month, the Russian defence minister stated that the main goal of the war was the "liberation of the Donbas",^[16] but later a Russian general stated that it was to seize eastern and southern Ukraine right through to Transnistria, a breakaway territory in Moldova.^[17]^[18]

On 30 September 2022, Putin announced in a speech^[19] that Russia was to annex four partially occupied regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.^[20] However, Russia's annexation of these territories was widely condemned by the international community,^[21] and Russia does not control the full territory of any of the four annexed regions, and its government was unable to describe the new international "borders".^[22]