Russia

Region: Eastern Europe, Central Asia, East Asia

Official language: Russian

Population: 140,820,810 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Russian(s) (noun), Russian (adjective)

Land area: 16,377,742 sq km (6,323,479 sq miles)

Water area: 720,500 sq km (278,186 sq miles)

Capital: Moscow

National anthem: "Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii" (National Anthem of the Russian Federation), by Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov/Aleksandr Vasilyevich Aleksandrov

National holiday: Russia Day, June 12 (1990)

Population growth: -0.49% (2024 est.)

Time zone: Russia is divided into nine time zones: UTC +3, +4, +6, +7, +8, +9, +10, +11, and +12

Flag: Russia’s flag is three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue (middle), and red (bottom).

Independence: August 24, 1991 (from the Soviet Union); notable earlier dates: 1157 (Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal created); January 16, 1547 (Tsardom of Muscovy established); 22 October 1721 (Russian Empire proclaimed); December 30, 1922 (Soviet Union established)

Government type: federation

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Even after a large loss of territory following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation, or Russia, remains the largest country in the world by land area, stretching over two continents in the northern hemisphere. In keeping with its size, Russia's influence in international affairs has been significant, particularly during the twentieth century. Between 1922 and 1991, the Russia-dominated Soviet Union, a Communist empire, significantly influenced the world's political order. Throughout history, Russians have made significant contributions in culture and technology.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: In 2023 Russia had the ninth-largest population in the world. Over 75 percent lives in one quarter of the country, on the European side of the Ural Mountains.

Despite the more than one hundred languages spoken in the country, Russian dominates in nearly every public sphere, reflecting the Soviet policy of designating Russian as the language of education. Russian is a Slavic language and is written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Orthodox Christianity has been a dominant force in both public and private affairs since it became the state religion in 988. During Soviet times, religious institutions faced persecution by an officially atheist state. Not only was religious practice discouraged, but many churches and monasteries were closed or destroyed. Freedom of worship was relaxed in the 1980s and fully restored after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By 2006, around 15 to 20 percent of the population professed the Russian Orthodox faith.

Islam is the second most widely practiced religion in Russia, with most adherents in ethnic enclaves along the country's southern border. The Russian government also guarantees broad rights to practitioners of Judaism and Buddhism, two other religions considered part of the Russian heritage.

Major cities and industrial centers are located in the western region. At 12.68 million, the capital, Moscow, has the largest population. St. Petersburg follows with 5.56 million. Other major cities include Novosibirsk (1.69 million), Yekaterinburg (1.53 million), and Nizhniy Novgorod (1.25 million). The population is predominantly urban, with about 75.3 percent living in urban areas (2023 estimates).

Russia has shown negative demographic trends. In 2024 the death rate (14 deaths per 1,000 people) exceeded the birth rate (8.4 births per 1,000 people), and life expectancy at birth for both men (67.4 years) and women (77.4 years) remained relatively low while infant mortality remained relatively high, at 6.5 deaths per 1,000 births. These trends have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the health care system. Moreover, significant portions of the population suffer health-related problems attributable to heavy drug and alcohol consumption, environmental hazards, and poor nutrition. Men are more affected by these problems than women.

Native People: Statistics on the ethnic composition of Russia's population can be difficult to verify; while the country conducted a census in 2021, it was accused of failing to account for a significant portion of the country's population. According to the 2010 census, nearly 78 percent of the population is ethnic Russian, and nearly two hundred ethnic groups of Asian and European stock form the rest. Ethnic Russians derive from the Eastern Slavic group, which split off from other Slavs before the seventh century and migrated north and east into modern-day Russia.

The Tatars (3.7 percent of the population) and Ukrainians (1.4 percent), also of Slavic stock, are the largest minorities in Russia. The other main ethnic groups are the Bashkir, Chuvash, and Chechen. With very few exceptions, even in autonomous regions defined by ethnicity, ethnic Russians are dominant.

Though minorities now have broader rights than they did during the Soviet era, they still struggle with the preservation of their cultures and limited autonomy. They also face discrimination, since ethnic Russians are often favored in public spheres. One Caucasus group, the Chechens, engaged in a long-running battle for independence from Russia, which peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s, and insurgency in the region continued at varying levels throughout the first decades of the twenty-first century.

