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| Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the ], then one of the world's two ]s, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's global role was greatly diminished compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million, although Russia remains the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad.<ref>{{ru icon}} {{cite web|title=Влияют ли переселенцы на язык СМИ?|url=http://www.lenizdat.ru/cgi-bin/redir?l=ru&b=1&i=1040457|publisher=Lenizdat.ru |date=]}}</ref> | Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the ], then one of the world's two ]s, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's global role was greatly diminished compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million, although Russia remains the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad.<ref>{{ru icon}} {{cite web|title=Влияют ли переселенцы на язык СМИ?|url=http://www.lenizdat.ru/cgi-bin/redir?l=ru&b=1&i=1040457|publisher=Lenizdat.ru |date=]}}</ref> | ||
| ==History== | |||
| {{main|History of Russia}} | |||
| ===Ancient Rus=== | |||
| <!--DON'T REPLACE RUS FOR RUSSIA! IT'S THERE FOR A REASON ---> | |||
| Prior to the ], the vast lands of South Russia were home to disunited ]s, such as ] and ]. Between the third and sixth centuries ], the steppes were overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to ], as was the case with ] and ]. A ] people, the ], ruled South Russia through the 8th century. They were important allies of the ] and waged a series of successful wars against the ] ]s. ] | |||
| The ] constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia from the 7th century onwards and slowly assimilated the native ] tribes, such as the ], the ] and the ]. In the mid-9th century, a group of Scandinavians, the ], assumed the role of a ruling elite at the Slavic capital of ]. Although they were quickly assimilated by the predominantly ] population, the Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or ] and moved the capital to ] in A.D. 882. | |||
| In this era the term "Rhos", or "]", first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of ] became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. The opening of new trade routes with the ] at the time of the ] contributed to the decline and fragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the 12th century. | |||
| In the 11th and 12th centuries, the constant incursions of nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the ] and the ], led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the north, known as ]. The medieval states of ] and ] emerged as successors to Kievan Rus on those territories, while the middle course of the ] came to be dominated by the Muslim state of ]. | |||
| Like many other parts of ], these territories were ], who formed the state of ] which would pillage the Russian ] for over three centuries. Later known as the ], they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while the territories of present-day ] and ] were incorporated into the ] and ], thus dividing the ] in the north from the ] and ] in the west. | |||
| Similarly to the ] and ], long-lasting ] rule retarded the country's economic and social development. However, the ] together with ] retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the ] and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by ], the Novgorodians repelled the ] who attempted to colonize the region. | |||
| {{main|Muscovy}} | |||
| Unlike its spiritual leader the ], Russia under the leadership of ] was able to revive and organized its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the ] in 1453 Muscovite Russia remained the only more or less functional ] state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it ] of the ]. | |||
| While still under the domain of the Mongols and with their ], the ] began to assert its influence in Western Russia in the early 14th century. Assisted by the ] and Saint ]'s spiritual revival, Muscovy inflicted a defeat on the Mongols in the ] (1389). ] (ruled 1456-1505) eventually tossed off the control of the invaders, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion and first took the title "grand duke of ]". | |||
| In the beginning of the 16th century the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Mongolian invasion, and to protect the southern borderland against attacks of ] and other Turkic peoples. The noblemen, receiving a manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army. | |||
| In 1547, ] was officially crowned the first ] of Russia. During his long reign, Ivan annexed the Muslim polities along the ] and transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. By the end of the century, Russian ] established the first settlements in Western Siberia. In the middle of the 17th century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on ], along the ], on the Pacific coast, and the strait between ] and ] was first sighted by a Russian explorer in 1648. The colonization of the Asian territories was largely peaceful, in sharp contrast to the build-up of other colonial empires of the time. | |||
| ===Imperial Russia=== | |||
| {{Main|Imperial Russia}} | |||
| ] | |||
| Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the ] under the subsequent ], beginning with Tsar ] in 1613. ] (ruled in 1689-1725) defeated ] in the ], forcing it to cede ], ], and ]. It was in Ingria that he founded a new capital, ]. Peter succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a severely underdeveloped Russia. After his reforms, Russia emerged as a major European power. | |||
