RUSSIA

COUNTRIES OF THE PLANET UNIT

GEOGRAPHY• Russia is the world's largest country in total area.• It is located in the W and E latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. • Russia spans 11 time zones.• 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia, 40 UNESCO biosphere

reserves, 41 national parks and 101 nature reserves. • It lies between latitudes 41° and 82° N, and longitudes 19° E and 169° W.

BORDERS• 57,792 km, the Russian border is the world's longest. • Boundaries with 14 countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia,

Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North Korea.• 13 seas and parts of 3 oceans—the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific.

MAP

FLAG COAT OF ARMS

CURRENT LEADERS 2016• President: Vladimir Putin • Prime Minister: Dmitry Medvedev

ETYMOLOGY• The name Russia is

derived from Rus, a medieval state populated by the East Slavs. • The standard way to

refer to citizens of Russia is "Russians".

CURRENCY• The ruble or rouble (RUB) is the currency of Russia. • The ruble is subdivided into 100 kopeks; it was decimalised in 1704.

AREA• At 17,125,200 square kilometres Russia is the largest country in the

world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area.

EARLY HISTORY• The East Slavs emerged as a group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th

centuries AD.• Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite, the medieval state of

Rus arose in the 9th century. • In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire.• Rus' disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus'

lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde in the 13th century.• The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding

Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde.

An ancient Slavic town

(reconstruction)

MODERN HISTORY• Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative

Socialist Republic became the largest country of the Soviet Union abbreviated to USSR.• Following the partition of the Soviet Union in 1991, fourteen

independent republics emerged from the USSR; as the largest, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the sole successor state of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin Joseph Stalin

GOVERNANCE• According to the Constitution, the country is a federation and semi-

presidential republic, where the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. • The Russian Federation is structured as a multi-party representative

democracy, with the federal government composed of three:• Legislative: State Duma and Federation Council.• Executive: The President.• Judiciary: The Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and lower federal courts.

Moscow Kremlin, the working residence of the President of Russia

FOREIGN RELATIONS• The Russian Federation is recognized as a successor state of the

former Soviet Union.• Russia has assumed the USSR's permanent seat in the UN Security

Council and maintains diplomatic relations with 191 countries and has 144 embassies.• The foreign policy is determined by the President and implemented

by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.• While Russia is commonly accepted to be a great power, in recent

years it has been characterized as a potential superpower.

MILITARY• The Russian military is divided into the Ground Forces, Navy, and Air

Force. • In 2006, the military had 1 million personnel on active duty.• It is mandatory for all male citizens aged 18–27 to be drafted for a

year of service in Armed Forces.• Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. • It has the second largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines and is the

only country apart from the US with a strategic bomber force.• Russia's tank force is the largest in the world.• The official military budget is set to rise to US$ 93.9 billion in 2016.

The Sukhoi PAK FA is one of the latest projects of the Russian Armed Forces.

TOPOGRAPHY AND RELIEF FORMS• Russia consists of vast plains, steppe to the south and heavily forested

to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. • Russia possesses 10% of the world's arable land.• Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders.• Caucasus is highest in Russia and Europe: Mount Elbrus 5.642 m.• The Ural Mountains are rich in mineral resources, form a north-south

range that divides Europe and Asia.• Russia coastline is 37,000 km along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as

well as along the Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea and Caspian Sea.

Mount Elbrus, the highest point of the Caucasus, Russia and Europe

RIVERS AND LAKES• Russia has lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's

liquid fresh water.• The largest is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest, purest, oldest and

most capacious fresh water lake. Baikal alone contains over 20% of the world's fresh surface water. • Russia is second only to Brazil in volume of the total renewable water

resources. • Volga is the most famous river, the longest river in Europe.

Mountains seen from the banks of Baikal

CLIMATE• The climate of Russia is humid continental and tundra. • Northern European Russia and Siberia has a subarctic climate, with

extremely severe winters in Siberia (record −71.2 °C).• Along the shore of the Arctic Ocean there is a polar climate.• Two distinct seasons—winter and summer—as spring and autumn are

brief periods of change between low and high temperatures. • The coldest month is January; the warmest is July.

