ABSTRACT

Russia is a big, populous, and potentially rich country. It comprises the world’s largest land mass, has 170 million people, and, if it can get its act together, has more and richer exploitable resources than any other country in the world. Russia lagged in technical, economic, and political comparison with the US but as a military rival, and by concentrating its resources, it could match the US Greater Russia extends westward to include the Baltic countries, Belarus, the Ukraine, and Moldova; southward to include Georgia, the Trans-Caucasus, and Central Asia; and eastward toward Mongolia and Manchuria. Russian political theory consists of reasons and justifications for authoritarianism. Only in the last two decades have we begun to see a new political theory of Russian democracy and a changing political culture that begins to value democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. The Russian revolution was one of the great earth-shaking turning points in history, certainly in Russian history.