What role did foreign expansion play in the rise of Russia?

In the rise of Russia, foreign expansion played a decisive role.

Characteristics of colonial management system in China

By the end of 18, Russia had become a feudal military empire spanning Europe, Asia and the United States. It borders Central Europe in the west, Alaska in the east, the Arctic Ocean in the north and the mouth of the Danube River in the south. By 19 14, Russia had a colonial area of17.4 million square kilometers and a population of 33.2 million. In terms of colonial area, Russia was second only to Britain in 19 14. The purpose of Russia's external expansion is to seek more and greater land, seaports, natural resources and world hegemony. The expansion and aggression of the Russian state for hundreds of years is by no means an accidental impulse of the tsar, the court, the nobles and the soldiers. Generally speaking, it is a national policy passed down from generation to generation. As a long-term national policy, Russia's foreign aggression and expansion has its class foundation and social groups that support it. Therefore, compared with the British colonial empire, Russia's colonial management system has its own characteristics.

First of all, Russia has been carrying out the policy of compulsory russianization of colonial aborigines. As soon as the Russian government and its army occupied a certain area, they carried out the policy of Russianization among the local residents. The specific content is to appoint Russians as officials as far as possible, to force the use of Russian, to publicize Russian culture, to force the belief in Orthodox Church, to prohibit the use of local languages, to limit the popularization of indigenous culture and so on. Anyone who violates the above Russian regulations will be severely punished. Along with Russianization comes a series of policies of plunder and exploitation. Secondly, Russia has always pursued an immigration policy towards the colonies, and consolidated the achievements of colonial aggression with population expansion. In addition to the russianization of non-Russian residents in the colonies, the russianization of occupied or annexed areas has also caused serious consequences. The consistent practice of the czar government is to emigrate to these areas, so that more Russians occupy and annex the areas than local residents. The russification of these areas usually has a longer-term strategic purpose than the russification of non-Russian residents: when major social unrest occurs in these areas in the future, the vast number of Russian residents can control the political situation and decide the ownership of the places.

From these comparisons, we can easily see that, unlike Britain, Russia's colonial management system does not distinguish between autonomous and authoritarian governments, nor does it distinguish between direct and indirect rule. It can be said that Russia's management of the colonies and the surrounding areas of Moscow is a model, highly centralized, vertical, compulsory and extremely strict. In some periods, the strictness of Russian colonial management even exceeded the management of its own region before the czar's colonial expansion.