| ], ruling from 1762 to 1796, continued the Petrine efforts at establishing Russia as one of the ] of Europe. Examples of its 18th-century European involvement include the ] and the ]. In the wake of the ], Russia had taken territories with the ethnic Belarusian and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of Kievan Rus'. As a result of the victorious ], Russia's borders expanded to the ] and Russia set its goal on the protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783 Russia and the ] (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) signed the ] according to which Georgia received the protection of Russia. | |||
| In 1812, having gathered ] from France, as well as from all of its conquered states in Europe, ] but, after taking Moscow, was forced to retreat back to Europe. Almost 90% of the invading forces died as a result of on-going battles with the Russian army, guerillas and winter weather. The Russian armies ended their pursuit of the enemy by taking his capital, ]. The officers of the ] brought back to Russia the ideas of ] and even attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive ] (1825), which was followed by several decades of political repression. Another result of the Napoleonic wars was the incorporation of ], ], and ] into the Russian Empire. | |||
| The perseverance of ] and the conservative policies of ] impeded the development of Imperial Russia in the mid-19th century. As a result, the country was defeated in the ], 1853–1856, by an alliance of major European powers, including ], ], ], and ]. Nicholas's successor ] (1855–1881) was forced to undertake a series of comprehensive reforms and issued a ] in 1861. The Great Reforms of Alexander's reign spurred increasingly rapid capitalist development and ]'s attempts at ]. The ] mood was on the rise, spearheaded by Russia's victory in the ], which forced the Ottoman Empire to recognize the independence of ], ] and ] and autonomy of ]. | |||
| The failure of ] reforms and suppression of the growing liberal ] were ] however, and on the eve of ], the position of Tsar ] and his dynasty appeared precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in the ] and World War I and the resultant deterioration of the economy led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the ] and to the overthrow in 1917 of the Romanovs. | |||
| At the close of this ], a ] political faction called the ]s seized power in ] and ] under the leadership of ]. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the ]. A bloody ] ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' ] against a loose confederation of anti-socialist ] and ] forces known as the ]. The Red Army triumphed, and the ] was formed in 1922. | |||
| The descendants of the ] line are all members of the Princedom of ] (]) in ] and the ]. They no longer have any control in Russia, but continue to style themselves ]es as is their right under ]. [citation needed) | |||
| ===Russia as part of the Soviet Union=== | |||
| {{Main|History of the Soviet Union|Russian SFSR}} | |||
| ] and Spasskaya Tower of ] at ] in Moscow]] | |||
| The Soviet Union was meant to be a trans-national worker's state free from ]. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity was therefore not emphasized in the early Soviet Union. Although Russian institutions and cities certainly remained dominant, many non-Russians participated in the new government at all levels. | |||
| One of these was a ] named ]. After ]'s death in 1924, a brief power struggle ensued, during which Stalin gradually eroded the various ] which had been designed into the Soviet political system and assumed ]ial power by the end of the decade. ] and almost all other ]s from the time of the Revolution were killed or exiled. As the 1930s began, Stalin launched the ]s, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people whom Stalin and local authorities suspected of being a threat to their power were ] or exiled to ] ]s in remote areas of ] or Central Asia. | |||
| ] forced rapid ] of the largely ] country and ] of its agriculture. In 1928, Stalin introduced his "First ]" for modernizing the Soviet economy. Most economic output was immediately diverted to establishing ]. Civilian industry was modernized and heavy weapon factories were established. The plan worked, in some sense, as the Soviet Union successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in an unbelievably short span of time, but widespread misery and ] ensued for many millions of people as a result of the severe ] upheaval. | |||
| In 1936 the USSR was in strong opposition to ], and supported the republicans in Spain who struggled against German and Italian troops. In 1938 Germany and the other major European powers signed the ], raising fears over German expansionism, coupled with the lack of opposition to it from the Western powers. Early attempts at collective deterrence against an increasingly belligerent Germany failed over French and Polish reservations ranging from abstinence to the issue of military access. Stalin went on to sign the ] with Nazi Germany, dividing spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and the Baltics. On ], ], with almost half of Poland occupied and German armies within 150 kilometers (93 ]) of the Soviet border in some places, the Soviet army ], largely populated by ethnic Ukrainians and Belorussians. | |||
| Later in the same year the Soviet Union invaded ], a former Grand Duchy of the ], in an attempt to secure Leningrad against a possible invasion by Germany through Finnish territory. This conflict is now known as the ]. The invasion revealed some weaknesses in the ]. Superior Russian forces did not manage to occupy the country apart from the eastern parts of Finland (]). | |||
| In ], ], the Red Army occupied the whole territory of ], ], and ], and installed new, pro-Soviet governments in all three countries. Following elections, in which only pro-communist candidates were allowed to run, the newly elected parliaments of the three countries formally applied to join USSR in August 1940. | |||