Education: Education from the first through the eleventh grades is free and compulsory. By choice students can then continue into higher levels or attend a vocational program. Russians in general receive a sound education—the literacy rate in Russia is approximately 99.7 percent (2018 estimate).

The country has hundreds of postsecondary educational institutions, most of which specialize in individual fields. The country's universities generally instruct students in the arts and sciences. Moscow State University is the country's most prestigious, followed by St. Petersburg State University.

Health Care: Russia has a socialized health care system. It is well developed but declined in quality in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, due to underfunding. As a result, it struggles to cope with the needs of the population.

Food: Russians typically eat three meals a day, with the largest meal taken in the afternoon. Typical breakfast foods include kasha (a kind of porridge), or thin pancakes filled with jam, called blini. A soup such as borscht or shchi (made of cabbage) can start the afternoon meal.

Popular main dishes include cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice, and pelmeni, a dumpling filled with meat. A heavy dark rye bread is favored with every meal. Popular drinks include tea, beer, and vodka.

Arts & Entertainment: Russians have contributed to most major Western art movements. Their achievements in literature and classical music are particularly renowned. The nineteenth century is considered the culture's golden age.

Many Russians place the poet Alexander Pushkin at the pinnacle of achievement in their national literature. More esteemed abroad are nineteenth-century realists such as Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina are key novels of world literature. During the twentieth century, five Russians were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Russian composers who have influenced classical music include Modest Mussorgsky, Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Scriabin, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Holidays: Russians celebrate a host of secular and religious holidays, with Orthodox Easter being of special importance in the church calendar. Both the anniversary of the 1917 revolution (November 7) and independence from the communist system which the revolution ushered in (June 12) are celebrated. Victory Day (May 9) commemorates the millions of Russians who died in World War II (1939–45) and the service of Russia's veterans.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Russia can be divided into broad natural zones that cross the country in east-west belts. The taiga, or forest zone, covers approximately 49 percent of the country's area. It is found in the middle latitudes.

The steppe consists of treeless, grassy plains. Two of these, the East European Plain and the West Siberian Plain, divided by the Ural Mountains, account for large portions of Russia. The largest plains in the world, together they cover 2.5 million square kilometers (965,255 square miles). Where it is not swampland, the steppe is the most successful agricultural area in Russia.

The treeless, marshy tundra makes up about 10 percent of the land, in a band across Russia's northern reaches. Permafrost allows only patches of moss and lichens to grow there.

Russia has several mountain ranges, mostly in the eastern portion of the country. The low mineral-rich Urals form the continental divide between Europe and Asia. Mount Elbrus, rising from the Caucasus Mountains along the southwestern border, is Europe's highest point at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet).

Among Russia's many rivers is the longest in Europe, the Volga, stretching 3,645 kilometers (2,264 miles). It supports four major cities and is an important inland waterway. Even longer rivers are located east of the Urals. The Ob and Irtysh are part of the same river system, which is the longest in Russia and the fourth longest in the world. These rivers, which empty into the Arctic Ocean, stretch 5,410 kilometers (3,362 miles).

The country's most important lake is located in southern Siberia. Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, reaching a maximum depth of 1,713 meters (5,620 feet). It is estimated to contain 20 percent of the world's total fresh water.

Natural Resources: Russia is rich in natural resources, many of which have been exploited in the western portion of the country. However, vast reserves still remain, often in remote areas where the climate and distances make exploitation difficult and expensive. The most prevalent include petroleum, natural gas, coal, timber, and precious and nonferrous metals.

Exploitation of these resources has come at a high cost. During the Soviet era, the government pursued a program of rapid industrialization that gave little regard to the environment. Many areas have thus suffered extreme ecological degradation. Soil, air, and water pollution are all serious problems. Some areas have been contaminated by nuclear waste, others by chemical dumping or poor wastewater management.

Plants & Animals: Except for tropical rainforest, every major vegetation zone is represented in Russia. The taiga has the largest coniferous forest in the world, though deciduous trees grow there as well. The trees are small and widely dispersed, and species include larch, pine, birch, poplar, fir, oak, and beech. In swampy areas of the taiga, bushes and grasses grow instead of trees. Steppe land, where it is not under cultivation, supports a variety of grasses.

