brief information
For poets and writers, Russia is a huge country with birches and endless steppes. The famous poet Alexander Pushkin argued that Russia "cannot be understood with the mind." Perhaps, in order to "understand" Russia, you need to visit it. Tourists will see in Russia beautiful nature, numerous churches and monasteries, fortresses, unique sights, and, of course, hospitable residents. Also, do not forget that there are many balneological, ski and beach resorts in Russia.
This group also includes Moscow, the modern center of the empire. Control over minerals is fundamental to the Kremlin, which is why Khodorkovsky had to withdraw, which was trying to break the monopoly. Back then, Putin’s regime still didn’t have control over all economic levers, but its security and justice system was already consolidated, so the Kremlin dared to make a decisive decision. That is why he was also arrested, sentenced and sent to prison. Yukos was split between state-owned companies and a pipeline was built in place of its project to find out.
Geography of Russia
Russia is located in Eastern Europe, at the intersection of Europe and Asia. Russia from northwest to southeast borders on Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. The Sea of Okhotsk separates Russia from Japan, and the Bering Strait from American state Alaska. The total area of the country is 17,098,246 sq. km, including islands, and the total length of the state border is 20,241 km.
Seas and oceans
The nature of the Russian state is not a modern state state. And we can say that Russia is a European colonial state that still has extensive colonized colonies in Siberia and Far East... He sets himself the ambitious goal of bringing the different parts together without offering them anything in return. It is not hard to imagine how they would have completed fair elections in Chechnya, for example. And there are many such areas in Russia. There is already a separatist tradition in Muslim Dagestan and Tatarstan, but a strong tendency towards escalation has long been evident in regions where ethnic greens are the majority, for example, in large cities Western and Southern Siberia.
Most of Russia is occupied by plains - steppes in the south and dense forests in the north. In the south of Russia there are mountain ranges- Caucasus and Altai. Russia is divided into two parts Ural mountains... The most high peak countries - Mount Elbrus, whose height reaches 5,642 m.
Russia includes many islands and archipelagos. The largest of them are - New earth, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, Wrangel Island, Kuril Islands, etc.
State structure of Russia
St. Petersburg depends on trade with Scandinavia and Northwest Europe, so the Kremlin's Asian orientation is an obstacle for the region. Moscow cannot afford to create a liberal system if it wants to remain the center of an empire. Authoritarian centralization of power is outdated and nothing can be changed in addition to the outer shell. The real bearer of power is the clan of the authoritarian governor, who gradually takes over all the institutions. When the king found himself at the top of the pyramid, he surrounded himself with an aristocracy in which he distributed positions, trade monopolies, land and fortresses.
There are a lot of rivers and lakes in Russia. The largest Russian rivers are the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, Ural, Lena, Kolyma and Amur. It is in Russia that the largest freshwater lake in the world is located - Baikal.
Capital
The capital of Russia is the city of Moscow, which now has a population of over 11.7 million. Urban settlement on the territory of modern Moscow already existed in the first half of the XII century.
Under communism and with Putin, the architecture of power remains essentially the same. The Communist Party general secretary and authoritarian president surrounds themselves with the loyal people they use to rule. Courtesy courtesy can only be obtained by reward or fear. Several dozen people live in Putin who own millions and billions of property - their prize for loyalty to the president. But in authoritarian regimes, their position does not depend on the laws, but on the will of the leader, so the Putin elite constantly thinks about how to preserve their property if they fall out of favor.
Official language
Official language in Russia - Russian, belonging to the Slavic group of the Indo-European language family.
Religion
The majority of the population of Russia (over 90%) professes Orthodox Christianity. However, there are many Muslims and Buddhists in the country.
State structure of Russia
Russia is a federal presidential republic ruled by a President elected by direct universal suffrage for a 6-year term.
There is only one solution to this problem: property is exported from the country where the laws are in force, that is, in the liberal West. There are also those who have come into conflict with Putin, secretly protecting their property and those who still use it, because they do not know how long it will last.
