Russian imperialism

Growth of Russia, 1300-1900

Russian imperialism refers to the policy of imperialism pursued by the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, as state policy.

Historically, Russian imperialism inherited the power culture of the Golden Horde: the concentration of power in one authority and rejection of agreements if needed.

The territorial expansion of the Russian Empire during the 18th to 20th centuries was marked by further annexations. For example, in 1654, the annexation of nowaday Ukraine territory began. As a result of the Russo-Polish War (1792), the eastern part of Poland became a colony of the Russian Empire (until 1918).

By 1921, the Bolsheviks had effectively restored a state structure similar in size to that of the Russian Empire, albeit with an internationalist ideology and limited self-determination rights for ethnic minorities. From 1923 to 1932 and until 1953, the policy of korenizatsiya was implemented to support and develop national cultures within the framework of socialism. As korenizatsiya was gradually abandoned, the introduction of the Russian language as a means of interethnic communication began. Although the Soviet Union proclaimed itself anti-imperialist (notably in the 1960 Nikita Khrushchev speech at the United Nations conference), critics argued that the USSR shared common traits with historical empires.

Russian-Soviet Territorial Expansion

Critics commonly say that Russian imperialism is based on ideological principles that justify notions of "superiority," "chosenness," "Russia's sanctity," "protection of Orthodox Christianity," (see Russian and Soviet persecution of the Catholic Church) "antiquity," "integration into civilization," "peace and protection of the disadvantaged," "the superiority of Russian culture," and confrontation with a "hostile environment."

Finland and the Baltics

Finland was incorporated to Russia as well as nowadays Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania from the Baltics, which were the first one to declare independence from the USSR once it fell.

Poland

During WWII the USSR and Nazi Germany pacted the annexation of Poland (Poland became a Soviet satellite state afterwards), on German Empire and Russian Empire times Poland was also annexed, also the Austro-Hungary Empire participated in the annexations.

Romania

Part of Romania was conquered and annexed into the USSR, thus creating Moldova, changing the alphabet type.

Alaska

Alaska was conquered by the Russian Empire and later sold to the US in 1867.

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

The southern campaigns included a series of Russo-Persian Wars. Notably, as a result of the Russo-Persian War (1796), Georgia became a protectorate. The annexation of Eastern Georgia to Russia was officially formalized by the Treaty of Georgievsk in 1783.

Armenia and nowadays Azerbaijan were also annexed to the Russian Empire, the border definitions durign Soviet times were the reason the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict started over Artsaj in the 1990s.

Japan

Russia and Japan currently hold a dispute over the southern Kuril islands, which were historically part of Japan until WWII. Also, Japan holded South Sakhalin and the rest of the Kuril. Japan had his own imperialism on Asia

China

China-Russia border, Treaty of Aigun.

Chinese historiography believes that the provinces were Vladivostok and Belogorsk cities are located were stolen from China. The territories were incorporated to Russia in the Treaty of Aigun.

Russian Discovery of Siberia and the Far East

Siberia became part of Russian history relatively late, with its official incorporation beginning in 1581. That year, Cossack leader Ermak Timofeevich led a force across the Ural Mountains, defeating the Khanate of Sibir' shortly thereafter. However, Russian merchants and Slavic adventurers may have ventured into the region even earlier, as settlements crept steadily toward the lands beyond "the Kamen," the ancient name for the Urals. Reports of Siberia’s vast natural wealth had already fueled Russian interest, creating a sense of mystery and allure that propelled their eastward expansion.

Under Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV, 1530–1584), the Russian push eastward gained momentum as part of his broader campaign against the remnants of the Golden Horde. After capturing Kazan in 1552 and Astrakhan in 1556, Ivan turned his attention to Siberia, where Khan Kuchum ruled an expansive territory stretching from the Urals to the Ob River. Ermak's decisive victory over Kuchum on the Irtysh River in October 1582 effectively opened Siberia to Russian domination. Following this conquest, fortified towns and trading posts proliferated, extending the Russian presence ever deeper into the region. Wealthy merchant families, like the Stroganovs, played a pivotal role in this expansion by financing expeditions and trading enterprises.

The region's abundant fur-bearing animals, especially sable, were highly sought after in European markets, turning Siberia into an economic powerhouse for the Russian Empire. Fur hunting, often carried out by "promyshlenniki" (frontiersmen), drew settlers eastward along the tributaries of Siberia’s great rivers, which flowed north to the Arctic Ocean. Simultaneously, Cossack explorers charted routes along the Arctic coastline, using waterways like the "Mangazeian waterway" to connect Arkhangelsk on the White Sea with major Siberian rivers such as the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena.

By 1639, Russian explorers had reached the Pacific Ocean, with Ivan Moskvitin standing on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. Subsequent ventures pushed even farther, reaching Chukotka, Kamchatka, and, by 1648, the straits later named after Vitus Bering. While it took nearly another century for the Russians to cross the North Pacific and establish a presence in Alaska, their expansion across Siberia marked the beginning of a transformative era. It turned Siberia into a frontier of both economic exploitation and geographic discovery, with lasting consequences for the Russian Empire's global influence.