| Germany and its allies (Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia) invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. ] considered itself fighting a ] to ] parallel to but separate from the German operations. | |||
| Although the ] had considerable success in the early stages of the campaign, they suffered defeat when they reached the outskirts of Moscow. The ] then stopped the ] offensive at the ] in 1943, which became the decisive turning point for Germany's fortunes in the war. The Soviets drove through ] and ] before Germany surrendered in 1945 (''see ]''). During the war ] lost more than 27 million citizens (including eighteen million civilians). | |||
| Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged superpower. The ] occupied ] after the war, including the ]. Stalin installed loyal ] governments in these ]s. | |||
| During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviets extracted heavy war ]s from the areas of Germany under their control, mostly in the form of machinery and industrial equipment. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe (''see ]''). The ] helped the ]an countries establish democracies, and both countries sought to achieve economic, political, and ideological dominance over the ]. The ensuing struggle became known as the ], which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the ] and the United States, into its foes. | |||
| Stalin died in early 1953 presumably without leaving any instructions for the selection of a successor. His closest associates officially decided to rule the Soviet Union jointly, but the secret police chief ] appeared poised to seize dictatorial control. ] ] and other leading politicians organized an anti-Beria alliance and staged a ]. Beria was arrested in June of 1953 and executed later that year; Khrushchev became the undisputed leader of the USSR. | |||
| ], the first human in space]] | |||
| Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial ], ], and the Soviet ] ] became the first person to orbit the ]. Khrushchev's reforms in ] and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and ] and the ] suffered reverses, notably the ], when he began installing nuclear missiles in ] (after the United States installed ]s in ] which nearly provoked a war with the Soviet Union). Over the course of several angry outbursts at the ], Khrushchev was increasingly seen by his colleagues as belligerent, boorish, and dangerous. The remainder of the Soviet leadership removed him from power in 1964. | |||
| Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until ] established himself in the early 1970s as the pre-eminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev is frequently derided by historians for stagnating the development of the Soviet Union (see "]"). In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. | |||
| In the mid 1980s, the reform-minded ] came to power. He introduced the landmark policies of '']'' (openness) and '']'' (restructuring), in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism. Glasnost meant that the harsh restrictions on ] that had characterized most of the Soviet Union's existence were removed, and open political discourse and criticism of the government became possible again. Perestroika meant sweeping economic reforms designed to decentralize the planning of the Soviet economy. However, his initiatives provoked strong resentment amongst conservative elements of the government, and an unsuccessful ] that attempted to remove Gorbachev from power instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. ] came to power and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule. The USSR splintered into fifteen independent republics, and was officially dissolved in December of 1991 (''see ]''). | |||
| Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and a ] to replace the strict centralized social, political, and economic controls of the Soviet era. | |||
| ]klkkl';p';';';';';';';';';';';';' | |||
| ==Politics== | ==Politics== | ||
Revision as of 19:58, 12 October 2006
- "Russian Federation" redirects here. For another meaning, see RSFSR
| Russian FederationРоссийская Федерация Rossiyskaya Federatsiya | |
|---|---|
Flag
Coat of arms
| |
| Motto: None | |
| Anthem: Hymn of the Russian Federation | |
 | |
| Capitaland largest city | Moscow |
| Official languages | Russian |
| Government | Semi-presidential Federal republic |
| • President of Russia | Vladimir Putin |
| • Prime Minister | Mikhail Fradkov |
| Independence From the Soviet Union | |
| • Declared | June 12, 1991 |
| • Finalized | December 25, 1991 |
| • Water (%) | 13 |
| Population | |
| • 2006 estimate | 142,400,000 (7th) |
| • 2002 census | 145,164,000 |
| GDP (PPP) | 2005 estimate |
| • Total | $1.576 trillion (10th) |
| • Per capita | $11,041 (62nd) |
| HDI (2003) | 0.795 high (62nd) |
| Currency | Ruble (RUB) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 to +12 |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 to +13 |
| Calling code | 7 |
| ISO 3166 code | RU |
| Internet TLD | .ru, (.su reserved) |
| Rank based on April 2006 IMF data | |
Russia (Template:Lang-ru, Rossiya; pronounced ), also the Russian Federation (Template:Lang-ru, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; pronounced , listen), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia. With an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by land mass, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It has the world's eighth largest population. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States (Alaska), and Japan across relatively small stretches of water.
