Country: RUSSIA
Map
Flag:
National Anthem: “Gosudarstvennyy Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii” (“State Anthem of the Russian Federation”)
Official Country Name: Russian Federation
Government Type: Presidential Republic with semi-presidential system
- President: Vladimir Putin
- Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin
Area: Total: 17,098,246km2
Water (%) : 13
Population: Estimation of 2020: 146,745,098
Ethnic Groups: Russians 80.9% , Tatars 3.9% , Ukrainians 1.4%
Climate: The enormous size of Russia and the remoteness of many areas from the sea result in the dominance of the humid continental climate, which is prevalent in all parts of the country except for the tundra and the extreme southwest. Mountains in the south obstruct the flow of warm air masses from the Indian Ocean, while the plain of the west and north makes the country open to Arctic and Atlantic influences. Most of Northern European Russia and Siberia has a ,subarctic climate with extremely severe winters in the inner regions of Northeast Siberia, and more moderate winters elsewhere. Throughout much of the territory there are only two distinct seasons, winter and summer, as spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low and extremely high temperatures.
Capital: Moscow (the largest city)
Main Cities: Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod
Official and National Language: Russian
Other Languages: There are 35 different languages which are considered official languages in various regions of Russia, along with Russian. There are over 100 minority languages spoken in Russia today.
Main Religion: Russian Orthodoxy
Other Religions: Islam, Buddhism, Judaism
Education Literacy Rate: Russia literacy rate for 2018 was 99.73%,
Child Mortality: In 2018, child mortality rate for Russian Federation was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Between 1999 and 2018, child mortality rate of Russian Federation was declining at a moderating rate to shrink from 20.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1999 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018.
Currency: Russian ruble
International Telephone Area Code: +7
HDI: 0.824 very high (49th)
Driving Side: Right
ISO: RU
Website: http://government.ru/en/
History:
862: The first major East Slavic state, Kievan Rus, is founded and led by the Viking Oleg of Novgorod. Kiev becomes the capital 20 years later.
980-1015: Prince Vladimir the Great, who converts from paganism to Orthodox Christianity, rules the Rurik dynasty while spreading his newfound religion. His son, Yaroslav the Wise, reigns from 1019-1054 as grand prince, establishing a written code of law, and Kiev becomes a center of politics and culture in eastern Europe.
1237-1240: Mongols invade Kievan Rus, destroying cities including Kiev and Moscow. The Khan of the Golden Horde rules Russia until 1480.
1480-1505: Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great, rules freeing Russia from the Mongols, and consolidating Muscovite rule.
1547-1584: Ivan IV or Ivan the Terrible, becomes the first czar of Russia. The grandson of Ivan the Great expands the Muscovite territory into Serbia, while instituting a reign of terror against nobility using military rule. He dies of a stroke in 1584.
1613: After several years of unrest, famine, civil war and invasions, Mikhail Romanov is coronated as czar at age 16, ending a long period of instability. The Romanov dynasty will rule Russia for three centuries.
1689-1725: Peter the Great rules until his death, building a new capital in St. Petersburg, modernizing the military (and founding the Russian navy) and reorganizing the government. With his introduction of Western European culture, Russia becomes a world power.
1796: Russia’s longest-ruling female leader, Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, takes power in a bloodless coup and her reign marks Russia’s era of enlightenment. A champion of the arts, her 30-plus-year rule also extends Russia’s borders.
1853-1856: Stemming from Russian pressure on Turkey and religious tensions, the Ottoman Empire, along with British and French forces, fights Russia and Czar Nicholas I in the Crimean War. Russia is crippled in its defeat.
1861: Czar Alexander II issues his Emancipation Reform, abolishing serfdom and allowing peasants to purchase land. His other notable reforms include universal military service, strengthening Russia’s borders and promoting self government. In 1867, he sells Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States, gilding the St. Isaac Cathedral domes in St. Petersburg with the proceeds. He is assassinated in 1881.
1901: The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was founded.
1914: Russia enters WWI against Austria-Hungary in defense of Serbia.
Nov. 6-7, 1917: The violent Russian Revolution marks the end of the Romanov dynasty and Russian Imperial Rule, as the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, take power and eventually become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Civil War breaks out later that year, with Lenin’s Red Army claiming victory and the establishment of the Soviet Union. Lenin rules until his death in 1924.
1929-1953: Joseph Stalin becomes dictator, taking Russia from a peasant society to a military and industrial power. His totalitarian rule includes his Great Purge, beginning in 1934, in which at least 750,000 people were killed to eliminate opposition. He dies in 1953, following a stroke.
Oct. 4, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite that orbits the Earth in about 98 minutes and spurs the Space Race. In 1961, Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to fly in space.
