Start here · 1 min read
Overview
Russia built the world's largest land empire, expanding across northern Asia from the sixteenth century, and Peter I took the title of emperor in 1721. After the revolutions of 1917 the Soviet Union inherited most of that territory and became a superpower, launching the first satellite in 1957 and the first human into space in 1961. It dissolved in December 1991. Its story is a study in centralised power, ideological ambition, and the limits of controlling information and the economy from the top.
Context
Muscovy expanded after the fall of Mongol overlordship, moving east into Siberia and south and west toward Europe. Imperial Russia was an autocracy with a large peasantry that remained in serfdom until 1861. Defeat in war and economic backwardness repeatedly pushed rulers toward reform, and then repression when reform opened political space.
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Curator's notes
- Why it matters
- Superpower; space race
- Use in training and coaching
- Information control eventually fails
- Empire
- Russian and Soviet
- Dates (approx.)
- 1721 – 1991
- Peak achievement
- Superpower; space race
- Why it fell
- Economic stagnation, nationalist movements
- Leadership lesson
- Information control eventually fails
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