Russia or the Russian Federation

Important aspects, relief and climate:

If Russia is the first one in the world as surface, almost two times bigger than Canada, as about population is only the 8th in the world. Russia is only a few km away of the North American continent, represented by the U.S. state Alaska, through the Bering strait and also a few km away of Japan through the Sakhalin strait. Because Russia is big like a continent with approximately 10.000 km from west to east in length and approximately 4.000 km from north to south in width, the relief is for sure too varied.

The most part of the territory is represented by plains and the mountain chains appear especially in the Asiatic part in south and east. The Ural Mountains are the limit between the Western and Eastern parts of Russia. The climate is temperate-continental, but it varies according to the region and elevation. It’s the same with the fauna and flora. Because a big part of Russia is close to the Northern Polar Ark, the country is considered to be the coldest in the world with an annual average of the temperature between -6 and -2º C.

Mountains, peaks, rivers, lakes, islands and peninsulas from Russia:

The eastern and coldest part of Russia is called Siberia, covered with forests and tundra. The cold territories cover more than a half of the entire Russian’s surface. Among the best known mountain chains are the Caucasus Mountains between Europe and Asia in south-west with the highest peak of Russia, Elbrus Mountain at 5.642 m height, then the Ural Mountains which split the country in two parts (they have a medium elevation between 600 and 800 m), the Altay Mountains in the southern part of Russia, the Verkhoyansk Mountains in Siberia and the mountains from Kamchatka Peninsula where is the Klyuchevskaya Volcano with its 4.750 m height.

Russia is crossed by more than 100.000 rivers and also has thousands of lakes. The longest and most important rivers are: Obi- Irtâş 5.409 km, Lena 4.400 km, Amur 4.400 km, Yenisei, 4.100 km, Volga 3.530 km and Kolâma 2.130 km. Among the most important lakes are Baikal Lake which is the largest and deepest lake in the world with more than 600 km in length and a width between 15 and 80 km and the deepest point at 1.637 m, then Ladoga and Onega lakes. Russia also has many islands and peninsulas in the surrounding seas, among the largest being Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, Franz Josef archipelago, Kurile Islands archipelago, Kamchatka Peninsula, Kola Peninsula and Taimar Peninsula.

Resources and economy:

Russia was in the past the heart of a great Russian Empire, of the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. It has important natural and mineral resources, but also huge areas of arable lands. The most powerful economy is in the Western part where are the majority of the Russians who live in cities and the capital Moscow. The most important port at the Barents Sea in north is Murmansk, a naval base but also an important center of fishing and naval constructions.

Agriculture and cities from Russia:

The biggest part of the arable lands is here in the European part of Russia where agriculture is practiced and are cultivated cereals (the world’s leader as production of rye, barley and oat), feeder grains, vegetables and fruits, sugar cane and potatoes (also the world’s leader in production).

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Russians grow millions of cattle, sheep and chicken. The largest and most important Russian cities, the actual capital Moscow and the old capital of the Russian Empire of Peter the Great, Saint Petersburg are in the western part. Both cities are very important for the Russian economy. (Find more journeys on blog.worldlifetimejourneys.com)

St. Petersburg is a center of engineering, chemical substances and naval constructions and the largest port from Russia at the Baltic Sea through the Gulf of Finland. After a very long period when St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia, Moscow became again the capital of Russia in 1918. Other important Russian cities are Rostov, Krasnodar, Samara, Perm, Kazan, Yaroslavl, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok which is the eastern terminal of the longest railway in the world the Trans Siberian which connects Moscow to Vladivostok and also an important port to Japan Sea.

Relief of Siberia and the East Part:

Unfortunately on the other part of the Ural Mountains, in the Asiatic part, Russia is poor in population but rich in resources, many of them unexploited yet. Siberia, one of the coldest regions on earth has a relief composed from the Western Siberian Plain, The Central Siberian Plateau and also from Verkhoyansk Mountains and Kolâma Mountains. The Western Siberian plain with almost 2.000 km in length from west to east and 2.500 km in width from north to south, is one of the largest plains in the world. The elevation is low between 150 and 300 m height. The Central Siberian Plateau is situated in the eastern part of the plain with an elevation between 400 and 800 m and further, close to the Pacific Ocean is the beautiful but dangerous Kamchatka Peninsula where are many active volcanoes and the seismic activity is intense.

Resources,  population and other aspects about Siberia and the East Part of Russia:

The vegetation is also very diverse, from steppe and arable lands in south to the northern territory where the area is covered with tundra. Between the two is a taiga region with coniferous forests. As about the population of Russia, with more than 140 millions of people, it is a mix of nationalities with Russians of more than 80% and the rests are Tartars, Ukrainians, Armenians and many other nationalities. Unfortunately the sanitary and teaching systems are in decline and the standard of living is lower and lower.

As we mentioned before, Russia has important mineral and natural resources that contribute significantly to the national economy. The largest ones are the resources of oil (on the 8th place in the world), natural gases (on the 1st place in the world), coal (on the 2nd place in the world) and timber (In Siberia is the largest forest in the world, the Siberian taiga). Russia is also a world’s leader as the production of electricity and on the 4th place in the world as production of nuclear energy. The 1st man that arrived in space was the Russian Yuri Gagarin and as about culture and music Russia is very known in the world. Visit Russia!