March 11,1985: Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary of the Communist Party, and, thus, effectively Russia’s leader. His reform efforts include perestroika (restructuring the Russian economy), glasnost (greater openness) and summit talks with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to end the Cold War. In 1990, he is elected president, the same year he wins the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end.
Dec. 25, 1991: Following an unsuccessful Communist Party coup, the Soviet Union is dissolved and Gorbachev resigns. With Ukraine and Belarus, Russia forms the Commonwealth of Independent States, which most former Soviet republics eventually join. Yeltsin begins lifting Communist-imposed price controls and reforms, and, in 1993, signs the START II treaty, pledging nuclear arms cuts. He wins reelection in 1996, but resigns in 1999, naming Vladimir Putin his prime minister, who then won the 2000 presidential election.
Geography:
Russia is the largest country in the world its total area is 17,075,200 km2. Russia is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances. It lies between latitudes 41° and 82° N, and longitudes 19° E and 169° W.
Politics and Government:
According to the Constitution of Russia, the country is an asymmetric federation and semi-presidential republic, wherein the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. The Russian Federation is fundamentally structured as a multi-party representative democracy, with the federal government composed of three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. The president is elected by popular vote for a six-year term.
Economy:
Russia has an upper-middle income mixed economy with enormous natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas. It has the 11th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the 6th largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Since the turn of the 21st century, higher domestic consumption and greater political stability have bolstered economic growth in Russia. The country ended 2008 with its ninth straight year of growth, but growth has slowed with the decline in the price of oil and gas.
Culture:
The culture of the ethnic Russian people has a long tradition of achievement in many fields, especially when it comes to literature, folk dancing, philosophy, classical music, traditional folk music, ballet, architecture, painting, cinema, animation and politics, which all have had considerable influence on world culture. Russia also has a rich material culture and a tradition in technology.
Russia has been influenced by Western Europe, the Eastern world, Northern cultures and the Byzantine Empire for more than 1000 years, it is often argued that due to its history, geography and inhabitants which belong to different language families but were embedded in the Russian language and culture, the country has developed a character with many aspects of a unique Russian civilization which in many parts differs from both Western and Eastern cultures.
Media:
The media of Russia is diverse, with a wide range of broadcast and print outlets available to the consumers. Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues.
There are more than 83,000 active and officially registered media outlets in Russia that broadcast information in 102 languages. Of the total number of media outlets, the breakdown is as follows: magazines 37%, newspapers 28%, online media 11%, TV 10%, radio 7% and news agencies 2%.
Festivals:
National Holidays
- Defender of the Fatherland Day – celebrated on 23 February and is dedicated to veterans and members of the Armed Forces of the Russian
- Spring and Labour day – (May 1st)
- Victory Day – (May 9th) Russia celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany.
- Russia Day – celebrated on June 12. On this day, in 1991, Russian parliament formally declared Russian sovereignty from the Soviet Union.
- Unity Day – (November 4th) commemorates the popular uprising led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky which ejected the Polish invaders from Moscow in November 1612.
Cultural Festivals
- Maslenitsa Festival – (March) This festival is also called pancake festival, for the whole week, it is pancakes everywhere. Basically, this festival celebrates the farewell of winter and the dawn of spring.
- Moscow Golden Mask Festival – (March and April) This festival includes a lot of time, almost two months when you will see many artistic activities around. This festival seems like a worship of the ancient art of drama. During this whole time in many places, you will get to see various performances all opera and ballads happening.
- St Petersburg White Nights Festival – (May and July) White Nights festival is an arts festival with music and dance by Russian and international stars.
Russian Cuisine Culture:
The Russian cuisine culture is diverse, with Northern and Eastern European, Caucasian, Central Asian, Siberian, and East Asian influences. Russian cuisine is famous for its festive dishes such as smoked sturgeon (balyk), sturgeon with horseradish, slightly salted salmon, red, black and pink caviar, pickled and salted mushrooms. Other popular and traditional dishes include (Kasha), a mixture of cereals and porridge, soups such as (borsch), pancakes, pirogy pies with different salty fillings, and many dough based dishes. Poultry dishes are considered festive in Russian cuisine. Stews, meat and cabbage are popular daily foods, as well as goulash, an old traditional meat dish.
Education:
The educational system of Russia includes 2 types of education: general and professional.
General education has the following levels:
- Preschool education
- Primary general education (4 years)
- Basic general education (5 years)
- Secondary general education (2 years)
Professional education has the following levels:
- Training for professions (it is available on the basis of primary general education)
- Vocational education (3 or 4 years) (it is available on the basis of basic general education or secondary general education)
Higher education:
- Bachelor’s degree (4 years)
- Specialist degree (5 to 6 years)
- Master’s degree (2 years)
- Postgraduate education (2 to 4 years)
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
https://www.expatica.com/ru/lifestyle/food-drink/russian-cuisine-104066/
https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/russia