Spanni panning across 17,098,246 square kilometres, Russia is the largest country in the world by area. Russia alone occupies one-tenth of all the land on Earth! It is the only country with 11 time zones due to its vast land area. Russia is also part of two continents- Europe and Asia and has territories on three oceans (the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans). The landscapes that one can see across this country vary from sandy and frozen deserts to tall mountains and giant marshes, but the major part of Russia’s landscape is covered by continuous stretches of treeless plains called steppes. Taigas is another type of land area found in Siberia, which are pine forests that occupy about three-quarters of Russia.
Russia had its earliest human settlements when Scandinavians moved south to regions near the upper Volga River in AD 500. These settlers mixed with Slavs from the west, leading to the construction of a fortress, which is now the Ukrainian city of Kiev.
Russian history has many eras. Of them, the evolution of Kiev into an empire that ruled most of European Russia was very important. Kiev was in power for 200 years until it broke up into Ukraine, Belarus and Muscovy. Russia was also ruled by the Tsars for a period in history until the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew them. Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, gave birth to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) from Russia and 11 other countries.
The Soviet Union played a critical role in the victory of the Allied Powers in World War II. It was a superpower and was the major opponent to the United States during the Cold War. This era saw great technological advancements such as the launch of the world’s first human-made satellite and the first human into space. However, the U.S.S.R was dissolved on 26 December 1991.
Recently, Russia is in news for its ongoing war with Ukraine.
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