A GEOGRAPHIC PROFILE

OF RUSSIA AND
THE NEAR ABROAD
Chapter 5
 Introduction to the Region

 Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

 Cold War versus U.S.-led Western bloc

 Split in 1991 into 15 independent nations

 Russian Federation
 14 other countries comprising “The Near Abroad”
 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
 Economic Association

 Russia and 11 of the former Soviet states

 Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania joined the EU in 2004

 Fluidity in Delineating Region

 Trends Toward Political Fragmentation and Decentralization
5.1 Area and Population

 Largest World Region

 Area of 8.5 Million Square Miles
 Region Spans 11 Time Zones
 Regional Population of 282 Million (2011)
 Russia 142.8 Million
 Ukraine 45.7 Million
 Uzbekistan 28.5 Million
 Vast Region but Sparsely Populated
 Average Population Density of 32 per square mile
 Rates of Population Change
 1.8% growth among Islamic Central Asian countries
 0.4% loss in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
Russia and the Near Abroad
Population Distribution of Russia and the
Near Abroad
Population Cartogram of Russia and the
Near Abroad
 5.2 Physical Geography & Human Adaptations

 Factors affecting this

immense region:
 Cold Temperatures
 Infertile Soils
 Marshy Terrain
 Aridity
 Ruggedness
 5.2.1 Roles of Climates and Vegetation

 Extreme Continental Climate

 Severe winter cold but
warm/hot summers
 Lowest official temperature
ever recorded in Northern
Hemisphere at Siberian
settlement of Verkhoyansk
(-90 degrees F)
 Short Growing Seasons
(average 150-day frost-free
season)
 Aridity and Drought (less than
20 inches avg annual
precipitation)
 5.2.1 Roles of Climates and Vegetation

 Permafrost
 Frozen ground that makes
construction difficult
 Buildings and Pipelines must be
elevated and insulated
 Land Use / Agriculture
 Russian taiga is the largest
continuous area of forest on
earth
 Wheat, Sugar Beets, Sunflowers,
Livestock in the black-earth belt
of the steppes
 Cotton in Irrigated Areas of
Central Asia
Comparison of Latitude and Area with
North America
80% of this
region’s area is
farther north
than any
point in the
conterminous
United States
Climates of Russia and the Near Abroad
Biomes of Russia and the Near Abroad
The Taiga: Earth’s Largest Continuous Forest Biome
5.2.2 Role of Rivers

 Rivers formed natural passageways

 Used for Trade, Conquest, and Colonization
 Helped Russians advance from the Urals to the Pacific
in less than a century
 Rivers drain into numerous oceans and seas
 Volga-Don Canal
 Major link in the inland waterway system
 Connected the White Sea & Baltic Sea in the north
with the Black Sea & Caspian Sea in the south
 Series of 13 Locks
5.2.3 Role of Topography

 Plains typify the region west of the Yenisey River

 Ural Mountains
 Low, narrow range separating Europe from Asia
 Average elevation of less than 2,000 feet
 West Siberian Plain
 One of the flattest areas on earth
 Waterlogged country underlain by permafrost
 Tremendous flooding
 Central Siberian Uplands
 Between Yenisey and Lena Rivers (1,000 to 1,500 ft)
 Mountainous Southern Rim of Region
 Caucasus, Pamir, Tien Shan, and Altai Mountains
5.3.1 A Babel of Languages

 Complex cultural and linguistic mosaic

 30 Major Ethnic Groups
 More than 100 Languages Spoken
 Main Language Families
 Indo-European
 Slavic Russian, Belarusian & Ukrainian
 Romance Moldovan (Romanian)
 Armenian
 Altaic (Turkic) Kazakh, Kyrghyz, Turkmenian, Uzbek
 Caucasian (Kartvelian)
 Uralic (Finno-Ugric)
 Proto-Asiatic (Chukotko-Kamchatkan)
5.3.2 Vikings, Byzantines, and Tatars

