The
history of the Russian Federation is long and brutal. It is apparent on every corner of the country’s
awesome cities, such as
Moscow and
St Petersburg, as well as in its lesser-known towns such as Novgorod, Kazan and Tomsk. But it also dwells in huge and remote expanses such as
Siberia, filled with
ancient forests and the
world’s largest lake. Everything exists here on an inhuman scale.
Since the 15th century, when the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan III (the Great), annexed the rival principalities
of Rus, Russia’s ambitions have been as great as this first national sovereign’s appellation. It took
Ivan the Terrible’s capture of the Tatar capital Kazan in 1552 and his subsequent annexation of Siberia, followed by Peter the Great’s expansion to the Baltic and the building of St Petersburg as his ‘window on Europe’ in the early 18th century, to create the vast nation we know as Russia today.
Modern Russia came bloodily to life in 1917 with a popular
revolution followed by a coup that brought the
Bolsheviks and
Lenin to power. The repressive downward spiral that followed was one of the 20th centuries great crimes, with millions killed in the
gulag labor camps.
Communism finally ended in 1991, but Russia’s problems are still very much in evidence. This is despite the fact that the country has become an
oil and
gas superpower under outgoing President
Vladimir Putin.
The largest country on earth, and doubtless one of the most fascinating and challenging, Russia is an experience as much as it is a destination. It is also far more likely to be an
adventure rather than a holiday, although things are
getting easier every year for travelers. Perhaps more than almost any other country, researching some Russian
history and
cultural norms, and knowing a smattering of the
language, will enormously enhance any visit.
GeographyThe Russian Federation covers almost twice the area of the USA, and reaches from the enclave of Kaliningrad in the west over the Urals and the vast Siberian plains to the Sea of Okhotsk in the east. The border between European Russia and Siberia (Asia) is formed by the Ural Mountains, the Ural River and the Manych Depression. European Russia extends from the North Polar Sea across the Central Russian Uplands to the Black Sea, the Northern Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. Siberia stretches from the West Siberian Plain across the Central Siberian Plateau to the Lena River and takes in the Sayan and Yablonovy ranges in the south. East of Siberia stretches the Russian Far East, a region almost as big as Siberia itself, running to the Pacific coast and including the vast Chukotka and Kamchatka peninsulas.
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