To the west lies the wealth of Europe and access to the wider world through a port on the Baltic. Invaders can be lured deep into the steppes, and left to the mercies of “General Winter” and Russia’s endless, empty lands. One thing that Russia does have is endless space, and the lack of apparently defensible frontiers actually becomes a defence in itself. It can be a formidable foe, and a difficult one for an enemy to attack. It has boundless resources to draw upon, and the steadfast courage of its people to bolster its armies. When Russia does fully realise its strength, however, it will be formidable indeed.

These things must be introduced carefully, to avoid the ills of free-thinking that beset some Western nations. It is beginning to look outwards, towards the best that the rest of the world has to offer in terms of ideas, culture and might. Now, however, Russia is changing, awakening. Russia needs a strong hand controlling the “Third Rome”, the true home of Christianity (according to the Orthodox Church) after the fall of Byzantium. Ivan the Terrible was well named, and he has not been the only ruler with an iron will. The Tsar may be the father of his people, but by tradition and practice he is a stern parent. It is a vast, deeply conservative and religious country: Mother Russia and the Orthodox Church are the two pillars of national belief.

Here, the feudal way of life has become so entrenched that the serfs are as tied to the land as cattle, and with almost as few rights. “Muscovy”, as its rulers have previously called it, is a sleeping giant, with age-old traditions and ways of doing things.

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