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Russia"Russian Federation" redirects here. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was also alternatively calledthe "Russian Federation".Coordinates: 60N 90E [1]

Russian Federation Rossiyskaya Federatsiya

Flag Coat of arms

Anthem:" "

"Gosudarstvenny gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii"(transliteration)"State Anthem of the Russian Federation"

Russia proper (dark green)Recently annexed Crimean peninsula (internationally viewed as territory of Ukraine, but de facto administered by Russia) (light green)

Capitaland largest city

Moscow5545N 3737E [2]

Official languages Russian official throughout the country; 27 other languages co-official in variousregions

Ethnicgroups (2010) 81.0% Russian 3.7% Tatar 1.4% Ukrainian 1.1% Bashkir 1.0% Chuvash 0.8% Chechen 11.0% others/ unspecified

Demonym Russians (Rossiyane)

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Government Federal semi-presidential constitutional republic

- President Vladimir Putin

- Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

- Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko

- Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin

Legislature Federal Assembly

- Upper house Federation Council

- Lower house State Duma

Formation

- Kievan Rus' 862

- Grand Duchy of Moscow 1283

- Tsardom of Russia 16 January 1547

- Russian Empire 22 October 1721

- Russian SFSR 6 November 1917

- Soviet Union 10 December 1922

- Russian Federation 25 December 1991

- Adoption of the current Constitution ofRussia

12 December 1993

Area

- Total 17,098,242 (Crimea not included)km2 (1st)6,592,800 (Crimea not included)sqmi

- Water(%) 13(including swamps)

Population

- 2014estimate 143,700,000 (9th)

- Density 8.4/km2 (217th)21.5/sqmi

GDP(PPP) 2013estimate

- Total $2556 billion (6th)

- Per capita $17,884 (57th)

GDP(nominal) 2013estimate

- Total $2118 billion (8th)

- Per capita $14,818 (49th)

Gini(2011) 41.7medium 83rd

HDI (2013) 0.788high 55th

Currency Russian ruble (RUB)

Time zone (UTC+3 to +12a)

Date format dd.mm.yyyy

Drives on the right

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Calling code +7

ISO 3166 code RU

Internet TLD .ru .su .

a. Excluding +5.

Russia i/r/ or /r/ (Russian: , tr. Rossiya, IPA:[rsij]( )), officially known as the RussianFederation[3] (Russian: , tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, IPA:[rsijskj fdratsj]( )), isa country situated in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic. From northwest to southeast, Russiashares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both with Kaliningrad Oblast),Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It shares maritime borderswith Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait and Canada's Arctic islands. At17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800sqmi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more thanone-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the world's ninth most populous nation with 143millionpeople as of 2012.[4] Extending across the entirety of northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans ninetime zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms.The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval stateof Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning thesynthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimatelydisintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion andbecame tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde.[5] The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified thesurrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate thecultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest,annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretchingfrom Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.[6]

Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leadingconstituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower, whichplayed a decisive role in the Allied victory in World WarII.[7] The Soviet era saw some of the most significanttechnological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite, and the first man inspace. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the RussianFederation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Union state.The Russian economy ranks as the eighth largest by nominal GDP and fifth largest by purchasing power parity.[8]

Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, have made it one of the largestproducers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states andpossesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is a great power and a permanent member ofthe United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Community, the Organisation forSecurity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the leading member ofthe Commonwealth of Independent States.

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EtymologyMain articles: Rus' people and Rus (name)The name Russia is derived from Rus, a medieval state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this propername became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "" (russkaya zemlya), which can be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'". In order to distinguish thisstate from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography. The name Rus itselfcomes from Rus people, a group of Varangians (possibly Swedish Vikings) who founded the state of Rus ().An old Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus' thatwere adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, (Rossiya), comes from the ByzantineGreek designation of the Kievan Rus', Rossaspelt (Rosa pronounced[rosia]) in Modern Greek.The standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is as "Russians" (Rossiyane).

HistoryMain article: History of Russia

Early periodsFurther information: Eurasian nomads, Scythia, Bosporan Kingdom, Goths, Khazars and East Slavs

Kurgan hypothesis: South Russia as the urheimatof Indo-European peoples

In prehistoric times the vast steppes of Southern Russia were home totribes of nomadic pastoralists. Remnants of these steppe civilizationswere discovered in such places as Ipatovo, Sintashta, Arkaim, andPazyryk, which bear the earliest known traces of mounted warfare, akey feature in the nomadic way of life.

In classical antiquity, the Pontic Steppe was known as Scythia. Sincethe 8th century BC, Ancient Greek traders brought their civilization tothe trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria. The Romans settled onthe western part of the Caspian Sea, where their empire stretchedtowards the east. In 3rd 4th centuries AD a semi-legendary Gothickingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia till it was overrun by Huns. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, theBosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadicinvasions led by warlike tribes, such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars. A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the lowerVolga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.

The ancestors of modern Russians are the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some scholars to havebeen the wooded areas of the Pinsk Marshes. The East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: onemoving from Kiev toward present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov.From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia and slowlybut peacefully assimilated the native Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Merya, the Muromians, and the Meshchera.

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Kievan Rus'Main articles: Rus' Khaganate, Kievan Rus' and List of early East Slavic states

Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th centurycoincided with the arrival of Varangians, the traders, warriors andsettlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were Vikings ofScandinavian origin, who ventured along the waterways extendingfrom the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According tothe Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from Rus' people, named Rurik,was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882 his successor Olegventured south and conquered Kiev, which had been previously payingtribute to the Khazars, founding Kievan Rus'. Oleg, Rurik's son Igorand Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavictribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launchedseveral military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.

In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest andmost prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (9801015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise(10191054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity fromByzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and thePechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north,particularly to the area known as Zalesye.

The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constantin-fighting between members of the Rurik Dynasty that ruled KievanRus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit ofVladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in thenorth-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.

Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated, with the final blow being theMongol invasion of 123740, that resulted in the destruction of Kievand the death of about half the population of Rus'. The invadingMongol elite, together with their conquered Turkic subjects (Cumans,Kipchaks, Bulgars) became known as Tatars, formed the state of the

Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities; the Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation andVolga Bulgaria (modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia) for over two centuries.

Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while the Mongol-dominatedVladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modernRussian nation. The Novgorod together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongolyoke and were largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky,Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders inthe Battle of the Ice in 1242, breaking their attempts to colonize the Northern Rus'.

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Grand Duchy of MoscowMain article: Grand Duchy of Moscow

Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy inTrinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of

Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

The most powerful successor state to Kievan Rus' was the GrandDuchy of Moscow ("Moscovy" in the Western chronicles), initially apart of Vladimir-Suzdal. While still under the domain of theMongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert itsinfluence in the Central Rus' in the early 14th century, graduallybecoming the main leading force in the process of the Rus' lands'reunification and expansion of Russia.

Those were hard times, with frequent Mongol-Tatar raids andagriculture suffering from the beginning of the Little Ice Age. As in therest of Europe, plagues hit Russia somewhere once every five or sixyears from 1350 to 1490. However, because of the lower populationdensity and better hygiene (widespread practicing of banya, the wet steam bath),[9] the population loss caused byplagues was not so severe as in the Western Europe, and the pre-Plague populations were reached in Russia as earlyas 1500.[10]

Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow and helped by the Russian Orthodox Church, the united army of Russianprincipalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow graduallyabsorbed the surrounding principalities, including the formerly strong rivals, such as Tver and Novgorod.

IvanIII ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde, consolidated the whole of Central andNorthern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first to take the title "Grand Duke of all the Russias". After thefall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. IvanIIImarried Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor ConstantineXI, and made the Byzantinedouble-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russian, coat-of-arms.

Tsardom of RussiaMain article: Tsardom of Russia

Tsar Ivan the Terrible by VictorVasnetsov

In development of the Third Rome ideas, the Grand Duke IvanIV (the"Terrible")[11] was officially crowned the first Tsar ("Caesar") of Russia in 1547.The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established thefirst Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and introduced localself-management into the rural regions.

During his long reign, Ivan the Terrible nearly doubled the already large Russianterritory by annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of disintegrated GoldenHorde): Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga River, and Sibirean Khanate inSouthwestern Siberia. Thus by the end of the 16th century Russia wastransformed into a multiethnic, multidenominational and transcontinental state.

