History UsefulNotes / TheRussianCross

The severity of Russia's demographic problems is said to have been a catalyst for Putin's efforts to take over Ukraine: on top of Putin wanting more people in his country, the shortage of young men meant the 2020s were Russia's last chance to have a young population after a century of mismanagement, repression, wars and economic disorder gutted generations of young men and their prospects for the future. This appears to be less the case as the war went on as Russian forces failed to conquer more than Southern and Eastern Ukraine, with war crimes on both the populations and prisoners of war piling up.

However, the annexation of Crimea, the resulting sanctions, UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which killed roughly 800,000 people, and the full-scale invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and ensuing war of attrition, which both killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine sent hundreds of thousands running for the hills]] to avoid mobilization and/or stop being hurt by sanctions, Russia's demographics once again became negative, with many geopolitical analysts proclaiming Russia will become depopulated within the next few decades.

->''"After the 1917 revolution, the Russian Empire ceased to exist, and the country lost colossal territories, gradually recovered, and then there was also the collapse of the Soviet Union...And if these tragedies had not happened, there would have been about 500 million people."''

The Russian Cross is a term meant to describe the demographic decline Russia had faced since the fall of the Soviet Union when its death rate surpassed its birth rate.

The severity of Russia's demographic problems is said to have been a catalyst for Putin's efforts to take over Ukraine: on top of Putin wanting more people in his country, the shortage of young men meant the 2020s were Russia's last chance to have a young population after a century of mismanagement, repression, wars and economic disorder gutted generations of young men and their prospects for the future.

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son UsefulNotes/NicholasII, remained committed to the idea of [[TheDivineRightOfKings the divine right to rule]] and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some form of parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made especially apparent by their rampant antisemitism. In a {{foreshadowing}} of the damage this resistance to change would later bring, Russia found itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

The resulting Russian Civil War would result in 8 million deaths from a combination of political violence between Reds and the Whites (along with other factions), horrific war crimes perpetrated by both the Bolsheviks and their opponents, ethnic tensions, the breakdown of supply chains, and the policy of War Communism, which allowed the nascent Soviet government to confiscate grain from peasants. A famine in the Volga region alone killed roughly 5 million people,

Approximately 2 million more Russians, many from Russia's old elite and intelligentsia, would flee into exile.

This would be done through brute-forced labor and the imprisonment, execution, and deliberate starvation of millions of independent farmers. While Russia expanded its industry, millions died as result of famine. UsefulNotes/TheHolodomor in Ukraine was the most prominent of the famines resulting from Stalin's rapid hyperindustrialization[[note]]the sheer amount of malice directed toward Ukraine has made some scholars label the Holodomor a deliberate genocide through starvation[[/note]], but UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}} and Southern Russia were also hit hard by famine.

With Khrushchev's ouster, an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_of_Stagnation Era of Stagnation]] would come under the tenures of UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev, UsefulNotes/YuriAndropov, and UsefulNotes/KonstantinChernenko, when there was little economic or cultural evolution and tons of mismanagement, on top of massive military expenditures and a costly, internationally condemned [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan invasion of Afghanistan]]. It was during this period that birth rates in the Russian Republic fell below replacement levels, with most of the population growth coming from Central Asia.

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son UsefulNotes/NicholasII, remained committed to the idea of [[DivineRightOfKings the divine right to rule]] and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some form of parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made especially apparent by their rampant antisemitism. In a {{foreshadowing}} of the damage this resistance to change would later bring, Russia found itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

Under UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's early reign, a degree of economic and social stability did return, partly helped by rising oil and gas prices as China and other developing economies expanded. The birth rate slowly began growing, the death rate began to drop, and the growing Russian economy attracted migrants from the former Soviet republics. Putin's government began offering cash bonuses so that families would have more kids By the early 2010s, [[HopeSpot it appeared Russia's demographics began to stabilize]].

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son UsefulNotes/NicholasII, remained committed to the idea of the divine right to rule and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made especially apparent by their rampant antisemitism. In a {{foreshadowing}} of the damage this resistance to change would later bring, Russia found itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

Despite the progress of previous years, however, Russians soon found they were woefully unprepared to fight in the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. While Russia had a sizable industrial base, it was still not equipped for a total war economy. Too many peasants were taken off the farm and sent to the war front, costing the country farm laborers. The railroads were not equipped to supply either the civilians or the soldiers, who all too often didn't even have the correct ammunition for their weapons. Civilians faced inflation and total economic collapse as food supplies dwindled.

