Russia

Russia (also the Russian Federation) is a country in Europe and Asia. By land area, it is the largest country in the world. The number of people living in the country is about 144,000,000. The Russian Federation is another name for Russia.

Russia is now a democratic country. The president is chosen in direct elections, and its current President is Dmitry Medvedev. Its official language is Russian.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Literature
4 Sports
5 Religion
6 See also
7 References

[change] History

The nation's history began when the East Slavs became a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD.^[1] The Vikings and their descendants founded and ruled the first East Slavic state of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century.They adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988^[2] which influenced Russian culture.^[2] Kievan Rus' eventually broke up and the lands were divided into many small feudal states. The most powerful successor state to Kievan Rus' was the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This served as the main force in the Russian reunification and struggle against the Golden Horde. Moscow slowly combined the surrounding Russian principalities and dominated the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had expanded through conquest, annexation and exploration to become the Russian Empire. This was the third largest empire in history. It stretched from Poland eastward to the Pacific Ocean and Alaska.

From 1922 to 1991 Russia was the largest part in the Soviet Union, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). People sometimes used the name "Russia" for the whole Soviet Union. In reality, Russia was only one of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics and it named as Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. Before then, a king ruled Russia. This king was called a Tsar. In 1917, the Bolsheviks (later called "Communists") took over the country and murdered the tsar.

The Soviet Union broke apart in 1990-1991. Russia became successor of Soviet Union. And because of that place of USSR in UN come to Russia.

[change] Geography

The capital and the biggest city is Moscow. The second biggest city is Saint Petersburg.

Other cities in Russia with more than one million people are

Map of Russia

[change] Literature

Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace.

Russia contributed many famous literary works.^[3]

Alexander Pushkin is considered a founder of modern Russian literature. He was a poet from the 19th century.^[4]

Other famous poets and writers of the 19th century are Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Ivan Goncharov, Mikhail Saltykov, Aleksey Pisemsky, and Nikolai Leskov.

Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were considered by many critics as the greatest novelists ever.^[5]^[6]

[change] Sports

Since the 1952 Olympic Games, Soviet and later Russian athletes are in the top three in 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.

[change] Religion

The most common religion in Russia is Christianity. Most Christians in Russia belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. It is one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

[change] See also

Soviet Union

[change] References

Wikimedia Commons has images, video, and/or sound related to:

Russia

↑ Russia. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on 31 January 2008.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.) (1998). Russia: A Country Study: Kievan Rus' and Mongol Periods. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Retrieved on 20 July 2007.
↑ Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007. Russian Literature. Retrieved on 7 January 2008.
↑ Kelly, Catriona. Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback). Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 0192801449.
↑ Russian literature; Leo Tolstoy. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on 11 April 2008.
↑ Otto Friedrich. Freaking-Out with Fyodor. Time Magazine. Retrieved on 10 April 2008.

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