The military motive is that the European core of the Russian Empire does not have natural geographical boundaries... The plains extend from Moscow to Germany. The only defense is far enough away and the creation of a security buffer zone that is far from the western and southern borders RF. The Kremlin does not consider it necessary to own territories in this region. He has other options to turn them into a safe military area. This applies to both the Belarusian-dependent Belarus and the relatively independent countries that declare their neutrality, in particular in Finland.
The bicameral parliament in Russia is called the Federal Assembly. Parliament consists of the Federation Council and the State Duma.
The main political parties are United Russia, Fair Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (communists) and the Liberal Democratic Party.
Climate and weather
The climate in Russia is very diverse due to its vast territory and geographic location. Russia has a temperate climatic zone, as well as arctic and even subtropical climatic zones. Average annual temperature air - + 4C. The tallest average temperature air temperature is observed in July (+ 24C), and the lowest - in January (-14C). Average annual quantity precipitation - 575 mm.
The Kremlin also wants to forcibly turn Ukraine into its square. But this geopolitical principle is losing its relevance, and Russian generals, apparently, are no longer afraid of such a large and prolonged military march from Europe to Moscow, as Napoleon and Hitler did. The economic motive is for Moscow to control the markets and dictate the terms and prices for the sale of minerals. When Russian state is a monopoly seller of these natural resources, it behaves like any other private monopoly that does not want competition and strives for dominant influence, dictates prices and thereby maximizes profits, and also ensures its future. West, so the Kremlin needs a fragmented Europe.
Seas and oceans
The shores of Russia are washed by the waters of twelve seas, which belong to three oceans - the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Also, one should not forget about the inland Caspian Sea.
Rivers and lakes in Russia
It is quite possible that through the territory of Russia flows more rivers than in any other country in the world. Most of them are short in length, but some reach enormous sizes. The largest Russian rivers are the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, Ural, Lena, Kolyma and Amur.
Then, in its relations with each country, Moscow will take the position of a stronger one. The economic motive is more important than the military one, because the flow of money into the center of power is more important for the stability of the regime than for some abstract military threats. The internal political motive is that in neighboring countries ah, they run regimes loyal to Moscow's centralized authoritarianism in order to preserve the internal stability of the empire. A successful democratic system near Russian borders is dangerous for the Russian authoritarian regime.
There are no less lakes in Russia than rivers. It is in Russia that the largest freshwater lake in the world is located - Baikal. Tourists are advised to pay attention to the Ladoga, Onega and Eltonskoye lakes, as well as to the Goose lake in the Far East, where lotuses grow.
Story
People on the territory modern Russia appeared a long time ago. In prehistoric times, numerous tribes of pastoralists roamed the steppes of southern Russia. The most famous of these tribes are the Scythians, Huns, Avars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians.
Therefore, the ideal weapon is the belt of fragile and poor countries, among which Russia looks stable and prosperous. The geopolitical forces of the Russian Empire will always pose a threat or, at best, a problem for its neighbors, including the Central and Eastern Europe... These forces act to the detriment of the interests of small states located between Russia and Germany. In the name of its own internal security, the Russian Empire has always sought to keep the belt of Eastern European countries under military control.
The Kremlin has always preferred the Belarusian version, that is, all these countries were included in the military-political alliance headed by Moscow. That is why Moscow has always forced these countries into political system, which is no different and less economically successful than the Russian one.
Around the middle of the 9th century, part of the territory of modern Russia became part of Old Russian state, which historians call Kievan Rus. It consisted of many principalities - Polotsk, Turovo-Pinsk, Pereyaslavl, Muromo-Ryazan, Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Novgorod Republic, etc.
The disintegration of Kievan Rus into appanage principalities began in the 1130s, and finally ended “thanks to” the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the first half of the 13th century. For more than 100 years, the Russian lands paid tribute to the Golden Horde (the so-called "Tatar-Mongol yoke").
The successor of Kievan Rus is considered to be the Moscow principality, around which the unification of all Russian lands gradually took place. Only during the reign of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III (at the end of the 15th century) did Moscow stop paying tribute to the Golden Horde.
