Russia could be different. Russian rulers dreamed of southern capitals and lands from China to the Mediterranean.
Svyatoslav: the Danube capital of Russia
Svyatoslav wanted to make Pereyaslavets on the Danube the capital city of Russia, which could stretch from Constantinople to the northern borders. His first campaign in Bulgaria took place during the reign of Olga - in 967. In 965, Svyatoslav began the conquest of Khazaria, and the Byzantine emperor Nikifor II, fearing to lose possession in the Crimea, tried to divert the forces of Russia by offering her a campaign against Bulgaria. Svyatoslav conquered several cities on the Danube and settled in Pereyaslavets. The second campaign led to the capture of the capital - Preslav and the division of Eastern Bulgaria between Russia and Byzantium. The army of Svyatoslav, according to the established Bulgarian tradition, came close to Constantinople, but was defeated.
Vladimir: reform of paganism
After the assassination of Yaropolk in Kiev, who favored Christianity (according to archaeological research, a Christian church could exist in the city during this period), Vladimir in the first years of his reign (978-980) planned to "reform" paganism and make it the state religion. The main temple was built in Kiev, and Perun became the supreme god. The chronicles also mention human sacrifices during this period.
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Daniil Galitsky: Russian kingdom centered on Kholm
Daniel owned Kiev at the time of its capture by the Mongols. Trying to preserve the state, he traveled to the Horde and negotiated with the Pope, hoping for a joint campaign against the khan's power. From the Pope he took the title of "King of Russia". At the same time, Daniel did not think to break with the Orthodox world, finding allies among the Russian princes, blessed by the metropolitan. Keeping the title, he ended his relationship with the Pope and avoided union. Political weight and support allowed him to strengthen his possessions, soften the yoke and cleanse the Kiev region of the Tatars (although Kiev itself was under the rule of Alexander Nevsky). By the end of his reign, he made the capital city on the western border - Kholm (now in Poland).
Ivan the Terrible: kinship with the most influential monarchs in Europe
Ivan the Terrible was one of the most ambitious rulers of the Russian state, but failure haunted him constantly. After the death of his first wife, in 1561, the king wooed the Swedish queen, hoping to conclude a profitable dynastic marriage and strengthen the international position, but he was refused. The only woman with whom the tsar corresponded (11 letters) was the English queen Elizabeth I. The reasons why the tsar spent so much time with the royal person remain a mystery. The letters mention "secret affairs of great importance", transmitted orally through ambassadors. The popular version says that the king tried to woo the English queen, but was disappointed or refused, writing a letter in a rude manner and interrupting the correspondence.
Ivan the Terrible: a window to Europe and control over the Baltic
Gaining control over the Baltic was the main task of Russian princes and tsars long before Ivan the Terrible. Russia depended on Baltic trade: in the south, trade was impossible because of the Tatar raids, and the Pomor affairs brought little money to the treasury. In the Baltic, the Russians did not have their own ships. Ivan the Terrible founded a port near Narva, but the Hansa and Livonia did not allow merchants to enter there. Failure to pay tribute for Yuryev by Livonia forced the king to start a war. As a trigger, historians mention the case of Hans Schlitte, who recruited European masters and literate people for the tsar, who wanted to break with the age-old backwardness of Russia. Schlitte was detained by the Livonians and executed in the Hansa. The Tsar lost the Livonian War, and the project to create a military fleet in Vologda failed.
The first project of the University of Russia
The reign of Boris Godunov promised great hopes, but hunger, discontent of the boyars and the clergy put an end to many undertakings. In 1600-1603 the tsar sent ambassadors to Lubeck, Prague, Italian and English cities, looking for learned people and masters willing to come to Russia, and also sent Russians to study. According to his contemporaries, Boris wanted to attract people to found a university and schools in Moscow that could teach languages and knowledge, but the Russian Orthodox Church feared non-religious teachers and the project never took place.
