Russia was a leading world power long before the creation of the USSR. Your "backwater" was:
"One of the largest empires in world history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires."
While it's true that Russia was a major world power, the passage you quote only really establishes that it was large, which would be true of a "huge backwater" too.
"One of the largest empires in world history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires."
(Wikpedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire)