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Geography Worksheets and Printables

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Geography Worksheets

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• Geography at H...

Geography at Home Worksheets

These resources were produced when the UK was in lockdown during the covid-19 pandemic and many children were being schooled from home.

On this page you will find a series of worksheets aimed at geography teachers looking for quick tasks or a little inspiration. These short worksheets utilise online free resources. They are for teachers, or parents, to share with schoolchildren and can easily be completed at home. Please remember you can find out about new resources and events via our Twitter @RGS_IBGschools . You can also find more resources on Twitter using #geographyathome

File name Files

1. ONS Population pyramids

1. ONS Population pyramids (1)

1. ONS Population pyramids answers

1. ONS Population pyramids answers (1)

2. ONS blog and our population

2. ONS blog and our population (1)

2. ONS blog and our population answers

2. ONS blog and our population answers (1)

3. The Americas episode 3 - California

3. The Americas episode 3 - California (1)

3. The Americas episode 3 - California - answers

3. The Americas episode 3 - California - answers (1)

4. The Americas episode 4 - Texas and Mexico

4. The Americas episode 4 - Texas and Mexico (1)

4. The Americas episode 4 - Texas and Mexico - answers

4. The Americas episode 4 - Texas and Mexico - answers (1)

5. Ordnance Survey Map Symbols

5. Ordnance Survey Map Symbols (1)

5. Ordnance Survey Map Symbols - answers

5. Ordnance Survey Map Symbols - answers (1)

6. Ordnance Survey Map Flashcards

6. Ordnance Survey Map Flashcards (1)

6. Ordnance Survey Map Flashcards - answers

6. Ordnance Survey Map Flashcards - answers (1)

7. COVID-19 Channel 4

7. COVID-19 Channel 4 (1)

7. COVID-19 Channel 4 - answers

7. COVID-19 Channel 4 - answers (1)

8. BBC Lockdown

8. BBC Lockdown (1)

8. BBC Lockdown answers

8. BBC Lockdown answers (1)

9. Natural History Museum Tour

9. Natural History Museum Tour (1)

9. Natural History Museum Tour - answers

9. Natural History Museum Tour - answers (1)

10. Smithsonian Institution Museum tour

10. Smithsonian Institution Museum tour (1)

10. Smithsonian Institution Museum tour - answers

10. Smithsonian Institution Museum tour - answers (1)

11. London, Sugar and Slavery gallery film

11. London, Sugar and Slavery gallery film (1)

11. London, Sugar and Slavery gallery film - answers

11. London, Sugar and Slavery gallery film - answers (1)

12. London Now, London Future video

12. London Now, London Future video (1)

12. London Now, London Future video answers

12. London Now, London Future video answers (1)

13. BBC Bitesize natural hazards

13. BBC Bitesize natural hazards (1)

13. BBC Bitesize natural hazards - answers

13. BBC Bitesize natural hazards - answers (1)

14. A controversial desertification myth rebutted

14. A controversial desertification myth rebutted (1)

14. A controversial desertification myth rebutted answers

14. A controversial desertification myth rebutted answers (1)

15. Physics in the natural world

15. Physics in the natural world (1)

16. Map ideas

16. Map ideas (1)

17. Sand dunes and dune slacks

17. Sand dunes and dune slacks (1)

17. Sand dunes and dune slacks answers

17. Sand dunes and dune slacks answers (1)

18. What the Earth can tell us about the weather

18. What the Earth can tell us about the weather (1)

18. What the Earth can tell us about the weather answers

18. What the Earth can tell us about the weather answers (1)

19. Geology Rocks!

19. Geology Rocks! (1)

19. Geology Rocks! answers

19. Geology Rocks! answers (1)

20. The 2010-11 Canterbury (NZ) Earthquakes

20. The 2010-11 Canterbury (NZ) Earthquakes (1)

20. The 2010-11 Canterbury (NZ) Earthquakes answers

20. The 2010-11 Canterbury (NZ) Earthquakes answers (1)

21. Net zero interactive: The BEIS My2050 carbon calculator

21. Net zero interactive: The BEIS My2050 carbon calculator (1)

22. Net zero interactive: The BEIS MacKay carbon calculator

22. Net zero interactive: The BEIS MacKay carbon calculator (1)

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13 Unexpected and Fun Geography Lessons To Enhance Your Curriculum

Students can travel across the globe without leaving the classroom!

With the right geography lesson, students can travel around the world without ever leaving the classroom. Teachers of any grade and subject can incorporate geography into their curriculum to help students gain a global perspective and understand the world around them. From students learning to locate different cities, states, and countries on a map to understanding time zones and where their clothing comes from, we asked teachers to share their favorite tips and fun geography lessons to inspire students’ curiosity about the world. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Hold a mock geography bee.

Fourth graders in Ashley Peterson’s class often play Kahoot! before dismissal. She recently held a mock geography bee using Kahoot! to teach geography concepts and help kids prep for the National Geographic GeoBee . National Geographic has multiple geography-themed Kahoot! games available, with topics including State Stats, Source to Sea, and The First Americans. Learn how to use Kahoot! for a mock geography bee in your classroom .

2. Explore the world through pen pals.

Set up a pen pal exchange with a teacher in another city or country to help kids practice their writing skills while gaining a global perspective. Bring the experience to life by ending the year with a Skype chat where kids can finally “meet” their pen pals.

3. Put up a wall of clocks.

Help students start to understand the geography of time zones by putting up a wall of clocks in your classroom. Set one clock to universal time and label it Greenwich, England. Choose a variety of major cities throughout the US and the world to label the other clocks and set them accordingly. Point out the clocks at different times throughout the school day. For example, in the morning when students in your class are just starting school, talk about what students in other time zones might be doing. You can also use the clocks as a starting point to explain how longitude and time zones are related.

4. Travel with technology.

Technology teacher Melinda Klecker teaches fun geography lessons by having her students design travel brochures. She asks students to select different states. They each research their chosen state and two cities in it to include in the brochure. It’s a great way to incorporate writing, technology, graphic design, and geography into a single project.

5. Put the world into perspective with Google Earth.

Anytime fourth grade teacher Julia McIntyre talks about her personal travels, she uses Google Earth to show students the distance between their school and her destination. “It really puts it into perspective for them,” she says. Now you can also use Google Earth to follow National Geographic Explorers , including those working to protect the oceans through National Geographic’s Pristine Seas initiative. Josh Williams’ students explore the Pristine Seas program and use Google Earth to analyze how places around the world have changed over time.

6. Create autobiographical island maps.

Students in Amy Getty’s sixth grade class start off the year by creating maps of islands that illustrate their lives. They first fill out an autobiographical survey and then use their creativity and knowledge of landforms and symbols to design their maps.

7. Play a global game of hide and seek.

Mystery Class , which Christina Michelle plans to try with her students next year, includes fun geography lessons that help kids understand longitude and latitude while learning about continents, countries, and cities around the world. Kids start by gathering data about Earth, based on latitude, longitude, and seasonal changes in sunlight. Then they investigate clues and compare their data, narrowing down their search to find 10 secret sites around the globe.

8. Map character journeys.

When teaching about literary settings, Jessica Brookes suggests having kids create a map of the main character’s travels throughout the story, including a title, scale, key, and compass rose. Reading specialist Melody Arnett says a simple way she incorporates geography is by helping her class figure out where in the world each book they read takes place. “Sometimes it’s obvious … ‘This is a folktale from Thailand,’” she says, “and sometimes we infer based on clues from the story.”

9. Study the geography of ocean currents.

In this activity , students use maps to learn about ocean currents, research case studies of ocean spills, and discuss the role of oceanographers.

10. Engage fast finishers.

Here’s an idea to keep your fast finishers actively learning after they’ve finished their classwork. Runa Zaman suggests photocopying a stack of blank world maps and asking kids to label them. Students can even receive extra credit or a small prize based on the number of countries they label correctly.

11. Map your classroom.

Introduce spatial concepts without ever leaving the classroom. You can practice with familiar places, using this National Geographic activity to help your students understand the world around them—starting with their own classroom.

12. Hold the whole world in your hands.

Play Throw the Globe by tossing a beach-ball-sized inflatable globe around the classroom. When a student catches it, they must tell the class which continent or ocean their right thumb is touching. If they know something about the location, they can also share it with the class.

13. Get to know foods around the world.

Are your students hungry for knowledge about the world’s food production? National Geographic’s MapMaker Interactive layers show leading crop production by country on an interactive map. Challenge your students to think about what the map doesn’t show—like where crops may grow in the future or where the crops travel when they are exported.

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Geography Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Printables

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Printables for Grades K-5

Build your students map reading and identification skills with these various activities that cover maps of the entire world. These visual representations of parts of the world will help your students discover without having to leave the classroom! These resources are geared toward grades K-5.

• U.S. Map with State Capitals
• Find the Continents and Oceans
• United States Map (Outline)
• Outline Map of Asia
• World Map (Black and White)
• Africa Mapping Activity
• Map of Southeast United States
• More Popular Geography Printables

Printables for Grades 6-8

Go deeper with your study with these printable maps of different parts of the world. Whether you are completing a comprehensive study of the United States or another country, or you just want to focus on a particular subsection, these worksheets will help students in the moment during your lessons as well as a resource to study for their quizzes as well.

• Geography Quiz: State Capitals
• Map of Midwest United States
• Map of Northeast United States

Printables for Grades 9-12

Use these resources for a general study of different countries or modify them to target a specific historical period or political movement that you want to focus on with your students. These maps can be a useful resource or study guide as students move toward learning more higher order concepts and retaining more historical information throughout the upper grades.

• Map of North America
• Political Map of Europe
• Geography Quiz: True or False

Lesson Plans

Use these comprehensive lesson plans to fully develop an individual, geographical concepts, or historical periods of time that you want to focus on with your students. Within each lesson, you will be guided on how to complete the lesson with students as well as provided different questions, discussions, or activities to help students deeply understand the topic under study.

• PowerPoint Postcards Presentation
• Latitude and Longitude
• Chart Columbus's Voyages
• Australia Poster
• Pilgrim Unit (7 lessons)
• What Are the Modern Olympic Games?
• Map Making, Floor Plans & Map Reading
• More Popular Geography Lesson Plans

Printable Geography Quizzes

Tired of making your own geography quizzes? Who says you have to? Review the different quizzes in this section to use as the perfect complement to your lessons and activities. You can use these quizzes as is or can modify them to better meet your teaching style or the needs of your classroom.

• Quiz: Southeast United States
• Quiz: Southwest U.S. State Capitals
• Quiz: The United States: West Region
• Quiz: Western U.S. State Capitals
• More Printable Geography Quizzes

Maps and Globes Resources

Use these printable map outlines or review the Practicing Map Skills activity to help your students learn about the different geographic features of various places around the world. These maps can be used again and again and are great resources to help student keep track of the constantly changing world.

• Practicing Map Skills
• Map of U.S. Regions
• Map Library
• More Popular Maps and Globes Resources

Geography Games & Puzzles

Need an interactive game to help reinforce your students' understanding of a geographical unit? This section is the one for you. Whether you want to teach students initial map skills by creating your own map of your classroom, or help them remember the different features that can be used when viewing a map, these printable games will make learning fun for your students.

