The article is written in form of the discussion with Yegor Gaidar and his book "the Empire wreckage". The geographical analysis, using the criteria introduced by Gaidar, brings us to the conclusion that Soviet Union, having some characteristics of an Empire, wasn’t in any way a formation similar to the Austrian, British, French and other Empires. It had a lot more in common with such multiethnic though integral states as Yugoslavia and the actual one – Great Britain.

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