Formerly the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia is now an independent country and an influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since the Union's dissolution in December 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was officially called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Russia is considered the Soviet Union's successor state in diplomatic matters.
Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union, then one of the world's two superpowers, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's global role was greatly diminished compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million, although Russia remains the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad.
Politics
Template:Morepolitics The politics of Russia (the Russian Federation) take place in a framework of a federal presidential republic, whereby the President of Russia is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
Administrative divisions
Main article: Subdivisions of RussiaFederal subjects
The basic subdivision of the Russian Federation is that of the federal subject. There are 88 federal subjects. Each federal subject is a constituent part of the federation.
There are many different types of federal subject. There are 21 republics within the federation that enjoy a high degree of autonomy on most issues and these correspond to some of Russia's numerous ethnic minorities. The other subjects consist of 48 oblasts (provinces) and 7 krais (territories), as well as 9 autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts), and 1 autonomous oblast. Beyond these there are two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg).
Federal districts
There are also seven large federal districts (four in Europe, three in Asia). These have been added as a new layer between the above subdivisions and the national level. Unlike the federal subjects, the federal districts are not as such a subnational level of government, but are a level of administration of the national government.
See also:
Economy
Main article: Economy of RussiaIntroduction
More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia is now trying to further develop a market economy and achieve more consistent economic growth. Russia saw its comparatively developed centrally planned economy contract severely for five years, as the executive and the legislature dithered over the implementation of reforms and Russia's aging industrial base faced a serious decline.
Crash
After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's first slight recovery, showing signs of open-market influence, occurred in 1997. That year, however, the Asian financial crisis culminated in the August depreciation of the ruble. This was followed by a debt default by the government in 1998, and a sharp deterioration in living standards for most of the population. Consequently, 1998 was marked by recession and an intense capital flight.
Recovery
Nevertheless, the economy started recovering in 1999. The recovery was greatly assisted by the weak ruble, which made imports expensive and boosted local production. Then it entered a phase of rapid economic expansion, the GDP growing by an average of 6.7% annually in 1999–2005 on the back of higher petroleum prices, a weaker ruble, and increasing service production and industrial output. The country is presently running a huge trade surplus, which has been helped by protective import barriers, and rampant corruption which ensures that it is almost impossible for foreign and local SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) to import goods without the help of local specialist import firms, such as the Russia Import Company. Some import barriers are expected to be abolished after Russia's accession to the WTO.
The recent recovery, made possible due to high world oil prices, along with a renewed government effort in 2000 and 2001 to advance lagging structural reforms, has raised business and investor confidence over Russia's prospects in its second decade of transition. Russia remains heavily dependent on exports of commodities, particularly oil, natural gas, metals, and timber, which account for about 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices. Industrial military exports after undergoing sharp contraction is now the major non-commodity export. In recent years, however, the economy has also been driven by growing internal consumer demand that has increased by over 12% annually in 2000–2005, showing the strengthening of its own internal market.
The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven: the Moscow region contributes one-third of the country's GDP while having only a tenth of its population. GDP increased by 7.2% in 2004 and 6.4% in 2005.
GDP
The country's GDP (PPP) shot up to reach €1.2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) in 2004, making it the ninth largest economy in the world and the fifth largest in Europe.