However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful LivonianWar against the coalition of Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for access to theBaltic coast and sea trade. At the same time the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate,the only remaining successor to the Golden Horde, continued to raid Southern Russia. In an effort to restore theVolga khanates, Crimeans and their Ottoman allies invaded central Russia and were even able to burn down parts of

Moscow in 1571. But next year the large invading army was thoroughly defeated by Russians in the Battle of Molodi, forever eliminating the threat of the Ottoman-Crimean expansion into Russia. The slave raids of Crimeans,

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however, didn't cease until the late 17th century, though the construction of new fortification lines across SouthernRussia, such as the Great Abatis Line, constantly narrowed the area accessible to incursions.

Monument to Minin and Pozharskyin Moscow

The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik Dynasty in 1598,and in combination with the famine of 160103 led to the civil war, the rule ofpretenders and foreign intervention during the Time of Troubles in the early 17thcentury. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied parts of Russia, includingMoscow. In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteercorps, led by two national heroes, merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince DmitryPozharsky. The Romanov Dynasty acceded the throne in 1613 by the decision ofZemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.

Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was theage of Cossacks. Cossacks were warriors organized into military communities,resembling pirates and pioneers of the New World. In 1648, the peasants ofUkraine joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks in rebellion against Poland-Lithuaniaduring the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppressionthey suffered under Polish rule. In 1654, the Ukrainian leader, BohdanKhmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian Tsar,AlekseyI. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War(16541667). Finally, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper River, leaving the western part, right-bank Ukraine, underPolish rule and eastern part (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian. Later, in 167071 the Don Cossacks led byStenka Razin initiated a major uprising in the Volga Region, but the Tsar's troops were successful in defeating therebels.

In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly byCossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian RiverRoutes, and by the mid-17th century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula,along the Amur River, and on the Pacific coast. In 1648, the Bering Strait between Asia and North America waspassed for the first time by Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov.

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Imperial RussiaMain article: Russian Empire

Peter the Great, the first Emperor of Russia

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721 andbecame recognized as a world power. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peterdefeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede WestKarelia and Ingria (two regions lost by Russia in the Time ofTroubles), as well as Estland and Livland, securing Russia's access tothe sea and sea trade. On the Baltic Sea Peter founded a new capitalcalled Saint Petersburg, later known as Russia's "Window to Europe".Peter the Great's reforms brought considerable Western Europeancultural influences to Russia.

The reign of PeterI's daughter Elizabeth in 174162 saw Russia'sparticipation in the Seven Years' War (175663). During this conflictRussia annexed East Prussia for a while and even took Berlin.However, upon Elisabeth's death, all these conquests were returned toKingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian PeterIII of Russia.

CatherineII ("the Great"), who ruled in 176296, presided over theAge of Russian Enlightenment. She extended Russian political controlover the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and incorporated most of its territories into Russia during the Partitionsof Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In the south, after successful Russo-TurkishWars against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, defeating the CrimeanKhanate. As a result of victories over the Ottomans, by the early 19th century Russia also made significant territorialgains in Transcaucasia. This continued with AlexanderI's (180125) wresting of Finland from the weakenedkingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time Russians colonizedAlaska and even founded settlements in California, like Fort Ross.

In 18031806, the first Russian circumnavigation was made, later followed by other notable Russian sea explorationvoyages. In 1820 a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.

The Russian Empire in 1866 and its spheres ofinfluence

In alliances with various European countries, Russia fought againstNapoleon's France. The French invasion of Russia at the height ofNapoleon's power in 1812 failed miserably as the obstinate resistancein combination with the bitterly cold Russian Winter led to a disastrousdefeat of invaders, in which more than 95% of the pan-EuropeanGrande Arme perished. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Barclay deTolly, the Russian army ousted Napoleon from the country and drovethrough Europe in the war of the Sixth Coalition, finally entering Paris.AlexanderI headed Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna thatdefined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.

The officers of the Napoleonic Wars brought ideas of liberalism backto Russia with them and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers duringthe abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. At the end of the conservativereign of NicolasI (182555), a zenith period of Russia's power andinfluence in Europe was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War. Between 1847 and 1851, a massive wave of Asiaticcholera swept over Russia, claiming about one million lives.[12]

Nicholas's successor AlexanderII (185581) enacted significant changes in the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861. These Great Reforms spurred industrialization and modernized the Russian army, which had

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successfully liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 187778 Russo-Turkish War.The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. AlexanderII was killed in 1881 byrevolutionary terrorists, and the reign of his son AlexanderIII (188194) was less liberal but more peaceful. The lastRussian Emperor, NicholasII (18941917), was unable to prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905,triggered by the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday. Theuprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms, including granting the freedoms ofspeech and assembly, the legalization of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the StateDuma of the Russian Empire. Migration to Siberia increased rapidly in the early 20th century, particularly during theStolypin agrarian reform. Between 1906 and 1914 more than four million settlers arrived in that region.[13]

In 1914, Russia entered World WarI in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia, andfought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies. In 1916, the Brusilov Offensive of theRussian Army almost completely destroyed the military of Austria-Hungary. However, the already-existing publicdistrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties, and rumors of corruption and treason.All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts.

Revolution and Russian RepublicMain articles: February Revolution, Russian Provisional Government and Russian Republic

Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Great OctoberSocialist Revolution

The February Revolution forced NicholasII to abdicate; he and hisfamily were imprisoned and later executed during the Russian CivilWar. The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of politicalparties that declared itself the Provisional Government. An alternativesocialist establishment existed alongside, the Petrograd Soviet,wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workersand peasants, called Soviets. The rule of the new authorities onlyaggravated the crisis in the country, instead of resolving it. Eventually,the October Revolution, led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin,overthrew the Provisional Government and gave full governing powerto the Soviets, leading to the creation of the world's first socialist state.

Soviet Russia and civil war

Main articles: October Revolution, Russian Civil War and RussianSoviet Federative Socialist Republic

See also: Soviet Russia (disambiguation) and Russian Constitution of 1918

The symbols of the early Soviet era: Tatlin'sTower project and the giant Worker and Kolkhoz

Woman sculpture group

Following the October Revolution, a civil war broke out between theanti-Communist White movement and the new Soviet regime with itsRed Army. Bolshevist Russia lost its Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic, andFinnish territories by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk thatconcluded hostilities with the Central Powers of World WarI. TheAllied powers launched an unsuccessful military intervention insupport of anti-Communist forces. In the meantime both theBolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns ofdeportations and executions against each other, known respectively asthe Red Terror and White Terror. By the end of the civil war, the

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Russian economy and its infrastructure were heavily damaged. Millions became White migrs,[14] and thePovolzhye famine of 1921 claimed up to 5million victims.[15]

Soviet UnionMain article: Soviet UnionSee also: Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and History of the Soviet Union

The Russian SFSR as a part of the USSR in1922-1936, before 1936 intra-Soviet territorial

changes.

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (called RussianSocialist Federative Soviet Republic at the time) together with theUkrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasion Soviet SocialistRepublics, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), orSoviet Union, on 30 December 1922. Out of the 15 republics thatwould make up the USSR, the largest in size and over half of the totalUSSR population was the Russian SFSR, which came to dominate theunion for its entire 69-year history.

Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika was designated to govern theSoviet Union. However, Joseph Stalin, an elected General Secretary ofthe Communist Party, managed to suppress all opposition groupswithin the party and consolidate power in his hands. Leon Trotsky, the main proponent of world revolution, wasexiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became the primary line. Thecontinued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repressions in193738, during which hundreds of thousands of people were executed, including original party members andmilitary leaders accused of coup d'tat plots.[16]

Soviet T-34/76s and infantry advance past adestroyed Panzer IV. Kharkov, August 1943

Under Stalin's leadership, the government launched a plannedeconomy, industrialisation of the largely rural country, andcollectivization of its agriculture. During this period of rapid economicand social change, millions of people were sent to penal laborcamps,[17] including many political convicts for their opposition toStalin's rule; millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of theSoviet Union. The transitional disorganisation of the country'sagriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led tothe Soviet famine of 19321933.[18] The Soviet Union, though with a

heavy price, was transformed from a largely agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in a short span oftime.

