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Soviet Union [USSR] EARLY IMPERIAL RUSSIA
In the eighteenth century, Muscovy was transformed from a
static, somewhat isolated, traditional state into the more dynamic,
partially Westernized, and secularized Russian Empire. This
transformation was in no small measure a result of the vision,
energy, and determination of Peter the Great (1682-1725).
Historians disagree about the extent to which Peter himself
transformed Russia, but they generally concur that he laid the
foundations that shaped the empire over the next two centuries. The
era he initiated signaled the advent of Russia as a major European
power. But although the Russian Empire would play a leading
political role for the next century, its retention of serfdom
precluded economic progress of any significant degree. As west
European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial
Revolution, Russia began to lag ever further behind, creating new
problems for the empire as a great power.
Data as of May 1989
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