A country in Eastern Europe and North Asia, bordering on the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas; established as an independent country in 1991 upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it is the largest country in the world. Co-official name: Russian Federation, formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) (among other names) from 1917 to 1991. Capital and largest city: Moscow.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a very common name, although more formally Russia, the RSFSR, was one of several constituent republics of the USSR).
The Russian Empire; the tsarist empire in Russia lasting from 1721 to 1917.
The official name for modern-day Russia under the Communist Party from 1936 to 1991 (from 1918 to 1937, according to the Constitution of the RSFSR, called the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic). Part of the USSR from 1922 to 1991.