The Appeasement policy of Great Britain and France towards Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria andCzechoslovakia did not stem an increase in the power of Nazi Germany and put a threat of war to the Soviet Union.Around the same time the Third Reich allied with the Empire of Japan, a rival of the USSR in the Far East and anopen enemy of the USSR in the SovietJapanese Border Wars in 193839.

In August 1939, after another failure of attempts to establish an anti-Nazi alliance with Britain and France, the Sovietgovernment decided to improve relations with Germany by concluding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, pledgingnon-aggression between the two countries and dividing their spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. While Hitlerconquered Poland, France and other countries actied on single front at the start of World WarII, the USSR was ableto build up its military and claim some of the former territories of the Russian Empire as a result of the Sovietinvasion of Poland, Winter War and the occupation of the Baltic states.On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany broke the non-aggression treaty and invaded the Soviet Union with the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history, opening the largest theater of World WarII. Although the German

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army had considerable early success, their attack was halted in the Battle of Moscow. Subsequently the Germanswere dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 194243, and then in the Battle of Kursk inthe summer of 1943. Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded onland between 194144 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, butnever surrendered.[19] Under Stalin's administration and the leadership of such commanders as Georgy Zhukov andKonstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet forces took Eastern Europe in 194445 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August1945 the Soviet Army ousted the Japanese from China's Manchukuo and North Korea, contributing to the alliedvictory over Japan.

First human to travel into space, Yuri Gagarin

The 194145 period of World WarII is known in Russia as the "GreatPatriotic War". During this conflict, which included many of the mostlethal battle operations in human history, Soviet military and civiliandeaths were 10.6million and 15.9million respectively, accounting forabout a third of all World WarII casualties. The full demographic lossto the Soviet peoples was even greater.[20] The Soviet economy andinfrastructure suffered massive devastation, but the Soviet Unionemerged as an acknowledged military superpower on the continent.

The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe after the war, including EastGermany. Dependent socialist governments were installed in theEastern Bloc satellite states. Becoming the world's second nuclearweapons power, the USSR established the Warsaw Pact alliance andentered into a struggle for global dominance, known as the Cold War,with the United States and NATO. The Soviet Union supportedrevolutionary movements across the world, including the newly formedPeople's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic ofKorea and, later on, the Republic of Cuba. Significant amounts of theSoviet resources were allocated in aid to the other socialist states.[21]

After Stalin's death and a short period of collective rule, new leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the cult ofpersonality of Stalin and launched the policy of de-Stalinization. The penal labor system was reformed and manyprisoners were released and rehabilitated (many of them posthumously). The general easement of repressive policiesbecame known later as the Khrushchev Thaw. At the same time, tensions with the United States heightened when thetwo rivals clashed over the deployment of the U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik1, thus starting the Space Age.Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok1 manned spacecraft on 12April 1961.

Sputnik1 was the world's first artificial satellite

Following the ousting of Khrushchev in 1964, another period ofcollective rule ensued, until Leonid Brezhnev became the leader. Theera of the 1970s and the early 1980s was designated later as the Era ofStagnation, a period when the economic growth slowed and socialpolicies became static. The 1965 Kosygin reform aimed for partialdecentralization of the Soviet economy and shifted the emphasis fromheavy industry and weapons to light industry and consumer goods butwas stifled by the conservative Communist leadership.

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In 1979, after a Communist-led revolution in Afghanistan, Soviet forces entered that country at request of the newregime. The occupation drained economic resources and dragged on without achieving meaningful political results.Ultimately the Soviet Army was withdrawn from Afghanistan in 1989 due to international opposition, persistentanti-Soviet guerilla warfare, and a lack of support by Soviet citizens.From 1985 onwards, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who sought to enact liberal reforms in the Sovietsystem, introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to end the periodof economic stagnation and to democratise the government. This, however, led to the rise of strong nationalist andseparatist movements. Prior to 1991, the Soviet economy was the second largest in the world, but during its lastyears it was afflicted by shortages of goods in grocery stores, huge budget deficits, and explosive growth in moneysupply leading to inflation.By 1991, economic and political turmoil began to boil over, as the Baltic republics chose to secede from the Union.On 17 March, a referendum was held, to which the vast majority of participating citizens voted in favour ofpreserving the Soviet Union as a renewed federation. In August 1991, a coup d'tat attempt by members ofGorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to theend of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Despite the will expressed by the people, on 25 December 1991,the USSR was dissolved into 15 post-Soviet states.

Russian FederationMain article: History of Russia (1992present)

Moscow International Business Center underconstruction

Boris Yeltsin was elected the President of Russia in June 1991, in thefirst direct presidential election in Russian history. During and after theSoviet disintegration, wide-ranging reforms including privatization andmarket and trade liberalization were undertaken, including radicalchanges along the lines of "shock therapy" as recommended by theUnited States and International Monetary Fund. All this resulted in amajor economic crisis, characterized by 50% decline of both GDP andindustrial output between 199095.

The privatization largely shifted control of enterprises from stateagencies to individuals with inside connections in the government.Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of thecountry in an enormous capital flight. The depression of the economyled to the collapse of social services; the birth rate plummeted whilethe death rate skyrocketed. Millions plunged into poverty, from 1.5%level of poverty in the late Soviet era, to 3949% by mid-1993. The1990s saw extreme corruption and lawlessness, the rise of criminalgangs and violent crime.

The 1990s were plagued by armed conflicts in the North Caucasus, both local ethnic skirmishes and separatistIslamist insurrections. From the time Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittentguerrilla war has been fought between the rebel groups and the Russian military. Terrorist attacks against civilianscarried out by separatists, most notably the Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school siege, caused hundredsof deaths and drew worldwide attention.

Russia took up the responsibility for settling the USSR's external debts, even though its population made up just halfof the population of the USSR at the time of its dissolution. High budget deficits caused the 1998 Russian financialcrisis and resulted in a further GDP decline.

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On 31 December 1999, President Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned, handing the post to the recently appointed PrimeMinister, Vladimir Putin, who then won the 2000 presidential election. Putin suppressed the Chechen insurgency,although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the Northern Caucasus. High oil prices and the initially weakcurrency followed by increasing domestic demand, consumption, and investments has helped the economy grow fornine straight years, improving the standard of living and increasing Russia's influence on the world stage. Whilemany reforms made during the Putin presidency have been generally criticized by Western nations as un-democratic,Putin's leadership over the return of order, stability, and progress has won him widespread admiration in Russia.On 2 March 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected President of Russia, whilst Putin became Prime Minister. Putinreturned to the presidency following the 2012 presidential elections, and Medvedev was appointed Prime Minister.In 2014, after Viktor Yanukovich government of neighboring Ukraine collapsed as a result of the 2014 Ukrainianrevolution, Russia took opportunity and after a series of unprecedented moves, including Russian parliamentauthorization to use Russian military in Ukraine and internationally contested referendum on the Crimeanpeninsula,[22][23][24][25] Russian leadership proclaimed incorporation of Crimea into Russia, a move internationallycondemned as illegal annexation. On 27 March the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of anon-binding resolution opposing Russian annexation of Crimea.[26]

PoliticsMain article: Politics of Russia

Governance

Moscow Kremlin, the working residence of thePresident of Russia

According to the Constitution of Russia, the country is a federation andsemi-presidential republic, wherein the President is the head of stateand the Prime Minister is the head of government. The RussianFederation is fundamentally structured as a multi-party representativedemocracy, with the federal government composed of three branches:

Legislative: The bicameral Federal Assembly of Russia, made up ofthe 450-member State Duma and the 166-member FederationCouncil, adopts federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has thepower of the purse and the power of impeachment of the President.

Executive: The President is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ofthe Armed Forces, can veto legislative bills before they become law,and appoints the Government of Russia (Cabinet) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws andpolicies.

Judiciary: The Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Arbitration and lower federal courts,whose judges are appointed by the Federation Council on the recommendation of the President, interpret laws andcan overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.

