10 Facts About Russia
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The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of Eurasia, the super continent. Owing to its large size, Russia has both diversity and monotony. From north to south, the plains of Russia are sequentially clad in tundra, taiga (coniferous forest), mixed and broad-leaf forests, grassland (steppes) and semi-desert. In addition the country is home to 23 World Heritage sites and 40 UNESCO biosphere reserves. |
Here are 10 facts about Russia that will give further insights into this massive yet beautiful country.
10 Facts about Russia:
- Russia is largest country in the world. It covers an area of 17.1 million square kilometers and extends halfway around the northern hemisphere. It covers not just eastern and north-eastern Europe but also the northern part of Asia.
- The country borders 14 countries namely China, North Korea, Finland, Poland, Norway, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Mongolia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
- Because of its large size and being far away from the ocean, the climate throughout Russia is extremely continental. It has distinct warm and cold weather. The continental weather increases as you travel east. The coldest period in Russia is January and the warmest is July.
- Russia has a population of 145.5 million and nearly 80 percent of the people are concentrated in the western part of the country. Moscow, the capital of Russia, is the largest city in Europe and has a population of 11 million.
- The official language of the country is Russian which uses the Cyrillic alphabet rather than Latin. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. However, the 120 nationalities of the Commonwealth of Independent States speak around 48 other languages.
- Significant Russian population lives below the poverty line because of inflation the, especially the pensioners. Just a small portion of the Russian population has become extremely wealthy and they are known as Novye Russkies.
- Theater, cinema, music and art are extremely important parts of Russian life. The Bolshoi Theater, Pushkin Art Gallery in Moscow, Mariinsky Theater and the Hermitage in St Petersburg are important parts of Russian culture.
- Russian Orthodoxy is the main religion in Russian but you can also find people who follow Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism. Religion has become quite an important aspect of Russian lives as Russian Orthodox Church is being returned the property that was confiscated during the Soviet era.
- Russia is home more than 100 different ethnic groups including Indo European Slavs, Turks, Finno-Ugric and others.
- Moscow is three hours ahead of London time and eight hours ahead of New York. However, Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of Moscow.
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10 Facts About Russia
