This is what I think about Russia:
Vast, cold, many different cultures and incredible hardships under their czars , Russian Revolution, communism, collectivization. World Wars 1 & 2, NKVD, KGB secret police, gulags, Siberia, mass forced deportations of innocent people. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Kruschev, Cuban Missile Crisis, Yeltsin, Gorbachev, disintegration of Soviet Union, Afghanistan war, Vladimir Putin.