The president is elected by popular vote for a six-year term (eligible for a second term, but not for a thirdconsecutive term). Ministries of the government are composed of the Premier and his deputies, ministers, andselected other individuals; all are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister (whereasthe appointment of the latter requires the consent of the State Duma). Leading political parties in Russia includeUnited Russia, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and A Just Russia. The Democracy Index rankedRussia as the 122nd most democratic country in the world in 2013, and the World Justice Project ranked Russia 80thof 99 countries surveyed in terms of rule of law.

Russia 14

Foreign relationsMain article: Foreign relations of Russia

As a transcontinental country, Russia is a member of both the Council of Europe (COE)and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue.

Russian Federation became the 39th memberstate of the Council of Europe on 28 February

1996

Member states, observers and partners of theShanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Russian Federation is recognizedin international law as a successor stateof the former Soviet Union. Russiacontinues to implement theinternational commitments of theUSSR, and has assumed the USSR'spermanent seat in the UN SecurityCouncil, membership in otherinternational organisations, the rightsand obligations under internationaltreaties, and property and debts. Russiahas a multifaceted foreign policy. Asof 2009, it maintains diplomaticrelations with 191 countries and has144 embassies. The foreign policy isdetermined by the President andimplemented by the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Russia.

As the successor to a formersuperpower, Russia's geopoliticalstatus has been often debated,particularly in relation to unipolar andmultipolar views on the global politicalsystem. While Russia is commonlyaccepted to be a great power, in recentyears it has been characterized by anumber of world leaders,[27][28]

scholars,[29] commentators andpoliticians[30] as a currently reinstatingor potential superpower.[31][32][33]

As one of five permanent members ofthe UN Security Council, Russia playsa major role in maintaininginternational peace and security. Thecountry participates in the Quartet onthe Middle East and the Six-party talkswith North Korea. Russia is a memberof the G8 industrialized nations, theCouncil of Europe, OSCE, and APEC.Russia usually takes a leading role inregional organisations such as the CIS, EurAsEC, CSTO, and the SCO.[34] Russia became the 39th member state ofthe Council of Europe in 1996.[35] In 1998, Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. The legal

Russia 15

basis for EU relations with Russia is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which came into force in 1997.The Agreement recalls the parties' shared respect for democracy and human rights, political and economic freedomand commitment to international peace and security.[36] In May 2003, the EU and Russia agreed to reinforce theircooperation on the basis of common values and shared interests.[37] Former President Vladimir Putin had advocateda strategic partnership with close integration in various dimensions including establishment of EU-Russia CommonSpaces. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has developed a friendlier relationship with the UnitedStates and NATO. The NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002 to allow the United States, Russia and the 27allies in NATO to work together as equal partners to pursue opportunities for joint collaboration.

Leaders of the BRIC nations in 2008: (l-r)Manmohan Singh of India, Dmitry Medvedev ofRussia, Hu Jintao of China and Luiz Incio Lula

da Silva of Brazil

Russia maintains strong and positive relations with other BRICcountries. India is the largest customer of Russian military equipmentand the two countries share extensive defense and strategic relations. Inrecent years, the country has sought to strengthen ties especially withthe People's Republic of China by signing the Treaty of Friendship aswell as building the Trans-Siberian oil pipeline geared toward growingChinese energy needs.

An important aspect of Russia's relations with the West is the criticismof Russia's political system and human rights management by theWestern governments, the mass media and the leading democracy andhuman rights watchdogs. In particular, such organisations as theAmnesty International and Human Rights Watch consider Russia to

have not enough democratic attributes and to allow few political rights and civil liberties to its citizens.[38] FreedomHouse, an international organisation funded by the United States, ranks Russia as "not free", citing "carefullyengineered elections" and "absence" of debate. Russian authorities dismiss these claims and especially criticiseFreedom House. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the 2006 Freedom in the World report"prefabricated", stating that the human rights issues have been turned into a political weapon in particular by theUnited States. The ministry also claims that such organisations as Freedom House and Human Rights Watch use thesame scheme of voluntary extrapolation of "isolated facts that of course can be found in any country" into dominanttendencies.

MilitaryMain article: Russian Armed Forces

2010 Moscow Victory Day Parade

The Russian military is divided into the Ground Forces, Navy, and Air Force.There are also three independent arms of service: Strategic Missile Troops,Aerospace Defence Forces, and the Airborne Troops. In 2006, the military had1.037million personnel on active duty. It is mandatory for all male citizens aged1827 to be drafted for a year of service in Armed Forces.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. It has thesecond largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines and is the only country apartfrom the United States with a modern strategic bomber force.[39] Russia's tankforce is the largest in the world, its surface navy and air force are among thelargest ones.

The country has a large and fully indigenous arms industry, producing most of itsown military equipment with only few types of weapons imported. Russia is theworld's top supplier of arms, a spot it has held since 2001, accounting for around30% of worldwide weapons sales and exporting weapons to about 80 countries.

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The Russian government's published 2014 military budget is about 2.49 trillion rubles (approximately US$69.3billion), the third largest in the world behind the US and China. The official budget is set to rise to 3.03 trillion rubles(approximately US$83.7 billion) in 2015, and 3.36 trillion rubles (approximately US$93.9 billion) in 2016.However, unofficial estimates put the budget significantly higher, for example the Stockholm International PeaceResearch Institute (SIPRI) 2013 Military Expenditure Database estimated Russia's military expenditure in 2012 atUS$90.749 billion. This estimate is an increase of more than US$18 billion on SIPRI's estimate of the Russianmilitary budget for 2011 (US$71.9 billion). As of 2014, Russia's military budget is higher than any other Europeannation.According to 2012 Global Peace Index, Russia is the sixth least peaceful out of 162 countries in the world,principally because of its defense industry. Russia has historically ranked low on the index since its inception in2007.

Political divisionsMain article: Subdivisions of Russia

Federal subjectsAccording to the Constitution, the country comprises eighty-five federal subjects, including the Republic of Crimeaand the federal city of Sevastopol, whose recent establishment is internationally disputed and criticized as illegalannexation. In 1993, when the Constitution was adopted, there were eighty-nine federal subjects listed, but latersome of them were merged. These subjects have equal representationtwo delegates eachin the FederationCouncil. However, they differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy. 46 oblasts (provinces): most common type of federal subjects, with locally elected governor and legislature. 22 republics: nominally autonomous; each is tasked with drafting its own constitution, direct-elected[] head of

republic[40] or a similar post, and parliament. Republics are allowed to establish their own official language

Russia 17

alongside Russian but are represented by the federal government in international affairs. Republics are meant tobe home to specific ethnic minorities.

9 krais (territories): essentially the same as oblasts. The "territory" designation is historic, originally given tofrontier regions and later also to the administrative divisions that comprised autonomous okrugs or autonomousoblasts.

4 autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts): originally autonomous entities within oblasts and krais created forethnic minorities, their status was elevated to that of federal subjects in the 1990s. With the exception ofChukotka Autonomous Okrug, all autonomous okrugs are still administratively subordinated to a krai or an oblastof which they are a part.

1 autonomous oblast (the Jewish Autonomous Oblast): historically, autonomous oblasts were administrative unitssubordinated to krais. In 1990, all of them except for the Jewish AO were elevated in status to that of a republic.

3 federal cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol): major cities that function as separate regions.Further information: Political status of Crimea and Sevastopol and 2014 Crimean crisisFederal districtsFederal subjects are grouped into nine federal districts, each administered by an envoy appointed by the President ofRussia.[41] Unlike the federal subjects, the federal districts are not a subnational level of government, but are a levelof administration of the federal government. Federal districts' envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjectsand the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects withthe federal laws.

GeographyMain article: Geography of RussiaSee also: List of Russian explorers

The topography of Russia

Russia is the largest country in the world; its total area is 17,075,400square kilometres (6,592,800sqmi). There are 23 UNESCO WorldHeritage Sites in Russia, 40 UNESCO biosphere reserves, 41 nationalparks and 101 nature reserves. It lies between latitudes 41 and 82 N,and longitudes 19 E and 169 W.

Russias Territorial expansion was achieved largely in the late 16thcentury under the Cossack, Yermak Timofeyevich, during the reign ofIvan the Terrible, at a time when competing city-states in the westernregions of Russia had banded together to form one country. Yermakmustered an army and pushed eastward, where he conquered nearly all the lands once belonging to the Mongols,defeating their ruler, Khan Kuchum.[42]

Russia has a wide natural resource base, including major deposits of timber, petroleum, natural gas, coal, ores andother mineral resources.

