Russia

Lewis Gebhart

4/1/08

Dr. Jones

GNST 200

Russia

Engulfed by today’s American society, we stray far from acknowledging other countries. It is appalling to realize how very little Americans know about geography in global terms, let alone information of those countries. We think of the United States as the world, when in comparison to the rest of the earth, it is just a tiny piece to the puzzle.

Demographic

Russia, also known as the Russian Federation, covers more than an eighth of the world’s land area (6,592,800 square miles), and has a population between the range of 147.5 and 149.9 million, 78 percent of that which live in the European part of Russia. Moscow is the largest city in Russia and contains approximately 8.7 million people. The next largest city is Saint Petersburg, which contains around four and a half million people. Eleven other countries follow, which all contain anywhere from one to two million people. Russia reached its peak population in 1991 at 148,689,000, but has seen a decline since then. This is due to various reasons such as the postwar baby boom in the early 1990s, the long history of Soviet ecological abuse, and the decline in health conditions and health care.

The economic status of Russia has dropped severely since the early and mid-1990s. At that time, there was an estimated 46.5 million people (31 percent of the population), which were living in poverty. This situation increased malnutrition, leaving only personal gardeners or farmers with the security of healthy vegetables and fruits. Since the turn of the 9th century, the economy of Russia has grown. Russia’s economy has grown for the past nine years straight, averaging 7 percent since the financial crisis in 1998. Russia had the 7th highest GDP of the world in 2007 ($2.076 trillion), which was due to non-traded services and good for the domestic market. The average salary in 2007 was around $540 per month, which is an incredible improvement from $65 per month in August 1999.

Russia contains the world’s greatest natural gas reserves, second largest coal reserves, and the eight largest oil reserves. Therefore, Russia is the world’s top natural gas exporter and the second in oil exporting. By exporting oil, Russia has been able to significantly diminish its formerly colossal foreign debt.

Thanks to Russia’s free education system guaranteed to all citizens, Russia has a literacy rate of 99.4%, making it first in the world in 2006 for its progress in reading literacy. Education at a collegiate level is extremely competitive and difficult to get into, but is free of charge once accepted. Because of this, intense emphasis is placed on technical, mathematical, science, space, and aviation education. The Russian Government provides a higher education to the more skilled students, rather than to the wealthier students. The government also has to fund the teachers’ salaries, housing, and maintaining facilities, which becomes very difficult and as a result, state institutions have started to open commercial positions.

(www.Countrystudies.us/Russia)

Historical Sketch

Tradition states that the Viking Rurik Russia in C.E. 862, and founded the first Russian dynasty in Novgorod. In the ninth century Viking tribes from Scandinavia moved into European Russia, which were united by Christianity in the 10th and 11th centuries. The grand dukes of Kiev held power, but was destroyed in 1240 by the Mongols, resulting in smaller dukedoms. Duke Ivan III got rid of the Mongol rule, and Ivan the IV founded the Russian state in the 15th century. Russia remained medieval until the reign of Peter the Great (1689-1725), who began the extension of Russia’s western boundaries. During Alexander I rule, Napoleon attempted to invade Russia, but was unsuccessful. Alexander II pushed the borders to the Pacific and into central Asia. After Russia’s defeat in the war to Japan, the Revolutionary struck.

World War I lasted from 1914-1917, but was ended with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. Even though the war with Germany was ended, a civil war broke out and a brief war in 1920 with Poland resulted in Russian defeat.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became established on December 30, 1922, and the community of land a property started. Hitler’s rise in Germany eventually snowballed into World War II in 1941-45. The Soviet Union exploded a hydrogen bomb in 1953, developed an global ballistic missile by 1957, sent the first satellite into space in 1957, and put Yuri Gagarin in the first orbital flight around the earth in 1961. Khrushchev's