NationMaster - Statistics on Russia. facts and figures, stats and information on Russian economy, crime, people, government, health and education. 44 maps and 709 flags

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which resulted in the formation of a parliament and other reforms. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period. While some progress has been made on the economic front, and Russia's management of its windfall oil wealth has improved its financial standing, recent years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and democratic institutions remain weak. Russia has severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement, although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.

Borders:

Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland 1,340 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km, Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 280.5 km, Mongolia 3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 232 km, Ukraine 1,576 km

Alternative names:

Russia, Russian Federation, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, Rossiya

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Maps of Russia

Russia: Key Environmental Problem Areas	[Russia] Soviet Union - Machine Building and Metal Working	Russia: Ethnic Russians in the Newly Independent States	Astrakhan, Russia (Tactical Pilotage Chart) 1991 Portion of U.S. Defense Mapping Agency sheet TPC F-4B, 1:500,000
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COMMENTARY

Suchita Vemuri Staff Editor 24th March 2005	The Cold War came about in the wake of World War II and, simply put, was a conflict between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. There's no simple explanation to the rise of what is being called "terrorism" today, certainly the explanation cannot lie simply in the end to the Cold War. There's political manipulation, the transformation of freedom and 'people's' struggles into terrorism, and, sometimes there's just violence for its own sake! I would agree with Charles that nations - and not only nations, but all community politics - "need enemies" to galvanize (national and sectarian) politics.
sgannon@casl.umd.edu 14th October 2005	I work at a language research lab that would like to create a web-tool on language using maps. I am doing some research into the interface and I was wondering how much it would cost to licence the flash (?) files from you.
Magnus Aslund 2nd November 2005	In spite of the fact that Russia's official language is Slavic, Russian people are, first of all, of Germanic origin with Baltic, Finnish and, of course, Slavic blood.
Aleksei Igoryievich 24th February 2006	The Russian people are NOT germanic. The Slavs had already occupied the land when the Nordic tribes ventured into Eurasia. Though they did help establish a government, the level of inter-breeding between Slavs and the Nordic tribes was not enough to warrant the claim that the Russian people are of germanic origin. Magnus is a scandinavian name. Never trust information on Russia from a scandinavian.

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Asia > Russia

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