inception guryevsky district
Kazakhstan ( " Qazaqstan ", " Kazakhstan "), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan (" Qazaqstan Respwblïkas " " Respublika Kazakhstan "), is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe . Kazakhstan is the world ' s largest landlocked country , and the ninth largest in the world , with an area of . Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically , generating ___MASK45___ % of the region ' s GDP , primarily through its oil / gas industry . It also has vast mineral resources . Saint Petersburg is Russia ' s second - largest city after Moscow , with five million inhabitants in ___MASK62___ , and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea . It is politically incorporated as a federal subject ( a federal city ). Situated on the Neva River , at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea , it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May . In 1914 , the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd , in 1924 to Leningrad , and in 1991 back to Saint Petersburg . Between 1713  1728 and 1732  1918 , Saint Petersburg was the imperial capital of Russia . In 1918 , the central government bodies moved to Moscow . Moscow ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of Russia , with ___MASK48___ . 2 million residents within the city limits and ___MASK26___ . 8 million within the urban area . Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city . The Baltic Sea ( ; ) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean , enclosed by Scandinavia , Finland , the Baltic countries , and the North European Plain . It includes the Gulf of Bothnia , the Bay of Bothnia , the Gulf of Finland , the Gulf of Riga , and the Bay of Gdask . The sea stretches from 53 ° N to ___MASK79___ ° N latitude and from ___MASK22___ ° E to 30 ° E longitude . A mediterranean sea of the Atlantic , with limited water exchange between the two bodies , the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish islands into the Kattegat by way of the straits of Øresund , the Great Belt , and the Little Belt . Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over ___MASK52___ million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European Russia . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . An oblast is a type of administrative division of Belarus , Bulgaria , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Russia , Ukraine , and the now - defunct Soviet Union and Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes . The term is analogous to " state " or " province ". The post - Soviet states , also collectively known as the former Soviet Union ( FSU ) or former Soviet Republics , are the ___MASK53___ independent states that emerged from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in ___MASK97___ , with Russia internationally recognised as the successor state to the Soviet Union . On March ___MASK76___ , 1990 , Lithuania was the first to declare its independence , with Estonia and Latvia following suit in August 1991 . All three Baltic states claimed continuity from the original states that existed prior to their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944 and were admitted to the United Nations on 17 September 1991 . The remaining 12 republics all subsequently seceded . 12 of the ___MASK53___ states , excluding the Baltic states , initially formed the CIS and most joined CSTO , while the Baltic states focused on European Union and NATO membership . Russia is not proportionately populated between the smaller western portion ( almost ___MASK33___ %) of the country that is considered part of Europe , and the larger eastern portion ( more than 75 %) that is part of Asia . European Russia contains about 77 % of the country ' s population ( 110 , 000 , 000 people out of about 144 , 000 , 000 ) in an area comprising almost ___MASK65___ million km ( 1 . 54 million mi ); an average of 27 . ___MASK11___ persons per km ( 70 per mi ). This territory makes up 38 % of Europe . Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south , it is defined by the border with Kazakhstan . This area includes Moscow and Saint Petersburg , the two largest cities in Russia . A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography . A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state , as a non - sovereign or formerly sovereign political division , or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics . Regardless of the physical geography , in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in ___MASK100___ and reaffirmed by the United Nations in ___MASK21___ , a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction . Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny , is a city in the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District in Russia . From ___MASK4___ to 1990 , it was known as Gorky , after the writer Maxim Gorky , who was born there . The city is an important economic , transportation , scientific , educational and cultural center in Russia and the vast Volga - Vyatka economic region , and is the main center of river tourism in Russia . In the historical part of the city there are a large number of universities , theaters , museums and churches . Nizhny Novgorod is located about 400 km east of Moscow , where the Oka empties into the Volga . Population : Ukraine ( tr . ) is a sovereign state in Eastern Europe , bordered by Russia to the east and northeast , Belarus to the northwest , Poland and Slovakia to the west , Hungary , Romania , and Moldova to the southwest , and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast , respectively . Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in ___MASK70___ but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian . Including Crimea , Ukraine has an area of , making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world . It has a population of about 44 . ___MASK11___ million , making it the 32nd most populous country in the world . Kaliningrad Oblast (" Kaliningradskaya oblast ") is a federal subject of the Russian Federation that is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea . As an oblast , its constitutional status is equal to each of the other 84 federal subjects . Its administrative center is the city of Kaliningrad , formerly known as Königsberg . It is the only Baltic port in the Russian Federation that remains ice - free in winter . According to the ___MASK72___ census , it had a population of 941 , 873 . Guryevsky District ( Russian :       ) is an administrative district ( raion ) , one of the fifteen in Kaliningrad Oblast , Russia . As a municipal division , it is incorporated as Guryevsky Urban Okrug . It is located in the west of the oblast . The area of the district is ___MASK5___ , 363 square kilometers ( 526 sq mi ) . Its administrative center is the town of Guryevsk . Population : 52 , 988 ( 2010 Census ) ; 47 , 330 ( 2002 Census ) ; 39 , 148 ( 1989 Census ) . The population of Guryevsk accounts for 23 . ___MASK11___ % of the district ' s total population . The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR " ) was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from ___MASK96___ to ___MASK55___ . A union of multiple subnational republics , its government and economy were highly centralized . The Soviet Union was a one - party federation , governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital . A raion ( also rayon ) is a type of administrative unit of several post - Soviet states ( such as part of an oblast ). The term is from the French "" rayon "" ( meaning " honeycomb , department "), which is both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city , and is commonly translated in English as " district ". Novosibirsk is the third - most populous city in Russia after Moscow and St . Petersburg . It is the most populous city in Asian Russia , with a population of ___MASK5___ , 473 , 754 as of the 2010 Census . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District . The city is located in the southwestern part of Siberia on the banks of the Ob River adjacent to the Ob River Valley , near the large water reservoir formed by the dam of the Novosibirsk Hydro Power Plant , and occupies an area of . Yekaterinburg , alternatively romanised as " Ekaterinburg ", is the fourth - largest city in Russia and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast , located in the middle of the Eurasian continent , on the border of Europe and Asia . At the ___MASK72___ Census , it had a population of ___MASK5___ , 349 , 772 . Königsberg ( until ___MASK56___ officially : Königsberg in Preußen ) was a city in the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights , the Duchy of Prussia , the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany until ___MASK56___ . After being largely destroyed in World War II by Allied Forces and then annexed by the Soviet Union thereafter , the city was renamed Kaliningrad , and few traces of the former Königsberg remain today . The literal meaning of Königsberg is ' King  s Mountain '. In the local Low German dialect , spoken by many of its German former inhabitants , the name was " Kenigsbarg ". Further names included , Old Prussian : " Kunnegsgarbs , Knigsberg ", and .