 Vikings
 Slavic tribes came under the influence of Viking
adventurers known as Rus or Varangians
 Rise of Kiev in 9th Century
 Byzantines
 Kievan Russia had close contact with Constantinople
 Accepted Christian faith from Byzantines
 Orthodox Christianity became a fixture of Russian life
 Moscow becomes the “Third Rome”
 Tatars
 In 1237, Batu Khan brought all Russian principalities
except Novgorod under Tatar rule
 Decline of Tatar power in the 15th century
Today, Russia has 4 official religions: Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism
Russian Orthodox Church in Vyborg
5.3.3 The Empire of the Russians

 The Russian Empire

 Lasted from the 15th Century
until the 20th Century
 Immense land empire built
around core of Moscow
 Expansion under the Tsars
 Ivan the Great (reigned
1462-1505)
 Northward thrust; Annexed
Novgorod
Ivan IV ‘The Terrible’
 Ivan the Terrible (1533-
1584)
 Eastward conquest giving
Russia control over the Volga
5.3.3 The Empire of the Russians

 Peter the Great (1682-

1725)
 Defeated the Swedes to
gain a foothold on the
Baltic Sea
 St. Petersburg established
as Russia’s “Window on
the West”
 Catherine the Great
(1762-1796)
 Secured a frontage on the
Black Sea
5.3.3 The Empire of the Russians (contd.)

 Eastward Expansion of Russian Empire

 Cossack expeditions reached the Pacific in 1639
 Continued down west coast of North America to Fort Ross in
California (1812-1841)
 Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 for 2 cents per acre
and withdrew from North America
 During the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Russian tsars
annexed the Amur region, the Caucasus, and Turkestan
 Soviet Policy of Russificiation
 Effort to implant Russian culture in non-Russian regions
and to make non-Russians more like Russians
 Policy was generally a failure because of strong
nationalist sentiments throughout the Soviet Union
 5.3.4 Russia & Soviet Union: Revolution & War

 Russian Triumphs over Powerful

Invaders
 King Charles XII of Sweden – 1709
 Napoleon I of France – 1812
 Adolf Hitler – WWII
 Keys to Success
 Environmental rigors that invaders
faced
 Overwhelming distances
 Defenders’ love of their homeland
 Willing to lose great numbers of
soldiers in combat
 “Scorched Earth” strategy to protect
the motherland
 5.3.4 Russia & Soviet Union: Revolution & War

 Russian Revolution of 1917

 Protest against sacrifice of
Russian forces during WWI
 Overthrew Nicholas II, last of
the Romanov tsars
 Bolshevik Revolution
 Led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
(1870-1924)
 Bolshevik faction of
Communist Party seized
control
 Establishment of the Soviet
Union in 1922 http://www.biography.com/people/vladimir-lenin-
9379007/videos/vladimir-lenin-world-war-i-20879427686
5.3.4 Russia & Soviet Union: Revolution & War

 World War II
 USSR allied with
France and Britain vs.
Germany
 Relocation of Soviet
industries eastward
 20 million Soviet lives
lost, considerable
damage
 5.4.1 The Communist Economic System

 Marxism
 Soviet economic system was an
application of the economic and social
ideas of German philosopher Karl Marx
 Command Economy
 Series of five-year economic plans under
Stalin
 Gosplan (Committee for State Planning)
in Moscow
 Soviet Enterprises in Agriculture &
Industry
 Virgin and Idle Lands (increase the
production of grain)
 Hero Projects (construction of dams,
railways, plants, etc)
Soviet Agricultural Expansion (1954-1957)
 5.4.2 Economic Roots of the 2nd Russian Revolution

 Reform Policies of Gorbachev

 Glasnost (openness)
 Perestroika (restructuring)
 Second Russian Revolution
 Demands for new freedoms and
greater autonomy
 Rise of Boris Yeltsin, champion of
reformers’ cause
 Gorbachev resigned on December
25, 1991
 Soviet Union was voted out of
existence the next day and
replaced by 15 independent
countries
5.4.3 Russia’s Road to Misdevelopment

