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Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to
widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the
overthrow in 1917 of the 300-year old Romanov Dynasty. The Communists
under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The
brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Russian dominance of
the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet
economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General
Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and
perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his
initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered
the USSR into 15 independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled
in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy
to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the
Communist period. A determined guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in
Chechnya.
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Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is included with Europe),
bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
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 Cyprus
 Greece
 Portugal
 Spain
 Thailand
 Turkey
UK
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