• Find the State
• A Geography Wordsearch
• Magnificent Maps: Neighborhood Map
• Globe Wordsearch
• Name That Country
• Magnificent Maps: Classroom Map
• Magnificent Maps: Community Map
• More Geography Games & Puzzles

Technology Resources for Geography

Build your students inquiry, research, and discussion skills with these geographical technology resources. In this section, students will be responsible for investigating the world's wonders and reporting on their findings.

• Wonders of the World Questions
• Wonders of the World
• Researching Our National Parks
• Fantasy Vacation
• How Far Is It?
• More Technology Resources for Geography

U.S. Geography Resources

Use these printable maps to teach a comprehensive study of the geographical makeup of the United States. Students can keep these maps as study tools when looking back on a full year's study of the U.S. or just as a quick reference during a topic or concept.

• Map of Western United States
• Map of Southwest United States
• United States Maps Gallery
• Map Library of the United States
• More Popular U.S. Geography Resources

World Geography Resources

Use these printable maps to teach a comprehensive study of the geographical makeup of the the world. Students can keep these maps as study tools when looking back on a full year's study of the world. or just as a quick reference during a topic or concept.

• World Geography Glossary
• Longest Street in the World
• World Maps Gallery
• Sailing Around the World
• Mountains of the World Quiz
• More Popular World Geography Resources

Political Geography Resources

Help your students keep track of all the political affiliations during different historical periods with these resources. In this section, you can use printable maps, interactive books and slideshows, or just reinforce their understanding of geographical topic with various quizzes.

• Map Library of the World
• Maps & Activities Printables Slideshow
• Maps & Activities Printable Book (Grades 4-12)
• Continents of the World
• Capitals of the World Quiz
• Major Cities and Rivers in Russia
• Mason and Dixon's Line
• More Political Geography Resources

Looking to build your geographical resource library? This section can provide you a wealth of resources ranging from lesson plans, various charts and maps, or just some fun information or facts on the different parts of the world.

• Origin of U.S. State Names
• Oceans and Seas
• Just Where Was Columbus?
• Languages by Country
• Columbus's Voyages
• Fifty Fun Facts About the Fifty U.S. States
• State Capitals and Largest Cities for Each State
• More Popular Geography References

Geography Skill Builders

Uses these Skill Builder guides to help students learn research skills and discover fun facts about geography. Each guide divides into different activities according to your individual classrooms grade level so it can be a resource that you use for any classroom. It also is completed weekly so this be a great compliment to your daily lessons, review sessions, or even as homework activities for your students.

• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 1
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 2
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 3
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 4
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 9
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 20
• Skill Builders: Geography Challenge Questions, Week 28
• More Geography Skill Builders

Geography Resources for History Class

Use these resources to help students learn about the geography from different historical periods or important events. In this section, you have access to different lesson plans, printable maps, interactive activities, and classroom guides for discussions. These resources can be kept as is or can be modified to be better for your individual teaching style or classroom needs.

• Mapping the War: World War II
• German Nazi Takeover: 1933-1944
• Countries Quiz
• Triangular Trade in the Atlantic Ocean
• More Popular Geography Resources for History Class

Earth Science & Geography Connected

Planning a cross-curricular study with your fellow teachers? Or just trying to help students understand how geography is formed? This section will provide you for a little bit of both! In this section, you have access to different comprehension resources that outline the causes and effects of natural disasters and how that has developed the geography from the past to today.

• Ocean Pollution
• What's the Solution to Ocean Pollution?
• Chart of the Water Cycle
• Time Zones Around the World
• Weather Words
• Plate Tectonics Test
• More Popular Geography Activities for Earth Science Class

Math & Geography Connected

Planning a cross-curricular study with the other teachers in various content areas? Or just trying to help students understand map reading and geography skills? This section will help you prepare for any objective or goal you have for your students. Use the different printable maps, lesson plans, or graphic organizers to build students comprehension and map-reading skills by focusing on topics such as time zones and latitude and longitude.

• Coordinate Grids (Gr. 3)
• Time Zones in the U.S.
• Making Choices: Decision Making (Gr. 6)
• Reading a Map
• Colorful World Map
• Map of the United States
• More Popular Geography Activities for Math Class

Language Arts & Geography Connected

Build your students reading comprehension and map reading skills with these different activities. In this section, students connect their understanding of different geographic features with their own previous knowledge and experiences. Each resource is a perfect complement to any part of your lesson, as a resource for students to use to remember key concepts, or as supplemental work to assess student understanding.

• Read the Map
• Geography Reading Warm-Up: Rainforests
• State Scavenger Hunt
• The Oceans of the World
• Matching Animal Habitats
• Mount Everest Timeline
• More Popular Language Arts Activities for Geography

Art Activities for Geography

Use these activities to add an artistic spin to learning geography. Students can create their own geographical tools, create cultural artifacts of individuals from a different country, or design different geographic maps of countries around the world. These activities can be used as is or modified to better suit the needs of students in your classroom.

• Compass Rose
• Maps and Globes Book
• Kente Cloth
• Dora the Explorer Map (English)
• A Bedroom Map
• More Art Activities for Geography

Earth Day Activities

Build your students understanding of this important day with different resources that highlights the importance of taking care of our Earth. In this section, students can review the different economic resources that are pivotal to human survival, the different ways we take care of resources, and much more!

• Geographical Highs, Lows, and Boundaries of the U.S.
• Science, Technology, and Society: Clean Machine
• National Park System of the United States
• Rivers of the United States
• Glaciers: Ice That Flows
• Economic Resources
• National Scenic Trails
• More Earth Day Teacher Resources

Wildlife Week Resources

Use these literature/teacher guides to review with students the different types of wildlife that live in various places around the world. These guides can compliment any content area and will help your students improve their reading comprehension and geography skills. Use them as is or adapt them to best fit your classroom.

• On the Far Side of the Mountain
• Kingfisher Knowledge Guide: Dangerous Creatures Teacher's Guide
• Columbus Day Activities

Use these lessons or activities in this section to help students learn about Christopher Columbus's voyage and exploration of America. These activities can be kept as is or modified to fit your individual teaching style or the needs of your students.

• More Columbus Day Teacher Resources

Native American Resources

Help students understand that studying geography means studying the individuals that live in those different regions as well. By reviewing the lives and culture of Native Americans, students can connect their geographical skills to deeper higher order thinking ones

• Native American Life on the Great Plains
• Native American Tribes of the Great Plains
• More American Indians & Native Americans - Teacher Resources

Voyages & Travels Resources

Use these different resources with your students to discuss the concepts of voyages and traveling. In this section are different visual maps, lesson plans, reading comprehension activities, and much more! These activities can be used in their current form or modified to better serve the needs of your classroom.

• First Hot-Air Balloon Flight
• Planning for the Voyage - Pilgrim Study Unit (Lesson 1 of 7)
• Historical Fiction Reading Warm-Up: The Christmas Gift
• Seeing the World Sub Kit (Grades 7-8)
• Peary, Henson, and the North Pole
• More Popular Voyages & Travel Resources

Ocean Resources

Need some inspiration for teaching your students about the Earth's oceans? Well look no further! Whether it's full comprehensive lesson plans, printable map activities, game worksheets, or resource guides for geographical features, this is the section for you. These activities are great as they are or can be adapted to the characteristics of your classroom.

• Earth's Oceans
• An Ocean Adventure Sub Kit (Grades 3-4)
• What Are Ocean Currents?
• Modeling Climates
• Length of the U.S. Coastline by State
• Word Search: The World's Oceans
• Crossing the Atlantic by Rowboat
• More Oceans Teacher Resources

Fun with Geography

Get ideas for how to have fun with geography in your daily life.

Photograph by Harry Wenkert, MyShot

Geography doesn't mean studying maps and memorizing state capitals! From making a treasure hunt to keeping a sensory journal, get ideas for how to have fun with geography in your daily life.

Draw a Map of an Imaginary Island

Use map elements, like symbols and a key, to show different features of the island and its people.

Learn About Seasonal Celebrations

Find photos of seasonal celebrations around the globe. For example, you can search for photos of summer and winter solstice celebrations or celebrations associated with the equinoxes. Share with your family and friends what you find out about the celebrations, where they take place, and how they express the unique characteristics of that particular season.

Make an Earth Pendant or Light Catcher

Trace the earth onto a piece of acetate, using colored cellophane for land and water, and hang it from your window with yarn.

Mark Latitude and Longitude

Whenever you read a magazine or newspaper article, find the latitude and longitude of the location in which the focus of the article takes place. On a world map, mark the locations. See how long it takes until you have marks in most countries.

Look at an article in a newspaper, magazine, or online. How might information in the article be represented on a map? Create a map showing that information.

Learn From Maps

Find examples of maps when you are in a shopping mall, amusement park, train station, or another place. Critique whether or not the map is easy to use. Then make your own map of the area.

Share Your Enthusiasm for Geography

Spread your knowledge of geography while teaching others how cool it is. Have your class come up with fun ideas to engage others in geography, or start a geography or outdoors club at your school. Here’s some help from the National Council for Geographic Education to get started.

Find Your Birthday Coordinates

Use the month for latitude and day for longitude. For example, if your birthday is November 26, your coordinates could be 11°N, 26°E. Or, you can make four sets of coordinates for your birthday, depending on whether you use north or south latitude, or east or west longitude. Explore a world map and plot your birthday coordinates. What would it be like to have a party there?

Look around you for maps in everyday life. Find an example of a helpful map and an example of a unhelpful map. Analyze what makes the maps helpful or not. Talk to a friend or family member about how different maps can display the same information in very different ways.

Make a Papier-Mâché Globe

Use newspaper strips and a balloon. Use colored paints to show land and water and add borders and labels.

Neighborhood Map

Create a map of your neighborhood without key map elements, like a compass rose, labels, and a key. Then have a family member or friend try to use the map to reach a particular destination. Talk about the ways in which the map was difficult to use.

Create a Treasure Hunt

Give clues based on the cardinal points. If you don't have a compass, remember, sunrise happens in the east. Sunset happens in the west.

Follow a Tropical Storm's Path

Plot the path of a tropical storm or hurricane on a map. Record data about the storm , and make predictions about whether a storm will become a hurricane. Confirm or revise your predictions as you get new data.

Make a Flag

Country flags are designed to represent the history or ideals of a country. Design a flag that represents you—you can model it on your heritage, favorite activities, sports, animals, or family.

Make a Treasure Hunt

Give each person playing a sheet of paper with clues. For example, "Which house has a mailbox in a certain shape?" and "Name three intersections with four-way stop signs." Set geographic boundaries to make sure everyone stays within a safe area. The first person to return with correct answers wins.

Map Your Senses

Plot an unusual, but safe, route on a map of your school or surrounding area. Use a journal to take notes on the things you see, smell, hear, touch, and taste along the way. Take photographs if you can. Then use art supplies to create a sensory map of your community. Be creative! Use pens, pencils, paint, construction paper, pictures, or any other materials.

Explore a Line of Latitude

Pick a line of latitude and use a globe to trace that line in a full circle. Make a list of the countries and other important features, such as mountain ranges or deserts, that the line of latitude passes through. Think about the similarities and differences between these countries and features. If you don't have a globe, use National Geographic MapMaker to do this project online.

Food Investigation

Get the recipe of your favorite family food and find out what herbs and spices it contains. On a map , find the countries that produce those herbs and spices. Do some investigating to find out more about these countries. What kind of climates do these places have? Could you grow the same spices where you live? Why or why not?