The first Moscow prince to take the title "Tsar" is Ivan IV the Terrible (this happened in 1547). Since 1630, the Romanov dynasty ruled the Moscow state, this lasted until 1917.
Gradually, the Moscow state annexes new lands, and becomes The Russian empire... True, this was preceded by numerous wars, raids by the Tatars and battles with the crusaders and Turks. The reign of Tsar Peter I had a huge influence on the history of Russia. Russian history had the reign of Tsar Alexander I, who managed to early XIX century successfully resist the invasion of a large army led by Napoleon, Emperor of France.
TO late XIX century in Russia, the serf system was abolished, which provided for the personal ownership of peasants by Russian nobles, and the country begins to play a large political role in the world.
True, the absolute monarchy of the Romanovs by the beginning of the 20th century had outlived its usefulness, and its modernization was required. However, the Romanovs could not modernize the political system, they entered the First world war and all this together led to the February Revolution of 1917. Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and the Russian Republic is formed.
In October 1917, the October Revolution took place, the driving force of which was the Bolshevik Communist Party, led by Vladimir Lenin. As a result, the Russian Soviet Republic was formed, and after the end of the bloody Civil War - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
In 1941, the USSR had to enter World War II - the Great Patriotic War began. No matter how they treated Joseph Stalin, thanks to him the USSR managed to defeat Germany and win the war. Although, this demanded great sacrifices and self-sacrifice from the Soviet people.
After the end of World War II, the USSR strengthened its political influence in the world - a number of states were formed, friendly The Soviet Union... Countries in which a socialist or communist system of life was established had to join the so-called. " cold war", Which was unleashed by the developed capitalist countries - the USA and Great Britain.
The USA, Great Britain and other countries actively interfered in the internal affairs of the USSR and other socialist countries. Thus, the peoples of the USSR were called upon to "gain independence." Unlike the capitalist countries, the USSR did not interfere in their internal affairs, and did not send, for example, its agents to Ulster with an appeal to fight against England.
In 1990-91, with the active participation of Mikhail Gorbachev, who in fact was supposed to lead the USSR, this state disintegrated into separate independent countries. As a result, a new state appeared on the world map - the Russian Federation.
The culture
The culture of Russia has very ancient traditions, it is rich and diverse. Russian culture has a huge impact on the cultures of neighboring countries, and even on cultural traditions states on other continents.
Thanks to Russia, the world has received a lot of brilliant writers, artists, philosophers and scientists:
Literature (Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Blok, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Konstantin Batyushkov, Afanasy Fet);
- Classical music (Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov);
- Art (Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin, Isaac Levitan, Mikhail Vrubel, Ilya Glazunov);
- Philosophy (Peter Chaadaev, Nikolai Roerich, Vladimir Odoevsky, Nikolai Lossky, Alexey Losev, Nikolai Berdyaev);
- Science (Mikhail Lomonosov, Dmitry Mendeleev, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Dmitry Pavlov, Nikolai Vavilov, Sergey Korolev).
Most of the holidays in Russia are religious in nature or have origins in the Christian tradition. The most popular of them are Christmas, Shrovetide, Easter, and New Year(it is not religious).
Russian cuisine
Many tourists arriving in Russia are pleasantly surprised by the variety and taste of Russian traditional dishes. Many peoples live on the territory of modern Russia, so the cuisine in this country is very diverse.
First of all, Russian cuisine is famous for borscht - a kind of beetroot soup with vegetables and meat. For residents of countries Western Europe It may seem strange to make beetroot soup, but the Russians do it very tasty. Borsch with sour cream is especially good.
If we are talking about the first courses in Russian cuisine, then we definitely advise tourists to try okroshka (made with kvass with sausage, meat or fish), pickle, hodgepodge, cabbage soup, and, of course, fish soup. There are dozens of options for preparing all these first courses, depending on the region of Russia.
So, fish soup "fish soup" is sometimes prepared from several types of fish. Ukha can be "black", "white", "red" - depending on the fish from which it is cooked. Especially tasty fish soup is the one that is cooked near the river on a fire from different types fishes. A little vodka is sometimes added to such an ear.
