Russia was the largest country in the world but in 1900 also one of the poorest. It had plenty natural resources like oil, coal, iron ore and gold, but they were badly exploit. Even though Russia was a large country almost every man and woman lived in the western part of the country, because the cold Siberia was unusable for farming. Like <l:el_austria> Russia was a country of many different nationalities. Many of these wanted independence which made Russia a weak giant. Furthermore <l:ep_tsar_nikolaj> was a weak man and not very bright which made his empire even weaker.
