Relations between Russia and Turkey are going through hard times today. They weren't easy before. In 241 years Russia fought 12 wars with the Ottoman Empire. On average, one Russian-Turkish war was 19 years apart from another.
Sweden
Wars: From the middle of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th - 10 wars.
The history of the Russian-Swedish confrontation began in the XII century. The Novgorod Republic and Sweden fought for control of the Eastern Baltic. In 1323, the Orekhovets peace treaty was concluded, according to which Karelia became a zone of Novgorod influence, and Finland - Swedish.
However, this was only the beginning of a centuries-old confrontation. In 1377, Sweden subjugated western Karelia (Esterbotten), dependent on Novgorod. After the Novgorod Republic became part of the Russian state in 1478, the struggle against the Swedes for the Eastern Baltic region reached a new level.
In 1495, Ivan III entered the war with Sweden for all the same western Karelia. The struggle went on with varying success. Finally, in March 1497, the First Novgorod Armistice was signed for six years. It confirmed the 1323 border, as well as the principle of free trade between Sweden and Russia. In March 1510, the truce was extended for another 60 years.
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In the future, the tradition of fighting with Sweden over the Baltic was continued by other Russian tsars. Ivan IV, Fedor I and Alexei Mikhailovich.
Peter the Great introduced fundamental changes in the distribution of forces in Russian-Swedish relations. After Russia's victory in the Northern War (1700-1721), Sweden lost its former power. She lost not only the territory ceded to Russia, but also a lot of land on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. Only Wismar and a small part of Pomerania remained behind Sweden. Also, as a result of the defeat in the Northern War in Sweden, the so-called "Era of Freedom" began - a period of weakening of the power of kings and an increase in the importance of parliament.
In an effort to return the lands lost during the Northern War, Sweden repeatedly entered into conflicts with the Russian Empire (the Russian-Swedish war of 1741-1743, the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-1790, the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809), but under the terms of the Fredriksham Peace, concluded in September 1809 Sweden ceded the Aland Islands, Finland, and Lapland to the Torniooki and Muonioelle rivers to Russia. Thus, Sweden, as a result of wars with Russia, lost more than a third of its territory and lost its status as a great power.
Turkey
Wars: 12 wars in 241 years. On average, one Russian-Turkish war was 19 years apart from another.
From the end of the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th, bloody wars between the Ottoman and Russian empires were ongoing. The “apple of discord” was control over the Northern Black Sea region and the North Caucasus, later - for control in the South Caucasus, for the right to navigation in the Black Sea and its straits, as well as for the rights of Christians on the territory of the Ottoman Empire.
In the First World War, as a result of which the Ottoman Empire, divided between the Entente countries, ceased to exist, the Russian Empire also considered the question of conquering Constantinople. By the irony of history, the Soviet Union took the most direct part in the creation of the Turkish Republic. The centuries-old feud turned into economic and military support for Turkish President Kemal Ataturk.
Poland
Wars: 10 wars, from 1018 to 1939.
Relations between Russia and Poland have always been tense. First of all, this was due to the centuries-old neighborhood of the two states, which constantly gave rise to territorial disputes. During all major European conflicts, Russia has always had to deal with the revision of the Russian-Polish borders. The most serious confrontation between Russia and Poland has been going on since the beginning of the 17th century - from the Time of Troubles and the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. Until the end of the 18th century, there were four wars between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which ended with the second partition of Poland.
In 1815, Poland became part of the Russian Empire, but the confrontation between Poles and Russians did not stop - two Polish uprisings of the 19th century (1830, 1863) forced Russia to take countermeasures. In 1832 the Polish Sejm was liquidated and the Polish army was disbanded. In 1864, restrictions were introduced on the use of the Polish language and the movement of the male population. At the same time, "Russophobia" was growing in Poland.
After the revolution, the Poles gained the cherished independence, during the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 they even managed to defend it, but less than 20 years later, in 1939, during the "liberation campaign of the Red Army", all the conquests of the Poles of the 1920s were eliminated.
History in wars
Among other countries, whose history of wars with Russia has a long history, one can name Germany, with which our country had three major wars, two of which were world wars.
The Russian Empire fought four times with France (the war of 1805-1807, the Patriotic War of 1812, the Crimean War), four times Russia and the USSR entered the war with Japan, three times - in military conflicts with China.
In general, the history of Russia is a history of constant wars. The Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin wrote: “Soloviev counts from 1240 to 1462 (over 222 years) - 200 wars and invasions. From the XIV century to the XXth (for 525 years) Sukhotin has 329 years of war. Russia has fought two-thirds of its life."
General Alexei Kuropatkin expressed a similar idea. In 1900, he wrote in his memorandum to Nicholas II: “Over the previous 200 years, Russia had been at war for 128 years and had 72 years of peace. Of the 128 years of war, 5 years were spent on defensive wars and 123 on conquests."