Facts about Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country that extends over a large part of northern Eurasia. Its government is a semi-presidential republic, and it comprises of 83 federal subjects. The Russian Federation, in fact, was established after the termination of the Soviet Union, which occurred in 1991; however, it continues to be recognized as the legal personality of the Soviet Union. Here are some more interesting facts about Russia.

Comprising of 6,592,800 square miles, or 17,075,400 square kilometres, and extending over an eighth of the land area of the Earth, Russia is the world’s largest country. It also is the 9th largest in the world in terms of population, with 142 million people. It stretches across 40 percent of Europe and the entire region of northern Asia. Russia spans 11 time zones and contains a wide range of landforms and environments.

Russia is bordered by a number of countries, namely: North Korea, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Norway. Russia is also not very far from Japan, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, and the US state of Alaska, separated by fairly small water stretches, such as La Pérouse Strait, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Bering Strait.

From the north of the country to its south, Russia contains a variety of biospheres which occur sequentially, reflecting the changes in the climate: in the northernmost part is the tundra belt, followed by the taiga or the coniferous forest, then comes the broad-leaf and mixed forests, followed by the steppe or grassland, and then the semi-desert which fringes the Caspian Sea. Siberia too has a sequence of environments, but comprises of taiga. Russia has 40 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and 23 World Heritage Sites.

Moscow, the capital of Russia, which is populated by 11 million people, is Europe’s largest city. St. Petersburg, known formerly as Leningrad, has a population of 5 million people. About two-thirds of the population of Russia live in cities now. The size of the population of the country is now in decline.

The official language of the country is Russian, which is written with the Cyrillic alphabet, instead of the Latin that most Western countries use. However, there are 48 other languages spoken by the 120 or so nationalities of the Commonwealth of Independent States. About 75 percent of the population of Russia is made up of people of Slavic origin, such as Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians, and so on.

In the previous Soviet system, people were provided with low-rent accommodations, subsidized factory canteens, sports facilities, shops, and even vacations. Hardly any of these remain today. Plus, before the liberalization of the economy, public transport, utilities, cigarettes, drink, and food were also cheap.

The recent economic reforms have resulted in pushing a significant portion of the population below the poverty line, particularly pensioners. This is because inflation has overtaken the increases in benefits provided by the state. However, there is a growing middle class these days who are increasingly becoming prosperous by involving themselves in legitimate business, with a few of them becoming very wealthy. They are known commonly as ‘novye Russkie.’

The main religion of Russia is the Russian Orthodoxy, with a few people following other religions like Judaism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam. Over the last few years, there has been a revival of religion in Russia, which was strongly suppressed during the Soviet era. This revival is symbolized by the Christ the Saviour Cathedral being rebuilt in Moscow.

Russia is known as the ‘lungs of Europe’ since it has the largest forest reserves in the world, and the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by it is second only to the rainforests in the Amazon. These forests of Russia provide large amounts of oxygen not only to Europe but also to the world.

Russia also has the largest energy and mineral resources in the world, including large deposits of timber, coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

There are also thousands of inland water bodies and rivers in Russia, which makes it one of the largest surface water resources in the world. Amongst these, Lake Baikal is the most prominent, being the most capacious, purest, and deepest freshwater lake in the world. It alone contains more than one-fifth of the surface fresh water of the world. The River Volga is the most prominent and famous amongst the 100,000 rivers of Russia. Apart from it being Europe’s longest river, the Volga has played a major role in the history of Russia.

These facts about Russia are proof of how interesting this vast country is. Some would say that this slumbering giant is just beginning to come awake now.