Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is by a considerable margin the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.80 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.
Geography of Russia
Russia is a country extending over much of northern Eurasia. Comprising much of eastern Europe and northern Asia, it is the world's largest country in total area. Due to its size, Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances. From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broadleaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. Siberia supports a similar sequence but is predominantly taiga. The country contains forty UNESCO biosphere reserves.
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East. With a length of 9,289 kilometres, from Moscow to Vladivostok, it is the longest railway line in the world. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea. It has connected Moscow with Vladivostok since 1916, and is still being expanded.
Volga River
The Volga is the longest river in Europe with a catchment area of 1,350,000 square kilometres. It is also Europe's largest river in terms of discharge and drainage basin. The river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, and is widely regarded as the national river of Russia, being an important river for both Slavs and Turks.
List of rivers of Europe
This page lists the principal rivers of Europe with their main attributes.
History of Siberia
The early history of Siberia was greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians (Pazyryk) on the west of the Ural Mountains and Xiongnu (Noin-Ula) on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the Christian era. The steppes of Siberia were occupied by a succession of nomadic peoples, including the Khitan people, various Turkic peoples, and the Mongol Empire. In the late Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism spread into the areas south of Lake Baikal.
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, is an informal and loosely defined term for the period in European history in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and which was the beginning of globalization. It also marks the rise of the period of widespread adoption in Europe of colonialism and mercantilism as national policies. Many lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered by them during this period, though most were already inhabited. From the perspective of many non-Europeans, the Age of Discovery marked the arrival of invaders from previously unknown continents.
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy was the navy of the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. It was formally established in 1696 and lasted until being dissolved during the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a smaller force that had existed prior to Czar Peter the Great's founding the regular Russian Navy during the Second Azov campaign. It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century and by the early part of the 19th century, it reached its peak strength, behind only the British and French fleets in terms of size.
List of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–57
This is a list of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957. It lists infantry divisions in the Soviet Union from the 1917 Revolution to the reorganisation of the Soviet Army in the aftermath of the Stalinist era. Mechanised Divisions were formed during 1945–46, and then all remaining Rifle Divisions were converted to Motor Rifle Divisions in 1957.
Russian federal highways
Russian federal highways are the most important highways in Russia that are federal property. The following motorways are designated as federal.
- All highways
- that connect Moscow with the capitals of the neighbouring countries and with the administrative centres of the subjects of the Russian Federation. They are identified by the prefix "M" in the national route signs;
- that are parts of the international road networks: European and Asian, identified by prefixes "E" and "AH" in the international route signs used simultaneously with the national route signs.
- Some highways
- that connect administrative centers of the subjects of the Russian Federation with each other
- that are branching and bridging roads :
- access roads that lead to major transportation nodes and special objects
- access roads from the administrative centers of the subjects of the Russian Federation which has no highway connection with Moscow to the nearest sea and river ports and to the international borders.
- which interlink other federal highways.
Northwest Russia
Northwest Russia or Northern European Russia can be roughly defined as that part of European Russia bounded by Finland, the Arctic Ocean, the Ural Mountains and the east-flowing part of the Volga River. Although it was never a political unit there is some reason for treating it as a distinct region.
Timeline of European exploration
This timeline of European exploration lists major geographic discoveries and other firsts credited to or involving Europeans during the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, between the years AD 1418 and 1957.