BIODIVERSITY• From north to south the East European Russian Plain, is developed in:• Arctic tundra• Coniferous forest (taiga, mostly in Siberia) • Mixed and broad-leaf forests• Grassland (steppe)• Semi-desert (fringing the Caspian Sea)

• Russia has the world's largest forest reserves, known as "the lungs of Europe", second only to the Amazon Rainforest.• There are 266 mammal species and 780 bird species in Russia.

ECONOMY• Russia has a developed, high-income market economy.• It has the 15th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the

6th largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). • In 2014 Russia started shifting its economy towards China.• Russia has a flat tax rate of 13%.• Russia is considered well ahead of resource-rich countries in its

economic development, with a tradition of education and science.

NATURAL RESOURCES• Natural resources of Russia is over 20% of the world’s reserves. • Natural resources used by the economy of Russia account for 95.7%

of national wealth. There are large deposits of fuel and energy resources: oil, natural gas, coal and uranium ore. • Russia is ranked first in the world by gas reserves (32% of world’s

reserves), the second in oil production (10%), the third - in coal reserves. • Russia is first in iron ores, in tin – the second, lead - the third. Russia

also occupies a leading position in the world in wood. • In 2005 Russia was the richest country in gold reserves.

POPULATION AND DENSITY• 2010 Census show a total population of 142,856,536.• Density is 8.4 people per square km.• Population is densest in European Russia. • 73% of the population lives in urban areas while 27% in rural ones.

CAPITAL• Moscow is the capital with 20 million residents in the city limits and

16.8 million in the urban area. • Moscow is a Russian federal city and is the largest city of Europe. • Moscow is the 14th largest metro area, the 18th largest

agglomeration, the 15th largest urban area, and the 11th largest by population within city limits worldwide.

LARGEST CITIES• Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia. • It was named Saint Petersburg in 1703. In 1914, was changed to

Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, and in 1991 to Saint Petersburg. • Tsar Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg in 1703. • Between 1713–1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the

imperial capital of Russia.• Total population in 2012 was 5 million inhabitants.

ETHNIC GROUPS• The 2010 census recorded 81% of the population as ethnically

Russian, and 19% as other ethnicities: • 3.7% Tatars• 1.4% Ukrainians• 1.1% Bashkirs• 1% Chuvashes• 11.8% others and unspecified.

• 84.93% of the Russian population belongs to European ethnic groups (Slavic, Germanic, Finnic, Greek).

LANGUAGE• Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some 100 languages.• According to the 2002 Census, 142.6 million people speak Russian,

followed by Tatar (5.3 million) and Ukrainian (1.8 million).• Russian is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives

the republics the right to their own languages in addition to Russian.• Russian is the second-most used language on the Internet after

English, one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station and is one of the six official languages of the UN.• 35 languages are officially recognized in Russia in various regions.

RELIGION• 73.6% of Russians are Christians.• Orthodox Christianity, Islam (6%), Judaism and Buddhism are Russia's

traditional religions, and are all legally part of Russia's heritage.

HEALTH SYSTEM• The Russian Constitution guarantees free, universal health care for all

its citizens.• Russia has more physicians, hospitals, and health care workers than

any other country in the world on a per capita basis.• Average life expectancy increased with 5.2 years for males and 3.1

years for females between 2006 and 2014.

EDUCATION SYSTEM AND LITERACY• Russia has the most college-level or higher graduates in terms of

percentage of population in the world, at 54%.• Russia has a free education system, which is guaranteed for all citizens

by the Constitution which is highly competitive.• Russian medical, mathematical, scientific, and aerospace research is

generally of a high order.• Since 1990, the 11-year school education has been introduced. • Education in state-owned secondary schools is free. • University education is free.• In 2004, state spending for education amounted to 3.6% of the GDP,

or 13% of the consolidated state budget.

CULTURE• Famous authors: Lomonosov, Pushkin (the "Russian Shakespeare“),

Lermontov, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky. • Famous composers: Balakirev, Tchaikovsky, Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-

Korsakov and Borodin.• Famous ballet dancers: Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Pavlova, Plisetskaya• Famous painters: Kandinsky, Chagall, Pasternak

Rudolf Nureyev

PERSONALITIES• Tsar Nicholas• Lenin• Stalin• Gorbatchev• Gagarin• Trotsky• Ivan the Terrible

Iuri Gagarin