Central Asia

The Russian conquest of Central Asia stands as one of the most dramatic and successful examples of 19th-century European imperial expansion. Over several decades, the Russian Empire added approximately 1.5 million square miles of territory and over 6 million people, most of them Muslims, to its domains.

The conquest began in the 1830s with early skirmishes along the steppe frontier and intensified between 1847 and 1864, as Russian forces pushed across the eastern Kazakh steppe, establishing forts near the northern border of what is now Kyrgyzstan. By 1868, Tashkent and Samarkand had fallen, and the Khanates of Kokand and Bukhara were subdued. The annexation of Khiva followed in 1873, and by 1881, Russian control extended into western Turkmenistan. The brutal subjugation of the Turkmen culminated in the occupation of the Merv Oasis and eastern Turkmenistan by 1884. However, Russian southward expansion met resistance from the British Empire, which blocked further advances toward Afghanistan in 1885. By 1895, the Russians had secured the Pamir Mountains, completing their domination of the region.

This sweeping campaign was not only a military endeavor but also a diplomatic balancing act involving relations with China, Persia, and Britain. Drawing on extensive archival research from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and India, as well as memoirs and Islamic chronicles, Morrison details the logistics, battles, and geopolitical intricacies that enabled Russia to establish its colonial empire in Central Asia—a legacy with enduring global repercussions.

Kaliningrad

After WWII Königsberg was annexed to Russia, Russified with the expulsion of native Germans and the Teutonic Castle demolished. A German Church was only reconstructed during Modern Russia times as some other old buildings.

Soviet Imperialism, Nuclear testing, the Holodomor and Foreign interventionism

For a more detailed treatment, see USSR.

Kazakh woman afected by Soviet Nuclear testing in Central Asia.

Stalinist Totalitarian Marxist poster that says"The whole world will be ours!"

The Soviet Union, despite its anti-imperialist rhetoric, displayed imperialistic tendencies akin to traditional empires. Scholars describe it as a hybrid of empire and nation-state, practicing colonialism under the guise of socialism. Maoists criticized this as "social imperialism." Soviet ideology evolved from promoting global revolution to prioritizing nationalism, positioning the USSR as the center of socialism. Leaders like Brezhnev justified Soviet dominance through the "developed socialism" doctrine, accompanied by policies of Russification, Sovietization, and cultural imperialism. In Central Asia, internal colonialism was evident through mass deportations, ethnic relocations, and industrial transformations, particularly under Stalin’s rule.

During the Cold War the Soviet Union participated on multiple proxy wars, helping the spread of Marxism in Africa and Latin America, achieving the ideological conquest of Cuba, Nicaragua and most of the independent African Countries. Salvador Allende was paid by the KGB as an agent in the 1950s. (See the book The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the the Third World)

Nuclear Testing

Central Asia was also used to test Nuclear Weapons. More than 1.5 million Kazakh people were exposed to the harmful effects of 456 nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union. There remains severe human and environmental damage, including radiation fallout.

Holodomor

Main article: Holodomor

The word Holodomor is the name given to the genocide of the people of the Ukraine in 1932–1933 to bring about the implementation of Socialism. The name literally means "murder by hunger." It is sometimes known as Ukraine's "forced famine" or called "Ukraine's Unknown Holocaust." The Holodomor was a man-made famine carried out by leftists under Stalin to intentionally destroy the nationalistic Ukrainian people who posed a threat to socialism. The Soviets forcibly collectivized almost all of the Ukrainian farms in the "breadbasket of the world" and stole the peasants' food, thereby creating a devastating famine. Even though the man-made famine affected other areas, such as the Volga Basin, Kazakhstan, and the Northern Caucasus, the term Holodomor refers specifically to the genocide of the Ukrainians.

KGB and its international sabotage

Main article: KGB

See also: Yuri Bezmenov

The Committee for State Security was the "Sword and Shield" of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. While its primary function was internal repression of people's basic rights, an external reconnaissance division as it is called, or intelligence organization, also handled spreading the gospel of Marxist international workers revolution to overthrow exiting legitimate governments worldwide, or "the bourgeois order" as Marxists refer to it.

During its existence the Committee had many names, finally adopting KGB in 1954 which was used until the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1992. Historians and writers have often in retrospect used the name KGB to refer to all its predecessor organizations going back to the founding of the Soviet Union.

At the July 1920 Second Congress of the Communist International Comintern, General Secretary of the Communist Party V.I. Lenin told delegates "we must everywhere build up a parallel illegal organisation".

The KGB was described by formed agent Yuri Bezmenov as having four stages to debilitate its opponets in the West, Demoralization, Crisis, Normalization, and Destabilization.