Russia's natural zones are home to a variety of animal life. Among the animals that live in the forests are elks, lynx, and brown bears (considered to be the national symbol). On the steppe, wolves, deer, and rodents flourish, as do birds and reptiles. The tundra supports reindeer, arctic foxes, walruses, seals, and polar bears.

The largest cat in the world, the Siberian tiger, is found in the far east of the country. A 2015 study estimated that five to six hundred Siberian tigers lived in the wild at that time, probably all in Russia. Its status is considered endangered.

Many other animals in Russia are listed as critically endangered, like the European mink. Some critically endangered species are endemic species like the Evorsk vole and the Wrangel lemming. Endangered species include the blue whale; vulnerable species include the snow leopard.

Climate: The Russian climate ranges from the subarctic to the subtropical, but is predominantly northern continental. Moderating influences from warmer seas and oceans do not reach Russia, either because of the distance from these bodies of water or because a mountain range blocks them.

Russia is, however, subject to influence from the colder Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, contributing to European Russia's and Northern Siberia's long, cold winters and short summers. Winter light is brief in the northern zones, whereas white nights prevail during the summer.

Precipitation is moderate to low; even the wetter agricultural areas are sometimes prone to drought. Heavy snow fall is typical. In European Russia, annual snow cover ranges from 40 to 200 days. In Siberia the annual range is between 120 and 250 days. The northernmost regions have permanently frozen ground that can reach depths of several hundred feet.

European Russia experiences warm summers and average winter temperatures below freezing. Moscow's temperatures fall between –13 to –6 degrees Celsius (9 to 21 degrees Fahrenheit) in January and between 13 to 24 degrees Celsius (56 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit) in July.

Average winter temperatures for Siberia are freezing or below. Vladivostok, for example, experiences temperatures from –17 to –9 degrees Celsius (1 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit) in January and from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius (59 to 69 degrees Fahrenheit) in July.

Economy

Most economic activity is concentrated in the western portion of Russia. The gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) was estimated at US$5.816 trillion in 2023, with a per capita GDP of roughly $39,800. The national unemployment rate was 3.33 percent in 2023. The country's economy was negatively impacted by international sanctions at multiple points in the twenty-first century, particularly following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Industry: Russia's domestic economy is fueled by the sale of its exploitable natural resources. Russia is one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas in the world. Russia is estimated to have the largest natural gas reserves in the world and the eighth-largest reserves of oil.

Russia has one of the largest fishing industries in the world, and its fleet works nearly every major ocean. Typically, about 25 percent of the annual catch is taken from the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

The timber industry is also important for the Russian economy. Pine, larch, fir, and birch are the trees most commonly processed. It is estimated that the industry has the potential to rival the oil and gas industry in terms of revenue.

Agriculture: Less than a quarter of Russia's land is cultivated, although it is among the largest agricultural producers in the world. Various types of wheat have the highest yield, followed by barley. Potatoes are also important, both for the Russian diet and for making vodka.

Cabbages, beets, carrots, apples, and tomatoes are commonly cultivated fruits and vegetables. It is also very common for Russians to grow vegetables in small kitchen gardens.

Cattle and pigs are the most commonly raised livestock.

Tourism: Russia has a vast potential for tourism. However, during the Soviet area, comparatively few tourists were allowed to visit Russia. In the mid-1990s, however, the industry started gaining significant ground, even though the tourist infrastructure is less developed than that of other European countries. Tourism in the country was negatively impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as the loss of flight service from many international airlines following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In 2019 the total contribution of travel and tourism accounted for 5 percent of GDP and provided more than 4 million jobs to Russian workers. In general tourists confine themselves to western Russia. Major attractions include historic cities, towns and villages, cultural events like the ballet, and museums such as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Government

Russia radically changed its form of government twice in the twentieth century. Until 1917 the Russian state was ruled through a monarchic system in which tsars and aristocracy presided over a large peasant population. The revolution of 1917 brought democratic reformers briefly to power amid great turmoil. The ensuing civil war was won by a party called the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, who established the Soviet Union and imposed a rigid communist system based on Marxist principles. In 1991, the long-ailing Soviet system collapsed from internal and external pressures. After that Russia began implementing democratic and free market reforms, though corruption and state control remained high.

