Russia and the post-Soviet states make up a large portion of Eurasia, the world’s largest continent. Despite its vastness, the region is not highly populated and has a climate that in many places is unforgiving. The nine thematic concepts are explored as they arise in the discussion of regional issues, with interactions between two or more themes featured, as in the geographic insights above. Vignettes illustrate one or more of the themes as they are experienced in individual lives.
Physical features – Mountains, rivers and planes
Russia’s territories east of the Ural Mountains are usually called Siberia, and include the West Siberian Plain, followed by an upland zone called the Central Siberian Plateau, and finally, in the Far East, a series of mountain ranges bordering the Pacific. To the south there are mountains and uplands as well as semiarid grasslands, or steppes. The eastern extension of the North European Plain rolls low and flat from the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine and Romania, 1200 miles (about 2000 kilometers) east to the Ural Mountains. The part of Russia west of the Urals is often called European Russia because the Ural Mountains are traditionally considered part of the indistinct border between Europe and Asia.
Climate
No inhabited place on Earth has as harsh a climate as the northern part of the Eurasian landmass occupied by Russia and, particularly, Siberia. Winters are long and cold, with only brief hours of daylight. Summers are short and cool to hot, with long days. Precipitation is moderate, coming primarily from the west. In the northernmost areas, the natural vegetation is tundra grasslands. The major economic activities here are the extraction of oil, gas, and some minerals, as well as reindeer herding by the local indigenous population. Just south of the tundra lays a vast, cold-adapted coniferous forest known as taiga that stretches from northern European Russia to the Pacific (and from a global perspective, this coniferous belt also includes much of Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia). The largest portion of taiga lies east of the Urals, and here forestry—often unrestrained by ecological concerns—is a dominant economic activity. The short growing season and the large areas of permafrost generally limit crop agriculture, except in the southern West Siberian Plain, where people grow grain.
Languages and religion
Russia is a multi-ethnic and multi-faith nation. Orthodox Christianity is Russia’s largest religion with 75% of the population belonging to the Orthodox Christian denomination. Islam is professed by 5% of the population. Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Buddhism are professed by 1% of the population each. Other religious denominations represent 1% of the population, while 8% consider themselves atheists. Note: data is based on2010 VCIOM survey results.The official language of Russia is Russian. It is the only official language throughout the country.
http://masterrussian.com/russia/facts.htm
Cultural traits
For thousands of years, the militarily and politically dominant people in the region were nomadic pastoralists who lived on the meat and milk provided by their herds of sheep, horses, and other grazing animals, and used animal fiber to make yurts, rugs, and clothing. As possibly the first people to domesticate horses. Towns arose in two main areas: the dry lands of greater Central Asia and the forests of Caucasia, Ukraine, and Russia. As early as 5000 years ago, Central Asia had settled communities that were supported by irrigated croplands. These communities were enriched by their central location for trade along what became known as the Silk Road, that vast, ancient, interwoven ribbon of major and minor trading routes between China and the Mediterranean with lesser connections to other places. About 1500 years ago, the Slavs, a group of farmers including those known as the Rus (possibly of Scandinavian origin), emerged in what is now Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. They moved east, founding numerous settlements, including the towns of Kiev in about 480 c.e. and Moscow in 1100. By 600, Slavic trading towns were located along all the rivers west of the Ural Mountains. In the twelfth century, the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan conquered the forested lands of Ukraine and Russia. The Mongols were a loose confederation of nomadic pastoral people centered in East and Central Asia. Moscow’s rulers became tax gatherers for the Mongols, dominating neighboring kingdoms and eventually growing powerful enough to challenge local Mongol rule. In 1552, the Slavic ruler Ivan IV (“Ivan the Terrible”) conquered the Mongols, marking the beginning of the Russian empire. St. Basil’s Cathedral, a major landmark in Moscow, commemorates the victory. The Russian empire was ruled by a powerful monarch, the czar, who lived in splendor (along with a tiny aristocracy) while the vast majority of the people lived short brutal lives in poverty.
