Russia

Through the ages

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Russia fought or stood against, from the first to today.

1. Khazar Khaganate882 to 969

   The Khazars took tribute from East Slav tribes until the princes of Kyiv freed them. Prince Sviatoslav took the Khazar fortress of Sarkel around 965 and sacked their capital Itil soon after, and the khaganate faded away.

2. Mongol Empire and Golden Horde1237 to 1480

   Batu's Mongols destroyed Ryazan and Vladimir in 1237 and 1238. Russian princes paid tribute to the Horde for more than two centuries. Dmitry Donskoy beat Mamai's army at Kulikovo in 1380, and the Great Stand on the Ugra river in 1480 ended the Horde's rule.

3. Swedes and the Livonian knights1240 to 1242

   Novgorod's prince Alexander defeated a Swedish force on the Neva in 1240, earning the name Nevsky, and the crusading knights of Livonia on the frozen Lake Peipus in 1242.

4. 🇵🇱 Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth1500 to 1667

   Moscow and Lithuania, later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, fought for the western lands of old Rus'. Moscow took Smolensk in 1514, Polish troops held Moscow from 1610 to 1612, and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 gave Russia Smolensk and Kyiv.

5. Crimean Khanate1521 to 1783

   Crimean Tatar raids carried off tens of thousands of captives from Muscovy's southern lands, and in 1571 Khan Devlet Giray burned Moscow. Russia built fortified lines against them and finally annexed Crimea in 1783.

6. 🇹🇷 Ottoman Empire1568 to 1878

   Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought about a dozen wars over the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the Balkans. Russia won the northern Black Sea coast and Crimea under Catherine the Great, and its war of 1877 to 1878 helped free Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

7. 🇨🇳 Qing China1652 to 1689

   Cossacks pushing into the Amur valley clashed with Qing China, which besieged the Russian fort of Albazin in 1685 and 1686. The Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, China's first with a European state, kept Russia out of the Amur until 1858.

8. 🇸🇪 Swedish Empire1700 to 1809

   Peter the Great fought Sweden for access to the Baltic. After a defeat at Narva in 1700 he crushed Charles XII at Poltava in 1709, and the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 made Russia the leading Baltic power. Later wars won Finland in 1809.

9. 🇫🇷 First French Empire1812 to 1814

   Napoleon invaded in June 1812 and took Moscow after Borodino, but the city burned and his army was destroyed in the winter retreat. Russian armies pursued him all the way to Paris in 1814.

10. 🇯🇵 Empire of Japan1904 to 1945

    Rivalry over Manchuria and Korea led to the Russo-Japanese War. Japan destroyed the Russian fleet at Tsushima in 1905 and took southern Sakhalin; the Soviet Union took it back, with the Kuril Islands, in August 1945.

11. 🇩🇪 German Empire and Nazi Germany1914 to 1945

    Russia fought Germany in the First World War, which ended for it with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941; after Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk, the Red Army took Berlin in 1945.

12. 🇯🇵 JapanSince 1945Still open

    Japan claims the four southernmost Kuril Islands, occupied by Soviet forces in 1945. The dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty ever since the Second World War.

13. 🇺🇸 United States1947 to 1991

    The Cold War pitted the Soviet Union against the United States in an arms race, a space race and proxy wars, without direct fighting between them. The closest call was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It ended with the Soviet collapse in 1991.

14. 🇺🇦 UkraineSince 2014Still open

    Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed armed separatists in Donbas. In February 2022 it launched a full-scale invasion. The war continues, with Russia occupying about a fifth of Ukraine's internationally recognised territory.

Today

Russia now

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy emerged from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and gradually conquered and absorbed surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new ROMANOV dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia.

Capital

Moscow

Government

semi-presidential federation

Head of government

Mikhail Mishustin

Head of state

Vladimir Putin

Languages

Russian

Area

17,125,190 km²

Through time

Then and now

• Population145 million2023 · 103 million in 1950
• Life expectancy73.2 years2023 · 55.5 years in 1950
• GDP per person$25,4372022 · $3,310 in 1950
• Living in cities75%2025 · 45% in 1950
• Literacy100%2021
• Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
• Military alliancesCSTO2024 · None of these in 1950
• Military spending7.5% of GDP2025
• War deaths3.1 per 100,0002025

Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.

Relations

Close partners and tensions

Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.