Russia covers an area of ​​more than 17.0754 million square kilometers and is the largest country in the world. It is located in eastern Europe and northern Asia, bordering the Pacific Ocean in the east, the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea in the west, and straddling Eurasia. The land neighbors are Norway and Finland to the northwest, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Belarus to the west, Ukraine to the southwest, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan to the south, China, Mongolia and North Korea to the southeast, and Japan to the east. Across the sea from the United States, the coastline is 33,807 kilometers long. Most areas are in the northern temperate zone, with diverse climates, mainly continental.

Overview

Russia, also known as the Russian Federation, is located in the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It straddles most of the land of Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is 9,000 kilometers long, 4,000 kilometers wide from north to south, and covers an area of ​​17.0754 million square kilometers (76% of the territory of the former Soviet Union). It is the largest country in the world, accounting for 11.4% of the world’s total land area, with a coastline of 34,000 kilometers. Most of Russia is in the northern temperate zone, with a diverse climate, mainly continental. The temperature difference is generally large, with the average temperature in January ranging from -1°C to -37°C, and the average temperature in July ranging from 11°C to 27°C.

Russia is now composed of 88 federal entities, including 21 republics, 7 border regions, 48 ​​states, 2 federal municipalities, 1 autonomous prefecture, 9 Ethnic autonomous regions.

The ancestors of the Russians are the Russian tribe of Eastern Slavs. From the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow as the center, gradually formed a multi-ethnic feudal country. In 1547, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) changed the title of Grand Duke to Tsar. In 1721, Peter I (Peter the Great) changed his country name to the Russian Empire. Serfdom was abolished in 1861. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, it became a military feudal imperialist country. In February 1917, the bourgeois revolution overthrew the autocratic system. On November 7, 1917 (October 25 in the Russian calendar), the October Socialist Revolution established the world's first socialist state power-the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. On December 30, 1922, the Russian Federation, Transcaucasian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (later expanded to 15 member republics). On June 12, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic issued the "State Sovereignty Declaration", declaring that the Russian Federation has "absolute sovereignty" in its territory. In August 1991, the "8.19" incident occurred in the Soviet Union. On September 6, the Soviet State Council passed a resolution recognizing the independence of the three republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. On December 8, the leaders of the three republics of the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Ukraine signed the Agreement on the Commonwealth of Independent States on Belovy Day and announced the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 21st, the 11 republics of the Soviet Union, except the three countries of Poland and Georgia, signed the "Almaty Declaration" and the "Protocol of the Commonwealth of Independent States Agreement." On December 26, the House of the Supreme Soviet Republic of the Soviet Union held its last meeting and announced that the Soviet Union ceased to exist. So far, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and the Russian Federation became a completely independent country and became the sole successor to the Soviet Union.

National flag: a horizontal rectangle with a ratio of length to width of about 3:2. The flag surface is connected by three parallel and equal horizontal rectangles, which are white, blue, and red from top to bottom. Russia has a vast territory. The country spans three climatic zones of frigid zone, subfrigid zone and temperate zone, connected in parallel by three-color horizontal rectangles, which shows this characteristic of Russia's geographical location. White represents the snowy natural landscape of the frigid zone throughout the year; blue represents the sub-frigid climate zone, but also symbolizes Russia’s rich underground mineral deposits, forests, water power and other natural resources; red is the symbol of the temperate zone, and also symbolizes the long history of Russia. The contribution of human civilization. The white, blue, and red flags come from the red, white, and blue flags used during the reign of Peter the Great in 1697. The red, white, and blue colors are called Pan-Slavic colors. After the victory of the October Revolution in 1917, the tricolor flag was cancelled. In 1920, the Soviet government adopted a new national flag consisting of red and blue, with a vertical blue strip on the left and a five-pointed star and crossed hammers and sickles on the red flag on the right. After this flag is the flag of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. After the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the national flag was modified to a red flag with a golden five-pointed star, sickle and hammer in the upper left corner. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic was renamed the Russian Federation, and the white, blue and red tricolor flag was subsequently adopted as the national flag.

Russia has a population of 142.7 million people, ranking 7th in the world, with more than 180 ethnic groups, of which 79.8% are Russians. The main ethnic minorities are Tatar, Ukrainian, Bashkir, Chuvash, Chechnya, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakh, Udmurtia, Azerbaijani, Mali and Germanic. Russian is the official language in the entire territory of the Russian Federation, and each republic has the right to define its own national language and use it together with Russian in the territory of the republic. The main religion is Eastern Orthodox, followed by Islam. According to the survey results of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center in recent years, 50%-53% of the Russian people believe in Orthodox Church, 10% believe in Islam, 1% believe in Catholicism and Judaism, and 0.8% believe in Buddhism.