Political Traits
Shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, several internal republics demanded greater autonomy, and two of them, Tatarstan and Chechnya, declared outright independence. Tatarstan has since been placated with greater economic and political autonomy. Chechnya, located on the fertile northern flanks of the Caucasus Mountains, is home to 800,000 people. Partially in response to Russian oppression, the Chechens converted from Orthodox Christianity to the Sunni branch of Islam in the 1700s. In 1942, during World War II, as the Germans continued to fight in Russia, a group of Chechen rebels simultaneously waged a guerilla war against the Soviets. Near the end of the war, Stalin exacted his revenge by deporting the majority of the Chechen population (as many as 500,000 people) to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Here they were held in concentration camps, and many died of starvation. The Chechens were finally allowed to return to their villages in 1957, but a heavy propaganda campaign portrayed them as traitors to Russia, a designation that greatly affected daily life. In 1991, as the Soviet Union was dissolving, Chechnya declared itself an independent state. Russia saw this as a dangerous precedent that could spark similar demands by other cultural enclaves throughout its territory. Russia also wished to retain the agricultural and oil resources of the Caucasus; it had planned to build pipelines across Chechnya to move oil and gas to Europe from Central Asia. Russia responded to acts of terrorism by Chechen guerrillas with bombing raids and other military operations that killed tens of thousands and created 250,000 refugees. Presently, most Chechen guerillas have given up, most Russian combat troops have been pulled out of Chechnya. During the Soviet era, all communication media were under government control. There was no free press, and public criticism of the government was a punishable offense. However, toward the end of the Soviet era, many journalists risked retribution for criticizing public officials and policies. Between 1991 and the early 2000s, the communications industry was a center of privatization, and several media tycoons emerged to challenge the authorities. Privately owned newspapers and television stations regularly criticized the policies of various leaders of Russia and the other states. It appeared that a free press was developing.
Gender role
Many Russians think that wife should cook and the most common opinion about it that the ideal wife is those who can cook borsh. Borsh is a symbol of it. Russian men also expect that wife will take care of children and do most of housework. Also many Russian women think that the life is ideal if they live for the family.The equality of women and men in employment was achieved much earlier than in Europe. Since the foundation of USSR the women and men were equal and have same job chances. The women in USSR were actually very active and initiative. But there was only one “religion” in USSR – the dream about the great socialistic future. Nowadays the religion has much more power and influence on life. That’s why nowadays there are more people thinking that men should earn money and women do housework and raise children. There is also kinda traditions about which jobs are more common within men and women. Tram-drivers are usually women but bus-drivers are usually men. Teachers are women, but men can teach physical education.
Ecological issues
The Soviet economy consisted almost entirely of industries owned and operated by the government. These have now been sold to private companies or individuals through the process of privatization. The hope was that they would operate more efficiently in a competitive free market setting. The transition to a market economy was very rapid. During the 1990s, the Russian government pursued an economic strategy known as “shock therapy,” which was an attempt to revitalize the sluggish economy by moving as quickly away from the old command economy as possible. Today, approximately 65 percent of Russia’s economy is in private hands, a dramatic change from the virtually 100 percent state-owned economy of 1991.
Unfortunately, shock therapy came at a steep cost for many Russians. A major part of the reforms was the abandonment of government price controls that once kept goods affordable to all. Instead, private business owners now determine prices. The lifting of price controls led to inflation and skyrocketing prices in the 1990s for the many goods that were in high demand but also in short supply.
War games off UK coast not response to Russia, says NATO
Huge military exercises are underway off and around Britain’s coast, but NATO insists they are not a deliberate response to the Russian military’s increasingly brazen behavior.The British-led war games are code named Joint Warrior and the numbers are all big: 13,000 personnel from 14 countries operating more than 50 ships and submarines as well as 70 aircraft.NATO says the planning started long before Russia began behaving as an adversary.For more than a year NATO has been condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine as well as its frequent, large scale, snap military drills and those long-range Bear bombers repeatedly flying very close to NATO airspace.So, if Joint Warrior is not a deliberate response, it’s certainly a timely one.CNN was invited to spend a day aboard one of the vessels taking part — the U.S. Navy’s guided missile cruiser USS Vicksburg. It’s the current flag ship of a standing NATO maritime group.
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