Russia Totally Explained

Russia (Rossiya; pronounced [rʌˈsʲi.jə]), also the Russian Federation (Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; [rʌˈsʲi.skə.jəfʲɪ.dʲɪˈra.ʦɨ.jə], (Russian language) ), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia). With an area of 17,075,400 km², Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total area of the next-largest country, Canada, and has enormous mineral and energy resources. Russia has the world's ninth-largest population. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States (the state of Alaska), Sweden, and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La Pérouse Strait, respectively).
Formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia became the Russian Federation following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. After the Soviet era, the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union (then one of the world's two Cold War superpowers, the other one being the United States) that were located in Russia passed on to the Russian Federation.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly-independent Russian Federation emerged as a great power and is also considered to be an energy superpower. Russia is internationally recognised as continuing the legal personality of the Soviet Union and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also one of the five recognised nuclear weapons states and possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Russia is the leading nation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a member of the G8 as well as other international organisations.

History

Ancient Russia, Early East Slavs and Kievan Rus'

Prior to the first century, the vast lands of southern Russia were home to scattered tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians. Between the third and sixth centuries, the steppes were overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with Huns and Turkic Avars.
   During the period from fifth century BC to seventh century human settlements are represented by Dyakovo culture of Iron Age which occupies the significant part of the Upper Volga, Valday and Oka River area. Dyakovo culture was formed by Finno-Ugric peoples, ancestors of Merya, Muromian, Meshchera, Veps tribes. All regional Funno-Ugric toponymy and hydronym names go back to those languages, for example Yauza River which is a confluent of the Moskva River, and probably the Moskva River itself too.
   A Turkic people, the Khazars, reigned the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas through the 8th century. Noted for their laws, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism, the Khazars were the main commercial link between the Baltic and the Muslim Abbasid empire centered in Baghdad. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire, and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Caliphates. In the tenth to eleventh centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous because of diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. The opening of new trade routes with the Orient at the time of the Crusades contributed to the decline and fragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the twelfth century.
   In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the constant incursions of nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the northeast with the colder climate and poor soil, known as Zalesye. The medieval states of Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal emerged as successors to Kievan Rus on those territories, while the middle course of the Volga River came to be dominated by the Muslim state of Volga Bulgaria. Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongol invaders, who formed the state of Golden Horde which would pillage the Russian principalities for over three centuries. About half of the Russian population died during the Mongol invasion. Later known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while the territories of present-day Ukraine and Belarus were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, thus dividing the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west.
   Similarly to the Balkans, long-lasting nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. However, the Novgorod Republic together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Alexander Nevsky, the Novgorodians repelled the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonise the region.

Grand Duchy of Moscow

Unlike its spiritual leader, the Byzantine Empire, Russia under the leadership of Moscow was able to revive and organise its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence in Western Russia in the early fourteenth century. Assisted by the Russian Orthodox Church and Saint Sergius of Radonezh's spiritual revival, Russia inflicted a defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). Ivan the Great eventually tossed off the control of the invaders, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion and first took the title "grand duke of all the Russias".
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Tatar invasion and to protect the southern borderland against attacks of Crimean Tatars (Russo-Crimean Wars) and other Turkic peoples. The noblemen, receiving a manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army.

Tsardom of Russia

In 1547, Ivan IV was officially crowned the first Tsar of Russia. During his long reign, Ivan IV annexed the Tatar khanates (Kazan, Astrakhan) along the Volga River and transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. Ivan IV promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and introduced the local self-management in rural regions. By the end of the century, Russian Cossacks established the first Russian settlements in Western Siberia. But his rule was also marked by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of Poland, Lithuania, Sweden for the access to the Baltic coast and sea trade. Ivan carried out a series of purges of the feudal aristocracy (which he suspected of treachery after the betrayal of prince Kurbsky). The military losses, epidemics, poor harvests weakened the state and the Crimean Tatars were able to burn down Moscow. The death of sons of Ivan combined with the famine (1601–1603) led to the civil war and foreign intervention of the Time of Troubles in early 1600s. In the middle of the seventeenth century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, on the Pacific coast, and the strait between North America and Asia was first sighted by a Russian explorer in 1648. The colonisation of the Asian territories was largely peaceful, in sharp contrast to the build-up of other colonial empires of the time.