TopographyThe two widest separated points in Russia are about 8,000km (4,971mi) apart along a geodesic line. These pointsare: the boundary with Poland on a 60km (37mi) long Vistula Spit separating the Gdask Bay from the VistulaLagoon; and the farthest southeast of the Kuril Islands. The points which are furthest separated in longitude are6,600km (4,101mi) apart along a geodesic line. These points are: in the west, the same spit; in the east, the BigDiomede Island. The Russian Federation spans 9 time zones.

Russia 18

Mount Elbrus, the highest point of the Caucasus,Russia and Europe

Most of Russia consists of vast stretches of plains that arepredominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north,with tundra along the northern coast. Russia possesses 10% of theworld's arable land. Mountain ranges are found along the southernborders, such as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, which at5,642m (18,510ft) is the highest point in both Russia and Europe) andthe Altai (containing Mount Belukha, which at the 4,506m (14,783ft)is the highest point of Siberia outside of the Russian Far East); and inthe eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes ofKamchatka Peninsula (containing Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at the4,750m (15,584ft) is the highest active volcano in Eurasia as well asthe highest point of Asian Russia). The Ural Mountains, rich in mineralresources, form a north-south range that divides Europe and Asia.

Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000km (22,991mi) along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well asalong the Baltic Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea,East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan are linked to Russia via the Arcticand Pacific. Russia's major islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Land, the SevernayaZemlya, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. The Diomede Islands (onecontrolled by Russia, the other by the U.S.) are just 3km (1.9mi) apart, and Kunashir Island is about 20km(12.4mi) from Hokkaido, Japan.

Central Russian Upland near Zaraysk, MoscowOblast

Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing itwith one of the world's largest surface water resources. Its lakescontain approximately one-quarter of the world's liquid fresh water.The largest and most prominent of Russia's bodies of fresh water isLake Baikal, the world's deepest, purest, oldest and most capaciousfresh water lake. Baikal alone contains over one-fifth of the world'sfresh surface water. Other major lakes include Ladoga and Onega, twoof the largest lakes in Europe. Russia is second only to Brazil involume of the total renewable water resources. Of the country's100,000 rivers, the Volga is the most famous, not only because it is thelongest river in Europe, but also because of its major role in Russianhistory. The Siberian rivers Ob, Yenisey, Lena and Amur are amongthe longest rivers in the world.

Climate

Main article: Climate of Russia

Russia 19

Taiga forest in winter, Arkhangelsk Oblast

The enormous size of Russia and the remoteness of many areas fromthe sea result in the dominance of the humid continental climate, whichis prevalent in all parts of the country except for the tundra and theextreme southeast. Mountains in the south obstruct the flow of warmair masses from the Indian Ocean, while the plain of the west and northmakes 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(mostly the Sakha Republic, where the Northern Pole of Cold islocated with the record low temperature of 71.2C or 96.2F), and

more moderate elsewhere. The strip of land along the shore of the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Russian Arcticislands, have a polar climate.

The coastal part of Krasnodar Krai on the Black Sea, most notably in Sochi, possesses a humid subtropical climatewith mild and wet winters. Winter is dry compared to summer in many regions of East Siberia and the Far East,while other parts of the country experience more even precipitation across seasons. Winter precipitation in most partsof the country usually falls as snow. The region along the Lower Volga and Caspian Sea coast, as well as some areasof southernmost Siberia, possesses a semi-arid climate.

Climate data for Russia (records)

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year

Record high C(F)

22.2(72)

23.8(74.8)

30.3(86.5)

34.0(93.2)

37.7(99.9)

43.2(109.8)

45.4(113.7)

43.5(110.3)

41.5(106.7)

33.7(92.7)

29.1(84.4)

25.0(77)

45.4(113.7)

Record low C(F)

71.2(96.2)

64.4(83.9)

60.6(77.1)

46.4(51.5)

28.9(20)

9.7(14.5)

9.3(15.3)

17.1(1.2)

25.3(13.5)

47.6(53.7)

58.5(73.3)

62.8(81)

71.2(96.2)

Source: Pogoda.ru.net

Throughout much of the territory there are only two distinct seasonswinter and summeras spring and autumnare usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures and extremely high. The coldest month isJanuary (February on the coastline), the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. In winter,temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot, even in Siberia.The continental interiors are the driest areas.

Russia 20

BiodiversityMain articles: List of ecoregions in Russia, List of mammals of Russia and List of birds of Russia

The brown bear is a popular symbolof Russia, particularly in the West.

From north to south the East European Plain, also known as Russian Plain, isclad sequentially in Arctic tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broad-leafforests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert (fringing the Caspian Sea), as thechanges in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. Siberia supports a similarsequence but is largely taiga. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves,known as "the lungs of Europe", second only to the Amazon Rainforest in theamount of carbon dioxide it absorbs.

There are 266 mammal species and 780 bird species in Russia. A total of 415animal species have been included in the Red Data Book of the RussianFederation as of 1997 and are now protected.

Economy

Main articles: Economy of Russia and Timeline of largest projects in the Russianeconomy

World Trade Center in Moscow

Russia has a market economy with enormous natural resources,particularly oil and natural gas. It has the 8th largest economy in theworld by nominal GDP and the 6th largest by purchasing power parity(PPP). Since the turn of the 21st century, higher domestic consumptionand greater political stability have bolstered economic growth inRussia. The country ended 2008 with its ninth straight year of growth,averaging 7% annually between 2000 and 2008. Real GDP per capita,PPP (current international) was 19,840 in 2010. Growth was primarilydriven by non-traded services and goods for the domestic market, asopposed to oil or mineral extraction and exports. The average nominal salary in Russia was $967 per month in early2013, up from $80 in 2000.[43] In March 2014 the average nominal monthly wages reached 30,000 RUR (orUS$980), while tax on the income of individuals is payable at the rate of 13% on most incomes. Approximately12.8% of Russians lived below the national poverty line in 2011, significantly down from 40% in 1998 at the worstpoint of the post-Soviet collapse. Unemployment in Russia was at 5.4% in 2014, down from about 12.4% in 1999.The middle class has grown from just 8million persons in 2000 to 104million persons in 2013.[44] Sugar importsreportedly dropped 82% between 2012 and 2013.

Russian economy since the end of the SovietUnion

Oil, natural gas, metals, and timber account for more than 80% ofRussian exports abroad. Since 2003, the exports of natural resourcesstarted decreasing in economic importance as the internal marketstrengthened considerably. Despite higher energy prices, oil and gasonly contribute to 5.7% of Russia's GDP and the government predictsthis will be 3.7% by 2011. Oil export earnings allowed Russia toincrease its foreign reserves from $12billion in 1999 to $597.3billionon 1 August 2008, the third largest foreign exchange reserves in theworld. The macroeconomic policy under Finance Minister AlexeiKudrin was prudent and sound, with excess income being stored in theStabilization Fund of Russia. In 2006, Russia repaid most of its formerly massive debts, leaving it with one of the

Russia 21

lowest foreign debts among major economies.[45] The Stabilization Fund helped Russia to come out of the globalfinancial crisis in a much better state than many experts had expected.A simpler, more streamlined tax code adopted in 2001 reduced the tax burden on people and dramatically increasedstate revenue. Russia has a flat tax rate of 13%. This ranks it as the country with the second most attractive personaltax system for single managers in the world after the United Arab Emirates. According to Bloomberg, Russia isconsidered well ahead of most other resource-rich countries in its economic development, with a long tradition ofeducation, science, and industry. The country has a higher proportion of higher education graduates than any othercountry in Eurasia.The economic development of the country has been uneven geographically with the Moscow region contributing avery large share of the country's GDP.[46] Another problem is modernisation of infrastructure, ageing and inadequateafter years of being neglected in the 1990s; the government has said $1trillion will be invested in development ofinfrastructure by 2020. In December 2011, Russia finally joined World Trade Organisation, allowing it a greateraccess to overseas markets. Some analysts estimate that WTO membership could bring the Russian economy abounce of up to 3% annually. Russia ranks as the second-most corrupt country in Europe (after Ukraine), accordingto the Corruption Perceptions Index. The Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce also states that "[c]orruption isone of the biggest problems both Russian and international companies have to deal with".

