Distinctive Facts About Russia That You Must Be Aware Of
Jul 14, 2019
Russia is a vast country with a fascinating history and topography. Here are some interesting facts about it.
Russia or the Russian Federation, extends over a large part of northern Eurasia. Its government is semi-presidential republic with 83 federal subjects. The Russian Federation, was established after termination of the Soviet Union, in 1991. It continues to be recognized as the legal personality of Soviet Union. Here are some more interesting facts.
With 6,592,800 square miles or 17,075,400 square kilometers, extending over an eighth of the land area of the Earth, Russia is world's largest country. It is the 9th largest in the world in population, with more than 144.5 million people as per 2017 census.
It stretches across 40 percent of Europe and the entire region of northern Asia. It spans 11 time zones and contains a wide range of landforms and environment.
Russia is bordered by a number of countries, viz., North Korea, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Norway.
It 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 to its south, it 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 environment, but comprises taiga. Russia has 40 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and 28 World Heritage Sites, 41 national parks and 101 nature reserves.
Population and Cities
Moscow, capital of Russia, populated by more than 11 million people, is Europe's largest city. St. Petersburg, known earlier as Leningrad, has a population of more than 5 million. About two-thirds population is in cities and the population in the country areas has declined.
Languages and People
The official language is Russian, written with Cyrillic alphabet, instead of Latin that most Western countries use. However, there are 48 other languages spoken by 120 or so nationalities of the Commonwealth of Independent States. About 75 percent of the population 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, which is increasingly becoming prosperous by involving itself in the legitimate business, with a few becoming very wealthy. They are known commonly as 'novye Russkie.'
Main religion is Russian Orthodoxy, with some following Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism. In last few years, there has been a revival of religion that was suppressed in Soviet era, symbolized by Christ the Savior Cathedral being rebuilt in Moscow.
Russia is known as 'lungs of Europe' as it has the largest forest reserves in the world, and the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by it, is second to the rainforests in the Amazon. These forests provide large amounts of oxygen not only to Europe but also to the world.
Russia also has one of the largest energy and mineral deposits in the world, including large deposits of timber, coal, natural gas, and petroleum. It exports its natural gas to Europe and many other countries. Energy is one of the biggest source of revenue for this country.
There are also thousands of inland water bodies and rivers, which make this country one of the largest surface water resources in the world. Among these, Lake Baikal is the most prominent, being the most capacious, purest, deepest freshwater lake in the world. It alone has more than one-fifth of surface freshwater 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 are a proof of how interesting this vast country is. Some would say that this slumbering giant is just beginning to come awake now.