Introduction.

Russia is a young state proclaimed in 1991 but its history goes back to the 6th century A.D.

Russia is the larges country in the world. It is about 8,000 km from east to west and crosses eleven time zones. It would take almost seven days to cross it by train from the border with Belarus to Nakhodka.

Russia is situated both in Europe and Asia. The European and Asian parts of the country are separated by the Ural Mountains. Russia’s most famous river is the Volga. More than one-third of Russia is covered with vast forests. Large areas of forests are conserved as natural reserves, but other parts are being cut for their timber, one of the Russia important exports. Russia is also rich in most of the minerals used by modern society. Some of the oil and gas fields are found far to the north, inside the Artic Circle.

Population

Russians make up the large majority of the population, and Russian is the official language, but there are more than a hundred other nationalities and languages. Religion is important to some groups. Christians mostly belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. There are many Muslims in Asian parts of the country.

Flag

The national flag of Russia is a white-blue-and-red banner. Its state emblem is a double-headed eagle. The national anthem of Russia is “the Patriotic Song” by Mikhail Glinka.

Capital

The capital of Russia is Moscow and the second largest city is St. Petersburg (which is also called the "Northern capital").

Political System

Russia is a parliamentary republic. Russian government consists of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. Each of them is controlled by the President who is the head of the state.

The legislative power is exercised by the Federal Assembly. It consists of two chambers, the Council Federation and the State Duma. The members of the Federal Assembly are elected by general vote every four years. Each chamber is headed by the Speaker. The members of the Federal Assembly are engaged in making laws. A bill may be introduced in any chamber but it becomes law only if it is approved by both chambers and signed by the President. The President, however, may veto the bill.

The President of Russian Federation may sign international treaties as well. He may also appoint ministers, but the Federal Assembly is to approve them.

The supreme executive power belongs to the Government, or the cabinet of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister. The judicial power belongs to the system of courts. It consists of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the others courts.

President

The President of Russian Federation is Vladimir Putin.

History in Brief

Over 1,400 years ago there were tribes of Slav people living in parts of central and eastern Europe. In the 6th century AD some of them began to migrate further eastwards. They found themselves upon a great plain with no barrier in their path until they reached a mountain wall in the south or an ocean in the far north, the Arctic.

This plain was open to the cold eastern winds and snow for half the year, and to attacks from Huns, Scythians and Goths. At the first sign of danger the Slavs would spread out over the endless steppe (grasslands) or go deeper into the forest. Some settled down as farmers. Other became pioneers opening up a new territory. From the 6th to the 9th century, Vikings from the north made trips for trade and adventure along the great Dnieper and Volga rivers to Kiev, Novgorod and other cities.

Kiev also traded with Greeks in the south and it was from the Greeks that the Russians took their Christian religion. In 998 Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev was converted to Christianity.

Kiev Rus was destroyed in 1240 by the Golden Horde of Mongol-Tatars. The Horde occupied the country for about 250 years, cutting it off from important events elsewhere. But the princes of Moscow gradually beat them off and in 16th century Ivan the Terrible finally defeated the Tatars at Kazan. He had himself crowned tsar in the capital city Moscow in 1547.

After Ivan died, there were quarrels over the throne until Mikhail Romanov was made tsar. The Romanov family ruled Russia from 1613 until they were overthrown in 1917. Mikhail Romanov’s  grand son Peter I was the greatest of all Russian tsars. He opened “a window onto the West”by gaining a port on the Baltic Sea and building a grand new capital, St. Petersburg, in marshes where the Neva River meets the Baltic.
Peter the Great built a modern navy and army, made Russia a world power and introduced many reforms to westernize the nation. Russia grew under his reign as he added Estonia and part of Latvia and Finland to the territories under Russian control.

Nearly 40 years after Peter’s death in 1725, a young German princess took the Russian throne. She became known as Catherine the Great and she ruled for 34 years. Russia grew much larger during her reign. The empire expanded eastwards towards the Pacific Ocean, southwards to the Crimea and Black Sea and westwards to occupy Lithuania and much of Poland.

Not longer after Catherine’s death in 1796, Napoleon invaded Russia and captured Moscow in 1812. But he could not make the Russians surrender. In the end his army had to retreat, leaving Tsar Alexander I a stronger ruler.

By the middle of the 19th century Russia was in crisis. She fought against Britain and France in the Crimean War and, later in the century, Britain stopped her from taking over Afghanistan. At home the serfs had rebelled against the landowners. Tsar Alexander II saw no alternative but to free the serfs and give them land. He did this in 1861 and many of former serfs and their families built up successful small farms.
However, most Russians were still very poor and there was a lot of discontent. A group of reformers, called the Narodniks, went to the people in the countryside to teach them to read and write. Others became terrorists and used bombs to attack Russia’s leaders. Alexander II was killed in 1881. The situation worsened in the reign of Nicholas II.

Russia’s entry into World War I in 1914 increased the nation’s hardships. Two million men were killed, two million wounded and four million were taken prisoner. Riots by starving people in February 1917 quickly spread.  The tsar was incompetent in running the war and dealing with problems. He was forced to give up his throne, and both he and his family were shot a year later.

The Provisional Government ruled over Russia for eight months. In October 1917 it was overthrown by the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin. Russia then became a republic.

The Communist Party ruled over the country over the next seven decades. In 1922 Russia became the largest and most important of the republics forming the USSR. Russia had to live through the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. It is impossible to say how many people perished during these years. Many Soviet men, women and even teenagers became victims of the repressions.

After 70 years of communist rule the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Boris Yeltsin became the first president of the newly independent Russia.
Much is spoken about the hardships overcome by Russia in the 20th century. The country has lost much of its previous political influence and economic power. But it is still the largest state in the world, and people of the country are proud of its glorious history.