The Russian Nightmare

While the US was enjoying its American Dream of expansion from 1600 to 1900, Russia was continuing to be attacked by its neighbors and continued to attack back to battle for expansion.  Their financial problems were not unlike the one Rome experienced in 400AD.  Russia is really big and its borders in the South and West are really long.

 

Russian serfs suffered in the feudal system under the Czars for centuries only to be taken over by Communist Bolsheviks in 1918. The Soviet take-over was quickly followed by the “purge”. The Russian serfs never got a break. Oleg, the Viking arrived in the 9^th century to conquer what later became Kiev. They caught a break in the 10^th and 11^th centuries, but were invaded by the Mongols in the 12^th century. The Mongols were warriors, so the Russian serfs were busy invading everything including Siberia by the 15^th century. The Romanovs took over in 1613 and continued wars of expansion. In the early 1800s Russia stopped Napoleon and then battled the Turks. Then the Russian serfs had to fight off the Germans in World War I and they had enough of the Czars. They were forced to embrace what would become a brutal Communist government.  They were invaded again by Germany in World War II and went on an expansion campaign to take over every country they marched across to get to Berlin. The Russians did a brilliant job pushing the Germans back in World War II.

 

Russian citizens were not happy or very motivated after 1000 years of being ruled by “royals”, barbarians and communists. The Cold War began in 1945 and lasted until 1989 when the Soviet Union went broke and dissolved, leaving Russia without the countries it had grabbed in World War II.

 

The Communist Revolution in 1918 chased out all investors and Russia struggled and that never got much better. The end of Communist rule resulted in the return of the Orthodox Church, but Russia continues to suffer from government micro-management, no free speech and no real rule of law to attract investors and most of its 6.6 million square miles of land remains undeveloped. Russia is the biggest country on the planet and has an oil-based economy and a population of 144 million, but a GDP of $1.6 trillion.  Russia needs to concentrate on expanding its private sector economy and spend some time on increasing its industrial capability and exports and increase private property ownership by its citizens.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_history

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17840446

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader