As everyone (hopefully) knows, Russia is the largest country in the world. It is almost the size of the United States and Canada added together. Now, I was just fooling around on "Geacron" which is a website that shows the map of the world according to any year in history, when I noticed how fast Russia has expanded its territory. In about 1595, the territory of Russia was confined to within the Ural mountains. However, by 1640, only 45 years later, Russia has expanded all the way to the eastern edge of Eurasia and its territory was almost equivalent to the current Russian territory. How did Russia manage to expand so fast? Has there been any other country that expanded at the same pace as Russia?
I would recommend reading "The Conquest of a Continent: Siberia and the Russians," by W. Bruce Lincoln if you are really interested in the details. I can give a brief outline for you here. After the fall of Kazan in 1552 (St. Basil's Cathedral was built to commemorate this conquest) and Irtish in 1586 the last remnants of the Mongol Hordes were all but gone and the path to the Pacific was clear of any series military obstacles for the Russians, as long as they didn't venture too far south (yes, there were local tribes, but they did not offer much in terms of resistance). The actual spread of Russians into the vast Siberian wilderness was driven by a mix of penal colonies, fur trappers, and religious zealots. The last great push into Alaska was undertaken by a Danish admiral in the employ of Peter the Great named Vitus Bering, although he made it to several islands just off the coast of Alaska, I don't think he actually set foot on the mainland. The strait that separates Russia and the North American continent was named in his honor. By the reign of Catherine the Great, Russia spanned from Warsaw in the east to Alaska in the west. But seriously, read the book I suggested above. Lincoln writes in a very approachable manner and the book reads fairly quickly despite its size.