Greater Russia

Orthographic projection of Greater Russia / Eurasia and near abroad

Dark redwood and maroon: the Soviet Union in 1945
(Maroon for Soviet territories never part of the Russian Empire: Tuva bordering Mongolia, Konigsberg region turned Kaliningrad enclave, and Zakarpattia, Lviv, Stanislav, and Ternopil regions in west Ukraine)

Cornell red: additional territory from the Russian Empire (Finland and Congress Poland)

Red (RGB): maximum extent of the Soviet near abroad, in 1955 (Warsaw Pact, Mongolia, and North Korea)

Imperial red: maximum extent of the Russian Empire's sphere of influence after the sale of Alaska, in 1867

Russian Empire (dark green) and sphere of influence (light green) in 1866

The maximum territorial extent of countries in the world under Soviet influence

Greater Russia is a political aspiration of Russian nationalists and irredentists to retake much or all of the territories of the other republics of the former Soviet Union and territory of the former Russian Empire and amalgamate them into a single Russian state.

Some have seen the Soviet Union as effectively being a Greater Russia due to the dominance of Russian political interests in the state. The idea of a Greater Russia has important relevance in modern-day Russian politics, as expanding the Russian state to include Belarus is an important topic in Russian political affairs, as well as the political aspirations of Russian nationalists in the former Soviet Union (especially in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and the Baltic states) to have their people reintegrated with Russia.

In more extreme cases, the claimed territories include all areas once owned by the Russian Empire despite lack of Russian presence, such as Finland and Poland.

See also

Neo-Sovietism Pan-Slavism All-Russian nation National Bolshevism Eurasianism

Eurasian Economic Union Radical nationalism in Russia Greater Ukraine Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Russian nationalism

Russian Empire Soviet Empire Soviet Union Union State Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states

References

• Pirchner, Herman (2005). Reviving Greater Russia?: The Future of Russia's Borders with Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine. University Press of America. ISBN 0761832009.