However, the invasion of Crimea, the resulting sanctions, UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which killed roughly 800,000 people, and the full-scale invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and ensuing war of attrition, which both killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine sent hundreds of thousands running for the hills]] to avoid mobilization and/or stop being hurt by sanctions, Russia's demographics once again became negative, with many geopolitical analysts proclaiming Russia will become depopulated within the next few decades.

The severity of Russia's demographic problems is said to have been a catalyst for Putin's invasion of Crimea and Ukraine: on top of Putin wanting more people in his country, the shortage of young men meant the 2020s were Russia's last chance to have a young population after a century of mismanagement, repression, wars and economic disorder gutted generations of young men and their prospects for the future.

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son UsefulNotes/NicholasII, remained committed to the idea of the divine right to rule and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made apparent by their antisemitism. In a foreshadowing of what this resistance to change would wrought, Russia would find itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

Russia's political system was also taking baby steps toward a more modern political structure, with Tsar Nicholas establishing a parliamentary government to end the Revolution of 1905. While the 1906 Constitution left the tsar with many autocratic powers, had an electoral system that was still restrictive, and the country still had a secret police that would crackdown on the opposition, it was still a step on the road to Russia becoming a constitutional monarchy like Britain, giving (on paper at least) rights Russians hadn't had in their history, like unions and freedom of the press.

Russia was making so much progress that the German army feared that if they didn't start a war soon, Russia would overtake them. When war did break out in August 1914, Russians of class, creeds, and politics rallied around their tsar and confidently went off to war.

Despite the progress of previous years, however, Russians soon found they were woefully unprepared to fight in the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. While Russia had a sizable industrial base, it was still not equipped for a total war economy. Too many peasants were taken off the farm and sent to the war front, costing the country farm laborers. The railroads were not equipped to supply the civilian front and even the soldiers, who didn't even have the correct ammunition for their weapons. Civilians faced economic collapse and inflation as food supplies dwindled.

The administration of the war effort was hampered further by corruption and Nicholas' unfortunate decision to take command of the army while leaving Empress Alexandria on the throne, which impeded the war effort by repeatedly dismissing government ministers, throwing governance of the war effort into chaos[[note]]Her administration was so inept, Alexandria was even accused of deliberately sabotaging Russia on behalf of her home country, Germany.[[/note]]

In March 1917, war weariness and disillusionment triggered the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions February Revolution]], toppling the Russian Empire and replacing it with the Provisional Government, which continued the war with no more success than the tsar did. [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober In November 1917, that government was toppled by the Bolsheviks.]] By the time the Bolsheviks sued the Central Powers for peace, roughly 2 million Russians, soldier and civilian alike, had been killed by combat and mismanagement.

The resulting Russian Civil War would result in 8 million deaths from a combination of political violence between the Whites and Reds, ethnic tensions, the breakdown of supply chains, and the policy of War Communism, which allowed the nascent Soviet government to confiscate grain from peasants. A famine in the Volga region alone killed roughly 5 million people,

But the ascendant figure of the Soviet leadership, UsefulNotes/JosephStalin, was frustrated by the existence of private landholders, known as kulaks, and Russia's relative industrial backwardness. He believed that collectivizing land and heavy-duty industrialization would modernize Russia and make it competitive with the Western world.

In his darkest fantasies, Hitler dreamed of Lebensraum, or living space for the German people. His means of giving the Germans this living space was to transform all of Eastern Europe to the Urals into settler space for the German people, necessitating the deliberate mass murder, enslavement, and forced relocation of tens of millions of Slavs and Jews.

With Khrushchev's ouster, an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_of_Stagnation Era of Stagnation]] would come under the tenures of UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev, UsefulNotes/YuriAndropov, and UsefulNotes/KonstantinChernenko, when there was little economic or cultural evolution and tons of mismanagement, on top of massive military expenditures and a costly invasion of Afghanistan. It was during this period that birth rates in the Russian Republic fell below replacement levels, with most of the population growth coming from Central Asia.

When UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev came to power, he saw a rusty edifice creaking under the weight of economic decay. And he tried many reforms to revive the decaying system, from glasnost and perestroika to allowing some political franchise. But for various reasons, including low oil prices, the UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} disaster, and rising nationalism, Gorbachev sent the system toward its final collapse. In 1991, after a failed coup, the Soviet Union dissolved, and Gorbachev was forced to resign.

One would assume the Russians would get a new start, but under UsefulNotes/BorisYeltsin, the Russians endured another period labeled "economic genocide" by Yeltsin's vice president. In an attempt to bring capitalism to Russia, the (limited) safety net Russians enjoyed was pulled out from under them, health services and the uncompetitive Soviet industries cratered, and the remaining industries fell into the hands of oligarchs and a rising Russian mafia.

However, the invasion of Crimea, the resulting sanctions, UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which killed roughly 800,000 people, and the full-scale invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} and ensuing war of attrition, which both killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine sent hundreds of thousands running for the hills]], Russia's demographics once again became negative, with many geopolitical analysts proclaiming Russia will become depopulated within the next few decades.

The severity of Russia's demographic problems is said to have been a catalyst for Putin's invasion of Crimea and Ukraine: on top of Putin wanting more people in his country, the shortage of young men meant the 2020s were Russia's last chance to have a young population after a century of mismanagement, repression, and economic disorder gutted generations of young men and their prospects for the future.

Russia was making so much progress that the German army feared that if they didn't start a war soon, Russia would overtake them. When war did broke out in August 1914, Russians of class, creeds, and politics rallied around their tsar and confidently went off to war.

Russia's political system was also taking baby steps toward a more modern political structure, with Tsar Nicholas establishing a parliamentary government to end the Revolution of 1905. While its 1906 Constitution left the tsar with autocratic powers, it had an electoral system that was still restrictive, and the country still had a secret police that would crackdown on the opposition, it was still a step on the road to Russia becoming a constitutional monarchy like Britain, giving (on paper at least) rights Russians hadn't had in their history, like unions and freedom of the press.

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son UsefulNotes/NicholasII, remained committed to the idea of the divine right to rule and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made apparent by their antisemitic. In a foreshadowing of what this resistance to change would wrought, Russia would find itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

Its leadership, the tsars, remained incredibly out of touch with the changing world and held a deep paranoia toward modernity itself. The last two tsars, Alexander III, and his son Nicholas II, remained committed to the idea of the divine right to rule and autocratic power well after most European nations had adopted some parliamentary government. They also held intensely nationalistic and anti-cosmopolitan views toward the non-Russian peoples of their empire, which was made apparent by their antisemitic. In a foreshadowing of what this resistance to change would wrought, Russia would find itself badly beaten in UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar by a nation that had been even ''more'' medieval just a couple of generations ago.

However, the invasion of Crimea, the resulting sanctions, UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which killed roughly 800,000 people, and the full-scale attack on Ukraine, which both killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine sent hundreds of thousands running for the hills]], Russia's demographics once again became negative, with many geopolitical analysts proclaiming Russia will become depopulated within the next few decades.

French economist Edmond Thery predicted [[https://history-groby.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/5/6/29562653/russia_eve_of_wwi_1.pdf Russia would have over 340 million people by the middle of the 20th century]].

Despite this progress, however, Russia was woefully unprepared to fight in the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. While Russia had a sizable industrial base, it was still not equipped for a total war economy. Too many peasants were taken off the farm and sent to the war front, costing the country farm laborers. The railroads were not equipped to supply the civilian front and even the soldiers, who didn't even have the correct ammunition for their weapons. Civilians faced economic collapse and inflation as food supplies dwindled.

In March 1917, war weariness and disillusionment triggered the February Revolution, toppling the Russian Empire and replacing it with the Provisional Government, and continued the war with no more success than the tsar did. In November 1917, that government was toppled by the Bolsheviks. By the time the Bolsheviks sued the Central Powers for peace, roughly 2 million Russians, soldier and civilian alike, had been killed by combat and mismanagement.

The resulting Russian Civil War would result in 8 million deaths from a combination of political violence between the Whites and Reds, ethnic tensions, the breakdown of supply chains, and the policy of War Communism, which allowed the nascent Soviet government to confiscate grain from peasants. A famine in the Volga region alone killed roughly 5 million people.