Russia 

(Russian: Россия, romanized: Rossiya, [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation,[c] is

a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in
the world, its vast landmass stretching over the easternmost part of Europe and the northernmost
part of Asia. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen
countries.[d] It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country. The
country's capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-
largest city. Other major urban areas in the country include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny
Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Kazan.
The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE.
The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox
Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of
Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly
expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into
the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian
Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian
SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian
SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics, within which it was the largest
and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid
industrialisation in the 1930s, and later played a decisive role for the Allies of World War II by leading
large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United
States for global ideological influence; the Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most
significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first
human expedition into outer space