Imperial Russia

Russian control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish intervention under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great (ruled in) defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede West Karelia and Ingria (two regions lost by Russia in the Time of Troubles), Estland, and Livland (the two latter now being Estonia and northern Latvia). This secured the access of Russia to the sea and sea trade. It was in Ingria that he founded a new capital, Saint Petersburg. Peter was largely responsible through his reforms for bringing Western European culture to Russia. After his reforms, Russia emerged as a major European power. Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, continued the Petrine efforts at establishing Russia as one of the great powers of Europe. Examples of its eighteenth-century European involvement include the War of Polish Succession and the Seven Years' War. In the wake of the Partitions of Poland, Russia had acquired significant territories in the west, populated mainly by Orthodox people. As a result of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars, Russia's borders expanded to the Black Sea and Russia set its goal on the protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783, Russia and the Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) signed the treaty of Georgievsk according to which Georgia received the protection of Russia.
In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France as well as from all of its conquered states in Europe, Napoleon invaded Russia but, after taking Moscow, was forced to retreat back to France. Almost 90% of the invading forces died as a result of on-going battles with the Russian army, guerrillas and winter weather. The Russian armies ended their pursuit of the enemy by taking his capital, Paris. The officers of the Napoleonic wars brought back to Russia the ideas of liberalism and even attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt (1825), which was followed by several decades of political repression. Another result of the Napoleonic wars was the incorporation of Bessarabia, and Finland into the Russian Empire, and creation of the Congress Poland. The perseverance of Russian serfdom and the conservative policies of Nicholas I of Russia impeded the development of Imperial Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. As a result, the country was defeated in the Crimean War, 1853–1856, by an alliance of major European powers, including Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, and Piedmont-Sardinia. Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) was forced to undertake a series of comprehensive reforms and issued a decree abolishing serfdom in 1861. The Great Reforms of Alexander's reign spurred increasingly rapid capitalist development and Sergei Witte's attempts at industrialisation. The Slavophile mood was on the rise, spearheaded by Russia's victory in the Russo-Turkish War, which forced the Ottoman Empire to recognise the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria.
The failure of agrarian reforms and suppression of the growing liberal intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. The Russian government didn't want war in 1914 but felt that the only alternative was acceptance of German domination of Europe. Upper- and middle-class Russians rallied around the regime’s war effort. which called for a new form of government based on workers' councils, or soviets elected and revocable at all moments by the workers. He returned to Petrograd in October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan "All Power to the Soviets!". Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to November 8 1917. At the close of the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party. The storming and capitulation of the Winter Palace on the night of the 7th to 8th of November marked the beginning of Soviet rule.