Pancakes are known far beyond the borders of Russia - they are served with different fillings (cottage cheese, meat, jam, etc.), dumplings, pies with fillings (fruits, jam, cottage cheese, meat, fish), barbecue.
We also recommend tourists to try stuffed pike, mushroom pate, baked stuffed zucchini, stuffed cabbage rolls, cabbage rolls with sour cream, okroshka meat team, Stroganov style pork, village hodgepodge, Easter cakes, rum baba in Russia.
Non-alcoholic drinks in Russia are tea, coffee, mineral water, compote (a decoction of fruits and berries) and kvass.
Sights of russia
The rich history of Russia has led to the presence of a huge number of attractions in this country. On the this moment in Russia there are several tens of thousands of monuments of architecture, history and culture. Many of them are included in the list world heritage UNESCO. The top ten sights of Russia, in our opinion, include:
- Red Square and Kremlin in Moscow
- Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg
- Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg
- Museum-reserve "Kolomenskoye"
- Museum-reserve "Kizhi"
- Pskov Kremlin
- Mansi stone pillars in Komi
- Novodevichy Convent
- Izborsk fortress near Pskov
- Valdai Monastery
Cities and resorts
The most ancient city of Russia is Derbent in Dagestan, people on whose territory lived already at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and the oldest an old Russian city- Veliky Novgorod, formed in the middle of the 9th century A.D.
The largest Russian cities are St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Voronezh, and, of course, Moscow. The population of each of these cities exceeds 1 million people.
Thanks to geographic location and a large territory in Russia there are balneological, ski and beach resorts.
Beach Russian resorts are located on the coast of Black, Azov and Baltic seas... So, on the Black Sea, tourists are waiting for Sochi, Tuapse, Anapa and Gelendzhik, on the Sea of Azov - Yeisk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Taganrog, Taman, and on the Baltic Sea - Curonian Spit, Zelenogradsk and Svetlogorsk.
The main Russian ski resorts are located in the Caucasus and the Urals, although there are ski slopes in the Moscow region, near St. Petersburg, in the Volga region, in Murmansk region, as well as in the Baikal region.
In the Caucasus, the most popular ski resorts are Cheget, Dombay, Lago-Naki, Krasnaya Polyana, Elbrus, and in the Urals - Solnechnaya Dolina, Gubakha, Abzakovo, Adzhigardak, Iset, Minyar, Nechkino, etc.
Skiing season ski resorts It lasts from November to May in the Caucasus, and from November to April in the Urals.
As for the balneological, balneotherapy and balneo-mud resorts in Russia, they are located in the most different regions- in the Caucasus (Caucasian Mineral water), in Magadan, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Tver and Novosibirsk regions, in Karelia, Buryatia, Bashkiria, Udmurtia. Tatarstan, near St. Petersburg, in the Moscow region, in the Urals, near Kostroma and even not far from Arkhangelsk.
Souvenirs / shopping
Tourists from Russia usually bring handicrafts, dolls in Russian folk costumes, nesting dolls, Cheburashka dolls, boxes, Gzhel porcelain, earflaps, attributes of the USSR era, wooden saucers, cups, spoons with Khokhloma painting, Dymkovo toys, products from amber, Vologda lace, Easter eggs, samovars, jewelry, fur coats, caviar, chocolates and chocolate, and, of course, vodka.
Russia ( official name- Russian Federation) is the largest country in the world, its area is more than 17 million square meters. km.
Most of the vast Russian expanses are occupied by wide plains - East European and West Siberian. There are also mountains: the Ural mountains - one of the oldest in the world, low and overgrown with green firs; Caucasian - young, tall, with snow-capped peaks; East Siberian Highlands - the further east, the higher; mountains of the Kamchatka peninsula and Kuril Islands Dome-shaped, with flat slopes (hills), among them there are many volcanoes, more than fifty are active. In the south, Russia is washed by the gentle southern Black Sea, in the north - by the harsh seas of the Arctic Ocean, covered with ice from autumn to spring, in the east - by the Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese, and in the west - by the Baltic.
The great rivers of Russia flow in Siberia, the longest of them (4269 km) bears the female name Lena.