In 2005, according to State Statistics Committee, GDP reached $765 billion nominally (21.7 trillion rubles), equal to $1.748 trillion in international dollars (PPP; purchasing power parity). Inflation was 10.9% percent. The consolidated budget took 38.6% of country's GDP: $675 billion (PPP). The government plans to reduce the tax burden, although the time and scale of such a reduction remains undecided..
By August 17th, 2006, Russia's international reserves reached $277 billion nominally and projected to grow to $320 billion by the end of this year and to $350–450 billion by the end of 2007 .
Formed by the government in 2004 to take in the windfall revenues from oil exports (and try to prevent the ruble from appreciating), the Stabilisation Fund (SF) grew to $75 billion and is projected to achieve $110 billion by the end of the year , $173 billion by the end of 2007, and about $300 billion by the end of 2009 . Using money from the stabilization fund, Russia paid off all of its Soviet-era debt to the Paris Club ahead-of-schedule on August 21, 2006
According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, the monthly nominal average salary was about RUR 10,975 (about $408 nominally; about $800 PPP) in June, 25.6 percent higher than in June 2005 and 7 percent more than in May 2006.
For 2007 year, GDP is projected to grow to about $1.2 trillion nominally (31.2 billion rubles; about $2–2.5 trillion PPP)
Challenge
Some perceive the greatest challenge facing the Russian economy to be encouraging the development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in a business climate with a young and less-than-sufficient functional banking system. Few of Russia's banks are owned by oligarchs, who often use the deposits to lend to their own businesses. The 2005 Milken Institute's ratings place Russia at the 51st place in the world, out of 121 countries by the availability of capital.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have attempted to kick-start normal banking practices by making equity and debt investments in a number of banks, but with very limited success.
However, about twenty-five of the biggest banks of Russia get entry into Top 1000 banks of the world by The Banker . Many more Russian banks have very high international ratings by Moody's and Fitch, including "investment" level.
Other problems include disproportional economic development of Russia's own regions. While the huge capital region of Moscow is a bustling, affluent metropolis living on the cutting edge of technology with a per capita income rapidly approaching that of the leading Eurozone economies, much of the country, especially its indigenous and rural communities in Asia, lags significantly behind. Market integration is nonetheless making itself felt in some other sizeable cities such as Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Ekaterinburg, and recently also in the adjacent rural areas.
The arrest of Russia's wealthiest businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky on charges of fraud and corruption in relation to the large-scale privatizations organized under then-President Yeltsin, contrary to some expectations, has not caused most foreign investors to worry about the stability of the Russian economy. Most of the large fortunes currently prevailing in Russia are the product of either acquiring government assets at particularly low costs or gaining concessions from the government. Other countries have expressed concerns and worries at the "selective" application of the law against individual businessmen, though the government actions have been received positively by most of the aggravated Russians.
Prospect
Encouraging foreign investment is also a major challenge due to legal, some cultural, linguistic, economic and political peculiarities of the country. Nevertheless, there has been a significant inflow of capital in recent years from many European investors attracted by cheaper land, labor and higher growth rates than in the rest of Europe. Amazingly high levels of education and societal involvement achieved by the majority of the population, including women and minorities, secular attitudes, mobile class structure, better integration of various minorities in the mainstream culture set Russia far apart from the majority of the so-called developing countries and even some developed nations.
The country is also benefiting from rising oil prices and has been able to pay off all of its formerly huge debt. Equal redistribution of capital gains from the natural resource industries to other sectors is however a problem. Still, since 2003, exports of natural resources started decreasing in economic importance as the internal market has strengthened considerably largely stimulated by intense construction, as well as consumption of increasingly diverse goods and services. Yet teaching customers and encouraging consumer spending is a relatively tough task for many provincial areas where consumer demand is primitive. However, some laudable progress has been made in larger cities, especially in clothing, food, and entertainment industries.
Additionally, some international firms are investing in Russia. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia had nearly $26 billion in cumulative foreign direct investment inflows during the 2001-2004 period (of which $11.7 billion occurred in 2004).
