How did Russia get so big?

Question

How did they manage to secure so much land in the centuries before 1900? Why were the russians uncontested? Were they?

Answer 1

The same way the US and China did...

Answer 2

When the Russians free their country from the Mongols (who destroyed the first "Russia of Kiev") they started expanding.
To the west and the south with the Imperial Russian Army and to the east with the Army and the Cossacks (who were fighting like special forces at their time).
The east part of Russia is two times bigger than than the historical Russia and that part of Russia was not very populated at the time of the expansion. When the ruskis won they were bringing Russian people to inhabit the new lands and live with the locals.
Step by step, mother Russia took over Alaska to the East, which was sold to the USA, unfortunately.

Answer 3

The basis of the Russian state were the Swedish vikings (Rus.)
They established a trading center at Novgorod ( http://www.neva.ru/EXPO96/book/chap1-2.html ) From this point, the Rus went on to establish many other Russian cities ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus' ) Although these other cities fell under the mongols, Novgorod became a trading republic. Its key article of trade was northern furs, so they established a trading control (not political control) over all of what is now northern European Russia. This was a large area of northern forests with few people in it. Later under the Muscovite state a similar process occurred when Tsar Ivan the terrible "gave" Siberia to the Strogonov family for trade development ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yermak_Timofeyevich ) Once again a small population set up a trading "empire" over a large area with a large number of indigenous peoples (http://www.policy.hu/filtchenko/indigenous_people_of_siberia.htm ) Up until the 19th c. Russia's control over the great Turanian plain was tenuous. It was only with the building of the trans-Siberian railway , that gave the government effective communication and control. So in the centuries before 1900, Russia was slowly asserting control across the great Northern Eurasian plain. This was an area of little interest to other countries, filled with native people of less sophistication. It was easy to assert a claim over a wide area and then follow up for effective control.

Answer 4

Basically the region east of the Don River was populated mostly by nomadic tribes. But much of the area was unpopulated.Being close to the Arctic Circle.
By the way, the area west of the Don River is called European Russia (part of Europe) and the area east of the Don is part of Asia.

Answer 5

Because they have plenty of inhospitable land that nobody wants and only people intoxicated with the power of the Russian vodka would be insane enough to work on it and stay on, and that my friend, is why Russia is so big.

Answer 6

Lack of organization of the local peoples and scant populations in the areas they conquored led to little true realistic resistance to Russian growth.

Answer 7

Most of their land sucks.