Changes

{{See also|History of Russia|Kievan Rus}}

{{See also|History of Russia|Kievan Rus}}

[[File:Soviet Victory flag.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Soviet Victory flag after the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]].  The flag has been used again since the liberation of [[Donbas]] and victories over [[Nazi]] forces in the [[Battle of Mariupol]] in 2022.]]

[[File:Soviet Victory flag.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Soviet Victory flag after the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]].  The flag has been used again since the liberation of [[Donbas]] and victories over [[Nazi]] forces in the [[Battle of Mariupol]] in 2022.]]

At the onset of [[Operation Barbarossa]], Russia was caught flatfooted in military preparedness and defense spending. In the four years during [[World War II]] the Russian economy became geared up and fully focused on arms manufacture. When the war ended, Russian conventional arms manufacturing never ceased and became one among several precipitating causes of the [[Cold War]]. Defense conversion to a peacetime, consumer driven, manufacturing economy never occurred. The situation was compounded by a costly [[nuclear arms]] race which made conventional arms spending redundant and wasteful. The communist system imposed a rigid cost-burden on ordinary people's lives to support the Soviet [[military industrial complex]] at the expense of luxury consumer goods, such as [[automobile]]s, [[television]] sets, and household appliances, that the [[Western]] capitalist system enjoyed.

At the onset of [[Operation Barbarossa]], Russia was caught flatfooted in military preparedness and defense spending. In the four years during [[World War II]] the Russian economy became geared up and fully focused on arms manufacture. When the war ended, Russian conventional arms manufacturing never ceased and became one among several precipitating causes of the [[Cold War]]. Defense conversion to a peacetime, consumer driven, manufacturing economy never occurred. The situation was compounded by a costly [[nuclear arms race]] which made conventional arms spending redundant and wasteful. The communist system imposed a rigid cost-burden on ordinary people's lives to support the Soviet [[military industrial complex]] at the expense of luxury consumer goods, such as [[automobile]]s, [[television]] sets, and household appliances, that the [[Western]] capitalist system enjoyed.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Russian Federation has tried to improve the living standards of ordinary citizens and consumers by reducing costly defense expenditures and promote the manufacture of household consumer goods. However, Russia has been forced to maintain its status as a nuclear [[superpower]] through a series of agreements with the United States, beginning in the period of ''[[Detente]]'' of the 1970s,  to never allow [[China]] to catch-up  in  the sphere of [[nuclear weapon]]s development and manufacture. To live up to these commitments requires a constant process of modernization and adaptation to [[technology|technological]] improvements, which the Russian people can scarcely afford, but were forced into in the modern [[tri-polar]] world which has maintained the peace and avoided the use of nuclear weapons since 1945.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Russian Federation has tried to improve the living standards of ordinary citizens and consumers by reducing costly defense expenditures and promote the manufacture of household consumer goods. However, Russia has been forced to maintain its status as a nuclear [[superpower]] through a series of agreements with the United States, beginning in the period of ''[[Detente]]'' of the 1970s,  to never allow [[China]] to catch-up  in  the sphere of [[nuclear weapon]]s development and manufacture. To live up to these commitments requires a constant process of modernization and adaptation to [[technology|technological]] improvements, which the Russian people can scarcely afford, but were forced into in the modern [[tri-polar]] world which has maintained the peace and avoided the use of nuclear weapons since 1945.