The essence and traditions of Russian imperial expansionism

In the course of its territorial expansion, Muscovy ensured the acquisition of sovereignty by fighting both for the legacy of Kyivan Rus and the Golden Horde. As a result, the newly created Muscovite state replaced the Golden Horde and adopted its expansionist traditions. In the fight with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Muscovy seized the lands of Chernihiv-Siversk (1508) and Smolensk (1522). The consequence of Ivan the Terrible expansionist policy was the capture of the Khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) as the last remnants of the Golden Horde. Key for the new Romanov dynasty were the western and southern foreign policy vectors, which determined Muscovy's competitive confrontation with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. After the end of the Northern War with Sweden in 1721, the Russian Empire was proclaimed. Tsar Peter I and his heirs managed to finally secure access to the Baltic and subjugate Ukraine-Hetmanate in 1775, and a series of victorious Russo-Turkish wars secured access to the Black Sea. As a result of three divisions (1772; 1792; 1795), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist. In the northern geostrategic direction at the beginning of the 19th century. as a result of further confrontation with Sweden, Russia acquired Karelia. All this allowed her to capture all of Finland during the last Russo-Swedish war of 1808–1809. If, after 1917, the Soviet authorities generally managed to collect former imperial lands, attempts to return Poland and Finland to the new empire were futile. After the Second World War, the USSR extended its influence to Central-Eastern Europe, which was one of the elements of its political and ideological confrontation with the USA. However, Moscow never managed to take the lead in the spread of socialism in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which led to the collapse of the global Soviet project. All this led to the end of Soviet Russia's competition for world leadership with the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The Russian Federation, as the heir of the USSR, managed to restore its influence in the post-Soviet space. The pinnacle of Russia's imperial aggressive policy was the unprovoked full-scale aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is carried out under the slogan of protection against the "neo-Nazi regime" "legitimized" by the West, which allegedly threatens Russia. Its politics are manifestations of autocratic traditions, and Russian President V. Putin is a product of Russian society with its imperial mentality and identity. In the 20th century Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War. Britain and France reluctantly gave up their empires after World War II. However, V. Putin persistently strives to return the empire, which should become an exception among other imperial formations that have irreversibly receded into the past. Thus, instead of creating a reform base for the accelerated formation of a modern liberal economy, V. Putin is leading Russia to complete isolation and a crisis of statehood.