Soviet Russia

On November 8, 1917, Lenin was elected as the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Congress of Soviets. Lenin emphasised the importance of bringing electricity to all corners of Russia and modernising industry and agriculture. He was very concerned about creating a free universal health care system for all, the rights of women, and teaching all Russian people to read and write. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty signed by the Central Powers with Soviet Russia, concluded hostilities between those countries in World War I. Russia lost the Ukraine, its Polish and Baltic territories, and Finland by signing the treaty. Following the defeat of the Central Powers and the Armistice treaty, these states became independent. Civil wars and wars against Russia ensued in Finland, Estonia and Poland. The White Army was joined by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Japan, France, Canada and the United States, along with other World War I Allied countries, in a military intervention into the Russian Civil War during the period of 1918 through 1920. The Red Army triumphed in the Civil War, and the Russian SFSR together with three other Soviet republics formed the Soviet Union on December 30 1922. The results of the civil war were momentous. Russia had been at war for seven years, during which time some 20,000,000 of its people had lost their lives, with the Civil War taking an estimated 15,000,000 of them. At the end of the Civil War, Russia was exhausted and near ruin. The economy was devastated; the industrial production value descended to one seventh of the value of 1913, and agriculture to one third.
   The history of Russia between 1922 and 1991 is essentially the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union. This ideologically-based union, established in December 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party, was roughly coterminous with Russia before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. People and leaders around the world often referred to the Soviet Union as "Russia" and its people as "Russians". The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic dominated the Soviet Union for its entire 74-year history. The Russian Federation was by far the largest of the republics; Moscow, its capital, was also the capital of the Soviet Union. Most economic output was immediately diverted to establishing heavy industry. Civilian industry was modernised and many heavy weapon factories were established. The plan worked, in some sense, as the Soviet Union successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in an unbelievably short span of time, but widespread misery and famine ensued for many millions of people as a result of the severe economic upheaval and party policies.
   Almost all Old Bolsheviks from the time of the Revolution, including Leon Trotsky, were killed or exiled. At the end of 1930s, Stalin launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people whom Stalin and local authorities suspected of being a threat to their power were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia. A number of ethnic groups in Russia and other republics were also forcibly resettled during Stalin's rule.
   The defensive war of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, part of the World War II known in the Soviet Union and Russia as the Great Patriotic War, started with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22 1941. It was the largest theatre of war in history and was notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of war in World War II, with over 5.5 million deaths on the Axis Forces; Soviet military deaths were about 8.6 million (out of which 2.8–3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war (of 5.5 million) died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 18 million. The majority of lost civilians were victims of a repressive policy of Germans and their allies on an occupied territory died because of massacres, famine, absence of elementary medical aid and slave labor. The Eastern Front contained more combat than all the other European fronts combined; the German army suffered 80% to 93% of all casualties there. The fate of the Third Reich was decided at Stalingrad and sealed at Kursk. The German army had considerable success in the early stages of the campaign, but they suffered defeat when they reached the outskirts of Moscow. The Red Army then stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943, which became the decisive turning point for Germany's fortunes in the war. The Soviets drove through Eastern Europe and captured Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. Although the Soviet Union was victorious in the war, the nation lost around 27 million citizens, about half of all World War II casualties and the vast majority of Allied deaths, and had devastated the Soviet economy in the struggle.
   Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged superpower. The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe after the war, including the eastern half of Germany. Stalin installed loyal communist governments in these satellite states. During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviets extracted heavy war reparations from the areas of Germany under their control, mostly in the form of machinery and industrial equipment. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe (see Eastern bloc) and entered a long struggle with the United States and Western Europe on economic, political, and ideological dominance over the Third World. The ensuing struggle became known as the Cold War, which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, Britain and the United States, into its foes.

1953–1985

Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth aboard the first manned spacecraft, Vostok 1. The space race produced rapid advances in rocketry, material science, computers, and many other areas. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. Foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses, notably the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Khrushchev began installing nuclear missiles in Cuba (after the United States installed Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which nearly provoked a war with the Soviet Union). Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the pre-eminent figure in Soviet politics. Brezhnev is frequently derided by historians for stagnating the development of the Soviet Union (see "Brezhnev stagnation"). Others have acknowledged that despite its inertia and repression (though very mild relative to the Stalin years), the Brezhnev era did offer a relative prosperity to a populace and leadership battered by decades of war and social shocks, and the volatility of the Khrushchev years. In 1979 the troubled nine-year Soviet war in Afghanistan began.

1985–1991

Following the short rules of Yury Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, in 1985, the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He introduced the landmark policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), in an attempt to modernise Soviet communism. Glasnost meant that the harsh restrictions on free speech that had characterised most of the Soviet Union's existence were alleviated, and open political discourse and criticism of the government became possible again. Perestroika meant sweeping economic reforms designed to decentralise the planning of the Soviet economy. However, the strongly centralised system was probably beyond repair, and the Gorbachev reforms started in motion forces of change that demonstrated that meaningful reform would eventually threaten Communist Party hegemony. His initiatives also provoked strong resentment amongst conservative elements of the government, and in August 1991 an unsuccessful military coup that attempted to remove Gorbachev from power instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin came to power and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule. The USSR splintered into fifteen independent republics, and was officially dissolved in December 1991. Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct presidential election in Russian history. In October 1991, as Russia was on the verge of independence, Yeltsin announced that Russia would proceed with radical, market-oriented reform along the lines of "shock therapy", as recommended by the United States and IMF, with disastrous results. The "shock therapy" recommendations by the US and IMF resulted in the economy being shattered, with tens of millions plunging into poverty and a severe fall in the standard of living, and triggered an explosion in corruption and organised crime. Russia took up the responsibility for settling the USSR's external debts, even though its population made up just half of the population of the USSR at the time of its dissolution. The largest state enterprises (petroleum, metallurgy, and the like) were controversially privatised by President Boris Yeltsin to insiders (who became billionaires virtually overnight) for far less than they were worth.—for example, Yeltsin's son-in-law became the CEO of Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline. The newly rich Russian mobsters and businesspeople looted billions in cash and assets from the State, taking wealth outside of the country in enormous capital flight. The 1990s were plagued by armed ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus. Under Putin, the economy developed significantly and currently Russia enjoys a state of rapid economical growth, averaging 6.7% annual GDP growth for the past 8 straight years. Judges are independent and subject only to the law. Alvaro Gil-Robles (former head of the Council of Europe human rights division) states "The fledgling Russian democracy is still, of course, far from perfect, but its existence and its successes can't be denied." The Economist rates Russia as a "hybrid regime", which they consider "some form of democratic government".