AgricultureMain articles: Agriculture in Russia and Fishing industry in Russia

Rye Fields, by Ivan Shishkin. Russia is theworld's top producer of rye, barley, buckwheat,oats and sunflower seed, and one of the largest

producers and exporters of wheat.

The total area of cultivated land in Russia was estimated as1,237,294km2 in 2005, the fourth largest in the world.[47] From 1999to 2009, Russia's agriculture demonstrated steady growth,[48] and thecountry turned from a grain importer to the third largest grain exporterafter EU and the United States.[49] The production of meat has grownfrom 6,813,000 tonnes in 1999 to 9,331,000 tonnes in 2008, andcontinues to grow.[50]

This restoration of agriculture was supported by credit policy of thegovernment, helping both individual farmers and large privatizedcorporate farms, that once were Soviet kolkhozes and still own thesignificant share of agricultural land.[51] While large farms concentratemainly on the production of grain and husbandry products, small private household plots produce most of thecountry's yield of potatoes, vegetables and fruits.[52]

With access to three of the world's oceansthe Atlantic, Arctic, and PacificRussian fishing fleets are a majorcontributor to the world's fish supply. The total capture of fish was at 3,191,068 tons in 2005. Both exports andimports of fish and sea products grew significantly in the recent years, reaching correspondingly $2,415 and $2,036millions in 2008.[53]

Sprawling from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, Russia has more than a fifth of the world's forests, which makesit the largest forest country in the world.[54] However, according to a 2012 study by the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations and the Government of the Russian Federation, the considerable potential ofRussian forests is underutilized and Russia's share of the global trade in forest products is less than four percent.[55]

Russia 22

EnergyMain articles: Energy in Russia and Nuclear power in Russia

Russia is a key oil and gas supplier to much ofEurope.

In recent years, Russia has frequently been described in the media asan energy superpower.[56][57] The country has the world's largestnatural gas reserves,[58] the 8th largest oil reserves,[59] and the secondlargest coal reserves. Russia is the world's leading natural gasexporter[60] and second largest natural gas producer,[] while also thelargest oil exporter and the largest oil producer.[] On 1 January 2011,Russia said it had begun scheduled oil shipments to China, with theplan to increase the rate up to 300,000 barrels per day in 2011.

Russia is the 3rd largest electricity producer in the world[61] and the5th largest renewable energy producer, the latter because of thewell-developed hydroelectricity production in the country. Largecascades of hydropower plants are built in European Russia along bigrivers like Volga. The Asian part of Russia also features a number ofmajor hydropower stations, however the gigantic hydroelectricpotential of Siberia and the Russian Far East largely remainsunexploited.

Russia was the first country to develop civilian nuclear power and toconstruct the world's first nuclear power plant. Currently the country is the 4th largest nuclear energy producer,[62]

with all nuclear power in Russia being managed by Rosatom State Corporation. The sector is rapidly developing,with an aim of increasing the total share of nuclear energy from current 16.9% to 23% by 2020. The Russiangovernment plans to allocate 127billion rubles ($5.42billion) to a federal program dedicated to the next generationof nuclear energy technology. About 1trillion rubles ($42.7billion) is to be allocated from the federal budget tonuclear power and industry development before 2015.[63]

In May 2014 on a two-day trip to Shanghai, President Putin signed a deal on behalf of Gazprom for the Russianenergy giant to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Construction of a pipeline tofacilitate the deal was agreed whereby Russia would contribute $55bn to the cost, and China $22bn, in what Putindescribed as "the world's biggest construction project for the next four years." The natural gas would begin to flowsometime between 2018 and 2020 and would continue for 30 years at an ultimate cost to China of $400bn.

Russia 23

TransportMain articles: Transport in Russia, History of rail transport in Russia and Rail transport in Russia

The marker for kilometre 9288 at theend of the Trans-Siberian Railway in

Vladivostok

Railway transport in Russia is mostly under the control of the state-run RussianRailways monopoly. The company accounts for over 3.6% of Russia's GDP andhandles 39% of the total freight traffic (including pipelines) and more than 42%of passenger traffic. The total length of common-used railway tracks exceeds85,500km (53,127mi), second only to the United States. Over 44,000km(27,340mi) of tracks are electrified, which is the largest number in the world,and additionally there are more than 30,000km (18,641mi) of industrialnon-common carrier lines. Railways in Russia, unlike in the most of the world,use broad gauge of 1,520mm (4ft112732in), with the exception of 957km(595mi) on Sakhalin island using narrow gauge of 1,067mm (3ft6in). Themost renown railway in Russia is Trans-Siberian (Transsib), spanning a record 7time zones and serving the longest single continuous services in the world,Moscow-Vladivostok (9,259km (5,753mi)), MoscowPyongyang (10,267km(6,380mi))[64] and KievVladivostok (11,085km (6,888mi)).[65]

As of 2006 Russia had 933,000km of roads, of which 755,000 were paved.[66]

Some of these make up the Russian federal motorway system. With a large land area the road density is the lowest ofall the G8 and BRIC countries.

Much of Russia's inland waterways, which total 102,000km (63,380mi), are made up of natural rivers or lakes. Inthe European part of the country the network of channels connects the basins of major rivers. Russia's capital,Moscow, is sometimes called "the port of the five seas", because of its waterway connections to the Baltic, White,Caspian, Azov and Black Seas.

Yamal, one of Russia's nuclear-poweredicebreakers (gallery [67])

Major sea ports of Russia include Rostov-on-Don on the Azov Sea,Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, Astrakhan and Makhachkala on theCaspian, Kaliningrad and St Petersburg on the Baltic, Arkhangelsk onthe White Sea, Murmansk on the Barents Sea,Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. In2008 the country owned 1,448 merchant marine ships. The world'sonly fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers advances the economicexploitation of the Arctic continental shelf of Russia and thedevelopment of sea trade through the Northern Sea Route betweenEurope and East Asia.

By total length of pipelines Russia is second only to the United States. Currently many new pipeline projects arebeing realized, including Nord Stream and South Stream natural gas pipelines to Europe, and the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean oil pipeline (ESPO) to the Russian Far East and China.

Russia has 1,216 airports, the busiest being Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo in Moscow, and Pulkovo inSt. Petersburg. The total length of runways in Russia exceeds 600,000 kilometres (370,000mi).

Typically, major Russian cities have well-developed systems of public transport, with the most common varieties ofexploited vehicles being bus, trolleybus and tram. Seven Russian cities, namely Moscow, Saint Petersburg, NizhnyNovgorod, Novosibirsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan, have underground metros, while Volgograd features ametrotram. The total length of metros in Russia is 465.4 kilometres (289.2mi). Moscow Metro and Saint PetersburgMetro are the oldest in Russia, opened in 1935 and 1955 respectively. These two are among the fastest and busiestmetro systems in the world, and are famous for rich decorations and unique designs of their stations, which is acommon tradition on Russian metros and railways.

Russia 24

Science and technologyMain articles: Timeline of Russian inventions and technology records, Science and technology in Russia, List ofRussian scientists and List of Russian inventors

Mikhail Lomonosov, polymathscientist, inventor, poet and artist

Ivan Pavlov (18491936),physiologist, Nobel Prize in 1904

Science and technology in Russia blossomed since the Age of Enlightenment,when Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy of Sciences and SaintPetersburg State University, and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov established theMoscow State University, paving the way for a strong native tradition in learningand innovation. In the 19th and 20th centuries the country produced a largenumber of notable scientists and inventors.

The Russian physics school began with Lomonosov who proposed the law ofconservation of matter preceding the energy conservation law. Russiandiscoveries and inventions in physics include the electric arc, electrodynamicalLenz's law, space groups of crystals, photoelectric cell, Cherenkov radiation,electron paramagnetic resonance, heterotransistors and 3D holography. Lasersand masers were co-invented by Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov, whilethe idea of tokamak for controlled nuclear fusion was introduced by Igor Tamm,Andrei Sakharov and Lev Artsimovich, leading eventually the moderninternational ITER project, where Russia is a party.

