1.   ...a University professor who specializes in the history of the Russian empire.

2.   Belarus, traditionally part of the Russian empire, has one of the weakest histories of independence of any of the former Soviet states.

3.   Although eager to minimize the Communist contribution, he also tried to wrap himself in the icons of Soviet might and Russian empire.

4.   But whether they want the new Russian empire cavalierly promised by the Communists is doubtful.

5.   Even war is predicted as an attempt to reconstitute the Russian empire.

6.   For many years he has argued that the world is witnessing the collapse of the Russian empire and its dominance of the North Caucasus region.

7.   Gen. Aleksandr I. Lebed is a hard-line Russian who wants the return of the Russian empire.

8.   He compared Russia today to the last days of the Russian empire, when an autocratic but unpopular czar drove the country to revolution.

9.   He had been born in Ukraine while it was part of the Russian empire.

10.   In an added flourish to make Tom Clancy blush, it has a plot concerning the dread return of Communism to the Russian empire.