Godunov: Great Russian fortress wall
The reign of Boris Godunov was accompanied by grandiose construction. Moving closer to Europe, he actively fortified his own cities and erected walls. During his reign, the Belogorodskaya Wall was erected in Moscow, the Seven-Verkhnaya Tower of which became a real work of art. In Zemlyanoy Gorod, a wooden wall with towers was built - "Skorodom" (on the site of one of the towers, the famous Sukhareva would later be built). The king's plans were to settle the Wild Field. In the south, a necklace of fortresses stretched: Voronezh, Livny, Belgorod, Samara, Tsaritsyn, Tsarev-Borisov, Saratov and even Tomsk in Siberia were built. The construction of the "stone belt" experienced great difficulties and was never completed.
False Dmitry I: the Moscow Empire is the freest state in Europe
The first "in perator" or "inparatur" -th of Russia was False Dmitry I. He wrote this word with a mistake. In terms of ambition and freedom of morals, he could compare with Peter I. He planned a campaign against Azov, a war with the Swedes and Turks, for which he taught archers cannon and ordered to build ships on the Vorona. The times of an unprecedented thaw came: the British noted that such freedom of movement had not been seen in any state, the peasants were allowed to leave the landowners during famine, the nobles stopped beating with sticks, freedom of Christian religion was established, the Duma began to be called the Senate, there were plans to create a new legislative vault. Buffoonery, cards, chess ceased to be persecuted.
Peter I: the southern capital and the expulsion of the Turks from Europe
Peter I, like Svyatoslav, dreamed of a southern capital, but on the condition that it would be the main sea gate of the country. The Taganrog harbor (1698) on the Sea of Azov claimed this title, which a contemporary, the German general Christopher Manstein, spoke of as the best in Europe. Taganrog became the first city built according to the general plan. Before the founding of St. Petersburg, this city had every chance to become the capital, but this was prevented by the war with the Ottoman Empire. Peter wanted to gain a foothold in this region, sharing the goals of the Holy League (Russia, Germany, Poland, Venice) - the liberation of most of Europe from the Turks.
Volga-Don and Ivanovsky canals at the turn of the 17th - 18th centuries
An attempt to build a canal between the Volga and the Don was undertaken by Peter I. In 1697, under the leadership of the German engineer Johann Breckel, the construction of a canal between the tributaries of the Don and Volga (Ilovlya and Kamyshinka) began. Failures in the course of work and the impracticability of the project forced him to flee Russia. He was replaced by the Englishman Perry, but the Northern War interfered with his plans.
The Ivanovsky Canal was the second attempt to connect the Don and Volga through the Oka. The channel was supposed to pass through the legendary Ivan Lake, from which the Don and Shat rivers flowed (which carries its waters to the Volga through Upa and Oka). Vessels began to sail along the canal in 1707. 14 locks were built on Upa, and 70 on Don. After 13 years, the lack of water led to the fact that the canal was abandoned.
Catherine II: Greek project
In the midst of the struggle of the European powers with the Ottoman Empire, in the correspondence between the Austrian emperor Joseph II and Catherine II, a hypothetical project was discussed for the restoration of the Byzantine Empire with the center in Constantinople in the event of the decline of the Turkish state. In place of Romania, the buffer state of Dacia was planned. In this case, Russian monarchs would take responsibility for the independence of such a state. Catherine named her grandson Constantine not by chance. His candidacy was considered for the role of the monarch of the empire.
Paul I: Colonization of India
Forty years after the death of Paul I, Leibniz's note to Louis XIV was published in Paris on the plan for a joint campaign of the Russian emperor and Napoleon Bonaparte in British India. The campaign was not seriously prepared, and the order to the Cossack Ataman Vasily Orlov was given spontaneously. On the way, the conquest of the Bukhara Khanate was punished, although the early planned campaigns there were unsuccessful. Moreover, the emperor lacked maps of part of Central Asia and the whole of South Asia, including India. In the same year, the monarch dies, and the troops are withdrawn.
Nicholas I: The Orthodox World from Constantinople to Jerusalem
In the era of Nicholas, Russia stopped dreaming of the revival of Byzantium, but at the same time the emperor consistently carried out Russia's mission in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is the liberation of the Orthodox peoples under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of the Russian mission in Palestine. Nikolay's policy did not lead to the establishment of the Orthodox world from the Balkans to Jerusalem, but contributed to the independence of Greece, the beginning of the liberation of Serbia and other Orthodox and Christian states.
