RUSSIA

WHAT’S RUSSIA?...
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country
spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country
in the world, covering over 17,125,191 square km (6,612,073 square
mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass.
Russia extends across eleven time zones, and has the most borders
of any country in the world, with sixteen sovereign nations. It has a
population of 146.2 million; and is the most populous country in
Europe, and the ninth-most populous country in the world. Moscow,
the capital, is the largest city in Europe; while Saint Petersburg is the
second-largest city and cultural centre. Russians are the largest
Slavic and European nation; they speak Russian, the most spoken
Slavic language, and the most spoken native language in Europe.

1. Russia is the largest country in the
world and bigger than Pluto.
It covers an area of 17 million square
kilometers, of which Siberia makes up 77%. It
stretches so far around the globe that Russia
has 11 different time zones. Russia has a
population of around 144 million people.
3. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
was the first human in space
when he orbited the earth in a 108-minute
flight in 1961. In 1967 Russia also launched
the world’s first satellite, Sputnik.
INTERESTING FACTS
2. Russia has the biggest nuclear
arsenal in the world 5. Russia is home to some 20 percent of
the world’s trees, and one-fifth of the
world’s freshwater is in Lake Baikal.
with an estimated 7,700 warheads, it holds just
under half of all the nuclear weapons in
existence (the US has the second biggest
store).
Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest
freshwater lake in the world, and situated
4. You can view Lenin’s body in the north of the Mongolian border in south-
Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow’s Red eastern Siberia; the lakes stretches 644km
(400 miles) and is around 1,637m (5,000ft)
Square.
deep. Russia is also home to 640 billion trees;
almost half of the country is forest. These last
After his death on 21 January 1924, Russian wild forests of Europe include vast swathes of
scientists carried out experimental embalming Siberia, home to the endangered Siberian
methods to preserve the body; they’ve been fine- tiger.
tuning the procedures ever since. Scientists re-
embalm Lenin’s body every other year.
 LAND

On the basis of geologic structure and relief, Russia

can be divided into two main parts—western and eastern—roughly
along the line of the Yenisey River. In the western section, which
occupies some two-fifths of Russia’s total area, lowland plains
predominate over vast areas broken only by low hills and plateaus.
In the eastern section the bulk of the terrain is mountainous,
although there are some extensive lowlands. Given these
topological factors, Russia may be subdivided into six main relief
regions: the Kola-Karelian region, the Russian Plain, the Ural
Mountains, the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau,
and the mountains of the south and east.
CLIMATE
Several basic factors determine Russia’s variable climates. The country’s
vast size and compact shape—the great bulk of the land is more than 250 miles (400 km)
from the sea, while certain parts lie as much as 1,500 miles (2,400 km) away—produce a
dominance of continental regimes. The country’s northerly latitude ensures that these are
cold continental regimes—only southwestern Russia (the North Caucasus region and the
lower Don and Volga basins), small sections of southern Siberia, and the maritime region
of southeastern Siberia are below latitude 50° N, and more than half the federation is
north of latitude 60° N. The great mountain barriers to the south and east prevent the
ingress of ameliorating influences from the Indian and Pacific oceans, but the absence of
relief barriers on the western and northern sides leaves the country open to Atlantic and
Arctic influences. In effect there are only two seasons, winter and summer; spring and
autumn are brief periods of rapid change from one extreme to the other.
 SOILS, PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE
Climate, soils, vegetation, and animal life are
closely interrelated, and variations among these within Russia
form a series of broad latitudinal environmental belts that
sweep across the country’s plains and plateaus from the
western border to the Lena River. In the mountain zones of the
south and east, the pattern is more complex because elevation
rather than latitude is the dominant factor, and there are
striking changes over relatively short distances. Within Russia
there are six main environmental belts (some with
subdivisions): Arctic desert, tundra, taiga, mixed and
deciduous forest, wooded steppe, and steppe. Forests of
various kinds account for more than two-fifths of Russia’s total
land area.
PEOPLE
 RELIGION
Although ethnic differences in Russia have long contained a religious element, the position of religious
organizations and of their individual adherents has varied with political circumstances. In the 10th century Prince Vladimir I,
who was converted by missionaries from Byzantium, adopted Christianity as the official religion for Russia, and for nearly
1,000 years thereafter the Russian Orthodox church was the country’s dominant religious institution. After the communists
took power in 1917, religious institutions suffered. The church was forced to forfeit most of its property, and many monks
were evicted from their monasteries. The constitution of the former Soviet Union nominally guaranteed religious freedom,
but religious activities were greatly constrained, and membership in religious organizations was considered incompatible
with membership in the Communist Party. Thus, open profession of religious belief was a hindrance to individual
advancement. More-open expression of Christian beliefs was permitted during World War II, when the government sought
the support of Christians and Jews in the fight against fascism, but restrictions were reimposed when the war ended. In the
1980s, under the reformist regime of Mikhail Gorbachev, a policy of glasnost (“openness”) was declared, allowing greater
toleration for the open practice of religion. The subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union made religious freedom a reality
and revealed that large sections of the population had continued to practice a variety of faiths. Indeed, Russian nationalists
who emerged beginning in the 1990s identified the Russian Orthodox church as a major element of Russian culture.
PERSONALITIES

