'Evening, gents. I've got a couple questions about how to join this thing.

1. I understand that I have to prove my worth up in what used to be Russia before I can join properly. Is there some sort of world history primer out there that I can read before I start on an application for my post-Russian group, or is there little enough established canon for that region that, provided I don't mess with the summary of how Russia fell apart that's been detailed in the OP, I should be fine?
2. Is the map of the world in the OP still accurate, at least as far as what countries/regions are still available?

My plan, as of right now, is to play as a platoon of former Russian Army men that's taken over a village in Kazakhstan. Depending on how relevant a group of only around 50 men can be to the RP at large, I could upgrade it to an entire rifle company, but either way I'd only be messing with small handful of named characters.

If that sounds too mundane/easy to write for your standards, I've also got some weirder ones. The first is an idea for a sect of apocalyptic death cult-ish, loosely-Orthodox monks based out of an ancient monastery in the ungoverned area on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Again, not many named characters, but harder to pull off convincingly, and in an area abandoned by the major powers, they could get some serious traction in the hearts of those who still live there.

A third idea is for a dadaist art collective that moonlights as a terrorist organization, operating out Moscow (or one of the other surviving ex-Russian cities; location isn't important so long as it's somewhat urban). This... may be a little too far out there, though.

Your thoughts?