Foreign relations

The Russian Federation (Russia) is recognised in international law as continuing the legal personality of the former Soviet Union. The Russian Federation continues to implement the international commitments of the USSR, and has assumed the USSR's permanent seat on the UN Security Council, membership in other international organisations, the rights and obligations under international treaties and property and debts. Russia is one of the key players in international relations. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia has a special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Russia is a member of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and is a member of a large number of other international organisations, including the Council of Europe and OSCE. Russia takes a special role in the organisations created on the territory of the former USSR, largely under the leadership of Russia : CIS, EurAsEC, CSTO, SCO. The collapse of the Soviet Union has also resulted in Russia becoming a somewhat more NATO-friendly country and the establishment of the NATO-Russia Council, which brings together the NATO members and the Russian Federation; however, Russia hasn't formally joined the NATO as an ally, nor has Russia expressed any desire to join NATO. Russia has a multifaceted foreign policy. It maintains diplomatic relations with 178 countries and has 140 embassies. Russia's foreign policy is determined by the President and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Subdivisions

Federal subjects The Russian Federation comprises 85 federal subjects, namely:

47 oblasts (provinces)
21 republics (states) which enjoy a high degree of autonomy on most issues and which correspond to some of Russia's numerous ethnic minorities
eight krais (territories)
six okrugs (autonomous districts)
two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg)
the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

Federal districts Federal subjects are grouped into seven federal districts, each administered by an envoy appointed by the President of Russia. Unlike the federal subjects, the federal districts are not a subnational level of government, but are a level of administration of the federal government. Federal districts' envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjects and the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects with the federal laws.

Economic regions For economic and statistical purposes the federal subjects are grouped into twelve economic regions. Economic regions and their parts sharing common economic trends are in turn grouped into economic zones and macrozones.

