This was the progress to date in 590AD:
At this point, Moscow had already survived an assualt by swordsmen. I sent some 7 vet swords against it and killed 3 defenders, only to find that there were at least 6 defenders in the city! That's... tough to take out. I pulled back the survivors from that group and regrouped to attack again. Since no one had researched Chivalry, I put one scientist on it and began building longbows. The second assualt on Moscow had 5 swords and 7-8 longbowmen, but was again unable to take the city. This was some bad luck here. The frustrating thing was that I KNEW Russia had nothing left once that city fell. But taking it was very frustrating and difficult to do. Moscow had some nice wonders in it (Pyramids, Colossus) so it was a really important city. But it continued to elude my capture for many turns.
However, my vast production and economic advantages were sure to be decisive eventually. The first turning point was in 690AD, when Chivalry was FINALLY discovered; the tech tree was already past gunpowder by that point. Fortunately Russia had no saltpeter and I was all blockading all shipping routes to Moscow with my galleys. First time I've ever done that one. With jumbos on my side, it was just a matter of time until this occurred:
This was in 760AD; interestingly enough, it was when my war elephant was defending and not attacking (a Russian horseman attacked me unexpectedly). But the golden age was the first nail in Catherine's coffin, leaving her with no chance of survival. I now began building up quite a force of elephants, sending 15 in an assault against the hated city.This second, much larger nail in the coffin came in 870AD:
This was cause for a celebration; after this, taking out Russia was a mop-up job. By 950AD, their last three cities on the continent were in my hands. They still had a city pretty close to that though, so I crossed the sea and captured that one as well; I think the name was Sverdolovsk (?) The name's not important. But with the Russians confined to three tundra cities far away from me, I concluded peace with them in 970AD for everything they had.
What, did you think from the title I had killed off the Russians? They would have deserved it, but it wasn't worth the time and effort needed to do it. I banished Catherine to the icy wastelands of the south, where she remained for the rest of the game. When the game ended, Catherine was about 35 techs behind the leader; it was a fitting punishment in my opinion.
Looking at the war, I notice a few things. It took me only 100 years to take the Russian colonies north of Kiev, and another 100 years to take the 4 cities south of Moscow. But it took me 700 years (!) to take Moscow and Kiev, almost all of which can be attributed to those idiotic Japanese warriors. I hate them! 
But seriously, I could have finished this war so much faster otherwise. It's just a shame that that had to happen. However, I could hardly complain, as I now controlled the whole starting continent (+6 points) and could begin my big infrastructure push.
