History of Russia and by the 18th century, the Tsardom of Russia had grown to become the Russian Empire, stretching from eastern Poland to the Pacific Ocean. Peasant revolts were common, and all were fiercely suppressed. Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861, but the peasants fared poorly and often turned to revolutionary pressures. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms, the constitution of 1906, and the State Duma attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the tsars refused to relinquish autocratic rule or share their power. The Russian Revolution in 1917 was triggered by a
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Russian entry was selected through an internal selection, organised by Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia (C1R). Dina Garipova represented Russia with the song "What If", which qualified from the first semi-final of the competition and placed 5th in the final with 174 points. On 30 November 2012, C1R announced their selected procedure for selecting their Eurovision Song Contest 2013 entry, which involved an online public submission form that accepted applications and recordings from authors, composers and singers. On 31 January 2013,