Explore Russia

Location:
Russia

Currency:
Russian ruble (RUR)

Communications:
The telephone code for Russia: + 7

About:
European Russia is the mass of Russian land west of the Ural Mountains It's indicated above in a medium shade of green, fronting Europe.

It is not a separate country, but rather called European Russia because of its political and cultural blending with European countries and peoples.

St. Petersburg and Moscow, (the capital) are located in European Russia. Regardless, the entire country is (geographically) still considered a part of Asia.

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities.

In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire.

During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household.

The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives.

The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics.

Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period. While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent years have seen a recentralisation of power under Vladimir PUTIN and the erosion of nascent democratic institutions.

A determined guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya and threatens to destabilize the North Caucasus region.

The Russian Federation - spread over all climate zones (except tropical) - is the world's largest country, with land that stretches halfway around the planet.

In fact, by airplane from Moscow, it takes over 8 hours to reach Vladivostok on its far eastern coast.

Moscow is the country's major economic and political center; it's the seat of the President, the government and the State Duma.