Russia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Russian Federation" redirects here. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was
also alternatively called the "Russian Federation".
Coordinates: 60N 90E
Russian Federation

Rossiyskaya Federatsiya


Flag Coat of arms

Anthem:
" "
"Gosudarstvenny gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii" (transliteration)
"State Anthem of the Russian Federation"

Russia proper (dark green)
Recently annexed Crimean peninsula (internationally viewed as territory
of Ukraine, but de facto administered by Russia) (light green)
[1]

Capital
and largest city
Moscow
5545N 3737E
Official languages Russian official throughout the
country; 27 other languages co-
official in various regions
Ethnic groups(2010
[2]
)
81.0% Russian
3.7% Tatar
1.4% Ukrainian
1.1% Bashkir
1.0% Chuvash
0.8% Chechen
11.0% others / unspecified
Demonym Russians (Rossiyane)
Government Federal semi-
presidentialconstitutional republic
- President Vladimir Putin
- Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
- Chairman of the
Federation Council
Valentina Matviyenko
- Chairman of the State
Duma
Sergey Naryshkin
Legislature Federal Assembly
- Upper house Federation Council
- Lower house State Duma
Formation
- Kievan Rus' 862
- Grand Duchy of
Moscow
1283
- Tsardom of Russia 16 January 1547
- Russian Empire 22 October 1721
- Russian SFSR 6 November 1917
- Soviet Union 10 December 1922
- Russian Federation 25 December 1991
- Adoption of the
current Constitution
of Russia
12 December 1993
Area
- Total 17,098,242 (Crimea not
included) km
2
(1st)
6,592,800 (Crimea not
included) sq mi
- Water (%) 13
[3]
(including swamps)
Population
- 2014 estimate 143,700,000
[4]
(9th)
- Density 8.4/km
2
(217th)
21.5/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2013 estimate
- Total $2556 billion
[5]
(6th)
- Per capita $17,884
[5]
(57th)
GDP (nominal) 2013 estimate
- Total $2118 billion
[5]
(8th)
- Per capita $14,818
[5]
(49th)
Gini (2011) 41.7
[6]

medium 83rd
HDI (2013) 0.788
[7]

high 55th
Currency Russian ruble (RUB)
Time zone (UTC+3 to +12
a
)
Date format dd.mm.yyyy
Drives on the right
Calling code +7
ISO 3166 code RU
Internet TLD
.ru
.su
.
a.
Excluding +5.
Russia
i
/r/ or /r/ (Russian: , tr. Rossiya, IPA: [rsij] ( listen)), officially
known as the Russian Federation
[8]
(Russian: , tr. Rossiyskaya
Federatsiya, IPA: [rsijskj fdrt

sj] ( listen)), is a country situated in

northern Eurasia.
[9]
It is a federal semi-presidential republic. From northwest to southeast,
Russia shares land
borders with Norway, Finland,Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both with Kaliningrad
Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North
Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by theSea of Okhotsk,
the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait and Canada's Arctic islands. At 17,075,400
square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering
more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the world's
ninth most populous nation with 143 million people as of 2012.
[10]
Extending across the
entirety of northern Asia and much ofEastern Europe, Russia spans nine time zones and
incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms.
The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable
group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD.
[11]
Founded and ruled by
a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th
century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire,
[12]
beginning
the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next
millennium.
[12]
Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the
Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the
nomadic Golden Horde.
[13]
The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the
surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and
came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the
nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become
the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in
Europe to Alaska in North America.
[14][15]

Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first
constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower,
[16]
which played a decisive role
in the Allied victory in World War II.
[17][18]
The Soviet era saw some of the most significant
technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made
satellite, and the first man in space. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,
the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the
continuing legal personality of the Union state.
[19]

The Russian economy ranks as the eighth largest by nominal GDP and fifth
largest by purchasing power parity.
[20]
Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources,
the largest reserves in the world,
[21]
have made it one of the largest producers of
oil and natural gas globally.
[22][23]
The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons
states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
[24]
Russia is
a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member
of the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, theShanghai
Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Community, the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and
the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Contents
[hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
o 2.1 Early periods
o 2.2 Kievan Rus'
o 2.3 Grand Duchy of Moscow
o 2.4 Tsardom of Russia
o 2.5 Imperial Russia
o 2.6 Revolution and Russian Republic
o 2.7 Soviet Russia and civil war
o 2.8 Soviet Union
o 2.9 Russian Federation
3 Politics
o 3.1 Governance
o 3.2 Foreign relations
o 3.3 Military
o 3.4 Political divisions
4 Geography
o 4.1 Topography
o 4.2 Climate
o 4.3 Biodiversity
5 Economy
o 5.1 Agriculture
o 5.2 Energy
o 5.3 Transport
o 5.4 Science and technology
o 5.5 Space exploration
6 Demographics
o 6.1 Largest cities
o 6.2 Language
o 6.3 Religion
o 6.4 Health
o 6.5 Education
7 Culture
o 7.1 Folk culture and cuisine
o 7.2 Architecture
o 7.3 Visual arts
o 7.4 Music and dance
o 7.5 Literature and philosophy
o 7.6 Cinema, animation and media
o 7.7 Sports
o 7.8 National holidays and symbols
o 7.9 Tourism
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Etymology
Main articles: Rus' people and Rus (name)
The name Russia is derived from Rus, a medieval state populated mostly by the East
Slavs. However, this proper name became more prominent in the later history, and the
country typiclly ws clled by its inhbitnts " " (russky zemly), which
can be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'". In order to distinguish this state
from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography.
The name Rus itself comes from Rus people, a group
of Varangians (possibly Swedish Vikings)
[25][26]
who founded the state of Rus ().
An old Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and
southern regions of Rus' that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the
country, (Rossiy), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan
Rus', Rossaspelt (Rosa pronounced [rosi]) in Modern Greek.
[27]

The standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is as "Russians" (Rossiyane).