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Geography in the News

Homework Help

If you are looking to encourage your students to read more widely, particularly about current affairs in geography download our Geography in the News research template . The template encourages students to review the sources of information they find using the CRAAP analysis and provides support in identifying synoptic links . We also have a series of guided  Geography in the News homework activities based on past new events that encourage wider reading around current affairs in geography.

How to…

Synoptic Links

Asking Geographical Questions

Describing Location in Geography

Dual Coding

Resources for presenting geographical information

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• Official name Rossiyskaya Federatsiya (Russian Federation), or Rossia (Russia)
• Form of government federal multiparty republic with a bicameral legislative body (Federal Assembly comprising the Federation Council [170] and the State Duma [450])
• Head of state President: Vladimir Putin
• Head of government Prime Minister: Mikhail Mishustin
• Capital Moscow
• Official language Russian
• Official religion none
• Monetary unit ruble (RUB)
• Population (2024 est.) 145,165,000
• Population rank (2023) 9
• Population projection 2030 139,599,000
• Total area (sq mi) 6,592,850
• Total area (sq km) 17,075,400
• Density: persons per sq mi (2023) 22
• Density: persons per sq km (2023) 8.5
• Urban-rural population Urban: (2018) 74% Rural: (2018) 26%
• Life expectancy at birth Male: (2022) 66.9 years Female: (2022) 78.3 years
• Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate Male: (2020) 100% Female: (2020) 100%
• GNI (U.S.$ ’000,000) (2022) 1,873,505
• GNI per capita (U.S.$) (2022) 12,830

Lake Baikal in Siberia is the world’s deepest lake. It contains one-fifth of Earth’s fresh water.

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Introduction

The world’s largest country by far, Russia has played a correspondingly large role in international affairs. For most of the 20th century it was the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , which, along with the United States , was one of the world’s two superpowers. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought independence, and great political and economic changes, to Russia. Although the country struggled during the transition from Soviet-style communism to a free-market economy , it maintained a world stature that is rivaled by few other countries. (For information on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, see “ Russia-Ukraine War ” below.) Area 6,592,850 square miles (17,075,400 square kilometers). Population (2024 est.) 145,165,000.

Russia is almost twice the size of either China or the United States. Covering the eastern third of Europe as well as the whole of northern Asia , Russia extends nearly halfway around the Northern Hemisphere. It stretches some 4,800 miles (7,700 kilometers) along the Arctic Circle and from 1,250 to 1,800 miles (2,000 to 2,900 kilometers) north to south.

Most of the people of Russia are ethnic Russians, but there are also more than 120 other ethnic groups. The European part of the country is much more densely populated than the Asian portion, which is also called Siberia . About three-quarters of the people live in urban areas. The chief cities are St. Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod , and the capital, Moscow .

Land and Climate

Russia has the longest border of any country on Earth. In the west it borders Norway , Finland , the Gulf of Finland, Estonia , Latvia , Belarus , and Ukraine . (A small exclave of Russia, Kaliningrad—formerly part of Germany —borders the Baltic Sea on the north and west, Poland on the south, and Lithuania on the north and east.) In the south Russia touches the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea , Georgia , Azerbaijan , the Caspian Sea , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , and North Korea . In the east and north it borders various branches of the Pacific and Arctic oceans, respectively.

Topographic Regions

Russia contains two stable continental blocks—the East European and Siberian platforms. The suture that ties the two platforms together is the 250-million-year-old Ural Mountain chain, which forms the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia. Around these platforms are folded mountain systems of younger ages. The platforms’ ancient rocks (more than 550 million years old) are exposed on the Fennoscandian Shield of the northwest, in the southern Urals, and on Siberia’s Aldan and Anabar shields. The youngest materials are the sediments of the Azov-Caspian and West Siberian plains.

European Russia (the area west of the Urals) is dominated by the Russian Plain (also called the East European Plain). This vast lowland region extends 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the western border eastward to the Urals and from the Arctic Ocean more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southward to the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea . Rising above the plain are the low Valdai Hills, which have a maximum elevation of 1,125 feet (343 meters); the Smolensk Upland and the Central Russian Upland, both approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters); and the Volga Hills. The Valdai Hills and the Smolensk Upland are made up of deposits left by glaciers . The highest elevations west of the Urals are in the Greater Caucasus mountains, at Russia’s southern tip. In this range is Mount Elbrus, an extinct volcano that rises 18,510 feet (5,642 meters) and is the highest peak in Europe. On the Kola Peninsula of the northwest, the Khibiny Mountains reach heights of nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above sea level.

The Ural Mountains are low-lying remnants of much higher ranges. For some 250 million years these once-mighty mountains have been worn down by erosion . The northern Urals are highest, with peaks above 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). The central Urals are lowest and are the location of the main transportation routes, including the Trans-Siberian Railroad . The southern Urals are of medium elevation but broad.

Russia’s most extensive geographic region is the West Siberian Plain. It stretches 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) from the Urals eastward to the Yenisey River and 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) north to south. The plain rises above 650 feet (200 meters) in elevation only in the far south. The Ob River and its tributaries flow slowly across this massive lowland into the Arctic Ocean. When the southern tributaries swell with meltwater in the spring, the main trunk, the Ob, is still ice-dammed in the north. The flooding is extensive, creating the largest swamp in the Northern Hemisphere, the Vasyugan Swamp.

East of the Yenisey River lies the Central Siberian Plateau. This upland region, with elevations mostly between 1,000 and 2,300 feet (300 to 700 meters), covers most of the land between the Yenisey and the Lena River . To the north it descends to the North Siberian Lowland. To the south are the Sayan and Baikal mountains.

Russia’s final geographic region is a series of high mountain ranges that dominates the south and east. The Altai Mountains , which reach a maximum elevation of 14,783 feet (4,506 meters), lie on Russia’s borders with Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The Altai merge in the east with the Sayan Mountains, which extend to Lake Baikal and its surrounding ranges. Swinging arclike first eastward and then northward along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk are the Stanovoy, Dzhugdzhur, and Kolyma ranges. The Anadyr, Koryak, and Kamchatka ranges compose the Chukchi and Kamchatka peninsulas. The latter is one of Earth’s most volcanically active regions. This is also true of the Kuril (derived from the Russian verb “to smoke”) Islands. In the southeast the Amur River is flanked in the north by the Bureya Range and in the south by the Sikhote-Alin. Deep in the interior along the eastern bank of the Lena is the Verkhoyansk Range, which links with the Chersky Range.

In eastern Siberia lowlands are dispersed. The North Siberian Lowland divides the same-named plateau from the hilly Taymyr Peninsula. The Lena River creates the Central Yakut Lowland in its middle course near Yakutsk. Likewise the Kolyma Lowland is the product of the Kolyma River’s winding course. Along the Amur is the fertile Zeya-Bureya Plain. Along the Ussuri River, a tributary of the Amur, is the Ussuri Lowland.

Rivers and Lakes

Among its 100,000 rivers, Russia contains some of the world’s longest. Four of the country’s five longest rivers—the Ob-Irtysh , Amur , Lena , and Yenisey —are in Siberia. All but the Amur flow northward into the Arctic Ocean. The longest European river is the Volga , which flows southward into the Caspian Sea . The Volga is famous for its major role in Russian history.

The most impressive of Russia’s many lakes is Lake Baikal (or Baykal), in southeastern Siberia. It is the world’s deepest lake, with a maximum depth of more than 1 mile (1,600 meters). Lake Baikal contains about one-fifth of the world’s fresh water—more water than all five of the Great Lakes of North America combined. Truly unique on Earth, Baikal is home to more than 2,000 species of plants and animals, the majority of which can be found nowhere else in the world.

The greatest concentration of lakes is in the Karelia region of the northwest. Here ancient glaciers left thousands of bodies of water as they receded. The largest of these are Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega.

As with its topography, Russia’s climates span vast distances. The climates of both European and Asian Russia are continental except for the northern tundra and the extreme southeast. Great seasonal ranges of temperature are typical. In winter temperatures get colder both from south to north and from west to east. Summers can be quite hot and humid, even in Siberia.

Russia has low annual precipitation that almost everywhere averages less than 24 inches (60 centimeters) and peaks in summer—usually in July or August. Rain and snow totals are typically higher in the mountains.

Plants and Animals

Russia’s plant and animal life are closely tied to the climate. Nearly one-tenth of Russian territory is tundra , a treeless, marshy plain. The tundra occupies a narrow coastal belt in the extreme north of the Russian Plain and widens to a maximum of about 300 miles (500 kilometers) in Siberia. Its vegetation includes mosses, lichens, herbaceous plants, and shrubs. South of the tundra lies the vast taiga , which occupies the Russian and West Siberian plains north of latitude 56°–58° N, together with most of the territory east of the Yenisey River. The main feature of the taiga is its coniferous (cone-bearing) forests. As conditions become warmer with decreasing latitude, deciduous trees (which lose their leaves seasonally) appear in greater numbers and eventually become dominant. A triangular belt of mixed and deciduous forests is widest along Russia’s western border and narrows toward the Urals. Extensive areas of wooded and open steppe, or grasslands , lie to the south and stretch eastward toward the Altai Mountains.

Polar bears, walruses, and seals are found in Franz Josef Land and other areas of the far north. The main animal species on the tundra are Arctic foxes, musk oxen, beavers, lemmings, snowy owls, and ptarmigans (grouse). Reindeer are herded by the indigenous people. The taiga is rich in fur-bearing animals, such as sables, squirrels, marten, foxes, and ermines. It is also home to many elk, bears, muskrats, and wolves. Wildlife of the mixed and deciduous forest includes roe deer, wolves, foxes, and squirrels. Marmots, skunks, foxes, wolves, and antelope are common on the steppe.

People and Culture

Russia’s population peaked in the early 1990s at about 149 million people and then began a steep decline. The reasons for the decline included a low birth rate and a significant drop in life expectancy due to such factors as drug and alcohol use, high smoking rates, poor nutrition, and inadequate health care. Recognizing the decline as a national crisis, the Russian government took steps to reverse the trend in the early 21st century. For example, it authorized incentive payments to women who had more than one child and introduced programs that promoted healthy lifestyles.

About four-fifths of the Russian population is concentrated in the European portion of the country, especially in the fertile region surrounding Moscow. Beginning in the 1890s and continuing throughout the next century, many people migrated from European Russia to Siberia. Still, however, Siberia contains only about one-fifth of the population though it makes up three-quarters of the country’s territory. Most of Siberia’s people live in the west or in pockets in the far south. Vast stretches of thinly settled and empty territories lie north of the main settled belt.

Ethnic Groups and Languages

Russia has great diversity among its people, with more than 120 distinct ethnic groups. Ethnic Russians make up about four-fifths of the population. The largest minority groups include the Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkir, Chuvash, Chechen, Armenian, Mordvin, and Belarusian. Linguistically, the population of Russia can be divided into several groups. The Indo-European group comprises East Slavic and Indo-Iranian speakers. The Altaic group includes Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus. The Uralic group includes Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic. The Caucasian group comprises Abkhazo-Adyghian and Nakho-Dagestani speakers. In addition, there are several Paleo-Asiatic language groups in far eastern Siberia.

