By the second half of the nineteenth Russian empire’s borders had assumed their definitive contours. Russia had spread its authority over vast territories, stretching from the Danube’s estuary and the Vistula in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, from the Eurasian tundra in the north to the borders of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and China in the south. In its territory and population Russia was the biggest world power. It had the area of  21.3 million square kilometers. Its population, according to the general census of 1897, was 128 million and reached 178 million by 1914. In 1917 the Bolsheviks inherited from the tsars the world’s largest land mass and one of the most populous countries.

Russia’s continual expansion and, in particular, the incorporation of  territories which lagged behind in socio-economic development or were culturally different conflicted with the country’s historic goal of catching up with the advanced countries of the West. Only by straining all its economic, demographic and military resources could it sustain the status of a great power capable of playing an influential role in the international arena and controlling the numerous nationalities which populated its huge territory.  The territorial expansion therefore was a factor which did more to constrain, rather than advance, the economic and socio-political development of Russia.