Russia faces huge income inequalities hindering Russia's opportunity to become a more diversified economy
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of RussiaDespite its comparatively high population, Russia has a low average population density due to its enormous size. Population is densest in the European part of Russia, in the Ural Mountains area, and in the south-western parts of Siberia; the south-eastern part of Siberia that meets the Pacific Ocean, known as the Russian Far East, is sparsely populated, with its southern part being densest. The Russian Federation is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. As of the Russian Census (2002), 79.8% of the population is ethnically Russian, 3.8% Tatar, 2% Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1% Chuvash, 0.9% Chechen, 0.8% Armenian. The remaining 10.3% includes those who did not specify their ethnicity as well as (in alphabetical order) Assyrians, Avars, Azeris, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Buryats, Chinese, Cossacks, Estonians, Evenks, Finns, Georgians, Germans, Greeks, Ingushes, Inuit, Jews, Kalmyks, Karelians, Kazakhs, Koreans, Kyrgyz, Lithuanians, Latvians, Maris, Mongolians, Mordvins, Nenetses, Ossetians, Poles, Romanians, Tajiks, Tuvans, Turkmen, Udmurts, Uzbeks, Yakuts, and others. Nearly all of these groups live compactly in their respective regions; Russians are the only people significantly represented in every region of the country.
The Russian language is the only official state language, but the individual republics have often made their native language co-official next to Russian. The Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script, which means that these languages must be written in Cyrillic in official texts.
The Russian Orthodox Church is the dominant Christian religion in the Federation. Islam is the second most widespread religion. Hindus make up a small but fast-growing minority, particularly followers of the ISKCON movement. Other religions include various Protestant churches, Judaism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. Induction into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Ethnic Russians are mainly Orthodox whereas most people of Turkic and Caucasian extraction are Muslim. However, after years of religious suppression under communism, the observation of these religious creeds is very low.
Culture
Main article: Culture of Russia- Cinema of Russia
- Russian traditions and superstitions
- Ethnic Russian music
- List of Russians
- Music of Russia
- Russian architecture
- Russian cuisine
- Russian humour
- Russian literature
Etymology
- Main article: Etymology of Rus and derivatives.
The name of the country derives from the name of the Rus' people. The origin of the people itself and of their name is a matter of some controversy.
Miscellaneous topics
- Ket people
- Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
- Communications in Russia
- Education in Russia
- Foreign relations of Russia
- Law of the Russian Federation
- List of Russian companies
- List of Russian language television channels
- Major power - Russia
- Postage stamps and postal history of Russia
- Public holidays in Russia
- Quartet on the Middle East
- Russian Association of Scouts/Navigators
- Tourism in Russia
- Transportation in Russia
- Roman Catholicism in Russia
- Category:Russian diaspora
References
- Roderic Lyne, Strobe Talbott, Koji Watanabe: Engaging With Russia – The Next Phase, A Report to The Trilateral Commission; Washington, Paris, Tokyo; 2006
- The New Columbia Encyclopedia, Col.Univ.Press, 1975
- World Civilizations:The Global Experience, by Peter Stearns, Michael Adas, Stuart Schwartz, and Marc Gilbert
- Russia for Dummies, India Lambert, 1975
- From Article 1 of Constitution of Russia: "The names "Russian Federation" and "Russia" shall be equivalent."
- Template:Ru icon "Влияют ли переселенцы на язык СМИ?". Lenizdat.ru. 2006-05-31.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
Directories
- Referencio - Russia Wiki directory
- Yahoo - Russia
- Open Directory - Russia
Government resources
- Duma - Official site of the parliamentary lower house Template:Ru icon
- Federative Council - Official site of the parliamentary upper house
- Kremlin - Official presidential site
- Gov.ru - Official governmental portal Template:Ru icon
- Russian Federation Today - Official issue of the Federal Assembly Template:Ru icon
- Russian Federal Customs Service
- Central Bank of Russia
General information
- Russian News Agency Ria Novosti
- Russia photo gallery and city guide
- Culture of Russia - with support of Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography Template:Ru icon
- Encyclopaedia Britannica's Country Portal site
- BBC Country Profile - Russia
- Russian Space Program
- CIA World Factbook - Russia
- News From Russia
- U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheet: Russia
- Top Russian Web Resources
- Russia Energy Resources and Industry from U.S. Department of Energy
- Russia History Timeline 1533 - 1991
- Russia Traveblogue
| Countries bordering the Baltic Sea | |
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