Since the time of Nikolay Lobachevsky (the "Copernicus of Geometry" whopioneered the non-Euclidean geometry) and a prominent tutor PafnutyChebyshev, the Russian mathematical school became one of the most influentialin the world. Chebyshev's students included Aleksandr Lyapunov, who foundedthe modern stability theory, and Andrey Markov who invented the Markovchains. In the 20th century Soviet mathematicians, such as Andrey Kolmogorov,Israel Gelfand, and Sergey Sobolev, made major contributions to various areas ofmathematics. Nine Soviet/Russian mathematicians were awarded with FieldsMedal, a most prestigious award in mathematics. Recently Grigori Perelman wasoffered the first ever Clay Millennium Prize Problems Award for his final proofof the Poincar conjecture in 2002.

Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table, the mainframework of modern chemistry. Aleksandr Butlerov was one of the creators of the theory of chemical structure,playing a central role in organic chemistry. Russian biologists include Dmitry Ivanovsky who discovered viruses,Ivan Pavlov who was the first to experiment with the classical conditioning, and Ilya Mechnikov who was a pioneerresearcher of the immune system and probiotics.

Many Russian scientists and inventors were migrs, like Igor Sikorsky, who built the first airliners and modern-typehelicopters; Vladimir Zworykin, often called the father of TV; chemist Ilya Prigogine, noted for his work ondissipative structures and complex systems; Nobel Prize-winning economists Simon Kuznets and Wassily Leontief;physicist Georgiy Gamov (an author of the Big Bang theory) and social scientist Pitirim Sorokin. Many foreignersworked in Russia for a long time, like Leonard Euler and Alfred Nobel.

Russian inventions include arc welding by Nikolay Benardos, further developed by Nikolay Slavyanov, KonstantinKhrenov and other Russian engineers. Gleb Kotelnikov invented the knapsack parachute, while Evgeniy Chertovskyintroduced the pressure suit. Alexander Lodygin and Pavel Yablochkov were pioneers of electric lighting, andMikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky introduced the first three-phase electric power systems, widely used today. SergeiLebedev invented the first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber. The first ternarycomputer, Setun, was developed by Nikolay Brusentsov.

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The Sukhoi PAK FA is a fifth-generation jetfighter being developed for the Russian Air

Force.

In the 20th century a number of prominent Soviet aerospace engineers,inspired by the fundamental works of Nikolai Zhukovsky, SergeiChaplygin and others, designed many hundreds of models of militaryand civilian aircraft and founded a number of KBs (ConstructionBureaus) that now constitute the bulk of Russian United AircraftCorporation. Famous Russian aircraft include the civilian Tu-series, Suand MiG fighter aircraft, Ka and Mi-series helicopters; many Russianaircraft models are on the list of most produced aircraft in history.

Famous Russian battle tanks include T34, the most heavily producedtank design of World WarII,[68] and further tanks of T-series,including the most produced tank in history, T54/55.[69] The AK47 andAK74 by Mikhail Kalashnikov constitute the most widely used type of assault rifle throughout the worldso muchso that more AK-type rifles have been manufactured than all other assault rifles combined.

With all these achievements, however, since the late Soviet era Russia was lagging behind the West in a number oftechnologies, mostly those related to energy conservation and consumer goods production. The crisis of the 1990sled to the drastic reduction of the state support for science and a brain drain migration from Russia.In the 2000s, on the wave of a new economic boom, the situation in the Russian science and technology hasimproved, and the government launched a campaign aimed into modernisation and innovation. Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedev formulated top priorities for the country's technological development: Efficient energy use Information technology, including both common products and the products combined with space technology Nuclear energy Pharmaceuticals[70]

Currently Russia has completed the GLONASS satellite navigation system. The country is developing its ownfifth-generation jet fighter and constructing the first serial mobile nuclear plant in the world.

Space exploration

Soviet and Russian space station Mir

Russian achievements in the field of space technology and spaceexploration are traced back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father oftheoretical astronautics. His works had inspired leading Soviet rocketengineers, such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko, and manyothers who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program onearly stages of the Space Race and beyond.

In 1957 the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik1, waslaunched; in 1961 the first human trip into space was successfullymade by Yury Gagarin. Many other Soviet and Russian spaceexploration records ensued, including the first spacewalk performed byAlexey Leonov, Luna9 was the first spacecraft to land on the Moon,Venera7 was the first to land on another planet (Venus), Mars3 thenthe first to land on Mars, the first space exploration rover Lunokhod 1and the first space station Salyut1 and Mir.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some government-funded space exploration programs, including the Buranspace shuttle program, were cancelled or delayed, while participation of the Russian space industry in commercial

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activities and international cooperation intensified. Nowadays Russia is the largest satellite launcher. After the U.S.Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, Soyuz rockets became the only provider of transport for astronauts at theInternational Space Station.

Soyuz TMA-2 is launched fromBaikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying one

of the first resident crews to theInternational Space Station

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Russia and Rossiyane

Percentage of ethnic Russians by region in 2010>80%7079%5069%

Natural population growth rate in Russia, 2012.Ethnic Russians comprise 81% of the country's population.[] The Russian Federation is also home to several sizeableminorities. In all, 160 different other ethnic groups and indigenous peoples live within its borders.[71] ThoughRussia's population is comparatively large, its density is low because of the country's enormous size. Population isdensest in European Russia, near the Ural Mountains, and in southwest Siberia. 73% of the population lives in urbanareas while 27% in rural ones. The results of the 2010 Census show a total population of 142,856,536.Russia's population peaked at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It began toexperience a rapid decline starting in the mid-1990s. The decline has slowed to near stagnation in recent yearsbecause of reduced death rates, increased birth rates and increased immigration.In 2009, Russia recorded annual population growth for the first time in fifteen years, with total growth of 10,500.[]

279,906 migrants arrived to the Russian Federation the same year, of which 93% came from CIS countries. The number of Russian emigrants steadily declined from 359,000 in 2000 to 32,000 in 2009. There are also an estimated 10million illegal immigrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia. Roughly 116million ethnic Russians live in Russia

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and about 20million more live in other former republics of the Soviet Union,[72] mostly in Ukraine andKazakhstan.[73]

The 2010 census recorded 81% of the population as ethnically Russian, and 19% as other ethnicities: 3.7% Tatars;1.4% Ukrainians; 1.1% Bashkirs; 1% Chuvashes; 11.8% others and unspecified. According to the Census, 84.93% ofthe Russian population belongs to European ethnic groups (Slavic, Germanic, Finnic other than Ugric, Greek, andothers). This is a decline from the 2002, when they constituted for more than 86% of the population.Russia's birth rate is higher than that of most European countries (12.6 births per 1000 people in 2010 compared tothe European Union average of 9.90 per 1000), but its death rate is also substantially higher (in 2010, Russia's deathrate was 14.3 per 1000 people compared to the EU average of 10.28 per 1000). The Russian Ministry of Health andSocial Affairs predicted that by 2011 the death rate would equal the birth rate because of increase in fertility anddecline in mortality. The government is implementing a number of programs designed to increase the birth rate andattract more migrants. Monthly government child-assistance payments were doubled to US$55, and a one-timepayment of US$9,200 was offered to women who had a second child since 2007.In 2006, in a bid to compensate for the country's demographic decline, the Russian government started simplifyingimmigration laws and launched a state program "for providing assistance to voluntary immigration of ethnicRussians from former Soviet republics".[74] In 2009 Russia experienced its highest birth rate since the dissolution ofthe Soviet Union.[75] In 2012, the birth rate increased again. Russia recorded 1,896,263 births, the highest numbersince 1990, and even exceeding annual births during the period 19671969, with a TFR of about 1.7, the highestsince 1991. (Source: Vital statistics table below)In August 2012, as the country saw its first demographic growth since the 1990s, President Putin declared thatRussia's population could reach 146 million by 2025, mainly as a result of immigration.[76]

Largest citiesMain article: List of cities and towns in Russia by population

LanguageMain articles: Russian language, Languages of Russia and List of endangered languages in Russia

Countries where the Russian language is spoken

Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some 100languages. According to the 2002 Census,142.6million people speak Russian,followed by Tatar with 5.3million andUkrainian with 1.8million speakers.Russian is the only official state language,but the Constitution gives the individualrepublics the right to establish their ownstate languages in addition to Russian.