 Russia classified as a “Misdeveloped Country”

 Boris Yeltsin’s “Economic Shock Therapy”
 Rapid transition from command economy to capitalism

 Widening gap between rich and poor

 Russia’s GDP plummeted, shrinking by half in the 1990s

 Agricultural and industrial production fell dramatically

 Largest fall in production for any industrialized country in
peacetime
 Underground Economy: Russia’s new economic
geography
 Russia became a kleptocracy, with rampant corruption
 Organized crime became pervasive
 Widespread bartering resulted from declining value of the ruble
Poverty in Post-Soviet Russia
Western-Style Overconsumption
Moscow’s 2009 Millionaire Fair
5.4.4 Putinomics

 Vladimir Putin
 Former KGB officer of
the Soviet Union
 Became very popular
Russian President and
Prime Minister
 “Putinomics”
 Export Russia’s natural
resources to flood
Russia with wealth
 Profits will be rolled
into manufacturing and
high-tech industries so
that Russia enjoys a
more stable,
diversified economy
5.4.4 Putinomics

 Energy represents about

2/3 of the value of Russia’s
exports
 6% of the world’s proven
oil reserves
 27% of the world’s proven
natural gas reserves
 2nd largest coal reserves
 Problems
 Will not be possible to
sustain production of
natural resources
 Russia has faced one of the
greatest brain drains
5.5 Geopolitical Issues

 “The Greatest Geopolitical Catastrophe of the Century”

 Vladimir Putin, in a 2005 speech, discussing the collapse of
the Soviet Union

 3 Concentric Spheres of Geopolitical Concern

 Within the Russian Federation (Unity of Russia itself)
 Russia’s relationships with its Near Abroad
 Russia’s relationships with the Rest of the World
Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/20
11/aug/17/ussr-soviet-countries-data#zoomed-
picture
5.5.1 Geopolitics Within Russia

 Complex Political Categories

 48 Oblasts (Regions)
 7 Krais (Territories)
 21 Republics (Varying Levels of Autonomy)
 4 Okrugs (Ethnic Subdivisions of Oblasts / Krais)
 2 Federal Cities
 1 Autonomous Oblast
 Chechnya and Tatarstan pushing for independence
 Geopolitical significance has to do with resources
 Oil and Gas Tatarstan and Bashkhortostan
 Coal Deposits Komi Republic
 Diamonds Sakha
Political Units of the Russian Federation
5.5.2 Geopolitics in the Near Abroad

 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

 Energy Shortages and Supplies
 Russia using fossil fuels as a political weapon
 Irredentism
 25 million ethnic Russians living in the 14 former Soviet states
 Desires of Russians living outside of Russia to achieve their own
rights and territories
 Territorial Issues
 Control of the Crimean Peninsula and Kerch Strait
 GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova)
 Orientation toward Europe and away from Russia
 Russia’s military presence in more than half the former
Soviet countries
 Peacekeepers or Conquerors?
Physical and Political Obstacles to Caspian Oil Exports
The Caucasus
5.5.3 The Far Abroad

 International Relations
 Peaceful succession to the Cold War

 The Warsaw Pact has dissolved.

 Russia became a member of the Group of Eight (G-8) in 1997

 Energy Issues
 Concerns about Russia being a reliable trading partner for oil and
natural gas
 Weapons Proliferation Issues
 Russia’s assistance to nuclear and would-be nuclear weapons powers

 Reduction of nuclear arsenals

 Threat of “Loose Nukes”

 With whom will oil-rich Central Asia align?

