More A World Than A State

"It required borders on the Adriatic and Danube, the Mongolian plateau, and Caucasus barrier, too, was breached and folded in, bringing Russia into the Black and Caspian seas, and giving it borders with Iran and the Ottoman Empire. Imperial Russia came to resemble a religious Kaleidoscope with a plenitude of Orthodox Churches, mosques, synagogues, Old Believer prayer house is, Catholic cathedrals, Armenian Apostolic churches, Buddhist temples, and shaman totems........ Whereas the Ottoman empire stretched over parts of three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa), some observers in the early twentieth century imagined that the two continent Russian imperium was neither Europe nor Asia but a third entity unto itself: Eurasia. Be that as it may, what the Venetian ambassador to the Sublime Porte (Agosto Nani) had once said of the Ottoman realm - "more a world than a state" - applied no less to Russia. Upon that world, Stalin's rule would visit immense upheaval, hope, and grief.