The Ob and the Irtysh lag slightly behind it in length, the Volga, the largest of the European rivers. The deepest lake Baikal in the world (its depth is 1620 m) is also located in the South-East of Siberia. The water in it is famous for its purity, the lake is surrounded by mountains and taiga, there are many rare species of animals, birds and fish. There is another one in Kamchatka. amazing place- Valley of Geysers, many fountains with hot water hit there from the ground.
On the vast territory of our country, you can visit mixed forests middle zone of Russia; in the treeless northern tundra, where in winter temperatures can drop to –50 ° C and even –60 ° C; in the Siberian or Far Eastern taiga - a dense forest of huge spruces, larches, cedars; in the Ural spruce-fir, pine forests with birch groves; in alpine meadows North Caucasus; in the Caspian deserts; the Kuban steppes; subtropics Black Sea coast where there are many resorts.
Russia is also lucky with minerals, almost all types of them are mined on the territory of Russia: from the Ural gems and Yakut diamonds to coal Kuznetsk basin and Yamal combustible gases, from Magnitogorsk iron ore to the Kolyma gold.
There are 145 million people living in Russia (this is the seventh largest in the world). There are representatives of more than 150 nationalities, most of which are Russian. Among the peoples of other nationalities: Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Armenians, Ossetians, Buryats, Yakuts, Nenets, etc. In Siberia they enjoy eating Ukrainian borsch, in Moscow - Ural dumplings, in the North - Korean salads.
The capital of Russia is Moscow. This is the most Big city in the country and one of the most beautiful.
The history of Russia is rich in events. In the 9-11 centuries, there was a unification of our ancestors - Slavic tribes (Vyatichi, Krivichi, Dregovichi, etc.). The center of the then Rus was the city of Kiev. In the 13-14 centuries, for almost three hundred years, almost all Russian principalities were under the yoke of the Tatar-Mongols. In the 14-15th centuries, Russian lands began to gather around the Moscow principality, and in 1547 the Moscow prince Ivan IV the Terrible was crowned tsar. The Muscovy began to rapidly expand its borders to the east (in the 16-19 centuries). The rich lands of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia attracted the abundance of furs in the forests, minerals - iron, non-ferrous metals. The tsarist government resettled servicemen and artisans to the east to build fortresses (later they became cities), gave the landowners new lands for settlement, and themselves Russian people went to the East - from serfdom, in search of prosperity and freedom. The Romanov dynasty took the Russian throne in 1613. The most famous of the Romanovs, Tsar Peter I the Great, stood out for his desire for knowledge, amazing hard work and hard work, and his military leadership, he became the first Russian emperor. His reforms in economics, politics, culture, education made Russia a European state.
Since that time, not a single country, not a single great commander has managed to conquer Russia. Even Napoleon, who was expelled in disgrace from the borders of Russia as a result of the Patriotic War of 1812. However, economically, Russia lagged far behind the developed countries of Europe and only with the abolition of serfdom in 1861 did it embark on the path of capitalism. But the situation of the people was still very difficult. Unrest and strikes were constantly taking place in Russia. The 1905 revolution forced the tsar to issue a manifesto, according to which the people were given some freedoms, and also to establish the first parliament in the history of Russia - the State Duma. But in February 1917 the tsar was overthrown, in October the Bolsheviks came to power led by V.I.Lenin, and in December 1922 a new state was created - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Despite the devastation and hardships caused Civil war, in the most difficult conditions, plants and factories were built in a short time. Peaceful life was interrupted on June 22, 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began. The bloody battles continued for four long years. In 1945, Nazi Germany was defeated. The Soviet Army entered Berlin. After the war, the restoration of the economy began.
In 1991, after a six-year period of perestroika and the collapse of the USSR, Russia embarked on the path of socio-economic and political reforms.
The head of state is the President of the Russian Federation. The representative and legislative body of the Russian Federation (its parliament) - the Federal Assembly, consists of two chambers: the State Duma and the Federation Council. Russia is headed by President Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister is Dmitry Medvedev.
Official language is Russian. The monetary unit is the ruble.
