geography world’s largest country, lies on europe and asia gigantic size and harsh climates make...

Geography• World’s largest country, lies on Europe and Asia

• Gigantic size and harsh climates make transportation difficult

• European Russia is warmer than Asian Russia

• 75% of population live in European Russia

• Russia touches many inland bodies of water such as Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Lake Baikal

• Caucasus Mountains = south of European Russia

Ural Mountains

Lake Baikal

Vocabulary• Urban = • Rural =

• Tundra =

• Taiga =

• Steppes =

Tundra is the term for the flat, treeless lands forming a ring around the Arctic Ocean. In the tundra, the climate is extremely cold.

Taiga refers to a nearly continuous belt of evergreen coniferous forests across the Northern Hemisphere, including Russia. This is the largest forest in the world.

Steppe is the term used for the temperate grassland regions in the Northern Hemisphere.

City

Country

Moscow

Inside the Kremlin

Trans-Siberian Railroad

St. Petersburg to the Pacific Ocean

Siberia

Volga River

Culture• Over 145 million people and over 150

different ethnic groups

• Religions =Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, or Jewish

• St. Petersburg has many beautiful museums and is home to the Marinsky Theatre = one of Russia’s top ballet companies

Capital until 1918, until after the Russian Revolution of 1917

Culture• Russians enjoy all kinds of literature,

including folktales called skazki

• Russian Orthodox Church = incredibly popular and thriving even though communism tried to eliminate it

• Russian Orthodoxy was responsible for a Slavic alphabet called Cyrillic

• ¾ of Russian people live in cities, mostly in large apartment blocks

• Russian workers are celebrated on May Day

- policy of modernization and expansion

A religious and folk holiday

Economy• Russia has large deposits of coal, oil, and gas

• Southwestern area can produce high yields of grains

• Fishing industry is one of the largest in the world

• Forests of Siberia provide plenty of timber

• However, Russia’s economy is not strong due to years of communist control of farms and factories which denied people the experience of creating jobs, starting businesses, and making money

Economy• Siberia has the largest supply of minerals

• Volga River carries almost ½ of Russia’s river traffic and provides water for irrigation and hydroelectric power

History• During Ad 800, Slavs built a civilization

around the city of Kiev = Kievan Rus

• Mongols swept in during the 1200’s and greatly reduced Kiev’s wealth and power

• Russian rulers slowly expanded their power and land size = called czars, had complete and total control over the government

Sometimes referred to as the "gatherer of the Russian lands", he tripled the territory of his state, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers in history.

History

• At the bottom of society were great masses of people called serfs = farm laborers who were attached to the land

• Serfs lived hard lives and few could read and write

• In late 1800’s, began to industrialize to rely more on manufacturing and less on farming

The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.

Youngest daughter of the last monarch of imperial Russia

Soviet Era• In 1917, political leaders, soldiers, and factory

workers forced Czar Nicholas II to give up the throne

• Vladimir Lenin led a second revolution and seized control, set up a communist government, which had strict control of the government and society

• In 1922 Russian Communist leaders formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = U.S.S.R

• Joseph Stalin took power after Lenin died, government took tighter control of country and many people suffered

Vladimir Lenin

Joseph Stalin                                                                                                                   

Communist Sniper

Soviet Era• After WWII, Stalin set up communist governments

in many neighboring Eastern European countries

• From late 1940’s to late 1980’s US and USSR waged a Cold War, in which both nations competed for world influence without actually fighting each other

• Soviet Union included Russians and people from many other ethnic groups

• In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took power and relaxed Soviet control

Cold War Movies

Rocky IV 13 Days

the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite

Mikhail Gorbachev

policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency

Soviet Union Dissolved• In late 1991, each of the 15 republics

made up of Soviet Union declared independence and the Soviet Union dissolved

Berlin Wall

Change from Communism• Changed from communism to free enterprise

immediately

• Under communism everyone had jobs, workers today can lose their jobs when business is poor

• Without government controls, prices have risen making it harder to buy necessities such as food, clothing

• Major Environmental issues due to the old Soviet government making factories and nuclear plants that polluted the environment

• Diseases have resulted from air pollution

Challenges of Change• Russia is a democracy today• Russian president has more power than US,

can implement plans that are not passed by legislature

• Facing challenges of learning how to be a democracy

• Ethnic groups want to form their own country

• Chechens of Chechnya want their own nation, have used terrorism to get attention, Russia has had to use force to keep them in the country

Finally, We are Finished