Russian is the official language. It is one of three languages in the eastern branch of the Slavic language family (the others are Ukrainian and Belarusian). It has origins in Old Church Slavonic, a language used by the Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in the ad 800s to spread Christianity among the Slavs. Cyril and Methodius created a Slavic alphabet based on Greek characters. A modified form of this alphabet, named Cyrillic after Cyril, is still used to write modern Russian. Tsar Peter the Great made his mark on the language by altering the Cyrillic alphabet in the early 1700s. Peter’s alphabet was further simplified in 1918 to form the current system of 33 letters. Peter’s efforts to bring Western influences into Russian culture also began the incorporation of many words from western European languages into Russian. Since World War II it has borrowed many American terms.

The Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity is the foremost religion in Russia. About half of all Russians who practice religion belong to the Russian Orthodox church. However, because religious activities were restricted by the government during the Soviet years, Russian Orthodox Christians number only about one-sixth of the population. The overwhelming majority of the population is nonreligious. Muslims make up Russia’s second largest religious group.

Although there is some degree of correlation between language and religion, the two do not correspond entirely. Slavs are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian. Turkic speakers are mainly Muslim, though several Turkic groups in Russia are not. For example, Christianity predominates among the Chuvash. Buddhism prevails among large numbers of Altai, Khakass, and Tyvans. Many Turkic speakers east of the Yenisey have retained their traditional shamanistic beliefs (though some have converted to Christianity). Buddhism is common also among the Mongolian-speaking Buryat and Kalmyk.

Jews make up a tiny percentage of the population. They long suffered discrimination in Russia, including purges in the 19th century, repression under the regime of Joseph Stalin , and Nazi atrocities on Russian soil during World War II. Beginning with Mikhail Gorbachev ’s reformist policies in the 1980s, Jewish emigration to Israel and elsewhere was permitted on an increasing scale. As a result, the number of Jews living in Russia (and all parts of the former Soviet Union) decreased.

Russia’s culture represents a melding of native Slavic traditions and influences from a variety of foreign cultures. Beginning in the 800s, following contact with Christian missionaries from the Byzantine Empire , the borrowings were primarily from Eastern Orthodox Byzantine culture. From the 1300s to the 1600s Asian influences brought by the Mongol occupiers were added to the cultural mix. Finally, since the 1700s, the cultural heritage of western Europe has contributed to modern Russian culture.

The Russian literary tradition began with a body of proverbs, folktales, legends, and heroic ballads that passed orally among the earliest East Slavic tribes. The oldest dated Russian manuscript is The Ostromir Gospel (1056–57). From that time until the reign of Peter the Great in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, written literature was mainly religious in nature.

The 1800s are recognized as the Golden Age of Russian literature, a time when it began to show a conscience, especially regarding serfdom and the downtrodden. Aleksander Pushkin , often described as the “Russian Shakespeare,” blended European and native Russian influences to reflect the thoughts, moods, and deeds of the society in which he lived. Mikhail Lermontov , considered Russia’s greatest Romanticist, was another important poet of the Golden Age. He was the first Russian poet to describe not only the beauty of the Caucasus Mountains but also Caucasian culture and folk art.

Other great writers of the Golden Age include Nikolay Gogol , Ivan Goncharov , Ivan Turgenev , Fyodor Dostoyevsky , Leo Tolstoy , Anton Chekhov , Maksim Gorky , and Aleksandr Blok . Chekhov, Gorky, and Blok wrote works that overlapped the 19th and 20th centuries. With them came another literary and artistic revival, designated sometimes as the Silver Age.

During the Soviet era Russian writers and artists were expected to take a positive view of socialist society. Writers were organized into the Union of Soviet Writers, which was guided by the Stalinist doctrine of socialist realism . Some writers, however, wanted to maintain their artistic independence. Several chose to leave Russia and live abroad. Among the notable writers who left Russia during the Soviet period were Ivan Bunin and Vladimir Nabokov . The period after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 was marked by several “thaws” during which writers were given a bit more freedom. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn became famous during one such thaw, though he was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union. In 1958 Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his epic novel Doctor Zhivago , but he had to decline the award because of Soviet opposition to his work. Anna Akhmatova produced brilliant poems during the Soviet period, though for years she was forced into literary silence. Other outstanding Russian writers of the Soviet period were the novelist Mikhail Sholokhov and the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrey Voznesensky. The collapse of the Soviet regime brought an end to government censorship and freed writers to engage in radical experimentalism. ( See also Russian literature .)

Visual arts

Like literature, Russian art was the servant of the Orthodox church until the reign of Peter the Great . Until then borrowings from the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, and Turko-Mongols were the basis for the rich background of folk art that entered the liturgical tradition by way of embroidery, metalwork, leatherwork, wood carving, and some bas-relief sculpture.

Sculpture did not play a role in Russian art until relatively recent times because the church forbade the display of the human body in three-dimensional form. This also explains why the figures in icons are so two-dimensional in appearance. A serious art, icon painting was brought to its zenith as a Russian art form in the 14th and 15th centuries by Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublyov . Until the late 1600s the icon and the mosaic were the Russian artist’s sole outlet.

Modern Westernized painting and sculpture date from Peter’s reforms after 1700. Perhaps the most famous Russian artist in the last 200 years was Ilya Repin, who flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The stress on socialist realism in art as well as literature hampered artistic creativity beginning in the 1920s. Experimental art typically was banned and forced underground. With the opening of Soviet society in the 1980s, however, public exhibits of modern art were again permitted.

Beginning in the 10th century Russian architecture was influenced by contacts with the Byzantine Empire . From the outset, however, Russian buildings had a higher, narrower silhouette than their Byzantine models. Russians experimented with the dome, which was derived from the yurt—a circular tent used by Central Asian nomads. This led to the onion-shaped domes characteristic of Russian Orthodox churches.

Early Russian architecture cannot be divided into periods like Gothic or baroque. Rather it sprang from different city centers: Kyiv (Kiev), Novgorod, Moscow, and later St. Petersburg. Soviet buildings were pragmatic products of standardized architecture, largely the result of the need to build quickly after the decimation of World War II . On a grander scale, several “wedding-cake” (tiered) skyscrapers built under Joseph Stalin still dominate Moscow’s skyline. Since the 1960s more innovative architectural styles have appeared around the country, often combining European and Russian traditions.

Because musical instruments were forbidden in Russian Orthodox church services, Russian music and consequently opera were delayed in development as an art form until more recent times. Typically, Russian choruses chanted and sang without accompaniment except for an occasional drumbeat. Secular vocal music did not develop until the 1800s. Since then Russian operas, symphonies, instrumental compositions, and art songs have flourished. Most are based on the melodic and rhythmic patterns of Russian folk music and nationalistic themes. The latter were particularly stressed during the Soviet period.

The most ancient Russian folk instrument was a kind of zither, the gusli. Other traditional stringed instruments are the domra, gudok, and balalaika. The last, a triangular, three-stringed, short-necked instrument, was made popular in the 1800s in both city salons and in the countryside. Wind instruments include the flutelike dudka and suirel .

Russian music came of age in 1836 with the performance of Mikhail Glinka ’s opera A Life for the Czar , later called Ivan Susanin . Glinka also produced a musical fairy tale based on Pushkin’s poem Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842), but Glinka’s operas contain many examples of Italian style.

The Russian nationalist school was founded by Modest Mussorgsky with the production of the opera Boris Godunov (1869). Mussorgsky was one of a group of Russian composers whom critics at the time called “The Five.” The group included Mily Balakirev , Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov , Aleksandr Borodin , and César Cui . Balakirev is noted for his classical renderings of Russian folk music. Rimsky-Korsakov developed Orientalism to near perfection in his fairy-tale operas and in the brilliant symphonic suite Sheherazade . Borodin also followed this pattern in his opera Prince Igor . Cui composed miniature forms.

Not one of The Five, but the most famous of all Russian composers, is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , composer of the well-known 1812 Overture and many other works, including symphonies, symphonic poems, operas, ballets, concertos, and piano pieces. Distinctively Russian, Tchaikovsky’s melancholic lyricism was perpetuated by the music of Sergey Rachmaninoff , the last of the Russian Romantic composers.

Famous Russian composers of the 20th century were Igor Stravinsky , Sergey Prokofiev , Aleksandr Scriabin , and Dimitry Shostakovich . Stravinsky, however, was a resident of France and the United States for most of his creative life. Prokofiev left Russia in 1918 after conducting the first performance of his well-known Classical Symphony . He did not return permanently until 1932. Shostakovich composed 15 symphonies and two operas, some of which received severe criticism for not following the line of socialist realism.

Performing arts

Ballet was introduced to Russia as court entertainment in the early 1700s. By mid-century it had spread to the estates of the wealthy. Simultaneously, imperial ballet theaters and companies were created. In the 1800s the distinctive style of Russian ballet was strongly influenced by French, Italian, and Swedish choreographers and dancers, including Marius Petipa , considered the father of modern ballet. Only late in the century did the first Russian choreographers arise—Lev Ivanov and Michel Fokine .

As the great dancers Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky rose to fame in the early 20th century, Russian ballet reached a high technical and stylistic level. In 1909 the impresario Serge Diaghilev founded the Ballets Russes and took Russian ballet to the capitals of Europe and the major cities of the United States.

Soviet ballet continued the 19th-century traditions. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Ballet in St. Petersburg remain famous throughout the world. Some of the more notable dancers to emerge during the Soviet era were Maya Plisetskaya, Rudolf Nureyev , and Mikhail Baryshnikov . The latter two dancers made headlines by defecting to the West at the height of their careers.

Russian theater originally was inspired by folk entertainment. Peasant companies performed for serfs and nobility alike, sometimes traveling from estate to estate. Later Russian theater was influenced by foreign models much like the ballet. The first Russian dramatists appeared in about 1750. Under Catherine the Great , herself an author of comedies, theater reached new highs, but most of the works were of foreign origin. Great Russian comedy came in the 1800s with the work of Aleksandr Griboyedov ( Woe from Wit , 1822–24) and Nikolay Gogol ( The Inspector General , 1836).

At the end of the 19th century Konstantin Stanislavsky founded the Moscow Art Theater, where Russian theater art came of age. Realistic plays produced there, among them the works of Chekhov and Gorky, stimulated the modern “method” school of acting . Nonrealistic theater, called conditional theater by producer-director-actor Vsevolod Meyerhold , flourished through the early Soviet period. As in literature under Joseph Stalin, experimental theater was replaced by socialist realism. Not until the 1980s, with the end of government censorship, was the performance of controversial works permitted. Writers shifted away from political topics and toward classical and psychological themes.

Cultural Institutions

Russia has hundreds of museums, some of which are world famous. In Moscow, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts houses treasures of western European art, while the Tretyakov Gallery has a strong collection of Russian art. Also in Moscow, the Kremlin —home of the Russian president—contains several museums. South of the city is the museum-estate of Leo Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana, which features an excellent literary collection. Prominent museums in St. Petersburg include the Hermitage and the Russian Museum. In addition to the Moscow Art Theater, world-renowned Russian theaters include the Bolshoi, Maly, Vakhtangov, and Novaya (New) Opera theaters and the Obraztsov Puppet Theater in Moscow. Among the famed theaters in other Russian cities are the Mariinsky and Tovstonogov theaters in St. Petersburg and the Novosibirsk Theater of Opera and Ballet in Novosibirsk.