The Russian government is a federation divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as set out in the 1993 constitution. The national government presides over 85 federal subjects: 21 republics, 46 oblasts, or provinces, 9 krais, or territories, 4 autonomous okrugs or districts, and 1 autonomous oblast; Moscow and St. Petersburg are considered federal cities. (The Russian government considers the city of Sevastopol to be its third federal city, but most of the international community considers Sevastopol to be part of Ukraine.) Local governments are under tight control of the central government.

A president, elected by popular vote to a six-year term, heads the executive branch and is limited to two terms. The president is invested with broad powers as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and head of the Security Council; he also appoints the judges of the highest judicial body. A premier, appointed by the president, serves beneath the president. Presidential appointments are subject to approval by the legislative branch.

The legislative branch, called the Federal Assembly, is bicameral. It is composed of the Federation Council, the upper house, and the State Duma, the lower house. Two representatives from each administrative unit are appointed by top executive and legislative officials to serve four-year terms in the upper house. The State Duma has 450 elected seats.

The highest courts of the judicial branch are the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. Each has separate spheres of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of Arbitration was abolished and its powers merged with the Supreme Court in 2014.

Before 1991, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union presided over every aspect of political and economic life in the country. After the fall of the Soviet Union, hundreds of parties and factions, representing a variety of political perspectives and issues, jockey for a share of power: from left-leaning reformist parties, to centrist parties, to the communist and ultranationalist parties on the right. However, Vladimir Putin, who has ruled the country as either president or premier since 2000, has consolidated power to a great extent, such that opposition parties have almost no power; many experts and foreign governments have described Putin's rule as authoritarian. Crackdowns on free speech, independent media, and other aspects of Russian society not aligned with Putin's government intensified after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In 2014, under Putin, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine through military invasion. In February 2022, Russia recognized the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), separatist states located within the Donbas region of Ukraine, as sovereign states following the massing of Russian troops along the Russia-Ukraine border that began in March 2021. Shortly after recognizing the DPR and LPR, Russia began an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing the country as part of its historical sphere of influence that was threatened by the West. In the wake of the invasion, Russia faced severe sanctions from many members of the international community, leading to a level of isolation unseen since the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, Putin oversaw a harsh crackdown on civil liberties within the Russian Federation.

In October 2022, as the war continued to rage and the Russian military faced a number of setbacks on the battlefield, Putin signed a decree annexing four oblasts, or regions, of eastern Ukraine; this land remained legally part of Ukraine and the annexation was widely condemned by many members in the international community. Meanwhile, Putin's authoritarian rule was threatened by an attempted coup carried out in June 2023 by the Wagner Group, Russia's most powerful mercenary company; Wagner's forces ultimately stood down before reaching Moscow and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner and a former close ally of Putin, died in a plane crash in August. By the end of 2023 at least tens of thousands of Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine, according to various estimates from the US military and other sources; additionally, hundreds of thousands of Russians had fled the country amid a crackdown on civil liberties and conscription of young men into the military.

Interesting Facts

• In the two decades after 1991, more than twenty thousand Orthodox churches destroyed during the Soviet era were rebuilt, more than quadrupling the number of churches in the country.
• The Soviet space program launched the first man into space on April 12, 1961. The astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, made a single orbit of Earth in two hours.
• The Trans-Siberian Railway, which connects Moscow to Vladivostok, is the longest railway in the world, with a length of more than 5,770 miles (9,280 kilometers).

Bibliography

Hopkins, Valerie, and Anton Troianovski. "One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves." The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

Human Development Insights, United Nations Development Programme, Sept. 2022, hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.

"Russia." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 29 Nov. 2023, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/russia/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.

"Russia Country Profile." BBC News, 6 Mar. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17839672. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

"Russian Federation: 2019 Annual Research: Key Highlights." World Travel & Tourism Council, 2019, www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2019/russianfederation2019.pdf. Accessed 29 July 2019.