Present Political boundaries in Russia
Since the reign of Peter IV, the Russian Empire had experienced significant internal strife as an effect of its vast territory and political history through the 19th and 20th centuries. The rise of European liberalism and nationalism was the sown seed that grew into revolution in much of its extra-Russian territories such as Finland and Turkestan that drew the Russian army inwards against the internal enemies of the state, even long as the Bolsheviks and political radicals within Russia had been defeated and scattered from their borders.
The political strife and militant violence that occurred in the extremities of the Empire came to define their downfall in the first years of the 1970's, with roots to as far back as the previous decade. The revival of the Bolshevik movement and the unrest of the Finns and Turkic tribes-people in the empire acted as the symptom to a greater disease that'd later claim the life of the Russian Empire, and continue to effect the Russian lands in a way that the still remaining poets would call, "a malignant cancer still growing in the corpse of a fallen horse".
Belligerants[]
Turkic Nationalism and the Empire[]
Programs taken by the Russian Empire to move undesirable elements from western Europe to the fringes had been partaken since the late 19th century in an effort to secure the Siberian and Central Asian frontier for the Russian Empire. Land was sold to a premium to Russian farmers and vast populations of Russian or European peoples arrived by train to the Kazakh and Uzbek homelands to Russia-fy the Turkic steppes of Central Asia.
The timely deportation of Russian nationals to their homeland greatly upset the Turkic peoples who felt that the encroachment of foreign competition on their traditional herding grounds threatened their life-style. Their revolution is considered a early success in an independent group breaking away from the Russian Empire, managing to force Moscow to recognize them as independent in the 1960's.
Finnish Nationalism and the Empire[]
One of the oldest disgruntled elements against the old Empire was that of the Finnish people. Finland, having been incorporated into the Empire as the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 following the Finno-Russian war, had been seeking highways into greater independence from Russia. The tensions within Finland boiled during the initial uprising of the early Republicans and Bolsheviks in 1917, only to be stifled and put down by the Russian Army as they returned from The Great, the czar having seen fit to order a timely withdrawal at the insistence of his generals and councilors.
The subjugation in unrest didn't end the violence for all time. At Nicolas' death and the ascension of Peter IV came the rise of the Vallankumous Finns. Hoping for a orderly and independent revolution as lead by Viktor Laine and Juhani Mikhael, the Vallankumous movement sought to tear Finland from the grip of the czar and declare a restored Finnish state. Though they had met with minimal success in the 1960's, the group began to approach near-success and wide territorial gains as it grew across the region in the 1970's. The prolonged fight had however grew to a point that the czar ordered an increased effort to quash the rebellion. The Russian operation came to ultimate success later that year, although they had failed to capture the two leaders who personally set out for the blood of the czar themselves, successfully assassinating czar Peter IV by December of 1970.
The single act of Viktor and Juhani in killing off the Romanov line ensured a Russia without hope and broke it down into what it is today.
Chinese in Siberia[]
Concerns over Russian involvement in China had been high since the closing of the Revolution, and the Empire stradling their northern border had long been considered a dangerous threat to China, even by the Imperial Qing dynasty. As regiemes changed and the Japanese military authority over Asia was challenged and removed it went without saying the Chinese revolutionary forces would find highways into Russia to handicap the Russian chance at interviening and transforming a weakened China into a puppet state of the authorities in Moscow, as had happened in the Russian acquisition of Outer Manchuria.
In the early 70's the Chinese inteligence community discovered and utilized a window of opportunity through Nikolov Nitski to arm and back Russian revolutionaries in the Russian Far East. Through the last months of Czar Peter's reign and through the post-assasination period the Chinese-backed Siberian powers doubled their size and influence across the Russian Far-east and Siberia to found their modern state of the Democratic People's Republic of Siberia.
Neo-Bolshevekism[]
The rise of Neo-Bolshevekism in the Russian Intelligensta class and the critics of czar Peter paved the way for a growing sense of revolutionary spirit that acted in counter to the growing conservative policies of the czar and his magistrates. The reign of Peter was seen less as a means at modernizing Russia and more as a means for Russia to return to what it was in the past and to pursue strengthening Imperialist desires after loosing its Central Asian territories. Its re-acquisition of Ukraine - having lost it during the Great War - was seen as evidence to the fact as the Russian brass moved a number of major industrial projects to the Black Sea, such projects doing little to ease the popular stresses created by the Russian Bourgeoisie class.
The Neo-Bolsheviks - themselves under an informal network of leadership - was prompt to critique and snicker at every action of Peter, and even after his death consider his every move a fault that validated his removal and the ultimate overthrow of his oppressive reactionary regime.
A number of minor riots and protests instigated by the Neo-Bolsheviks unrolled during the 1960's, but were normally quickly and violently stomped out by the Russian police. Though they killed or arrested many it didn't outright crush the movement which came to an increased fever in the 1970's, and burned in Western Russia like a fire when the czar was killed by the hands of Viktor and Juhani.
A renewed Bolshevik Revolution unfurled in Western Russia, siezing a large amount of land outside of the Imperial duchy of Estonia, Novogorod, and Sankt-Petersburg, transforming them into the respective communes of Estonia, Novogorod, and Sankt-Petersburg.
The Neo Bolsheveks were one of the first premier revolutionary groups in Western Russia to acquire territory that may be considered its own psuedo-nation, though the growth of the Western Communes had been slowed by the influence of the regional and military governers that neighbor the handicapped state.
Russian Republic[]
The Republic may be considered to largely be a republic in name only. Founded through the political intrique of their former president Alexandrov Dimitriov, who served as a general in the Imperial Army. Through blackmail of lesser rivals and assasinations of more major competition - both political or military - Dimitri cut a swathe of territory in Central Russia and managed to inherit the territories of Moscow in the west, feeling they could achieve political influence and legitemacy through the Third Rome. Though the Republic hardly achieved that and merely solidified an acceleration of the decay of its administrative strength as it struggled to maintain control of double its original territory with half the wealth.
The increased corruption associated with the programs of Dimitri only complicated the Republic's mission and stagnated it, as the Mafiya began to eat it from the inside out.
Ottoman Empire[]
The Ottoman Empire briefly sought influence in Russia post-Peter. Having secured the Caucus the Turks moved north into Southern Russia taking the lower Caucus and Russian Circassia and Alania. The Ottoman mission in Russia was however cut to a quick close as revolution in the Caucus weakened their hold on their Russian territories and ultimately came to a full withdrawl of Turkish forces in Russia following the independence of Armenia.