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The sleeping giant Russia
By Mark on July 23, 2008
Russia is a country which blends into two continents Asia on the north side and Europe on the east side, it’s borders touch many countries in the north Finland and Norway, in the west you have Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine, Poland in the north-west and Azebaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Korea and China in the south. Russia’s borders meet the Baltic sea, Black sea, the inland Caspian sea, Artic and the Pacific and Russia’s borders are separated from Alaska by the Bering Strait.
Russia being the largest country in the world it spans almost half way around the world about 160 degrees of longitude and and goes through 11 time zones.
This is a picture taken from Google Earth of the world’s largest country Russia.
European Russia lies west of the Ural mountains, to the south of the country the land rises to uplands and the Caucasus mountains on the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan. To the east of the Ural mountains lies the flat west Siberian plain and the central Siberian plateau and towards the south-east is the lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake. With the borders of Kazakhstan and Mongolia lies the Sayan ranges. In the eastern side of Siberia it is rugged and mountainous aswell being very volcanic with alot of active volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The country has numerous rivers, but the largest ones are Volga in the west and in Siberia they have Amur, Lena, Ob Irtysh and the Yenisey. The capital city of Russia is Moscow and the country is lead by a government and the president of Russia and Head of State MR Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, and the former president of Russia Mr
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus.
This is a satellite image of the capital city of Russia and it’s surrounding towns taken from Google Earth.
In general the climate is continental, but does have extreme temperatures especially in Siberia and the north of the country. And having a very large population of 142,008,838 which is surprisingly starting to decline, Russia does very well on the industrial and agricultural side, especially in eastern Europe, where the majority of Russians live. Russia has a large amount of resources, but due to certain locations in the country ie Siberia and the extreme weather conditions, they can not always provide the goods. Russia is a main trader when it comes to petroleum, natural gas and coal aswell as iron ore, nickel, bauxite, copper and many other metals. Being such a large country, Russia’s forest helps to produce, timber, pulp and paper industries. When it comes to farming, Russia struggles and does not seem to be able to produce much in the way of livestock and food, Russia needs to import much food and especially grains. But it does have farming, but not very strong when it comes to exporting. Russia comes very high when you talk about fishing and having a very large fleet that travels the world, alot of fish are caught and sold by the Russian fish markets. The Russian economy has been very slow and difficult, with alot of unemployment. But the Mining and manufacturing industries are keeping Russia a float with building of aircraft, shipbuilding and space vehicles and with Chemicals and fertilizers, the exporting to main traders like Belarus, Germany and the USA is helping Russia alot.
This is a picture of the famous Red Square in Moscow taken from panoramio.
This is a part picture of Russia’s Kremlin, in Moscow taken from panoramio.
The history of Russia can be dated back to 9th century AD, a state called Kievan slavs which was formed by a group of people named as the Kievan slavs. Kiev, which is now the capital of the Ukraine, became a very major trading centre. But in 1237 Mongal armies attacked Russia and destroyed Kiev. Russia became under Mongal rule until the 15th century, and Moscow became the leading Russian city. In the 16th century the first Tsar Ivan the terrible expanded Russia and then after a period of civil war Michael Romanov became the second Tsar and his dynasty ruled until 1917. During the 18th century Tsar Peter the Great westernized Russia and with Napoleon, failing to conquer in 1812, Russia became a major European power. By the 19th century Russians wanted change and with demand for reforms and discontent, the Russian people started to struggle. During world war one the people managed to abdicate Tsar Nicholas the second and with the help of the Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin seized power and by 1922 they had turned Russia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic(USSR). In world two, even though the Germans signed a non-aggressive pact, Germany invaded USSR in 1941. The Russians fought back and beat the Germans in 1945. From the 1940′s to 1991 the cold war ran between Russia and her allies it stopped when the USSR broke down. But Russia has continued her fight and now being in the G8 and being still and highly recommended super power Russia and it may seem like a sleeping giant, but by all means she’s not.
This is a picture taken from panoramio of St.Petersburgh.
- Learn about Russia on Wikipedia:
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Posted in Asia, Europe | 6 Comments
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6 Responses to “The sleeping giant Russia”
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Nick Ramsay, exploring the world from a zabuton in Japan.
9:57 am on July 24th, 2008
You said the Russian economy has been very slow and difficult, but in recent years, their economy has been booming, outpacing Japan, the U.S and Europe! There’s been a lot of foreign investment and I think Russia is making the most of its large reserves of natural gas.
Still, that’s a pretty thorough overview of Russia there, Mark! I didn’t know about the eleven timezones. How confusing that must be!
10:12 am on July 24th, 2008
Oh cool I know that Russia is doing ok when it comes to the economy, but it is still behind where it should be by now. And don’t forget it is mainly the European part of Russia that is booming the Asia part is still behind the rest of Europe. Thanks it is a good blog. I like it.
7:41 pm on July 27th, 2008
Yes mark. I heard that Moscow is the most expensive place to live. A good, very detailed overview of Russia. Very informative.
1:46 pm on August 8th, 2008
I Disagree on your last coments. Russia definetly is a sleeping giant and presently its economy and world contribution only a percentage of its full potential . The trouble with Russia is the stagnant government systems that impede new ideas and systems from taking hold . the other promblem is the the power of the worlds major militaries and their dogged marriage to the many nuts in the broad world media who continue to create suppressions and tales of woe. Of course the worst military is the Us military an overgrown giant that in a wise mans view of the world has lost its right to exist in its present overgrown state and does nothing presently except suppress countries it does not like. The Us govt and military is the reason Russia and europe do not become brothers. Look at NATO another creation giving the Us military more power. Europe must grow up again and kick the USA out of mainland europe. Russia has been suppressed by the U.S.A since the 1940s. the utter dominance of pro- Us views in the western media has prevented this simple truth from being spoken.
The U.S.A also suppresses ARAB countries and has since the creation of ISRAEL by the U.K and U.S.A.
Basically in the interests of mankind the US armed forces should be reduced to a third of its current size and Europe and Asia should be entirely independent of the US military.The U.S time and again has shown itself to be crazy with power and only intereted in its own advancement and global hegemony of its corporations. Also NATO should be reconvened without the U.S.A and instead europe and Russia should increase there ties further.
3:31 pm on August 8th, 2008
Luke, I’m not sure how you can disagree with Moscow being the most expensive city to live in. It was in every paper a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the BBC article.
However, I pretty much agree with the what you’ve said about U.S oppression. It’s all there in the Project for a New American Century.
6:13 pm on August 9th, 2008
I am glad that you disagree with me and we are all intitled to our own opinion, but as my brother has said Moscow is the most expensive city in the world to live in. The problem I find with Russia is she is to large and continue’s to support the european part of Russia more than the Asian part of Russia. I agree with you on the American front aswell and that I wish that Britain and Russia were more friendly, but our government appears to support America more than any other countries. But then if it was not for America we would not be where we are today without NATO who do a fantastic job and work well with Red Cross.