Education and Social Welfare

During the Soviet period, education was highly centralized, and indoctrination into Marxist-Leninist theory was a major element of schooling. The end of communist rule led to extensive curriculum revision.

Free, compulsory education begins at age six or seven and lasts for 11 years. This period, increased from nine years by a 2007 law, encompasses primary and secondary education. Minority children are taught in their own languages, but the study of Russian is required at the secondary level.

Entry to higher education is selective and highly competitive. The most prestigious schools include Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, and Novosibirsk State University. Higher education is almost entirely in Russian, though a few institutions—mostly in minority areas—use the local language as well.

Public welfare funds are used to improve the material and social conditions of workers in Russia. Social welfare programs formerly were funded by the central government. However, in the 1990s employer-based social insurance and pension funds, to which workers also contributed, were introduced. A major portion of Russia’s public welfare budget funds free medical care, pensions, and scholarships.

Major Cities

Since the mid-19th century, industrialization and economic development have led to a substantial increase in urbanization. About three-quarters of Russia’s population live in urban areas. Moscow , the largest city, has more than twice the population of its nearest rival, St. Petersburg , which in turn dwarfs the size of Russia’s other major cities, such as Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg , Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod , Novosibirsk , Omsk, Rostov-na-Donu, Samara , and Ufa.

Several major urban concentrations have developed in the main industrial regions. St. Petersburg stands alone as the northernmost metropolis. Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod are part of the large urbanized central industrial region, which has a cluster of large cities and numerous smaller towns. In the Ural Mountains region the towns are more widely spaced and include numerous small mining and industrial centers as well as a number of towns with more than 250,000 people. The only slightly less-populous Volga region has towns strung out along the riverbanks, with a particularly dense concentration in the area of Samara.

The main urban concentration east of the Urals is in the Kuznetsk Basin, which is a center for coal mining and industry. Major cities also occur along the length of the Trans-Siberian Railroad . These include, from west to east, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok . A few very isolated cities are located in the far north, notably the ports of Murmansk and Archangel and mining centers such as Vorkuta and Norilsk.

Because of its great size, its natural resources, and its political domination, Russia played a leading role in the economy of the Soviet Union. During that period the Russian economy was heavily industrialized, with strong development in such areas as mining, metals, chemicals, and energy production. By the 1980s, however, the economy of Russia and the country as a whole was in serious decline. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian government implemented radical reforms to convert the centrally controlled economy into a market economy based on private enterprise. The transition proved to be slow and difficult, causing extreme hardships for the Russian people. By the end of the 20th century the economy had begun to recover, fueled mainly by a boom in the oil and gas industry. A decade of rapid growth ended with the global economic crisis that began in late 2008. The crisis hit Russia especially hard, suggesting that further reforms were needed to ensure the country’s continued economic growth and stability. The government has since established programs aimed at diversifying the economy and reducing dependency on oil and gas exports.

Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry

Because of the harshness of the Russian environment, less than one-sixth of the land is dedicated to agriculture. About three-fifths of the farmland is used for growing crops, with the remainder devoted to pasture. Many collective and state farms established during the Soviet era continue to operate, though many have been privatized and renamed as companies or cooperatives. Overall, agriculture contributes approximately 5 percent to Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs less than one-tenth of the total labor force.

Russian farms produce mainly grains, particularly wheat, barley, rye, and oats. Fodder crops for livestock—grasses, clovers, root crops, and corn (maize)—are also grown. Other major crops include sunflowers, sugar beets, and potatoes and other vegetables. Cattle, sheep, and pigs are the most important livestock.

With access to three of the world’s oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian fishing fleets are a major contributor to the economy. The industry declined significantly in the post-Soviet years, however, as it struggled with the loss of government support and regulation. The chief fishing ports are Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea (which connects with the Atlantic), Murmansk and Archangel on the Barents Sea (Arctic), and Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan (Pacific). Smaller-scale fishing takes place in the Sea of Azov and the Black and Caspian seas. The Caspian sturgeon is the source of the world’s finest caviar. By the early 21st century, however, overfishing , poaching (illegal fishing), and pollution had pushed sturgeon to the brink of extinction. There are important inland fisheries on lakes and rivers, including a good deal of fish farming.

Russia has the world’s largest forest reserves, which supply lumber, pulp and paper, and other products. Needle-leaf trees predominate, making the country a world leader in softwood production.

Russian industry depends in large part on the country’s vast energy and mineral resources. The country ranks among the world’s leading producers of oil and natural gas. The great bulk of the oil and natural gas comes from huge fields in western Siberia. Extensive pipeline systems link producing districts to all parts of Russia and across the border to many Central Asian and European countries. Russia also has massive reserves of coal , especially in Siberia. Power plants fueled by natural gas, oil, and coal provide about three-quarters of the country’s electricity. The remaining power output comes from hydroelectric and nuclear plants. Russia is also a world leader in the production of numerous other minerals, including iron ore, cobalt, copper, nickel, platinum, gold, and diamonds.

These resources provide raw materials for Russia’s most important manufacturing industries—metals and machine-building. Iron ore is the basis of the massive steel industry. Machine-building factories satisfy most of Russia’s requirements for electric generators, steam boilers and turbines, grain combines, electric locomotives, and automobiles. It also fills much of its demand for shipbuilding, machine tools, instruments, and automation components. Russia’s factories also produce military equipment, including tanks, jet fighters, and rockets, for export. Another important heavy manufacturing industry is the production of chemicals. Chemical industries requiring large quantities of electric power are particularly important in Siberia, where both timber and electricity are plentiful.

Light industry contributes only a small part of Russia’s industrial output. Production of textiles, clothing, leather, and footwear plummeted in the 1990s, as inefficient Russian factories suffered from competition with foreign companies. The most valuable light industry in the early 21st century was the manufacture of food products and beverages. A growing industry during that period was the production of electrical and electronic equipment, such as personal computers and cellular telephones.

Despite the ongoing importance of agriculture and industry, services accounted for about three-fifths of Russia’s economic output and employment in the early 21st century. The wide-ranging service sector includes trade, government, education, health care, tourism, and financial services such as banking and insurance.

Foreign trade is very important to the Russian economy. The country has generally enjoyed a healthy trade surplus since the end of the Soviet Union. Primary exports include oil, natural gas, metals, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, and forestry products. Leading imports include machinery and transport equipment, foods, pharmaceutical products, and chemicals. Among Russia’s leading trade partners are the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, China, Turkey, the United States, and Belarus.

Travel and tourism account for several million jobs in Russia. More than 20 million foreign visitors traveled to Russia in 2018. Among the country’s most popular tourist destinations are Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Krasnodar territory. Free from the restrictions of Soviet times, Russians have increasingly traveled abroad.

Transportation and Communications

Russia’s great expanse requires an extensive transportation system. For carrying freight and passengers over long distances, railroads were dominant in the Soviet era and remain so today. The rail system is much denser in European Russia than it is in Siberia. East of the Urals it consists of only a few major routes—for example, the Trans-Siberian Railroad and Baikal-Amur Mainline—with feeder branches to areas of economic significance.

Other than highways that link major cities in the European section, the road system is underdeveloped. Because motor vehicles were not much used for long-distance transport during the Soviet years, few paved roads were built outside of urban areas. The percentage of people who own vehicles is still quite small in comparison to other developed countries.

Maritime transport is crucial to foreign trade and also links the various regions of Russia, especially those along the Arctic seaboard. Because of ice, however, traffic on the Arctic Ocean route is seasonal. The busiest seaports are Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea, and St. Petersburg, on the Baltic. Inland waterways are also important in Russia. River traffic is heaviest on the Volga system.

Air transportation has played an increasingly important role in the early 21st century. It accounts for about one-fifth of all passenger travel. Aeroflot (renamed Aeroflot-Russian Airlines in 2000), formerly the state airline of the Soviet Union, is the country’s largest air carrier. Only a tiny percentage of Russia’s freight is hauled by air. Air freight is confined chiefly to high-value items carried to and from remote parts of Siberia, where aircraft are sometimes the only means of transport. Most major Russian cities have air service to international or domestic locations.

The Russian telecommunications sector is inferior to those of other industrialized countries. For example, in the early 1990s only about one-third of the country’s households had a telephone. Largely through foreign investment, however, the country’s telecommunications infrastructure has been greatly improved. Cellular phone use in particular has proliferated, and they now greatly outnumber landlines. Internet use grew very slowly in the 1990s, particularly outside the cities, but it has since grown fairly steadily. Much of Russian television is under state control, although there are several independent commercial television stations, some with wide viewership. There are also hundreds of public and privately owned radio stations.

While Russia was a Soviet republic, the government was dominated at all levels by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the late 1980s, under reforms introduced by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev , the communist grip loosened and Russia and the other republics gained more autonomy. In 1991 the communist government collapsed, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and Russia became an independent country.

In 1993 Russian voters approved a new constitution. It gives significant powers to the president, who is elected by popular vote. In 2008 an amendment to the constitution, which took effect with the 2012 election, extended the presidential term from four to six years. Prior to 2020 the president could not serve more than two consecutive terms, but constitutional changes enacted that year abolished term limits for the office. As Russia’s head of state, the president appoints the head of government (prime minister), key judges, and cabinet members. The president is also commander in chief of the armed forces. The constitution created the bicameral, or two-house, Federal Assembly as the country’s legislature. The upper house is the Federation Council, in which each of Russia’s administrative divisions has two representatives. The lower house is the State Duma, which has 450 members. All legislation must first pass the State Duma before being considered by the Federation Council.

The highest judicial body in Russia is the Supreme Court. It supervises the activities of all other judicial bodies and serves as the final court of appeal. There is also a Constitutional Court, which reviews Russian laws and treaties. Judges for both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court are nominated by the president and approved by the Federation Council.

The Russian constitution gives regional and local governments an array of powers. For example, they exercise authority over municipal property and policing, and they can impose regional taxes. Russia’s administrative divisions include oblasts (regions), minority republics, okrugs (autonomous districts), krays (territories), federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and one autonomous oblast. The power of these divisions was lessened in 2000 when the central government created seven federal districts—Central, Far East, Northwest, Siberia, Southern, Urals, and Volga. An eighth federal district, North Caucasus, was added in 2010. A ninth federal district was created in 2014 after Russia annexed the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea . This territorial claim was not recognized by Ukraine or most other countries, but Russia exercised de facto control of the region. Each federal district has its own presidential envoy with the power to implement federal law.

The land that is now Russia has been inhabited since the second millennium bc . In ancient times waves of nomadic invasions occurred on the southern steppes. The earliest invaders included the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians. Later came the Goths , Huns , Bulgars, Avars, and Khazars.

Slavic peoples originally lived over a large area of eastern Europe that included parts of what are now Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the 5th and 6th centuries ad the Slavs spread south and east, some of them into southern Russia.

Slavic ethnic distinction probably crystallized during a period of peace brought about by the domination of the Volga trade route by the Khazars. Established in the late 6th century ad , the Khazar Empire stretched as far west as the Dnieper River by the second half of the 8th century.

The Slavs accepted the domination of the Khazars, as they had endured the brief occupations of the invaders who came before. Loosely knit and socially bound mainly by extended families, the Slavs focused predominantly on farming and welcomed the protection they received from powerful warriors such as the Khazars.

In about 830 traders from Scandinavia moved southward into the north Volga region. These traders were known as the Rus—the source of the name Russia. Soon the Rus and other Scandinavian groups—together called the Varangians—extended their raiding down the main river routes toward the Middle East.

