Russia is the vastest country in the world, covering a total of 17,075,400 square kilometers straddling across two continents. It straddles across Asia and Europe, covering a potion larger than a ninth of the latter. Being such a vast country Russia has borders with around fourteen different countries. It borders the people’s republic of China, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, North Korea and Ukraine on the southeast border. It shares borders with Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Estonia, and Latvia on the Northwest border and Poland through the Kaliningrad Oblast.

This vastness of this Russia as federation of county’s is a result of a history riddled with war and loss of lives. This thesis will cover the expansion of the Russian frontier, the breaches and breaking upon the USSR and the overall effect of each of these events on the Russian people.

History
Russia traces its history as a country back to 3rd-8th centuries BC when the East Slavs created a distinct region within the European nation. The nation was formed and governed for about a century by the Kievan Rus’ started areolation against the ruling warrior elite. These revolutionaries eventually disintegrated into many smaller states but the Mongol invasion put them under Mongolian rule as subjects. This Slavs eventually inhabited Russia from two directions, from Polotsk and from Murom.

In the era of the kievan Rus, a leader named Rurik was elected to rule the recognized territory of Novgorod. His successor was named Oleg, and he started the earliest expansion of the Russian frontier. He moved the military south to Kiev and established the state of kievan Rus’. In the 11th century, nomadic tribes started to attack the kievan Rus and this resulted in a massive immigration of the inhabitants to the north of the country, a heavily forested area. Constant fighting slowed down expansion as the ruling dynasty’s power waned and was finally demolished by the Mongol invasion that lasted the era 1237 to 1240 and resulted in the deaths of half the population