Russia: A Comprehensive Look

Russia/Geography• World’s largest country, lies on Europe and Asia

• Gigantic size and harsh climates make transportation difficult

• Ural Mountains form border between Europe and Asia

• European Russia is warmer than Asian Russia

• 75% of population live in European Russia

• Siberia = large part of land that crosses northern and central Russia into Asia, people have to travel from village to village by helicopter because it is so large and is covered by ice

Ural Mountains

Siberia

Geography• Russia touches many inland bodies of water such as

Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Lake Baikal

• Lake Baikal = World’s deepest freshwater lake, holds almost 20% of the world’s supply of unfrozen freshwater

• Caucasus Mountains = south of European Russia

Lake Baikal

Mole Rats

Economy• Russia has large deposits of coal, oil, and gas• Southwestern area can produce high yields of grains• Fishing industry is one of the largest in the world• Forests of Siberia provide plenty of timber• However, Russia’s economy is not strong due to

years of communist control of farms and factories which denied people the experience of creating jobs, starting businesses, and making money

• Moscow = political, economic, and transportation center of Russia

• Kaliningrad and St. Petersburgh = northwestern ports

Moscow

Inside the Kremlin

Economy• Siberia has the largest supply of minerals

• Volga River carries almost ½ of Russia’s river traffic and provides water for irrigation and hydroelectric power

Volga River

Culture• Over 145 million people and over 150

different ethnic groups

• 80% = Slavs

• Religions =Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, or Jewish

• St. Petersburg = founded in 1703 by Peter the Great whose goal was to make the city a “Window of the West”

• St. Petersburg has many beautiful museums and is home to the Marinsky Theatre = one of Russia’s top ballet companies

Russian Slavs

Peter the Great

Culture• Russians enjoy all kinds of literature,

including folktales called skazki

• Russian Orthodox Church = incredibly popular and thriving even though communism tried to eliminate it

• Russian Orthodoxy was responsible for a Slavic alphabet called Cyrillic

• ¾ of Russian people live in cities, mostly in large apartment blocks

• New Years is most festive holiday

• Russian workers are celebrated on May Day

Vladimir I ChoseEastern Orthodoxy

History• During Ad 800, Slavs built a civilization

around the city of Kiev = Kievan Rus

• Mongols swept in during the 1200’s and greatly reduced Kiev’s wealth and power

• In 1480, Ivan III drove out the Mongols

• Russian rulers slowly expanded their power and land size = called czars, had complete and total control over the government

• Czars Peter the Great and Catherine the Great expanded territory

IVAN III

Catherine the Great

History• At the bottom of society were great masses

of people called serfs = farm laborers who were attached to the land

• Serfs lived hard lives and few could read and write

• In 1861, Czar Alexander II, known as Czar-liberator, freed the serfs from being tied to the land

• In late 1800’s, began to industrialize to rely more on manufacturing and less on farming

Czar Alexander II

Freed the Serfs

Czar Nicholas II

ANASTASIA

Soviet Era• In 1917, political leaders, soldiers, and factory

workers forced Czar Nicholas II to give up the throne

• Vladimir Lenin led a second revolution and seized control, set up a communist government, which had strict control of the government and society

• In 1922 Russian Communist leaders formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = U.S.S.R

• Joseph Stalin took power after Lenin died, government took tighter control of country and many people suffered

Vladimir Lenin

Joseph Stalin                                                                                                                   

Communist Sniper

Soviet Era• After WWII, Stalin set up communist governments

in many neighboring Eastern European countries

• From late 1940’s to late 1980’s US and USSR waged a Cold War, in which both nations competed for world influence without actually fighting each other

• Cuban Missile Crisis = hottest point

• Soviet Union included Russians and people from many other ethnic groups

• In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took power and relaxed Soviet control

Cold War Movies

Rocky IV 13 Days

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet Era• In late 1991, each of the 15 republics made up of

Soviet Union declared independence and the Soviet Union dissolved

• Perestroika =

• Glasnost

• Tore down the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

Change from Communism• Changed from communism to free enterprise

immediately

• Under communism everyone had jobs, workers today can lose their jobs when business is poor

• Without government controls, prices have risen making it harder to buy necessities such as food, clothing

• Major Environmental issues due to the old Soviet government making factories and nuclear plants that polluted the environment

• Diseases have resulted from air pollution

Challenges of Change• Russia is a democracy today• Russian president has more power than US,

can implement plans that are not passed by legislature

• Facing challenges of learning how to be a democracy

• Ethnic groups want to form their own country

• Chechens of Chechnya want their own nation, have used terrorism to get attention, Russia has had to use force to keep them in the country

Fin