 Russia, Turkey, or Iran?
 Turkey’s dream of Pan-Turkism

 Combating narcotics and terrorism

 5.6.1 Regional Issues and Landscapes

 Peoples and Resources of the Core Land

 The Slavs are the dominant ethnic group
 Resources are distributed unevenly in this region
 The Fertile Triangle
 AKA “Agricultural Triangle”
and “Slavic Core”
 Functional hub of the region
 Contains 75% of region’s
people and an even larger
share of its cities
5.6.2 The Ukraine

 Ukrainians
 Second largest ethnic group in the Slavic Core
 Closely related to Russians in language and culture
 Ukraine means “at the border” or “borderland”
 A buffer between Russia and neighboring lands
 Industrial and agricultural assets were vital to USSR
 Fertile black earth soils have made Ukraine a great
“breadbasket” of wheat, barley, livestock and other products
 Generous endowments of coal and iron ore
5.6.3 Chernobyl

 Site of a 1986 nuclear power station explosion

 North of Kiev, Ukraine
 Rendered parts of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia
incapable of safe agricultural production
 There is still an 18-mile
exclusion zone today
 Aftermath
 100,000 to 200,000 people
still severely affected
 4,000 deaths expected to
ultimately be attributed to
this disaster
 Ukraine decommissioning
all of its Chernobyl-type
nuclear plants
5.6.4 Farming in the Fertile Triangle

 Most of the Fertile Triangle is within Russia

 Russia still faces difficulties in transforming state-run
into free-market farming
 Russia has been slow to privatize farming
 Russia remains a net food importer
 Global-scale production of wheat, barley, oats, rye,
potatoes, sugar beets, flax, sunflower seeds,
cotton, milk, butter, and mutton
5.6.5 Russia’s Far East & Northern Lands

 The Far East

 Russia’s mountainous Pacific edge
 Mostly thinly populated wilderness
 Economy driven by ports, fisheries, and forest industries
 Most people live along two transportation arteries
 The Trans-Siberian Railroad
 The lower Amur River
 Island of Sakhalin
 Geopolitics involving Russia and Japan over its control
 Important for its off-shore petroleum and natural gas
 Contains about 1 percent of global oil reserves
5.6.5 Russia’s Far East & Northern Lands

 The Wild North

 Subregion lying north and east of the Fertile Triangle,
and west of the Pacific coast
 Taiga (coniferous forest)
 Tundra
 Northern Sea Route
 Waterway developed by the Soviets to provide a connection
with the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean
 Ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk
 Navigation of full route was only possible for about 4 months
per year with the help of icebreakers, but global warming is
now allowing navigability a greater proportion of the year
 Possibility of constructing a rail link between Siberia
and North America (Alaska)
5.6.5 Russia’s Far East & Northern Lands

 Lake Baikal
 Deepest body of freshwater in the world

 More than 1 mile deep in places

 Contains one-fifth of the world’s unfrozen freshwater

 Oldest lake in the world at 30 million years of age

 Contains 1,800 endemic plant and animal species

5.6.6 The Caucasus: Cauldron of Conflict

 Caucasian isthmus has been an important north-south

passageway for thousands of years
 Dozens of ethnic groups have migrated into this region
 Mostly small ethnic populations confined to mountain areas
 Different nationalities have maintained their ethnic
characteristics and cultural traditions (e.g., language, religion,
etc.)
 History of animosity between Armenians and Azeri Turks
 Armenian genocide resulted in deaths of around 1.5 million
Armenians between 1915 and 1918
 Twice as many Armenians live outside Armenia than live in it
 Armenian-Azeri dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
 Turkey and Armenia established diplomatic relations in 2009,
which helps Turkey’s application to the EU
5.6.7 Central Asia

 Central Asia almost entirely a region

of interior drainage
 With exception of the Irtysh, all other
streams drain into enclosed lakes and
seas, or gradually lose water and
disappear
 Historically, peoples in this region
were pastoral nomads
 Over time they drifted away from
nomadism, with the Soviet government
forcibly collectivizing the remaining
nomads into permanent villages
 Most people today live in heavily
irrigated valleys
 Irrigation is essential for farming
 Causing water shortages in some areas
 Shrinking of the Aral Sea