The Cimmerians, a Balkan people, invade Russia around the area north of the Black Sea, and settle in what in now southern Ukraine.

The Cimmerians, who had occupied Russia for over 500 years were defeated by the Scythians, an Iranian people from central Asia.

The Scythians also controlled the region for over 500 years.

While still in control of the southern Ukraine region after 500 years, the Scythians were defeated by the invading Sarmatians, another Iranian group of people.

Their cultures merged.  And because they lived in close contact with Greek colonies along the norther coast of the Black Sea, they absorbed many Greek and Roman ways of life through trade, marriage, and other contacts.

According to data published by the United Nations, there are 7.2 billion people in the world, and as of 2016, Russia has the ninth largest population with 144 million people.

Economy
As of 2015, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally.

Nuclear Weapon State
It is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

Global Memberships

• Permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
• G20
• Council of Europe
• Leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
• One of the five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)

The Goths, a group of germanic tribes from the West invaded the Ukraine to conquered the Iranian Sarmatians who rule the region.

After nearly 200 years of controlling the region, the Goths are invaded and conquered by the Huns, a warlike Asian people.  The Huns ruled the region for just over 80 years.  The Hun empire broke up soon after the death of their leader, Attila the Hun.

German born Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, were intellectual thinkers, who worked in collaboration in developing many theories and thoughts about the functioning and operation of society.

Communist Manifesto Published
In 1948, they published a pamphlet called The Communist Manifesto, along with the three-volume Das Kapital (Capital: Critique of Political Economy), three most popular works.

Marxism
All of Marx's theories about society, economics, and politics are collectively know as Marxism.

Capitalism: A Struggle Between Ruling Classes and Working Classes
Marxism theorizes that all of human societies developed from a class struggle between the ruling classes (the bourgeoise) that control the means of production and the working classes (the proletariat) that enable production by selling their labor in return for wages.  Marx predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced conflict and tension that would lead to self-destruction, and replacement by a new system of socialism.

Working Class will Overthrow the Ruling Class
Marx believed that industrialization and capitalism were necessary steps required for society to go through, before the working class would rise up to overthrow the ruling class and institute communism.

Influence of Marx's Philosophy  in Developing Communism in Russia
Many countries banned the distribution of Marx's writings, but not Russia.  With Russia being in the early state of industrialization and primarily an agricultural society, the Russian Emperor didn't believe that Marx's writings posed a serious threat.  Therefore, Marx's philosophy became highly influential in the development of communism in Russia.

Vladmir Lenin
The writings of Karl Marx had a profound impact on Vladmir Lenin, who would go on to become the most influential figure in early Russian communism.  Lenin formed the Bolshevik group,  that rose to power after the collapse of the Russian monarchy.

After its defeat in the Crimean War, Russia began to expand in Asia. They first won disputed territories from China, and soon after the Chinese signed treaties giving Russia lands north of the Amur River and east of the Ussuri River.

By 1864, Russian forces had defeated most of the rebel tribes and won Central Asia.

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) is formed to unite the various revolutionary organizations of the Russian Empire into one party.

The RSDLP program was based on the theories of Karl Marx and Fiedrich Engels -- that true revolutionary potential lay with the industrial working class.

Revolutionary Groups Illegal in Russia
Revolutionaries in Russia were considered to be criminals, and after their first public party meeting, all nine delegates were arrested by the Imperial Russian Police and eventually exiled.

In 1903, the Second Congress of the RSDLP met in exile in Brussels.  However, due to harassment by Belgian authorities, they were forced to disband and meet later in London.

Vladimir Lenin
Before this Second Congress, a young intellectual named Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) joined the party.  In 1902, Lenin published "What is to be Done?", outlining his view of the party's task and methodology.  He advocated a disciplined, centralized party of committed activists who would blend the underground struggle for political freedom with the class struggle of the proletariat (working-class people).

RSDLP Splits into Two Factions:
Bolsheviks vs Mensheviks
Due to irreconcilable differences, at a meeting of the Congress in November of 1903, the RSDLP split into two factions, the Bolsheviks headed by Lenin, and the Mensheviks headed by Julius Martov.  Lenin's faction would end up in the minority and smalller than the Mensheviks until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The two factions made a number of attempts at reunification, however, the split remained, as they disagreed on the vision of revolution.

Haves vs Have-Nots

Lenin and the Bolsheviks pushed for an immediate working-class revolution, while the Mensheviks believed that Russia was in too early a stage of its history to start a working-class revolution.  The Bolsheviks regarded peasants as their allies, while the Mensheviks viewed bourgeois (middle-class) liberals as their revolutionary allies.

The first Communist armed forces organization began with the 1905-1917 revolution, when the Bolsheviks began to attract a following.

In December 1905, eight thousand armed workers, called Druzhiniks, led an uprising in Moscow.  Separate and smaller units of them fought against police throughout the country.

Although this revolution failed, its organizers gained valuable military experience.

While the revolution was in progress, the Bolsheviks created illegal units in the army and on naval ships, that continued to function in secret after the uprising was put down.

In 1894 Russia and France entered an agreement to defend each other against attack.  Ten years later, in 1904, France and Great Britain signed the Entente Cordial (friendly understanding), and Russia followed three years later by signing a similiar agreement with Great Britain in 1907.

The Triple Entente developed from these treaties.

In the mid-1930s, many Soviet citizens opposed the policies of Joseph Stalin, Communist Dictator of the Soviet Union.  Because of this, Stalin began a program of terror called the Great Purge.

Stalin's secret police arrested millions of people.  Neighbors and even family members spied on one another.  Fear spread throughout the country.

Stalin eliminated all real or suspected threats to his power.  Hundreds of thousands of victims, including scientist, poets, writers, artist,  were accused of various political crimes and were quickly executed by shooting, or sent to the Gulag labor camps. Many died at these labor camps of starvation, disease, exposure, and overwork. Stalin also ordered many experimental methods to be used against his victims, such as gassing people to death in batches in the back of a specially made airtight vans driven around the cities to collect the accused.

When trials were staged, arrested Communist leaders were forced to confess to "crimes against the people".  He would then replace these party leaders with young Stalinists he could trust.  The secret police enforced stict loyalty to Stalin's policies on all levels of life.  Stalin controlled everything that was published, taught, or publicly spoken.

It has been estimated that 600,000 people died at the hands of the Soviet government during the Purge.

After World War II, the Soviet Union took an interest in the Middle East.

On February 1, 1946, the Soviet Union and Syria signed an agreement where the Soviet Union agreed to rovide military help in the formation of the Syrian Arab Army, promising diplomatic and political support in the international arena.

During the Cold War (1947 - 1991), a stronger political bond developed and Syria was considered an ally to the Soviet Union in opposition to the Western powers.

With an approval rating at an estimated 2%, Boris Yeltsin, after 9 years in office, resigned as President of Russia, by way of a taped message aired on Russian television.


Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia was then named acting president.

When Vladimir Putin left office as the 2nd President of Russia in 2008, he was Russia's most popular politician, and only left office because, by law, he could not serve three consecutive terms.