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Russia
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0.719Russia, also the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). With an area of 17,075,400 km², Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total area of the next-largest country, Canada, and has enormous mineral and energy resources. Russia has the world's ninth-largest population. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States (the state of Alaska), Sweden, and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Pérouse Strait, respectively).
Formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia became the Russian Federation following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. After the Soviet era, the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union (then one of the world's two Cold War superpowers, the other one being the United States) that were located in Russia passed on to the Russian Federation.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly-independent Russian Federation emerged as a great power and is also considered to be an energy superpower. Russia is considered the Soviet Union's successor state in diplomatic matters and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also one of the five recognised nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is the leading nation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a member of the G8 as well as other international organisations.
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History
History of Russia can be divided in to several stages.
- The Kievan Rus (882 - 1283)
- Grand Duchy of Moscow (1283 - 1547)
- Tsardom of Russia (1547 - 1721)
- Imperial Russia (1721 - 1917)
- Soviet Russia (1917 - 1991)
- Russian Federation (1991- current)
Communistic rule
In both relative and absolute terms, Russia is one of the countries having suffered most in the hands of Communists. The Communist coup of 1917 and power consolidation during the civil war destroyed the existing Russian way of life, wiped away the thin layer of intelligentia that had kept the country on the path of civilization and rendered the Russian people in the hands of Communists who exploited them to spread war and destruction to other countries. The attempt to build a Communist empire ended in failure and Russia sunk into one of the deepest crises of its history in the 1990s. The number of victims of Communism in Russia is subject to various estimates. According to the „Black Book of Communism”, some 20 million perished, while academic A. Yakovlev claims that the Communist-triggered civil war alone claimed some 13 million lives, topped by 5,5 million who starved to death in early 1920s and the 5 million famine dead of the 1930s. According to Yakovlev, 20-25 million people were executed or died in prison camps as a result of Communist terror. With millions killed by mass deportations, the number of victims could be between 50-60 million. This figure does not include the estimated 27 million Soviet lives lost in the Second World War that Stalin helped unleash.
Russia has yet to overcome the demographic, social and economic disaster inflicted by Communism.
Politics
The President is the head of the state, while the Prime Minister is the head of the government.[7]
Military
Russia's armed forces, if the reservists are included are the largest in the world with 21,476,000 men.[8]
References
- ↑ Russian Census of 2002. 4.1. National composition of population. Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved on 16 Jan. 2008.
- ↑ The Russian federation: general characteristics. Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved on 5 Apr. 2008.
- ↑ Russian Census 2010
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Russia. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved on 2 Jan. 2011.
- ↑ Distribution of family income – Gini index. The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved on 13 January 2011.
- ↑ 2010 Human development Report 148–151. United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved on 4 March 2011.
- ↑ http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-05.htm
- ↑ International Institute for Strategic Studies; Hackett, James (ed.) (2010-02-03). The Military Balance 2010. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857435575
