Climate: ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
Terrain: broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regions
Natural resources: wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals; timber
Population: 149.7 million (74% urban, 26% rural)
Life expectancy: 74 (female); 64 (male)
Infant mortality: 19 per 1,000 births
Literacy rate: 99% (female); 99% (male)
Ethnic divisions: Russian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, other
Principal languages: Russian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, other
Principal religion: Russian Orthodox
Rank of affluence among U.N. members: 48/183
The vast core of the former U.S.S.R., Russia remains the world's largest nation, stretching from eastern Europe across the top of Asia to the Pacific Ocean. First united under Ivan the Terrible in 1547, Russia's history since then has been one of oppression and expansionism, interrupted only briefly by an attempt at democracy shortly after the fall of the last czar.
The Cold War that followed World War II kept the U.S.S.R. and the West at nuclear loggerheads until the late 1980's, when Mikhail Gorbachev began instituting the reforms that ultimately led to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The fallout from that massive restructuring continues today as Russia struggles to find its place in a world awash in capitalism.
Having given up a system in which ordinary citizens cheated to survive, Russia now finds itself overwhelmed by criminals. The Soviet Revolution of 1917 established a Communist government that planned almost all economic decisions. This vast social experiment created jobs and health care for all. But it also brought into being a police state whose citizens relied on underground black markets to provide both necessities and luxuries, which were otherwise unobtainable due to the poor quality, low productivity, and chronic shortages of Communist central planning.