According to tradition, the Slavs of Novgorod, tired of political turmoil, invited the Varangian prince Rurik to rule the city. He arrived in about 862 and established the dynasty that ruled various parts of East Slavic territory until 1598. After Rurik’s death his relative Oleg became ruler of Novgorod and in 882 added Kyiv (Kiev) to his domains, making it his capital. This was the beginning of Kyivan (Kievan) Rus, the first East Slavic state. Between about 930 and 1000 the Varangians developed a trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which became the basis of the Kyivan economy.

The chief architect of Kyivan Rus was Vladimir I, whose reign began in about 980. He expanded the realm and also developed a political structure for ruling the scattered territories. In 988 Vladimir became a Christian in the Byzantine, or Eastern Orthodox , tradition. Greek missionaries moved into Russia, bringing their religion and art and architecture. The missionaries also developed the Cyrillic alphabet. During the reigns of Vladimir and his son Yaroslav I, Kyivan Rus developed into a well-organized, democratic, urban, commercial society. At the height of its glory in the 11th century, Kyivan Rus was populated by seven to eight million people. It was the largest and most populous state in Europe.

Following Yaroslav’s death in 1054, Kyivan Rus entered a long period of decay. Yaroslav’s sons divided the empire into warring factions. At the same time the trade route from the Black Sea to the Baltic declined in importance. By the middle of the 12th century Kyivan Rus had lost supremacy to independent principalities, including Novgorod and Vladimir.

Between 1238 and 1240 Kyivan Rus was finally crushed by the onslaught of the Mongols, who were also known as Tatars. The Mongols were under the leadership of Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan . The once-flourishing populace either perished or fled into the neighboring forests.

Mongol Rule

The Mongols formed a kingdom with a capital at Sarai on a tributary of the Volga River. The influence of the so-called “Golden Horde” was felt to some extent almost everywhere in Russia. They did not attempt to settle the land but exacted tribute through Russian intermediaries. Asian customs became a part of Russian culture, but as long as they paid tribute the Russians were free to practice their religion and native customs. The one principality that escaped Mongol domination was Novgorod in the north. During this period Novgorod joined the European trading consortium, the Hanseatic League , and flourished.

In the second half of the 14th century the Mongols began to weaken because of war and internal discord. The principality of Muscovy (Moscow), nestled deep in the forest at the hub of all the major trade routes, developed at the expense of the Mongols as their power declined. Muscovite princes, who efficiently collected the tribute demanded by the Mongols, enhanced their coffers through reward and fraud. As descendants of the Rurik line, Muscovite princes came to be looked upon by the people as justified leaders of all Russians.

By 1480 Ivan the Great , grand prince of Muscovy, had stopped paying tribute to the Mongols. The Mongols sent an army against him, but the army withdrew without a battle. Ivan had added Novgorod to his domains in 1478 and eventually spread Muscovy’s rule to the Arctic. Being free of serious Mongol threats was fortunate for Ivan, because after 1480 he was often faced with rebellion by family members and war with neighboring Lithuania.

First Tsars

Ivan IV , called “the Terrible” because of his savage cruelty, ruled Muscovy from 1533 to 1584. In 1547 he crowned himself tsar—the Russian word for Caesar. Russian sovereigns now ruled as absolute monarchs. Ivan defeated the Mongol states of Kazan in 1552 and Astrakhan in 1556, making the Volga a wholly Russian river. In the 1580s he spread Muscovy’s rule into Siberia, but westward expansion was blocked. Ivan futilely engaged the Swedes, and Kyiv still lay deep within the powerful Polish-Lithuanian kingdom.

Ivan IV killed one of his sons. Another of his sons died at age nine. The remaining son, Fyodor, was mentally unfit to rule. During Fyodor’s 14-year reign as tsar, government affairs were dominated by his wife’s brother, Boris Godunov. Fyodor died childless in 1598, thus ending the Rurik Dynasty.

Godunov was elected tsar to succeed Fyodor. He proved to be an able ruler, but, soon after he came to power, drought, famine, and plague devastated the people of Muscovy. Peasants fled their villages, leaving their holdings in weeds. In response Godunov decreed that the peasants were forbidden to leave the estates on which they were born. The peasants were thus bound to the soil, and serfdom began in Russia.

Godunov died in 1605. His successor was murdered within a few months. Leaderless Russia was rife with dissension. For the next eight years it coped with civil wars, raids by Cossacks (peasants who had escaped serfdom) in the south, Polish invaders, and impostors pretending to be sons of Ivan IV and trying to claim the throne. The frustrated Russians in 1610 temporarily accepted the son of the Polish king as tsar, but Russian guerrilla forces later ousted the foreigners.

Romanov Dynasty

The Russian nobility sought a new bloodline for the aristocracy. They found it in Michael Romanov, who was a young nobleman, or boyar. His election as tsar in 1613 began the Romanov Dynasty , which ruled until 1917.

Peter and Catherine the Great

The Russian Empire—and with it the beginning of modern Russian history—dates from the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725). Peter defeated Sweden in the Second Northern War (Great Northern War) and gained an outlet to the Baltic Sea. He founded a navy, introduced factories, reformed the administrative machinery, and organized a modern army. He forced education upon his officers and members of his court, many of whom could not read. He created a new Russian capital—St. Petersburg—on the Gulf of Finland.

Although Peter died in 1725, his work survived almost half a century of incompetent rulers. Then Catherine the Great came to the throne in 1762. She again took up the task of reform. She also greatly expanded the Russian Empire. Her armies defeated Turkey, giving Russia control of the northern Black Sea coast and the Crimean Peninsula. During her reign Russia also acquired vast amounts of territory from Poland , which was partitioned three times.

Alexander I and Nicholas I

The reign of Alexander I from 1801 to 1825 began in the spirit of Peter and Catherine, both of whom were Westernizers. Plans were drawn for a duma, or representative assembly, to propose new laws. Alexander had begun to carry out his program when Russia became involved in the Napoleonic wars . Reform was then abandoned as the government focused on defense.

Alexander’s successor, Nicholas I , ruled from 1825 to 1855 and devoted his attention to protecting Russia against what he considered corrupting Western ideas. During his reign all democratic reform was suppressed.

In 1854 Russia became involved in the disastrous Crimean War , which lasted more than two years. The Russian people were tired of war, and the serfs rose against the landowners and burned and pillaged their estates.

Emancipation of the serfs

Nicholas I was succeeded in 1855 by Alexander II . Distressed at the outcome of the Crimean War, which had demonstrated Russia’s backwardness, the new tsar introduced a series of reforms. The most important of these was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, giving liberty to tens of millions of people. Another reform introduced self-governing local assemblies elected by the people.

The long years of tyranny and lack of progress, however, had produced discontent, especially among the young with university educations. Revolutionary activity, which had been brewing since an unsuccessful revolt against the tsar in December 1825, developed rapidly. In 1881 Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb hurled at his carriage. His murder set off waves of violence, much of which was directed at the Jewish population of the empire( see pogrom ). Alexander II was succeeded by his son Alexander III , a Russian nationalist and no friend of reformers. Under Alexander III revolutionary organizations were completely suppressed.

The last tsar

Nicholas II , son of Alexander III, came to power in 1894. Weak-willed and indecisive, he was unsuited for the task of ruling a vast empire. In 1904 Russia and Japan went to war over Russia’s expansionist activities in the Far East. The war was unpopular in Russia. The country suffered a terrible defeat, encouraging greater revolutionary activity.

Although small, a new factory laboring class was organized by the revolutionaries. Peasants sympathized and helped. Mutinies broke out in the army and navy. Manufacturers and landlords demanded reforms that would satisfy workers, peasants, and soldiers. The Revolution of 1905 reached its climax with a general strike and the formation of a soviet, or workers’ council, in St. Petersburg. In response, Nicholas called for the election of a duma as proposed by his ancestor Alexander I a century before.

In August 1914 Russia went to war against Germany and Austria over conflicting claims in the Balkans . The peasants and workers at first accepted the war without protest, but great military failures resulted because of the Russian government’s inability to equip its armies. Millions of Russian lives were sacrificed. The attitude of the public toward the war and the government changed.

Food shortages in early 1917 sparked mass rioting in the capital of Petrograd (the name given to St. Petersburg in August 1914). Soldiers deserted the government and joined the people. The Duma demanded that the tsar step down. Nicholas II abdicated his throne on March 15, ending more than 300 years of rule by the Romanov Dynasty . He and his family were exiled to Siberia and later executed.( See also World War I .)

The Soviet Union

In the second phase of the Russian Revolution , in October 1917, a group of radical socialists called the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin , emerged as the preeminent power in Russia. In 1918 they changed their name to the Russian Communist Party. Between 1918 and 1920 the Red Army successfully defended the new government against anticommunist forces in a civil war.

The communist government officially established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on December 30, 1922. The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic dominated the Soviet Union for its entire 74-year history. It was by far the largest of the republics, and Moscow, its capital, was also the capital of the Soviet Union. (For a detailed history of the Soviet period, see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics .)

The Yeltsin Presidency

Following years of economic decline and political turmoil, the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. Boris Yeltsin , leader of the former Russian republic, became president of the independent Russian Federation. Russia joined with 11 other former Soviet republics to form a new organization called the Commonwealth of Independent States .

Russia entered the post-Soviet era on the verge of economic collapse. Production plummeted while inflation soared. Manufacturing, geared toward defense and heavy industrial products during the Soviet years, was inefficient and unprepared for the production of consumer goods. Essential everyday goods were in short supply.

Yeltsin’s government began the difficult task of transforming the government-run Soviet economy into one based on private enterprise. Among other reforms, the government transferred control of most industries to the private sector. Privatization did little to improve the living conditions of the average Russian, however. It mainly benefited a select group of individuals who, because of their political connections, were able to buy companies for much less than they were worth. These individuals, called “oligarchs,” came to control huge segments of the Russian economy.

Yeltsin’s reform efforts were complicated by conflicts with the legislature. The constitution, held over from the Soviet era, did not specify which branch, legislative or executive, held supreme power. Yeltsin’s supporters argued that ultimate power rested with the president. His opponents—led by hard-line communists—held that the legislature was sovereign. Political differences made the power struggle even more intense. After Yeltsin dissolved the parliament in September 1993, its supporters rose up in armed rebellion. Yeltsin used the army to seize the parliament building and arrest the legislators inside. A new constitution, introduced by Yeltsin and adopted in December 1993, gave the president vast powers.

Another pressing issue in post-Soviet Russia was ethnic relations. Ethnic minorities made up more than one-fifth of Russia’s population. Many groups demanded more autonomy, or even complete independence. The republic of Chechnya , in the Caucasus region, declared independence in 1991, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. In late 1994 Yeltsin sent Russian troops into Chechnya, but they could not completely suppress the rebels. In 1996 a cease-fire was signed and Russian troops withdrew.

The war in Chechnya and the failure of his reforms to spur economic growth caused Yeltsin’s popularity to plummet. Nevertheless, the president displayed his remarkable staying power by winning reelection over his communist party challenger in 1996.

