sarnaen is right. the Russians have steppes that are quite poor.

places like pereslavyl can't even justify a 20% upgrade.

trade is the main thing.

get to master merchant in all coastal provinces is a good idea.

I like beeline for Const. and that usually gets me out of financial straits.

as for unbalanced Russian armies, how about 8 druzhina dismounted into FFKs and 8 boyars. that can take everything better and is actually not that bad costwise.