Geography and climate

Topography

The two most widely separated points in Russia are about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) apart along a geodesic (for example shortest line between two points on the Earth's surface). These points are: the boundary with Poland on a 60 km long (40-mi long) spit of land separating the Gulf of Gdańsk from the Vistula Lagoon; and the farthest southeast of the Kurile Islands, a few miles off Hokkaidō Island, Japan. The points which are furthest separated in longitude are 6,600 km (4,100 mi) apart along a geodesic. These points are: in the West, the same spit; in the East, the Big Diomede Island (Ostrov Ratmanova). The Russian Federation spans eleven time zones.
   The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the supercontinent of Eurasia. Because of its size Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances. From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed forest, broadleaf forest, grassland (steppe), and semidesert (fringing the Caspian Sea) as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. It is often called "the lungs of Europe", second only to the Amazon Rainforest in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs. It provides a huge amount of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world. With access to three of the world's oceans—the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific—Russian fishing fleets are a major contributor to the world's fish supply. The Caspian is the source of what is considered the finest caviar in the world.
   Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 kilometres (23,000 mi) along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Baltic, Black and Caspian seas. Some smaller bodies of water are part of the open oceans; the Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are part of the Arctic, whereas the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan belong to the Pacific Ocean. Major islands and archipelagos include Novaya Zemlya, the Franz Josef Land, the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. (See List of islands of Russia). The Diomede Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just three kilometers (1.9 mi) apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia but claimed by Japan) is about twenty kilometres (12 mi) from Hokkaidō.
   Russia is a water-rich country. Russia has thousands of rivers and inland bodies of water, providing it with one of the world's largest surface-water resources. The most prominent of Russia's bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest and most capacious freshwater lake. Lake Baikal alone contains over one fifth of the world's liquid fresh surface water. Many rivers flow across Russia; see Rivers of Russia. Of its 100,000 rivers, Russia contains some of the world's longest. The Volga is the most famous—not only because it's the longest river in Europe but also because of its major role in Russian history. As a result, much of the territory there are only two distinct seasons—winter and summer; Spring and autumn are usually brief periods of change between extremely low temperatures and extremely high. The coldest month is January (on the shores of the sea—February), the warmest usually is July. Great ranges of temperature are typical. The continental interiors are the driest areas. However, Russia's economy has adapted relatively quickly from the world's largest centrally planned economy to a market economy. Russia ended 2006 with its eighth straight year of growth, averaging 6.7% annually since the financial crisis of 1998, despite high negative population growth. Although high oil prices and a relatively cheap ruble initially drove this growth, since 2003 consumer demand and, more recently, investment have played a significant role. Oil and gas contribute to 5.7% of GDP and the government predicts this will drop to 3.7% of Russia's GDP by 2011. Total investment in Russia's economy in 2010 will reach $360 billion, 800% growth since 2000, a Russian deputy prime minister forecast. Investment in Russia's fixed assets are expected to double on 2006 figures by 2010 and reach $370 billion in line with a conservative forecast. At least $1 trillion will be invested in Russia's infrastructure before 2020, the acting economic development and trade minister said in September 2007.
   Over the last five years, fixed capital investments have averaged real gains greater than 10% per year and personal incomes have achieved real gains more than 12% per year. This fund takes in revenues from oil and gas exports and is designed to help offset oil market volatility.
   Russia's 2006 GDP was $1.723 trillion (est. PPP), the 9th highest in the world, with GDP growth of 6.8%. Growth was driven by non-tradable services and goods for the domestic market, as opposed to oil or mineral extraction and exports. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade revised its forecast and projects that GDP will grow 7.3% in 2007.
   The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven geographically: the Moscow region contributes one-third of the country's GDP while having only a tenth of its population. While the huge capital region of Moscow is an affluent metropolis, much of the country, especially indigenous and rural communities in Asia, lags significantly behind. Nevertheless, market integration is being felt throughout the country. The middle class has grown from just 8 million in 2000 to 55 million in 2006, estimates Expert, a market research firm in Moscow.
   The average salary has increased to $540 (about $920 PPP) per month in August 2007, from $65 per month in August 1999.
   Russia's macroeconomic performance in recent years has been impressive. High oil prices and large capital inflows have contributed importantly to this success, but a principal factor has been the combination of strong growth in productivity, real wages, and consumption. Very high levels of education and societal involvement achieved by the majority of the population, including women and minorities, secular attitudes, mobile class structure, and better integration of various minorities into the mainstream culture set Russia far apart from the majority of the so-called developing countries and even some developed nations. However, equal redistribution of capital gains from the natural resource industries to other sectors is still a problem. The Russian military is divided into the Ground Forces, Navy, and Air Force. There are also three independent arms of service: Strategic Rocket Forces, Military Space Forces, and the Airborne Troops. Russia ranks at or near the top of many metrics of military power including in numbers of tanks, fighter aircraft and naval vessels; it has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. It also has the second largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and is the only country apart from the U.S. with a modern strategic bomber force. Official government military spending for 2007 was $32.4 billion, though various sources, including US intelligence, have estimated Russia’s military expenditures to be considerably higher than the reported amount. By some estimates, overall Russian defence expenditure is now at the second highest in the world after the USA. The recent steps towards modernisation of the Armed Forces has been made possible by Russia's spectacular economic resurgence based on oil and gas revenues as well a strengthening of its own domestic market. Currently, the military is in the middle of a major equipment upgrade, with the government in the process of spending about $200 billion (what equals to about $400 billion in PPP dollars) on development and production of military equipment between 2006–2015. Russia is the world's top supplier of weapons, a spot it has held since 2001, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales. Russia is the principal weapons supplier of China and India, and provides weapons to Iran, Algeria, Venezuella and other countries. Recent arms deals seem to show that Russia is building on its former influence, both in the Middle East and in Latin America.

