In terms of the size of the country's territory, the land area of Russia, a superpower, is undoubtedly the largest country in the world today, but in history, the land area it has been even more extensive, and it once had three territories that had been separated for various reasons, two of which have now been recovered.
The Russian state is located in the north of Eurasia, most of the land is covered by ice and snow for many years, but according to records, Russia's historical land was the most vast when it reached more than 25 million square kilometers, even now Russia still has more than 17 million square kilometers, you know, today's entire Europe is only more than 10 million square kilometers, such a vast land resource is really a valuable wealth.
The history of the Russian state is relatively long, there have been many regime changes during the period, the land area has also changed many times, in the history of the Russian state, the main loss is three pieces of territory, the first is the Karelia region that has been recovered, that is, the Republic of Karelia.
The Republic of Karelia is located in northwestern Europe, bordering the White Sea, with a territory of about 170,000 square kilometers, and is very rich in natural resources, such as granite, marble and other ore resources, as well as various iron ore resources. Not only that, Karelia's water resources are also abundant, which can provide a large number of high-quality drinking water resources.
As early as the mid-eighteenth century, the Karelian region was subordinate to Russia, and later Finland became independent, and it was not long before the Karelian region was incorporated into the territory of Finland.
At this time, it was the First World War, Russia was deep in the European battlefield, there was no time to take care of this area, and the Karelia region was temporarily separated from Russia's jurisdiction, and it was not until the Second World War that the Karelia region was recovered. Because Finland was later dependent on Germany, Karelia returned to Finland with German assistance. After Germany's defeat in World War II, and in the post-war territorial division, although Finland still existed as an independent state, Karelia was rejoined to Russia and incorporated into the Russian Federation.
The Crimean Peninsula, bordering the Black Sea, is also territory that Russia once lost but has now regained. The Crimean Peninsula is located in the southeast of Russia, because its coastline extends into the Black Sea, thus forming some excellent natural ports, in addition to helping Russia to establish a sea communication route with Europe, it is also very conducive to maritime trade, and it is also an excellent location for naval fleets. Among them, Sevastopol, a port city, is known as an "ice-free port", and the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is built here.
Because of the geographical importance of crimea, Russia officially took over the area in 1783, and for more than a hundred years it belonged to Tsarist Russia and later Soviet Russia. Because Crimea borders Ukraine, in 1954 the Soviet Union annexed Crimea to Ukraine in order to further strengthen relations with Ukraine.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared independence, and at this time the Crimean region that already belonged to Ukraine was naturally taken out, and the Black Sea Fleet stationed here even needed to pay rent to Ukraine, which made Russia very unhappy, in order to enhance relations with Ukraine, this area was given to Ukraine, and now Ukraine is not only independent, but also takes this piece of territory that originally belongs to Russia with it, how can Russia bear it? And Crimea because of the border with the Black Sea, has a huge military strategic position, but also the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Of course, Russia can not sit idly by on this lost territory, so under the long-term negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, finally in 2014, at this time, the Republic of Crimea, which has achieved autonomy, voted by the national parliament to rejoin Russia as a new federal subject, and since then, Crimea has returned to Russia.
Lake Balkhash and its surrounding area, which now belong to Kazakhstan, are territories that have been separated from Russia with Kazakhstan but have not yet been recovered.
Lake Balkhash, which belongs to the Seven River Basin, is geographically completely in the territory of Kazakhstan, and the terrain is high in the east and low in the west, which also causes the geographical vertical landscape of the Lake Balkhash Basin to be diverse. There are glacier belts, grassland belts, desert belts, swamps and so on.
The Basin of Lake Balkhash is rich in water systems, with more than 3,000 large and small lakes in the lower reaches and delta belts alone. The area located in the center of Eurasia has naturally become a rare fertile land.
In 1864, after the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Treaty of Surveying and Dividing the Northwest Boundary with Tsarist Russia, Lake Balkhash officially became part of Russian territory.
After 1917, Kazakhstan broke away from Tsarist Russia and became an independent state, but soon joined the Russian Federation. Lake Balkhash and the surrounding area became a "gift" to Kazakhstan by the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lake Balkhash naturally became the territory of Kazakhstan, probably compared with the other two territories, the geographical advantage of Lake Balkhash in today's world situation is no longer obvious, and Russia has not yet recovered this area.
In general, the size of the country has an indispensable role in improving the strength of a country, and the major powers in the world today are all winners of the expansion of the territory that has been or is today. If the country occupies a large amount of territory, it naturally needs strong national strength to match it, and if the country is weak, it will naturally be plundered, for example, the former Qing Dynasty was bullied by the world powers because of the weakness of national strength, and the integrity of the territory could not be preserved. Russia was able to reclaim its territory because of its strong national power behind it.