Despite its wide distribution, the Russianlanguage is homogeneous throughout thecountry. Russian is the most geographicallywidespread language of Eurasia, as well asthe most widely spoken Slavic language. Itbelongs to the Indo-European language family and is one of the living members of the East Slavic languages, theothers being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn). Written examples of Old East Slavic (Old Russian) areattested from the 10th century onwards.

Russian is one of the six official languages of the UN.

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ReligionMain article: Religion in Russia

Religion in Russia (2012)[77][78]

Russian Orthodox (41%)Muslim (6.5%)Unaffiliated Christian (4.1%)Other Orthodox (1.5%)Neopagan and Tengrist (1.2%)Tibetan Buddhist (0.5%)Other religions (1.7%)Spiritual but not religious (25%)Atheist and non-religious (13%)Undecided (5.5%)Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism are Russia's traditional religions, and are all legally a part ofRussia's "historical heritage". In August 2012 the first-ever sociological survey and mapping of religious adherentsin Russia based on self-identification was published, with data on 79 out of 83 of the federal subjects ofRussia.[79][80] Out of a population of 142,800,000 the survey found that 58,800,000 or 41% are Russian Orthodox,9,400,000 or 6.5% are Muslims (including Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and a majority of unaffiliated Muslims),5,900,000 or 4.1% are unaffiliated Christians, 2,100,000 or 1.5% adhere to other Orthodox Churches (includingUkrainian, Georgian, Armenian and other churches), 1,700,000 or 1.2% are Pagans (including Rodnovery, EtsegDin, Caucasian Neopaganism and Uralic Neopaganism) or Tengrists (Turco-Mongol shamanic religions and newreligions), 700,000 or 0.5% are Buddhists (mostly Vajrayana), 400,000 or 0.2% are Orthodox Old Believers, 300,000or 0.2% are Protestants, 140,000 are Catholics, 140,000 are Jews. The Bah' Faith in Russia ( ),according to Association of Religion Data Archives was estimated at about 18,990 in 2005. The remainingpopulation is made up of 36,000,000 or 25% "spiritual but not religious" people, 18,600,000 or 13% atheist andnon-religious people and 7,900,000 people or 5.5% of the total population who have deemed themselves"undecided". Traced back to the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in the 10th century, Russian Orthodoxy is thedominant religion in the country; smaller Christian denominations such as Catholics, Armenian Gregorians andvarious Protestant churches also exist. The Russian Orthodox Church was the country's state religion prior to theRevolution and remains the largest religious body in the country. An estimated 95% of the registered Orthodoxparishes belong to the Russian Orthodox Church while there are a number of smaller Orthodox Churches. However,the vast majority of Orthodox believers do not attend church on a regular basis. Easter is the most popular religiousholiday in Russia, celebrated by a large segment of the Russian population, including large numbers of those who arenon-religious. More than three-quarters of the Russian population celebrate Easter by making traditional Eastercakes, coloured eggs and paskha.

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Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg

Islam is the second largest religion in Russia after Russian Orthodoxy.It is the traditional or predominant religion amongst some Caucasianethnicities (notably the Chechens, the Ingush and the Circassians), andamongst some Turkic peoples (notably the Tatars and the Bashkirs).Altogether, there are 9,400,000 Muslims in Russia or 6.5% of the totalpopulation as of 2012 (the share of Muslims is probably much higherbecause the survey doesn't include detailed data for the traditionallyIslamic states of Chechnya and Ingushetia). Notwithstanding, variousdifferences split the Muslim population in different groups. Accordingto the survey, most of the Muslims (precisely 6,700,000 or 4.6% of thetotal population) are "unaffiliated" to any Islamic schools and branchesor Islamic organisation, this is mainly because it is not essential forMuslims to be affiliated with any specific sect or organization. Thosewho are unaffiliated are mostly Sunni Muslims. These unaffiliatedMuslims constitute significant percentages of over 10% inKabardino-Balkaria (49%), Bashkortostan (38%),Karachay-Cherkessia (34%), Tatarstan (31%), Yamalia (13%),Orenburg Oblast (11%), Adygea (11%) and Astrakhan Oblast (11%).Most of the regions of Siberia have an unaffiliated Muslim population

of 1% to 2%.

Buddhism is traditional in three regions of the Russian Federation: Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia. Some residents ofthe Siberian and Far Eastern regions, such as Yakutia and Chukotka, practice shamanist, pantheistic, and pagan rites,along with the major religions. Induction into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Slavs are significantlyOrthodox Christian, Turkic speakers are predominantly Muslim, and Mongolic peoples are generally Buddhists.

Various reports put the number of non-religious in Russia at between 1648% of the population. The number ofatheists has decreased significantly; according to the recent statistic, only seven percent declared themselves atheists,a decrease of 5% in three years.

HealthMain article: Healthcare in Russia

A mobile clinic used to provide health care atremote railway stations

The Russian Constitution guarantees free, universal health care for allits citizens. In practice, however, free health care is partially restrictedbecause of mandatory registration. While Russia has more physicians,hospitals, and health care workers than almost any other country in theworld on a per capita basis, since the dissolution of the Soviet Unionthe health of the Russian population has declined considerably as aresult of social, economic, and lifestyle changes; the trend has beenreversed only in the recent years, with average life expectancy havingincreased 2.4 years for males and 1.4 years for females between200609.

As of 2009, the average life expectancy in Russia was 62.77 years formales and 74.67 years for females.[81] The biggest factor contributing to the relatively low life expectancy for malesis a high mortality rate among working-age males. Deaths mostly occur because of preventable causes (e.g., alcohol

poisoning, smoking, traffic accidents, violent crime). As a result of the large gender difference in life expectancy, and also because of the lasting effect of high casualties in World WarII, the gender imbalance remains to this day;

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there are 0.859 males to every female.

EducationMain article: Education in Russia

Moscow State University

Russia has a free education system, which is guaranteed for all citizensby the Constitution,[82] however entry to subsidized higher education ishighly competitive. As a result of great emphasis on science andtechnology in education, Russian medical, mathematical, scientific,and aerospace research is generally of a high order.

Since 1990, the 11-year school education has been introduced.Education in state-owned secondary schools is free. University leveleducation is free, with exceptions. A substantial share of students isenrolled for full pay (many state institutions started to open

commercial positions in the last years).In 2004, state spending for education amounted to 3.6% of the GDP, or 13% of the consolidated state budget. TheGovernment allocates funding to pay the tuition fees within an established quota or number of students for each stateinstitution. In higher education institutions, students are paid a small stipend and provided with free housing if theyare from out of town.The oldest and largest Russian universities are Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University. Inthe 2000s, in order to create higher education and research institutions of comparable scale in Russian regions, thegovernment launched a program of establishing "federal universities", mostly by merging existing large regionaluniversities and research institutes and providing them with a special funding. These new institutions include theSouthern Federal University, Siberian Federal University, Kazan Volga Federal University, North-Eastern FederalUniversity, and Far Eastern Federal University.

CultureMain article: Russian culture

Folk culture and cuisineMain articles: Russian traditions, Russian jokes, Russian fairy tales and Russian cuisine

The Merchant's Wife by Boris Kustodiev,showcasing the Russian tea culture

There are over 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples inRussia. Ethnic Russians with their Slavic Orthodox traditions, Tatarsand Bashkirs with their Turkic Muslim culture, Buddhist nomadicBuryats and Kalmyks, Shamanistic peoples of the Extreme North andSiberia, highlanders of the Northern Caucasus, Finno-Ugric peoples ofthe Russian North West and Volga Region all contribute to the culturaldiversity of the country.

Handicraft, like Dymkovo toy, khokhloma, gzhel and palekh miniaturerepresent an important aspect of Russian folk culture. Ethnic Russianclothes include kaftan, kosovorotka and ushanka for men, sarafan andkokoshnik for women, with lapti and valenki as common shoes. Theclothes of Cossacks from Southern Russia include burka and papaha,which they share with the peoples of the Northern Caucasus.

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Russian cuisine widely uses fish, poultry, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of rye, wheat, barley, and milletprovide the ingredient