Some of Russia’s most famous personalities…

 VLADIMIR
PUTIN

…is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer

who is serving as the current president of Russia since
2012, previously being in the office from 1999 until
2008. He was also the prime minister from 1999 to
2000, and again from 2008 to 2012; and is the second-
longest serving European president in history.
 LEV
NIKOLAYEVICH
TOLSTOY

…usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a

Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors
of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in
Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909. That he never won is a
major controversy.
 MAYA
PLISETSKAYA

Plisetskaya was an international ballet sensation that might never

have happened. Even though a Jewish dancer during a time of
strong anti-Semitic sentiment, she quickly won over the Bolshoi
audiences, but was banned from its first major international tour
because the Soviet government suspected she was prone to
defecting. It took the personal intervention of Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev who vouched for Plisetskaya and issued a decree that
allowed her to join the international tour.
 MIKHAIL
GORBACHEV

This man ended the Soviet Union, as

well as the Cold War. Although No. 1 on this list
called the dissolution of the USSR “the greatest
geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Gorbachev is
still hailed as a hero in every corner of the planet.
 YURI GAGARIN

As the first man to travel to outer space, Gagarin’s

fame spread like wildfire, turning him into an
international celebrity. Upon his return to Earth,
Gagarin went on an international tour as a symbol of
Soviet achievements in space exploration. The man
was welcomed as a hero in Great Britain, Canada,
Germany Brazil, Japan, Egypt and other countries.
JOSEPH
VISSARIONOVICH
STALIN

…was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet

political leader who governed the Soviet Union
from 1924 until his death in 1953. He served as
both General Secretary of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of
the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
(1941–1953).
 TRADITIONS
Russia’s unique and vibrant culture developed, as did the country itself, from a
complicated interplay of native Slavic cultural material and borrowings from a wide variety of foreign
cultures. In the Kievan period (c. 10th–13th century), the borrowings were primarily from Eastern
Orthodox Byzantine culture. During the Muscovite period (c. 14th–17th century), the Slavic and
Byzantine cultural substrates were enriched and modified by Asiatic influences carried by the Mongol
hordes. Finally, in the modern period (since the 18th century), the cultural heritage of western Europe
was added to the Russian melting pot.
MATRYOSHKA DOLL
TRADITIONAL CLOTHES
ARCHITECTURE
TRADITIONAL FOOD
VODKA
THANKS! Mother Russia<3

 https://en.wikipedia.org/
 https://www.expatica.com/ru/moving/about/facts-abo
 https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Climate#ref38588
 https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/329439-most-successful-famou
s-people-russia-history
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