Yeltsin’s second term was tumultuous. Beset by declining health, the president faced continuing clashes with the parliament, including calls for his resignation. In 1998 the country faced a severe financial crisis and the collapse of the national currency, the ruble. Partly to maintain his grip on power, Yeltsin dismissed four prime ministers and in 1998 fired his entire cabinet. In 1999 the Duma tried unsuccessfully to impeach Yeltsin. Ever unpredictable, Yeltsin announced his resignation on December 31, 1999.

Putin Succeeds Yeltsin

Vladimir Putin , Yeltsin’s final prime minister, followed him as president. He declared his priorities to be reestablishing a strong state, restoring law and order, and relaunching economic reform. As prime minister, Putin had blamed Chechen rebels for a series of terrorist bombings and launched a new military campaign in Chechnya. Although Russian troops won control of the region, Chechen rebels continued a guerrilla war against Russian forces and terrorist attacks against civilians.

Putin sought to reassert central control over Russia’s wayward regions by reorganizing them into seven new federal districts, each headed by a representative appointed by the president. He also moved to reduce the power of Russia’s unpopular business elite—the infamous oligarchs—by closing several media outlets and launching criminal proceedings against numerous leading figures. Economic reforms brought about a strong recovery from the recession of the 1990s. Despite criticism that Putin had concentrated too much power in the presidency and was lessening freedoms achieved when the Soviet Union broke apart, he remained popular and was reelected in 2004.

Medvedev as President

Although Putin’s popularity continued to be high during his second term, the constitution prevented him from running for another term. Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev , was easily elected president and took office in May 2008. Medvedev appointed Putin as prime minister, giving the former president a platform to extend his influence in Russian politics.

A few months after gaining office, Medvedev was faced with a growing military conflict within Russia’s neighboring country of Georgia. South Ossetia , a region of Georgia that borders Russia, was fighting to win its independence. Russia sent thousands of troops to support the rebels not only in South Ossetia but also in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia. Even after a cease-fire was declared, tensions remained high.

Meanwhile, sporadic fighting between Russian forces and local rebels continued elsewhere in the Caucasus region. In 2009 Medvedev announced the end of Russia’s counterinsurgency operations in Chechnya, but outbreaks of violence continued there and in neighboring republics. In early 2010 suicide bombers who were believed to be linked to Caucasus militants killed more than three dozen people on the Moscow subway.

Putin’s Presidential Return

In the presidential elections of 2012, Putin was elected to a third term as president of Russia. One of his first acts was to nominate Medvedev as prime minister, a move that was orchestrated between the two leaders a year earlier. Putin’s first months in office were marked by attempts to quash or marginalize protest movements against the government that had materialized in the past few years.

Putin also took an active role in the events in neighboring Ukraine, where a protest movement toppled the country’s pro-Russian government in early 2014. Putin’s administration did not recognize the resultant acting government. Armed men (whose uniforms lacked visible insignia but were thought to be Russians) took control of key sites in the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea . Shortly thereafter, Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and was annexed by Russia. The United States and the European Union responded by enacting sanctions against high-ranking officials in Russia and in the self-declared government of Crimea. After pro-Russian separatists occupied government buildings throughout southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces retaliated. Although Putin denied that Russia was connected with the rebels, Western intelligence agencies, NATO , and the Ukrainian government documented multiple instances of troops and matériel crossing into Ukraine from Russia. Putin later publicly declared his support for the separatists but reiterated the claim that Russia was not involved in the conflict, which claimed thousands of lives. Western countries enacted a series of sanctions against Russia that included limiting Russian access to international capital markets. Those measures, combined with plummeting oil prices, sent the Russian economy into a recession in early 2015. Putin and other world leaders eventually approved a peace plan aimed at ending the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, though fighting in the region continued.

Russian activities in Ukraine were part of a wider effort to assert military influence in the countries of the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. In September 2015 Russia entered the Syrian Civil War in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad . Russia had long provided weapons and political support to Assad. Russia’s ensuing military campaign in Syria allowed the Assad government, which had been on the verge of collapse, to regain momentum against rebel groups and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces.

Following the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government had engaged in a systematic effort to influence the election in Trump’s favor. That effort reportedly involved the hacking of e-mails of members of the Democratic National Committee and the release of those documents through the media organization WikiLeaks. U.S. authorities opened an investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign advisers. For his part, Putin denied the existence of any campaign to influence the election. In July 2017 the U.S. Congress voted to impose tougher sanctions on Russia as punishment for its meddling in the 2016 election and for its military actions in Ukraine and elsewhere.

In December 2017 Putin declared his intention to seek reelection as president. As the March 2018 election approached, it seemed all but certain that Putin would win by a wide margin. Aleksey Navalny, a prominent opposition leader, was barred from running. Other opposition candidates faced incessant criticism from state-run media. As expected, Putin claimed an overwhelming majority of the vote. The independent monitoring agency Golos characterized the election as being rife with irregularities, however. With the win, Putin secured a fourth presidential term.

In January 2020 Putin announced his intention to modify the Russian constitution and remove term limits for presidents, paving the way for him to remain in office indefinitely. Medvedev soon announced his resignation, stating that a new government would give Putin “the opportunity to make the decisions he needs to make.” The Russian legislature quickly approved the constitutional changes. Putin then scheduled a national referendum on the matter. That vote was originally scheduled for April, but it was postponed until July because of the COVID-19 pandemic . The referendum results affirmed Putin’s agenda. Opposition groups noted that there was no independent monitoring of the election process, however.

Russia was hit especially hard by the pandemic. By the end of 2021 more than 650,000 Russians had been killed by COVID-19.

Russia-Ukraine War

In early 2022 the prospect of a major war in Europe began to dominate global headlines, as Putin continued a massive buildup of Russian forces along the Ukrainian border. On February 21 Putin recognized the independence of two separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine and ordered Russian “peacekeepers” into Ukrainian territory. On the morning of February 24 Putin delivered a televised address announcing the beginning of a “special military operation.” Within minutes Russian air strikes were carried out against cities across Ukraine. Many world leaders condemned Putin’s unprovoked attack and promised severe sanctions against Russia.

The sanctions that followed included the removal of key Russian banks from SWIFT, the main global financial messaging system, and a U.S. ban on imports of Russian oil and natural gas. Despite the raft of sanctions and the crushing effects they had on Russia’s economy, Russian troops and armored vehicles continued to pour into Ukraine. Deadly air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities also persisted. In early March the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the invasion of Ukraine and to demand that Russia “immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw” its forces from the country. However, as Russia increasingly faced isolation on the world stage, its devastating attacks on Ukraine continued.

Over the following months Western countries provided billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, whose forces were able to repel Russia’s main thrust toward Kyiv by April. The Russian military also met stiff resistance elsewhere. In September the Ukrainians launched a surprise counterattack in the Kharkiv region that drove Russian forces from the area. In the wake of that counterattack Putin called up 300,000 reservists to active military duty to support the war in Ukraine. He also threatened to deploy nuclear weapons, insisting that his threat was “not a bluff.” In late September Russia annexed four regions of eastern Ukraine that remained under Russian military control. The international community widely condemned the annexation as illegal.

Additional Reading

Blevins, Wiley. Russia (Scholastic, 2018). Duling, Kaitlyn. Russia (Cavendish Square, 2019). Immell, Myra. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union (Greenhaven Press, 2010). Lugovskaya, Nina. I Want to Live: The Diary of a Young Girl in Stalin’s Russia (Houghton, 2006). Moon, Walt K. Let’s Explore Russia (Lerner Publications, 2017). Senker, Cath. Russia (Wayland, 2018). Vincent, Zu. Catherine the Great (Franklin Watts, 2009).

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Table of Contents

Moscow , Russian Moskva, is the capital and most populated city of Russia , situated in the westward part of the country. Moscow is not just the political capital city of Russia but also the industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years, Moscow also has been the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

See the fact file below for more information on the Moscow or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Moscow worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Description.

• The city area is about 30 km in diameter and the population reaches to almost 10 million people.
• Moscow was first mentioned in the chronicles of 1147, where it played an important role in Russian history.
• The people of Moscow are known as Muscovites.
• Moscow is famous for its architecture, especially its historical buildings such as Saint Basil’s Cathedral .
• Moscow is a city with the most money in Russia and the third biggest budget in the world.
• Moscow began as a medieval city and developed into what was known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, an administrative region ruled by a prince.
• Moscow is where all Russia’s tensions and inequalities meet to coexist, producing a unique feeling of a city that looks European but feels somewhat Asian in its mood and intensity.
• In 1147 Moscow was called Moskov, which sounds closer to its current name. Moscow was derived from the Moskva river, on which the city is located. The Finno-Ugric tribes, who originally inhabited the territory, named the river Mustajoki, in English: Black River, which was presumably how the name of the city originated.
• Several theories were proposed on the origin of the name of the river however linguists cannot come to any agreement and those theories haven’t been proven yet.
• The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgoruky and Sviatoslav Olgovich. Muscovites today consider Prince Yury Dolgoruky their city’s founding father, but it was only recorded that he dined with friends in the town.
• In 1156, led by Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky, the town was barricaded with a timber fence and a moat. In the course of the Mongol invasion of Rus, the Mongols under Batu Khan burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants.
• Nevertheless, Moscow was restored and became more important. Yet the Mongols came back in 1382 and burned Moscow City again.
• Still, Moscow shortly recovered and In the 15th century, it probably gained a population of about 50,000. But, unfortunately, in 1571 the Crimean Tatars burned Moscow again.
• By 1712, Tsar Peter the Great decided to move his capital to St. Petersburg from Moscow. With this, Moscow began a period of dissolution. In the 1770s Moscow suffered an outbreak of the bubonic plague. But still, Moscow University was successfully founded in 1755 and at the beginning of the 19th century, Moscow was prospering again.
• Arbat Street at that time was also established. But then, Napoleon invaded Russia. The Muscovites, the retreating party, set their own city on fire by 1812 and it was rebuilt completely at the beginning of the 19th century.
• During 1917 the Communists started a revolution in which they imposed a totalitarian government in Russia. By 1918, Lenin transferred his administration to Moscow.
• After Lenin, the tyrant Josef Stalin governed the city. Under his regime, several historic buildings in the city were destroyed. Nevertheless, the first line of the Metro opened in 1935.
• By June 1941, the Germans had invaded Russia and had arrived on the outskirts of Moscow by December. As they arrived, they suddenly  turned back.
• After the Second World War , Moscow continued prospering even though many nations boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
• Fortunately, Communism collapsed in Russia in 1991 and in 1997 Moscow celebrated its 850th anniversary.
• Moscow is situated on the banks of the Moskva River, which flows through the East European Plain in central Russia. Teplostanskaya highland is the city’s highest point at 255 meters (837 feet). The width of Moscow city (not limiting MKAD) from west to east is 39.7 km (24.7 mi), and the length from north to south is 51.8 km (32.2 mi).
• Moscow has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters usually lasting from mid-November through the end of March, and warm summers .
• Moscow is the financial center of Russia and home to the country’s largest banks and many of its largest companies, such as natural gas giant Gazprom.
• The Cherkizovsky marketplace was the largest marketplace in Europe , with a daily turnover of about thirty million dollars and about ten thousand venders from different countries including China and India .
• Many new business centers and office buildings have been built in recent years, but Moscow still experiences shortages in office space.
• With this, many former industrial and research facilities are being reconstructed to become suitable for office use.
• In totality, economic stability has developed in recent years. But, crime and corruption still hinder business growth.
• Saint Basil’s Cathedral is famed as the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed amongst the locals. It served as one of the crucial landmarks of Moscow.
• Location: Krasnaya Square, 2, Moscow 109012, Russia
• Moscow Kremlin serves as the home in which all these tourist sites reside. It encompasses almost all the famous sightseeing attractions such as the royal residence of the President of Russia.
• Location: Moscow, Russia
• Red Square separates the royal citadel of Kremlin from the ancient merchant quarter of Kitai-gorod, one of the most interesting places in Moscow. Bearing the weight of Russia’s history to a great extent, Red Square serves not just as an attraction but as the heart, soul, and symbol of the whole country.
• Location: Krasnaya Ploshchad, Moscow, Russia

Moscow Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Moscow across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Moscow worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Moscow, Russian Moskva, which is the capital and most populated city of Russia, situated in the westward part of the country. Moscow is not just the political capital city of Russia but also the industrial, cultural, scientific, and educational capital. For more than 600 years, Moscow also has been the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

• Moscow Facts
• Moscow Breaking News
• Moscow Basic Info
• Moscow’s Significant Events
• Moscow Characteristics
• Populous Cities
• Sports Facts
• Moscow Landmarks
• Symbolization
• Moscow Slogan

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Discover the Magic: Top 12 Fun and Fascinating Facts About Moscow You Never Knew!