Demographics

The Russian Federation is home to as many as 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. As of the 2002 Russian census, 79.8% of the population is ethnically Russian, 3.8% Tatar, 2% Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1% Chuvash, 0.9% Chechen, 0.8% Armenian, and 10.3% other or unspecified. Though Russia's population is large, its average population density is low because of its enormous size; its population is densest in European Russia, near the Ural Mountains, and in the southwest Siberia. About 75% of the population live in urban areas. As of the 2002 Census, the two largest cities in Russia are Moscow (10,342,151 inhabitants) and Saint Petersburg (4,661,219). Eleven other cities had between one and two million inhabitants: Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ufa, Volgograd, and Yekaterinburg. There are currently about 10 million illegal labor migrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia.

Education and health

Russia's free, widespread and in-depth educational system, inherited with almost no changes from the Soviet Union, is one of the best mass education systems in the world, producing 100% literacy. Most undergraduate courses require five years.
   The Russian educational system may be arranged into three major groups: secondary education, higher education and postgraduate education. Secondary education in Russia takes either ten (skipping the fourth form) or eleven years to complete, depending on the school. In Russia school accreditation/national recognition is directly overseen by the Education Ministry of Russia. Since 1981, Russia has followed the UNESCO international regulations to ensure Russian institutions and international institutions meet high quality standards. It is illegal for a school to operate without government approval.
   In the Soviet Union, education of all levels was free for anybody who could pass entrance exams; in addition, students were provided with small scholarships and free housing. This was considered crucial because it provided access to higher education to all skilled students, as opposed to only those who could afford it. The downside of that system was that institutions had to be funded entirely from the federal and regional budgets; therefore, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, expenses on education took a big blow; institutions found themselves unable to provide adequate teachers' salaries, students' scholarships, and to maintain their facilities. To address the issue, many state institutions started to open commercial positions. The number of those positions has been growing steadily since then. Many private higher education institutions have emerged, mostly in the fields where the Soviet system was inadequate or was unable to provide enough specialists for post-Soviet realities, such as economics, business/management, and law. Russia's constitution guarantees free, universal health care for all Russian citizens. While Russia has more physicians, hospitals, and health care workers than almost any other country in the world, it has struggled to provide high levels of health care services. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the health of the Russian population has declined considerably, a result of social, economic, and lifestyle changes. As of 2006, the average life expectancy in Russia is 59.12 years for males and 73.03 years for females. The primary causes of Russia's population decrease are a high death rate and low birth rate. While Russia's birth-rate is comparable to that of other European countries (eg Russia's birth rate is 10.92 per 1000 people compared to the European Union birth rate of 10.00 per 1000) its population declines at much greater rate due to a substantially higher death rate. Heart disease claims proportionately more lives than in most of the rest of the world. Death rates from homicide, suicide, car accidents and cancer are also especially high. Smoking also contributes to the demographic crisis, with more than 300,000 lives lost each year as a result of tobacco use.
   In an effort to stem Russia’s demographic crisis, starting 1 January 2007 the government doubled monthly child support payments and offered a one-time payment of 250,000 Rubles (around US$10,000) to women who had a second child. In the first six months of 2007 Russia has seen the highest birth rate since the collapse of the USSR. The First Deputy PM indicated that the number of childbirths increased 6.5 percent in the first half of 2007, while the number of deaths fell the same 6.5 percent. The First Deputy PM also said about 20 billion roubles (about US$1 billion) will be invested in new prenatal centres in Russia in 2008–2009. Russia is the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad, mostly from other CIS countries (In 2005, 95% of documented migrants came from other CIS countries. They are mainly Russians or Russian speakers), and immigration is increasingly seen as necessary to sustain the country's population.

