Editing Russians (section)

=== Modern history ===
{{main|Russian Empire|Soviet Union|Russia}}
[[File:Максимов Бабушкины сказки 1867.jpg|thumb|220px|''Grandma's Fairy Tales'', by [[Vassily Maximov]]]]
In 1721, Tsar [[Peter the Great]] renamed his state as the [[Russian Empire]], hoping to associate it with historical and cultural achievements of ancient Rus' – in contrast to his policies oriented towards Western Europe. The state now extended from the eastern borders of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]], and became a [[great power]]; and one of the most powerful states in Europe after the [[French invasion of Russia|victory over Napoleon]]. Peasant revolts were common, and all were fiercely suppressed. The Emperor [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] [[Emancipation reform of 1861|abolished]] [[Serfdom in Russia|Russian serfdom]] in 1861, but the peasants fared poorly and revolutionary pressures grew. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the [[Stolypin reform]]s of 1906–1914, the [[Russian Constitution of 1906|constitution of 1906]], and the [[State Duma (Russian Empire)|State Duma]] (1906–1917) attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the Emperors refused to relinquish [[Tsarist autocracy|autocratic rule]] and resisted sharing their power.

[[File:Percentage of Russians by region.svg|thumb|Percentage of ethnic Russians by [[federal subjects of Russia|federal subjects]] of Russia according to the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 census]]:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_etn_10.php |title=EAll- Russian population census 2010 – Population by nationality, sex and subjects of the Russian Federation |work=Demoscope Weekly |year=2010 |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819112304/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_etn_10.php |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{legend|#ff0000|above 80%}}]]
A combination of economic breakdown, [[Russia in World War I|war-weariness]], and discontent with the autocratic system of government triggered [[Russian Revolution|revolution in Russia in 1917]]. The [[February Revolution|overthrow of the monarchy]] initially brought into office a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to [[October Revolution|seizure of power]] by the [[Communism|communist]] [[Bolsheviks]] on 25 October 1917 (7 November [[Old Style and New Style dates|New Style]]). In 1922, Soviet Russia, along with [[Soviet Ukraine]], [[Soviet Belarus]], and the [[Transcaucasian SFSR]] signed the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR]], officially merging all four republics to form the Soviet Union as a country. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of Russia became essentially the [[history of the Soviet Union]], effectively an ideologically based state roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the 1918 [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union based itself on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918. The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history: from the [[New Economic Policy|mixed economy]] and diverse society and culture of the 1920s through the [[Stalinism|command economy and repressions]] of the [[Joseph Stalin]] era to the [[Era of Stagnation|"era of stagnation"]] from the 1960s to the 1980s. The actions of the Soviet government caused the death of millions of citizens in the [[Soviet famine of 1930–1933|famine of 1930–1933]] and the [[Great Purge]]. The [[Operation Barbarossa|attack]] by [[Nazi Germany]] and the ensuing [[World War II|war]], together with [[the Holocaust]], again claimed [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|millions of lives]]. Millions of Russian civilians and [[German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|prisoners of war]] were killed or starved to death during Nazi Germany's genocidal policies called the [[Hunger Plan]] and the [[Generalplan Ost]], including one million civilian casualties during the [[Siege of Leningrad]]. After the victory of the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[Allies of World War II|Western Allies]], the Soviet Union became a [[superpower]] opposing Western countries during the [[Cold War]].

By the mid-1980s, with Soviet economic and political weaknesses becoming acute, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] embarked on major reforms; these culminated in the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], leaving Russia again alone and marking the beginning of the [[History of Russia (1991–present)|post-Soviet]] Russian period. The [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] renamed itself the [[Russian Federation]] and became the [[Succession of states#Soviet Union and the Russian Federation|successor state to the Soviet Union]]. One of the negative consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the problem of discrimination against the 25 million ethnic Russians living in a number of [[post-Soviet states]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-surname=Curtis |editor-given=Glenn E. |title=Russia: A Country Study |series=Area handbook series |others=Library of Congress, Federal Research Division |edition=1st |place=Washington, DC |publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |year=1998 |isbn=0-8444-0866-2 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/97007563/ |archive-date=2021-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611210545/http://countrystudies.us/russia/ |url-status=live |page=[https://web.archive.org/web/20210518024135/http://countrystudies.us/russia/76.htm 429] |quote=The problem of discrimination and ethnic violence against the 25 million ethnic Russians living in the new states was a growing concern in relations with several of the former Soviet republics.}}</ref>