Russia

Russia (also known as the Russian Federation) was a country that spanned eastern Europe and northern Asia. It also formed the largest part the Soviet Union.

19th century
In 1812, soldiers from Napoléon Bonaparte's Russian campaign were abducted by the War Lords. (TV: The War Games) The First Doctor met Napoleon in Russia during this time (AUDIO: Mother Russia), whereas the renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme later claimed to have done so (AUDIO: The Panda Invasion, AUDIO: The Claws of Santa).

In 1894, Fitz Kreiner joined a scientific expedition to Russia. (PROSE: Time Zero)

20th century
In 1903, Nicholas II was the Tsar of Russia. At that time, the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman travelled to Zarechny, Siberia, where they met Grigori Rasputin. After receiving a wealth of information from the future, Rasputin foresaw the Russian Revolution of 1917. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)

In 1905, soldiers from the Russo-Japanese War were abducted by the War Lords for use in their war games. (TV: The War Games)

On 30 June 1908, the energy created by the meteor strike which later became known as the Tunguska Event caused the Great Divide to open in Russia, allowing some of the Charrl to enter that time period. (PROSE: Birthright) The Third Doctor attempted to take Liz Shaw and Jo Grant to witness the meteor impact but the TARDIS instead materialised in St Petersburg in December 1916. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

During World War I, Bertie Stopford was the United Kingdom ambassador to the Russian Empire. He worked in British Intelligence with Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, the paternal grandfather of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

In December 1916, the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and Liz Shaw visited Russia and met the mystic Rasputin shortly before he was murdered. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

On 7 November 1917, the October Revolution, part of the Russian Revolution of 1917, took place. At the ceremony held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution in Red Square in Moscow on 7 November 1967, the Seventh Doctor explained to his companion Ace that the celebration of the October Revolution was held in November as Russia was still using the Julian calendar, which was eleven days behind the Gregorian calendar, in 1917. (AUDIO: Thin Ice) Some years later, Russia and its satellite countries became the Soviet Union.

In 1943, Russian soldiers attempted to steal the ULTIMA device from its base at Maiden's Point. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)

In 1951, the Eighth Doctor visited Russia. (PROSE: Endgame)

On 15 October 1957, a BBC News bulletin referred to the recent launch of Sputnik, Earth's first artificial satellite, by the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!)

In 1957, Russia launched a satellite that was hijacked by, who used it to summon the Tzun to Earth. (PROSE: First Frontier)

After her detection from the Soviet Union to the United Kingdom in 1958, the Czech scientist Dr. Nadia Červenka provided the Sen-Gen Facility with a neuro-chemical hallucinogen developed using a yellow fungus which was discovered in the Tunguska crater. It was believed to be extraterrestial in origin. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence)

In November 1963, a Russian spy ring was operating in London. A spy who went by the alias of Miles Barrington Smythe was working with an MI6 double agent. (TV: The Cambridge Spy)

Soon after UNIT was formed, they used a Russian rocket to destroy the Cybermen's invasion fleet. (TV: The Invasion)

In the 1970s, four Soviet cosmonauts had their minds extracted by an alien Extractor. (PROSE: The Mind Extractors)

Also in the 1970s, a Soviet spy attempted to talk the Third Doctor into defecting, but was unsuccessful. (COMIC: Target Practice)

Several years later, the British and Soviet branches of UNIT worked together against the Waro threat. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)

In 1983, the Soviet submarine, the Firebird, discovered the Ice Warrior, Skaldak, frozen in ice beneath the North Pole. (TV: Cold War)

On 8 May 1984, the Soviet Union announced that it was boycotting the Olympic Games which were to be held in Los Angeles later that year. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

In response to the Luron invasion of Earth in 1979, the Soviet Union placed its entire nuclear weapons' arsenal at UNIT's disposal. (AUDIO: The Valley of Death)

Following the death of Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, the considerably more moderate Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded him as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

On 26 April 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl underwent a meltdown. (COMIC: Black Destiny)

The Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian Federation was formed in the early 1990s. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

21st century
In the early 21st century, the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness were drawn to a derelict Russian naval base by an intergalactic distress signal. (PROSE: The Deviant Strain)

In 2009, the "Russian Federation" was among the nations which agreed to let John Frobisher speak on their behalf to the 456. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)

In 2011, Henry van Statten's scientists discovered the cure for the common cold from alien bacteria in "the Russian crater," presumably that which was created by the Tunguska Event. (TV: Dalek)

By the 2050s, same-sex marriage was legal in Russia. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

In 2058, Russia was part of the Bowie Base One mission to Mars, sending astronaut Yuri Kerenski. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Alternative timelines

 * In an alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany won World War II as a result of the Seventh Doctor and Ace accidentally leaving laser technology in Colditz Castle in October 1944, the Nazi scientists were able to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons. They subsequently bombed Moscow, forcing the surrender of the Soviet Union and winning the war for Germany. (AUDIO: Klein's Story)
 * In an alternative timeline created by the Elder Gods in the hope of destroying Earth, World War III broke out on 9 November 1989 between the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and its allies, including the United Kingdom, on the other hand. Given that nuclear weapons were used by both sides, hundreds of millions of people were killed in the conflict. This timeline was ultimately negated by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)
 * During the Year That Never Was, the made Russia the number one shipyard of weaponry for the Time Lord Empire. According to Martha Jones, the shipyards spanned all across Russia, "from the Baltic to the Bering Straits." (TV: Last of the Time Lords)

Behind the scenes
To describe Events throughout the second half of the 20th Century, the names "Russia" and "Soviet Union" are often used interchangeably, but are in fact separate. Although the biggest by far, Russia was only one of several countries that formed the Union.

In the real world the Soviet Union was created in 1922 and dissolved in 1991.