The Russian Federation is the largest territorial state in the world and is inhabited by about 145 million people. The capital and largest city is Moscow, with about 11.5 million inhabitants, followed by St. Petersburg with more than 5.3 million inhabitants. The majority of the population lives in the European part of Russia, which is much more densely populated than the Asian part.
Since 1992, the Russian Federation has been the successor state to the Russian Soviet Republic (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, RSFSR), by far the largest constituent state of the former Soviet Union. It is also the legal successor of the Soviet Union in the sense of international law.
Estonia is a historical landscape in northeastern Europe and includes the northern part of the present Estonian state.
The region is largely congruent with the historical Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, which existed until 1918 - and was one of three Baltic governorates alongside Livonia and Courland. In the High and Late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the early modern period, parts of the region were also under the rule of Sweden, Denmark and the Teutonic Order. It was not until the Great Northern War (1700-1721) that Estonia came under Russian sovereignty.
Livonia (Livonija in Latvian, Liivimaa in Estonian) is a historical landscape in the Baltic States. It comprises the southern part of present-day Estonia and the part of present-day Latvia north of the Daugava River. The landscape was named after the Livonians, a population group that hardly exists today.
Historically, the name Livonia can refer to other, different contexts. The governorate of the same name, which was one of the three Baltic Sea governorates of the Russian Empire, is particularly influential for today's understanding of the historical region. It existed from the beginning of the 18th century until 1918 and its capital was Riga, located at the mouth of the Duna.
Livonia had previously given its name to other states and confederations, most notably the Livonian Confederation, which had existed since the High Middle Ages. The Livonian part of the Teutonic Order as well as regional ecclesiastical states belonged to the confederation. The confederation also included large parts of the present-day states of Latvia and Estonia. After the dissolution of the confederation and the Teutonic Order state in the 16th century, sovereignty changed several times. Without the southern and northern areas, Livonia initially came under Polish-Lithuanian rule, later also under Swedish suzerainty, before coming under Russian rule in the course of the Great Northern War (1700-1721). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the central role of the landowning German-speaking nobility was particularly influential in the internal social organization of the rural area.
Courland is a historical landscape in the west and south of present-day Latvia. It is bordered to the west and north by the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga, to the northeast by the River Daugava and to the south by Lithuania. The largest cities in Courland include Jelgava, Ventspils and Liepaja.
Today's understanding of the region is strongly influenced by historical territorial contexts. The governorate of Courland, which existed as one of the three Russian Baltic Sea governorates from 1795 and formally until 1918, is one of the most influential factors. The governorate actually included the smaller regions of Semigallia and Upper Latvia, which formed the central and eastern parts of the governorate. Today, they are often included when Courland is mentioned in a historical context.
Courland was only incorporated into the Russian Empire with the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania, and thus much later than the other two Baltic governorates of Estonia and Livonia, which had already come under Russian rule in the course of the Great Northern War (1700-1721). Courland, on the other hand, as the Duchy of Courland and Semgallen, was a Polish fiefdom until 1795, but had already been under strong Russian influence before then.
