@chjara @jessew To be pedantic, Russia specifically is somewhat concentrated in European ("Central") part of it, so it's revolution-relevant part of it was like a 1/3 of it's full size.

My birthtown it practically on the border of asian and european parts of russia, and it was already considered a good place for political isolation for both "Russian Empire" and USSR... And still is, it's relatively close to the jail a certain notable opposition polititian died in...