The Russian Federation comprises a large portion of eastern Europe and all of northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with an area of 6,592,849 square miles (17,075,400 square kilometers).
The capital of Russia is Moscow, in the southwest.
St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow can be found next to the Kremlin, in Red Square. The Kremlin was Moscow's original fortified stronghold.
St. Petersburg, in the northwest, was the capital of the old Tsarist empire.
Russia's official currency is the ruble, or rouble, which is equal to 100 kopek
Russia has coastlines on the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.
The Urals, a 1,550 mile (2,500 kilometer) long mountain range, divide European Russia from Asian Russia. The Urals were formed when the East European and Siberian plates moved closer together, causing the land to fold.
Russia's main agricultural region lies between Ukraine and Novosibirsk, in Siberia.
European Russia lies in northeastern Europe and extends into the Arctic circle.
The North European Plain extends from France into European Russia, where it is sometimes called the East European Plain or the Russian Plain.
Huge terminal moraines can be found in many places in Russia, along the North European Plain. Terminal moraines are ridges of glacial deposits. They mark the end of the glacial advance.
In Russia's northwest lies the Kola Peninsula, which is part of the Scandinavian Shield, or the Baltic Shield. The Scandinavian Shield has rocks more than 2.5million years old. The bedrock of the Scandinavian Shield has been exposed as a result of glacial activity.
The Kola Peninsula is home to the Khibiny Mountains, which formed more than 570 million years ago, when volcanic rock intruded into the Scandinavian Shield.
Lake Onega in northwestern Russia is all that remains of a body of water that connected the White Sea, an inlet on the northwest coast, to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland 12,000 years ago.
The swampy Valdai Hills, also in the northwest, are the source of the the Western Dvina River and the Volga River, the most important river in western Russia.
During the last Ice Age, the plains of the Northern Dvina, Mezen and Pechora rivers in northwestern Russia were depressed. When the Ice Age ended, these plains were flooded. As a result, landforms that were created by glacial deposits became hidden.
The plains of the Northern Dvina and Mezen Rivers are covered with limestone outcrops that contain Karst features, such as caverns, sinkholes and lakes.
Southwestern Russia contains a sequence of high and low regions caused by folds in the North European Plain's sedimentary strata.
Many large areas of southwestern Russia have sand dunes that can be up to 50 feet (15 meters) high.
The Oka and Don rivers lie on a broad trough, east of the Central Russian Uplands and west of the Volga Uplands.
The Meshchera lowlands in the southwest consist of loose sandy, soils atop an old glacial lakebed.
In the southwest, the Volga separates the Volga Uplands from the foothills of the Urals as it flows toward the Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake.
The Caspian Sea was formed when a large downfold became flooded.
More than 260 species of bird visit the Volga Delta each year as they migrate between southern Africa and arctic Siberia.
The Caucasus Mountains run from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea
Mount Elbrus, in the Caucasus Mountains, is the highest point in Europe. It is 18,510 feet (5,642 meters) high and is still moving upward 0.4 inches (10 millimeters) every years.
The Black Sea separates Russia from Turkey and Bulgaria.
East of the Ural Mountains lie the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau.
The West Siberian Plain is the largest area of flat ground on Earth.
It is crossed by huge rivers that flow northward into the Kara Sea.
There are many mountains in eastern Siberia.
The Verkhoyansk Mountains were formed at the same time as the Urals. They were created when the Eurasian and North American plates moved.
On the Kamchatka Peninsula, which juts into the Pacific, there are many active volcanoes. The Kamchatka Peninsula lies on the margins of the Eurasian plate and is a part of the Ring of Fire in the Pacific.
Klyuchevskaya Sopka, an active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, is the highest mountain in Siberia. It is 4,750 meters (15,585 feet high).
The Taymyr Peninsula, in northern central Siberia, is the northernmost part of Eurasia.
In Asia, the Caucasus Mountains lie on the border with Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The Caspian Sea separates Russia from Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
The Sayan Mountains are on the border with Mongolia.
Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, is the deepest lake in the world. It is 5,600 feet (1,700 meters) deep. Over 300 rivers feed into Lake Baikal. However, only one river, the Angara, drains it.
Major rivers in Asian Russia are the Yenisey (or Yenisei), the Amur, the Lena, the Ob and the Irtysh.
Russia generally has a continental climate. However, because of its enormous size, climate varies considerably with latitude.
A large portion of the north is permafrost.
In the far north, there is arctic tundra.
The Khatanga river, which meanders across the tundra of the Taymyr Peninsula, freezes in the autumn and then thaws in the spring, causing floods.
Further south, there is a vast region of taiga - coniferous forest. The taiga region is larger than the Amazon rainforest.
There is mixed forest south of the taiga.
More than two fifths of Russia is forest.
There are semi-arid steppes near the coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas in the south.
People
140,874,000 people live in Russia.
Most of them live in European Russia, where most industrial and agricultural production takes place.
80% of the people Russian,
More than 150 ethnic minorities live in Russia.
Russian is the official languages. Many other languages, including Ukrainian, Tatar, Altay, Mansi, Bashkir and Chavash, are also spoken.
75% of the people are Christian Orthodox and 14% are Muslim.
Russia's economy is based on heavy industry and the exploitation of raw materials.
Items manufactured in in Russia include consumer durables, plastics, synthetic fabrics, cotton fabrics, fertilizers, chemicals, ships, aircraft and spacecraft.
There are large timber, paper and wood pup industries.
Russia has a vast amount of minimal resources. However, extracting them is often difficult because they are located in remote regions and in regions of the country with extreme climate conditions.
Fishing is very important. Russia's fishing fleet operates all over the world.
Only about eight percent of the land is suitable for cultivation, and farming is not very efficient. Food, particularly grain, is imported.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.
After a number of former Soviet Republics declared themselves independent, the Russian Federation declared itself a sovereign state, separate from the old communist empire.
Russia is now the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is made up of former Soviet Republics.
Today, Russia has a mixed presidential-parliamentary system of government.
The rise of a market economy has led to a great deal of political and social unrest.
| Moscow Russia Guide http://www.moscowrussiaguide.com Moscow is the capital city of Russia. It is in the district called Central Russia (which is actually in the extreme west of Russia). It was formerly the capital of the Soviet Union, and of Muscovy, the pre-Imperial Russia. It is the site of the famous Kremlin, with its elegant onion domes, which serves as the center of the national government. The Patriarch of Moscow serves as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. http://www.moscowrussiaguide.com | |
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