What if the Russian Empire Reunited Today?

The Russian Empire was one of the most powerful and significant countries in the entire world and is still today regarded as the 3rd largest empire in history to ever exist, only just smaller than the British and Mongol Empires. At its territorial peak in 1895, it controlled a massive proportion of the world, even larger than the entire surface area of Pluto, stretching continuously all the way from modern-day Poland, in the west, to the Bering Strait, in the east. However, like all empires the Russian Empire's glory didn't last forever and gradually it began to lose the power and influence it once had, after suffering heavy losses in the First World War. Not only this, but the entire country actually experienced a huge Communist Revolution that saw the Russian monarchy being abolished and the end of the empire. But what if it reunited today?

As always, the first thing we need to think about a reunited Russian Empire is the population and land it would control. To start off, a total of 19 different modern-day countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. These countries would be closely split between 2 continents, with 10 of them being located in Asia while the remaining 9 would be located in Europe.

Due to so many countries making up it up, the empire would also have a gargantuan land area, standing at around 8,800,000 Sq miles (22,800,000 Sq km). This would easily be enough to make it the largest country in the world, more than enough to even double the second largest country in the world, Canada's (9,984,000 Sq km) land area and triple Australia's (7,692,000 Sq km). Russia, alone, would mostly dominate this size, however, accounting for just over 75% of its entire land, essentially being the Jupiter of the empire.

Despite being more than 7x larger than India in land area, a reunited Russian Empire would only have less than 1/4 of its population, standing at around 324 Million, compared to India's huge 1.38 Billion. This amount would still be massive, though, enough to make it the 4th most populous country in the world, staying well ahead of other very populated countries like Indonesia (273 Million) and Pakistan (220 Million), but also slightly behind the United States (331 Million).

As well a gargantuan population and land, the Russian Empire would also boast some very big cities, with lots to show for. Moscow or Saint Petersburg would most likely be the two most obvious choices for the capital for the Russians as they both served equal historic significance for the empire in the past, but in my opinion, Saint Petersburg would be the best option as it is the current location of the Winter Palace, which was the primary residence of the former Russian monarchy. Moscow would be the biggest city within its borders, however, with a population of 17,400,000, compared to Saint Petersburg's 5,560,000. Here would be the rest of the top 10 most populous urban areas in the Russian Empire:

Similar to its population and land, a reunited Russian Empire would also have a big economy, bringing us to the next topic. Starting off with total wealth, the empire's Nominal GDP would stand at a whopping $3.370 Trillion, which is gargantuan and would be enough to place it in 5th place, in terms of Nominal GDP, even ahead of other massive economies like the United Kingdom ($3.124 Trillion), India ($3.049 Trillion) and France ($2.938 Trillion), but still significantly behind Germany $4.319 Trillion) and Japan ($5.378 Trillion).

Despite having a huge economy, however, the Russian Empire's Nominal GDP Per Capita wouldn't stand at a quite impressive amount, mainly due to the impoverished areas within its borders like Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Taking all of this into consideration, it would stand at around $11,419, which would still put it in 85th place, ahead of the conditions in Bulgaria ($11,321), Nauru ($10,125) and also above the Global Average of $11,339, but slightly behind Malaysia ($11,604) and an independent Russia ($11,654).

The empire would also possess a huge portion of the world's oil supplies, located around Siberia and Kazakhstan, which could be able to boost its position to a major exporter of it around the world.

The next topic we need to think about a reunited Russian Empire is the religious and ethnic groups prevalent within its borders.

Starting with Religion, Christianity would be the most followed faith within the empire, at 64% of the population, split between 52% Orthodox and 12% Catholic. Islam would be next, at 15%, which would be followed by Traditional Folk Religion at 5%. The final percentage of the population would make up Atheists at a significant 16%.

Focusing on Ethnic Groups now, Russians would be, by far, the largest ethnicity in the empire's borders at a significant 59% of the population. Ukrainians would be next at 15%, followed by Poles at 8% and Uzbeks at 7%. The final 11% of the population would be a mix of hundreds of other tiny and indigenous ethnicities in the empire.

Continuing off its religious and ethnic variances, the Russian Empire's linguistic variances would also be incredibly diverse. Russian would be the most dominantly spoken language within its borders at 58% of the population, which actually very closely mirrors its ethnic percentage, too. This would be trailed by Ukrainian, at 10%, Uzbek at 9.1%, Polish at 8.6% and the final 14.3% being a mix of various other languages with only a tiny amount of native speakers within the empire.

The official language of the Russian Empire would probably be a quite easy choice to predict as Russian was already the official language in the historic empire and would also be the most spoken language in its borders today.

The last topic we need to think about a reunited Russian Empire is its military, which, of course, would definitely be no disappointment. Starting off with manpower, the empire would possess a huge 1,540,400 active-duty personnel and would be the 2nd largest force in the entire world, ahead of some other gargantuan militaries like India (1,455,550 troops) and the United States (1,388,100 troops), but only behind China (2,185,000 troops). In addition to this, it would also possess an extra 3,235,000 troops placed in reserves, bringing its army to a total of 4,775,400.

The budget to fund this military would also be massive, standing at a whopping $91.4 Billion, or 2.7% of its entire Nominal GDP, which would be the 3rd highest in the world larger than India's ($71.1 Billion) and Saudi Arabia's ($61.9 Billion), but smaller than the juggernaut budgets of China ($261 Billion) and the United States ($732 Billion).

The empire would also be a Nuclear Power, inheriting all of modern-day Russia's current arsenal of around 7,800 nukes. This would also actually make it have the largest stockpile of weapons than any other country in the world.