and includes several stages in the evolution of the Roman state. It encom-

passes the period of the ancient Roman Empire, the period in which it

was divided into western and eastern halves, and the history of the East-

ern Roman or Byzantine Empire that continued through the Middle Ages

and to the beginning of the Modern Era. ...

History of the Byzantine Empire
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire
The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the Roman Empire

during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and

ruled by Emperors. ... As the distinction between 'Roman Empire' and

'Byzantine Empire' is purely a modern convention, it is not possible to
assign a date of separation, but an important point is the Emperor Con-

stantine I's transfer in 324 of the capital from Nicomedia (in Anatolia) to

Byzantium on the Bosphorus, which became Constantinople (alternatively

'New Rome'). ...

History of the Holy Roman Empire
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire
The Holy Roman Empire ... was a union of territories in Central Europe

during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman

Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned

in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in

1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of

Cologne, the name was officially changed to Holy Roman Empire of the

German Nation.

The Empire's territorial extent varied over its history, but at its peak it encom-

passed the Kingdom of Germany, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of

Burgundy; for much of its history the Empire consisted of hundreds of smaller

sub-units, principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities, as well as

other domains. Despite its name, for most of its history the Empire did not

include Rome within its borders. ...

- - -

History of Russia
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the East Slavs. The first East Slavic

state, Kievan Rus', adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988,

beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian

culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state,

finally succumbing to Mongol invaders in the 1230s. ...

After the 13th century, Moscow gradually came to dominate the former

cultural center. By the 18th century, the Grand Duchy of Moscow had

become the huge Russian Empire, stretching from Poland eastward to

the Pacific Ocean. Expansion in the western direction sharpened Russia's

awareness of its separation from much of the rest of Europe and shattered

the isolation in which the initial stages of expansion had occurred.

 

Successive regimes of the 19th century responded to such pressures with

a combination of  halfhearted reform and repression. ...

The Russian Revolution in 1917 was triggered by a combination of econo-

mic breakdown, war weariness, and discontent with the autocratic system

of government, and it first brought a coalition of liberals and moderate social-

ists to power, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the Com-

munist Bolsheviks on October 25. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of

Russia is essentially the history of the Soviet Union, effectively an ideologic-

ally based state which was roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire

before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. ...

...  by the late 1980s, with the weaknesses of its economic and political

structures becoming acute, the Communist leaders embarked on major

reforms, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The history of the

Russian Federation is brief, dating back only to the collapse of the Soviet

Union in late 1991. Since gaining its independence, Russia was recognized

as the legal successor to the Soviet Union on the international stage. How-

ever, Russia has lost its superpower status as it faced serious challenges in