Russia (Differently)

Russian Federation Росси́йская Федера́ция Rossiyskaya Federatsiya Timeline: Differently
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem:  Патриотическая Песня (Russian: Patriotic Song)
Location of the Russian Federation
Capital (and largest city)		Moscow
Official languages		Russian
Other languages		Belarusian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, several Northwest Caucasian, Turkic and indigenous languages
Government		Federal semi-presidential republic
-	President	Alexei Navalny
Establishment
-	Independence from the Soviet Union	4 December 1975
Area
-	Total	22,345,316 km2  8,627,575 sq mi
Population
-	Estimate	214,718,572
Currency		Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)

Russia, officially the Russian Federation, is a vast country extending from Eastern Europe throughout Northern Asia up to North America. It is by far the largest country in the world by area, covering 22.3 million square kilometres, or more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, spanning thirteen time zones, and bordering sixteen sovereign nations. With 214.7 million inhabitants living in the country's 88 federal subjects as of 2020, Russia is the most populous nation in Europe and the sixth-most populous in the world. Russia's capital and largest city is Moscow; other major urban areas include Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Chelyabinsk.

The modern Russian Federation was formed after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union in 1975. Today Russia is a major world power, a member of the League of Nations and the BRIC.

History

The East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states, until it was finally reunified by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland on the west to Alaska on the east. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR) became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state.

After the Great War, the Soviet Union emerged as a recognized superpower and rival to the United States and Western Europe during the Cold War. Many socialist states around the world became allies of the union, notably the Confederation of American Socialist States and Austria-Hungary. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, especially in the area of astronautics, including the world's first human-made satellite, the launching of the first humans in space and the first landing on the moon. In the early to mid 1970s, however, the Soviet economy started to experience stagnation and its technology was greatly surpassed by the capitalist bloc. Following tension and revolts throughout the country, the parliament agreed upon dissolving the half-century-old socialist state.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1975, the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Kazakh SFSRs reconstituted themselves as the Russian Federation. The political system of Russia has been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic since 1979.

Borders and coast

The largest country in the world, Russia borders numerous nations: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Austria-Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the west, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Chagatai, China, Mongolia and Korea to the south and Canada to the east.

Russia is bounded by the cold Arctic Ocean to the north, the North Pacific Ocean on the east and by the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas on the south.

Federal Subjects

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Name	Capital/Admin Center	Type	Federal district	Economic region	Area (km2)	Population	Established
Alaska	Novo-Arkhangelsk	Republic	Far Eastern	Alaskan	663,268	710,249	1918