Language and religion

The Russian language, renowned for its richness and flexibility, is the only official state language, but the individual republics have often made their native language co-official next to Russian. The Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script, which means that these languages must be written in Cyrillic in official texts. Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the East Slavic languages; the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian). The roots of the Russian language are some 3,000 to 4,000 years old. Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards. Russian also is a necessary accessory of world communications systems (broadcasts, air- and space communication, etc). Russian Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Russia. The ancestors of today’s Russians adopted Orthodox Christianity in the 10th century. According to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center

, 63% of respondents consider themselves Russian Orthodox. This makes the Russian Orthodox Church by far the most widespread religion. However, the vast majority of Orthodox believers don't attend church on a regular basis. (The Spiritual Board of Muslims of the European part of Russia disagrees with this figure, stating that the Muslim population of Russia is about 20 million.) Russia is also home to an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslim migrants from the ex-Soviet states. Most Muslims live in the Volga-Ural region, as well as in the North Caucasus, Moscow, St. Petersburg and western Siberia. In Russia there are more than 6,000 mosques (in 1991 it was about one hundred). According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, the number of Jews in Russia is about 1.5 million. Of these, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Moscow is home to some 500,000 Jews, and St. Petersburg about 170,000. In Russia there are about 70 synagogues. Buddhism is traditional for three regions of the Russian Federation: Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia. According to the Buddhist Association of Russia, the number of people practising Buddhism is 1.5 to 2 million. Some residents of the Siberian and Far Eastern regions, Yakutia, Chukotka, etc., practice pantheistic and pagan rites, along with the major religions. Induction into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Slavs are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian. Turkic speakers are predominantly Muslim, although several Turkic groups in Russia are not. In the nineteenth century Russian literature underwent an astounding golden age, beginning with the poet Pushkin and culminating in two of the greatest novelists in world literature, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky and in one of the greatest playwrights Anton Chekhov. Russia has remained a leading nation in literature since that time. Significant Russian writers of the Soviet period were Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Mayakovski, Mikhail Sholokhov, and the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky. In the field of the novel, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in particular were titanic figures, and have remained internationally renowned, to the point that many scholars have described one or the other as the greatest novelist ever.
Russia is a large and culturally diverse country with dozens of ethnic groups; each with their own forms of folk music. Music in 19th century Russia was defined by the tension between classical composer Mikhail Glinka and his followers, who embraced a Russian national identity and added religious and folk elements to their compositions, and the Russian Musical Society led by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein, which was musically conservative. The later Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky was brought into the 20th century by Sergei Rachmaninoff. World-renowned composers of the 20th century included Scriabin, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. During the Soviet Era, music was highly scrutinised and kept within a conservative, accessible idiom in conformity with Soviet expectations. Among the best known are violinists David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, and vocalist Galina Vishnevskaya. Soviet ballet preserved the perfected 19th century traditions, The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov in St. Petersburg remain famous throughout the world. Soviet-era filmmakers, most notably Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, would become some of the world's most innovative and influential directors. Eisenstein also was a student of filmmaker and theorist Lev Kuleshov, who formulated the groundbreaking editing process called montage at the world's first film school, the All-Union Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Russia's total box-office revenue in 2006 was $412 million (in 1996 revenues stood at $6 million). Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, poultry, game, mushrooms, berries, and honey. and Russians drink tea 3–5 times a day. As centuries passed, growing contacts with Western countries led to numerous borrowings in Russian cooking, enriching Russian cookery. Smoked meat, pastry cooking, wines and chocolate are a few culinary items that were introduced in the 16th to the 18th century. with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of its era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and continuing today, the Soviet and later Russian athletes never went below third place in the world (never below 2nd until the most recent Olympics), in number and gold medals collected at the Summer Olympics. The 1980 Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow while the 2014 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Sochi. Soviet gymnasts and track-and-field athletes (male and female), weight lifters, wrestlers, and boxers were consistently among the best in the world. Even since the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russian athletes have continued to dominate international competition in these areas. Since the end of the Soviet era tennis has grown in popularity and Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players. Russia has had no peer on the international chess scene. Chess is a favourite pastime, and a sport that has been dominated by Russians in the post-war (1945–) era. From 1948, Soviet and Russian grandmasters have held the title of world champion almost continuously. Other sports widely played in Russia include weightlifting, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, volleyball, athletics, basketball and skiing.

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