1. Moscow: The Billionaire Playground

Who needs Monopoly when Moscow's playing with real cash and property? Roll the dice and pass go: As of 2020, Moscow is home to a whopping 84 billionaires, according to Forbes, beating even New York City in the tycoon-tally. With riches drenched in oil, gas, and finance, this Russian powerhouse has cashed in its "Free Parking" ticket and built a global economic empire! Source => merriam-webster.com

2. Moscow Metro: Europe's Busiest Ride

Do you ever feel like you're stuck in the same old commute day after day, with nothing new to smile about? Well then, let me "metropolise" your spirits with this rip-roaring revelation: The Moscow Metro is not only a legendary locomotive landscape with over 200 stations rich in history and jaw-dropping architecture, but it's also Europe's busiest metro system, boasting a whopping 6.6 million daily riders! That's right, this subway soiree has been hustling and bustling since the 1930s, serving as an artistic tour de force and sustainable transportation model that cities around the world can only hope to mirror. Source => link.las.iastate.edu

Did you know that St. Petersburg, Florida holds an impressive record as the birthplace of both scheduled aviation and Major League Baseball Spring Training since 1914? Get ready to be blown away by more fascinating facts! 🛩️⚾

=> Fun Facts about St-Petersburg-Florida

3. The Kremlin: A UNESCO Masterpiece

Once upon a vodka-soaked night, Yuri Dolgoruki huffed and puffed and built a fortress fit for tsars: Enter the Moscow Kremlin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990, boasting stunning architecture and religious masterpieces like the Church of the Annunciation, Cathedral of the Dormition, Church of the Archangel, and Ivan Veliki's bell tower. Source => whc.unesco.org

4. Moscow Weather: Frosty to Sizzling

Hold onto your ushanka – Moscow isn't always frosty: While winters can see temperatures plummet to a bitter -7.9°C, summers sizzle with a balmy 20°C average in July, and the city experiences a generous dousing of rainfall year-round, making it a vibrant, ever-changing landscape worth tossing into your travel plans – just don't forget your rain boots and umbrella! Source => en.climate-data.org

5. Billionaire Shuffle: Moscow's Wealth Drop

In a twist of Russian roulette with the world's economy, Moscow's highest rollers seem to have drawn the short straw: The city once boasted the most billionaires globally but has since tumbled to seventh place, losing 26 ultra-wealthy residents in the past year and over $200 billion in combined net worth, leaving a still impressive cadre of 53 billionaires. Source => forbes.com

6. Park Pobedy: Deep Dive Metro Station

If you think taking the elevator to your 20th-floor office is taking you to great depths, think again, comrade: Moscow's Park Pobedy metro station plunges 84 meters below ground—equivalent to a staggering 28-story building—making it the deepest metro station in the world, while also entertaining over 200,000 daily passengers who seemingly enjoy diving this deep! Source => bridgetomoscow.com

7. Moscow Subway: World's Third Busiest

If you ever find yourself playing an intense game of Sardines, and Europe's the playground: I've got you covered - just head to the Moscow Metro! A surprise awaits: It's not only the busiest subway system in Europe but also ranks as the third busiest in the world with an annual ridership of 2.5 billion passengers. Enjoy your cozy ride on any of its 17 lines, including the Moscow Monorail and Moscow Central Circle, which also make it the world's eighth-longest subway system by route length. Source => en.wikipedia.org

8. Tsar Bell: Massive Yet Silent

In Moscow, they clearly believe that bigger is better, but sometimes bigger is also badder: the colossal Tsar Bell, weighing in at an impressive 200 tons, remains unrung due to a crack that formed during casting. As a silent witness of time, this behemoth of a bell now attracts awestruck visitors at the Kremlin. Source => space.com

9. Gorky Park: Socialism Turns Fun Fest

Who said socialism was all gray skies and grim faces? Say "Privet" to the party at the People's Park: Gorky Park in Moscow, once the pride of Soviet recreational infrastructure, is now a bustling cultural hub and popular tourist destination, boasting revamped gardens, eclectic cafes, innovative museums, and a myriad of sporting facilities to satiate the fun-hungry masses. Source => hum54-15.omeka.fas.harvard.edu

10. False Dmitry I: The Impostor Czar

Here's a Russian plot twist straight out of a "days of our czars" soap opera: a mysterious man named False Dmitry I, who claimed to be Ivan the Terrible's long-lost son, wormed his way on to the throne in 1605 with some sneaky Polish-Lithuanian support. Alas, much like a faulty Matryoshka doll, his reign crumbled quickly: the Russian boyars weren't fans of the imposter, toppled him within 11 months, and made his reign a gloriously scandalous chapter in Moscow's history. Source => en.wikipedia.org

11. Moscow's Fiery French Fiasco

When Moscow played a fiery game of "hot potato" with the French: In 1812, following the French invasion of Russia, Moscow was engulfed by a catastrophic fire that burned much of the city to the ground. The fire, which started as small fires that spread due to Moscow's mostly wooden buildings and lack of firefighting equipment, was initially blamed on the scorched earth strategy of the Russians but later attributed to both Russian and French soldiers unknowingly trying to become amateur chefs or playing stolen property pyromaniacs. However, Leo Tolstoy's account in War and Peace puts the blame back on the abandoned city's vulnerability in the hands of invading troops. Source => en.wikipedia.org

12. State Historical Museum: Blini of Culture

If you're ever in Moscow and craving a dose of culture so rich it could outshine even the priciest of blinis, look no further than this mammoth treasure trove: The State Historical Museum houses a staggering 4.5 million artifacts, making it one of the largest museums on the globe. With its immense collection spanning from ancient relics and rare manuscripts to ornate garments and weapons, it's truly a chronicle of Russian history in all its splendor. Source => advantour.com

Related Fun Facts

Geography of Moscow, Russia

Learn 10 Facts About Russia's Capital City

• Urban Geography
• Physical Geography
• Political Geography
• Country Information
• Key Figures & Milestones
• M.A., Geography, California State University - East Bay
• B.A., English and Geography, California State University - Sacramento

Moscow is Russia's capital city and is the largest city in the country. As of January 1, 2010, Moscow's population was 10,562,099, which also makes it one of the top ten largest cities in the world. Because of its size, Moscow is one of the most influential cities in Russia and dominates the country in politics, economics, and culture among other things. Moscow is located in Russia's Central Federal District along the Moskva River and covers an area of 417.4 square miles (9,771 sq km).

The following is a list of ten things to know about Moscow: 1) In 1156 the first references to the construction of a wall around a growing city called Moscow began to appear in Russian documents as did descriptions of the city being attacked by the Mongols in the 13th century. Moscow was first made a capital city in 1327 when it was named the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. It later became known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow. 2) Throughout much of the rest of its history, Moscow was attacked by rival empires and armies. In the 17th century a large part of the city was damaged during citizen uprisings and in 1771 much of Moscow's population died due to the plague. Shortly thereafter in 1812, Moscow's citizens (called Muscovites) burned the city during Napoleon 's invasion. 3) After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Moscow became the capital of what would eventually become the Soviet Union in 1918. During World War II, however, a large portion of the city suffered damage from bombings. Following WWII, Moscow grew but instability continued in the city during the fall of the Soviet Union . Since then, though, Moscow has become more stable and is a growing economic and political center of Russia.

4) Today, Moscow is a highly organized city located on the banks of the Moskva River. It has 49 bridges crossing the river and a road system that radiates in rings out from the Kremlin in the city's center. 5) Moscow has a climate with humid and warm to hot summers and cold winters. The hottest months are June, July, and August while the coldest is January. The average high temperature for July is 74°F (23.2°C) and the average low for January is 13°F (-10.3°C). 6) The city of Moscow is governed by one mayor but it is also broken down into ten local administrative divisions called okrugs and 123 local districts. The ten okrugs radiate out around the central district which contains the city's historic center, Red Square, and the Kremlin. 7) Moscow is considered the center of Russian culture because of the presence of many different museums and theaters in the city. Moscow is home to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the Moscow State Historical Museum. It is also home to Red Square which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . 8) Moscow is well-known for its unique architecture which consists of many different historic buildings such as Saint Basil's Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Distinctive modern buildings are also beginning to be constructed throughout the city.

9) Moscow is considered one of the largest economies in Europe and its main industries include chemicals, food, textiles, energy production, software development, and furniture manufacturing. The city is also home to some of the world's largest companies. 10) In 1980, Moscow was the host of the Summer Olympics and thus has a variety of different sports venues that are still used by the many sports teams within the city. Ice hockey, tennis, and rugby are some popular Russian sports. Reference Wikipedia. (2010, March 31). "Moscow." Moscow- Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia . Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow

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Letters from readers: Fun of dodgeball, changing school rules and downside of reality TV

• This week, pupils write to us about fun games at school, getting rid of homework and how one popular form of entertainment exploits people

Skyler Ng (aged 9), Spanish School of Hong Kong

Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two opposing teams try to throw balls and hit opponents while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective is to eliminate all opposing team members by hitting them with balls or catching a ball thrown by an opponent.

Our school participated in a dodgeball competition for the first time and won the runner-up award. We were very happy and excited. Many thanks to our coach Miss Pokey and our principal, Miss Adriana, for their leadership.

Chloe Fok (Primary Four), HKCCCU Logos Academy

If I could change my school’s rules, I would get rid of homework because it leaves us no time to play! One time, I had about 10 pieces of homework, all due the next day. There was no time to play, watch TV or read that night.

The new school rules would be that students must play and have fun. We will still go to class, but they will be fun and sometimes, we will get snacks.

I would also make it mandatory for my school to have a bouncy castle and a giant slide for students. These rules would create a fun learning environment.

Meagan Lam (Grade Six), Stamford American School

Are reality shows exploiting people? In my opinion, yes. Reality shows aim to keep audiences glued to the screen for as long as possible. They promote an environment where the contestants are encouraged to do whatever it takes to win, even if it means betraying others.

Producers only care about the money and don’t feel compassion for their contestants. They rely on ordinary people revealing personal problems or experiences. They harm and humiliate contestants.