Zheltorussia
At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the modern Chinese metropolis Harbin looked like an ordinary Siberian Russian city, except that half of its population was Chinese. One of the ambitious, but unfulfilled projects of Nicholas II was the annexation of northern China by the Qing dynasty. The first steps were the establishment of control over the ports of the Liaodong Peninsula and the construction of the Sino-Eastern Railway, a Transsib branch to Port Arthur. There were attempts to establish control over the North Korean territories, which were mastered by Russian industrialists. After the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, it became clear that Zheltorosiya would remain a project.
Lenin: The Socialist United States of the World
Shortly before the October Revolution, Lenin criticized the European communists for their cherished idea of the United States of Europe, saying that this name could only be used as a slogan. In fact, the ideal model of social order would be the United States of the world. At the same time, of course, socialism must be built in every country. Lenin is also known for his promises to build the material and technical base of communism ("communism") by the age of 30-40. Whether it was just a slogan or a statement he believed in himself remains a mystery.
Stalin: Tunnel to Sakhalin
Since the 19th century, the question of connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Sakhalin Island was raised, but serious progress began to occur after Stalin's personal initiative. The Council of Ministers in 1950 decided to start the construction of the tunnel and start the traffic already in 1955. After Stalin's death, the project was closed, although according to the memoirs of the builders, despite the amnesty, many people did not leave and waited for an order to resume work. From the time of the great construction, today there are mine shafts, the remains of dams and a bulk island.
Kerch bridge
The last Russian emperor, who dreamed of capturing Constantinople, planned to settle in the southwestern direction, erecting a bridge between Crimea and Kuban. The implementation of the project was prevented by the First World War. The project of the 30s was interrupted by the Second World War. During the war, Hitler built a pontoon bridge and planned to build a permanent one, but a turning point had already taken place in the war. With the liberation of Crimea in 1944, Stalin built a railway bridge across the Kerch Strait in 7 months, but a year later the ice destroyed the bridge pillars. The bridge was dismantled.
Stalin: Turkmen Canal
Turning the desert into a blooming oasis was just one of the many objectives of Stalin's plan for the transformation of nature. Life and civilization were supposed to come to the sands of the Turkmen desert - it was planned to dig a canal to the Caspian Sea from the Amu Darya along the dry channel of the Uzboy. Ships could walk in the desert. And most of the work was really done, the Karakum Canal is still a vital necessity for the Turkmens, taking a significant part of the waters flowing to the Aral. But the connection with the Caspian in the Krasnovodsk region is still very far: with the death of Stalin, the project was abandoned.
Stalin: Transpolar highway
To connect the vast northern areas of the country from Arkhangelsk to Chukotka with a railway line along the Arctic Circle - now hardly anyone will seriously discuss such a project.
But after the end of the Great Patriotic War, there was a surge of enthusiasm: in 1947, the construction of a railway line from Pechora to Yenisei began. The features of the relief and the many rivers forced the prisoner-builders to postpone the construction of bridges, without which regular traffic was impossible. After Stalin's death, an amnesty was announced for the prisoners - there was no one to build. The rails near the Yenisei were dismantled for the needs of the Norilsk Combine, and the West Siberian section fell into complete disrepair after decades due to the elements.
Building communism, apartments and last pop by 1980
The fact that Khrushchev never skimped on promises is a fairly well-known fact. It was not possible to catch up and overtake America in the production of milk, butter and meat, to master the virgin soil in the shortest possible time (in three years). Consumption and wealth were still lagging behind America's by 1960. No less loud were the statements about the construction of communism (material and technical base) by 1980. By 1980, every Soviet citizen was promised an apartment, and the last priest was promised to be shown on TV. None of these claims came true.
The turn of the Siberian rivers
The turn of the Siberian rivers to Central Asia was planned back in the Russian Empire. Paradoxically, but the main "tamer of nature" Stalin did not pay attention to this idea. Since the 60s, projects have been developed to transfer rivers to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1974, the first stage was built - the Irtysh-Karaganda canal. In 1985, in the midst of perestroika, the project was declared invalid.