Russia is vast and rich in resources, and its vast territory endows Russia with abundant natural resources. Its forest coverage area is 867 million hectares, accounting for 51% of the country's land area, and its timber stock is 80.7 billion cubic meters; its proven natural gas reserves are 48 trillion cubic meters, accounting for more than one third of the world's proven reserves. Ranked first in the world; proven oil reserves of 6.5 billion tons, accounting for 12% to 13% of the world’s proven reserves; coal reserves of 200 billion tons, ranking second in the world; iron, aluminum, uranium, gold, etc. The reserves are also among the best in the world. Abundant resources provide a solid backing for Russia's industrial and agricultural development. Russia has a strong industrial foundation and complete departments, mainly machinery, steel, metallurgy, oil, natural gas, coal, forest industry and chemical industry. Russia pays equal attention to agriculture and animal husbandry. The main crops are wheat, barley, oats, corn, rice and beans. The animal husbandry is mainly cattle, sheep and pigs. The Soviet Union used to be one of the world's two superpowers with a developed economy. However, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia's economic strength has experienced a relatively serious decline and has recovered in recent years. In 2006, Russia's GDP was 732.892 billion US dollars, ranking 13th in the world, with a per capita value of 5129 US dollars.

The Russian capital Moscow has a relatively long history. There are famous buildings such as the Kremlin, Red Square, and Winter Palace in the city. The Moscow Metro is one of the largest subways in the world. It has always been recognized as the most beautiful subway in the world and enjoys the reputation of "underground art palace". The architectural styles of subway stations are different, gorgeous and elegant. Each station is designed by a well-known domestic architect. There are dozens of types of marble, and marble, mosaic, granite, ceramics and multicolored glass are widely used to decorate large-scale murals and various reliefs with different artistic styles. The sculptures, coupled with various unique lighting decorations, are like a magnificent palace, which makes people feel like they are not in the ground at all. Some of the works are wonderful and linger.

Main cities

Moscow: the capital of Russia, one of the largest cities in the world, and Russia's political, economic, scientific, cultural and transportation center. Moscow is located in the middle of the Russian Plain, on the Moskva River, across the Moskva River and its tributaries Yauza River. Greater Moscow (including the area within the ring road) covers an area of ​​900 square kilometers, including the outer green belt, totaling 1,725 ​​square kilometers.

Moscow is a city with a long history and glorious tradition. It was built in the middle of the 12th century. The name of the city of Moscow comes from the Moskva River. There are three sayings about the etymology of the Moskva River: Low Wetland (Slavic), Niudukou (Finnish-Ugric), and Jungle (Kabarda). Moscow city was first seen in history as a settlement in 1147 AD. It became the capital of the Principality of Moscow in the early 13th century. In the 14th century, the Russians centered on Moscow and assembled their surrounding forces to fight against the rule of the Mongolian aristocracy, thus uniting Russia and establishing a centralized feudal state.

Moscow is a national center of science, technology and culture, with numerous educational facilities, including 1433 general education schools and 84 higher education schools. The most famous university is the Lomonosov Moscow State University (more than 26,000 students). The Lenin Library is the second largest library in the world, with a collection of 35.7 million books (1995). There are 121 theaters in the city. The National Theater, Moscow Art Theater, National Central Puppet Theater, Moscow State Circus, and Russian State Symphony Orchestra enjoy world reputation.

Moscow is also the largest commercial center of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia's largest commercial and financial offices are located here. It has the headquarters of national banks, insurance institutions, and 66 large department stores. Among the department stores, "Children's World", Central Department Store and National Department Store are the largest.

Moscow is a historic city, centered on the well-organized Kremlin and Red Square, radiating to the surroundings. The Kremlin is the palace of successive Russian tsars. It is majestic and world-famous. To the east of the Kremlin is the center of national ceremonies ─ ─ Red Square. There is Lenin’s Tomb in the Red Square and Pokrovsky Church (1554-1560) at the southern end. .

St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, after Moscow, and is one of Russia’s largest industrial, technological, cultural, and water and land transportation centers. The Petersburg Fortress built in 1703 was the prototype of the city, and the first mayor was the Duke of Menshkov. The palace moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1711, and in 1712 St. Petersburg was officially confirmed as the capital of Russia. In March 1918 Lenin moved the Soviet government from Petrograd to Moscow.

The city of St. Petersburg is Russia’s most important water and land transportation hub, Russia’s largest seaport, and an important gateway for external connections. It can be directly connected to the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Finland via the Baltic Sea. The seaports of 70 countries can also lead to vast inland areas by waterway; St. Petersburg is an important international airport, with more than 200 domestic cities and more than 20 countries open to navigation.

The city of St. Petersburg is a famous science, culture and art center, and an important base for training scientific work and production management personnel. There are 42 colleges and universities in the city (including St. Petersburg University was established in 1819). St. Petersburg is known as the "cultural capital". There are 14 theaters and 47 museums in the city (The Hermitage Museum and the Russian Museum are world-famous).