H07 - 02 Russia - Geography 10/31/2018
Name: ______DUE: MON. 3 FEB 2014
Homework: Russia - Geography TEACHER Global History II
RUSSIA is geographically isolated. It is enclosed, except in the West by landlocked seas, deserts and mountains. The most impressive thing about the country is its tremendous size. It is the largest self-contained state in the world. It has the characteristics of a continent rather than a country with its nearly nine million square miles, covering almost a sixth of the earth surface. Some230 million people live here, divided into 170 different nationalities. There are 38,000 miles of land frontier, nine times that of the United States, bringing many different neighbors close to Russia. Starting in the Northwest there are the Finns, Poles, Czech, Hungarians, Rumanians, Turks, Iranians, Afghanistanis, Chinese, Mongolians and Koreans. If we include narrow straits than the Japanese and Americans are also Russia's neighbors. Russia is larger than all of North America, three times the size of the continental US, forty times the size of France and seventy times larger than the British Isles. It stretches halfway across the globe.
If you were to travel from Leningrad on the Gulf of Finland to the shores of the Bering Strait you would have to cover 6,000 miles and change your watch ten times. If you went from the Indian border in the South to the Arctic island of Severnaya Zemlya you would cross 45 degrees of latitude. By the fastest train it would take you ten days to go from Leningrad to Vladisvostok and three and a half days from Murmansk to Odessa on the Black Sea.
In time of war--as Napoleon and Hitler discovered--these distances are a great advantage. In time of peace and especially during the cold winters they are an extreme economic burden on the nation. Transportation is a major problem in Russia. River travel is slow and cumbersome. In winter all of them freeze over. Road building material is scarce and paved roads are few and far in between. At the beginning of World War Two Russia had only 55,000 miles of railroad. This has improved since than but even today Russia has only one mile of railroad per 100 square miles of land compared to the US 7.1 miles and Britain's 20.6 miles. Russia has about ten miles of motorable roads per 100 square miles, compared to the US 101 miles and Britain's 195 miles.
Russia is better off in terms of inland water ways. There are 62,200 miles in the Soviet Union, 28,600 in the US and only 2,400 in Britain. The ample river system is therefore an important transportation link in summer as in winter. European Russia, where most of the population lives, west of the Ural mountains, occupies the East end of the great North European Plain. This plain begins at the base of the Pyrenees and stretches halfway into Siberia. It has been the great avenue of invasions from ancient times to the present.
Except at the Polish border mountains and seas guard the Russian segment of the plain. Inside this perimeter the monotony of the plain is broken only slightly by the OralMountains, a chain of low worn-down hills that do not prevent movement across. Most of the rivers in European Russia flow south, their western banks have steep hills and their source is in the Valdai hills northwest of Moscow. But these hills are nowhere more than 1000 feet high and therefore do not present a barrier. These geographic facts have made for easy movement of the population in this great basin, but they have also made the area extremely difficult to defend. in time of war.
The Russian coastline is the longest in the world but it has limited utility since the coastal waters are frozen much of the year. All Russian harbors except Murmansk on the Arctic lie on border seas, like the Baltic, Black, Caspian and Okhotsk, which have historically been controlled by Russia's enemies, real or potential. Only today when Russian fleets and submarines can maintain themselves on the high seas without constant reference to a home base has the been able to escape her landlocked situation. ... For this reason ... in its early history ... Russian leaders (Tsars ... kings) always wanted to gain a "warm water port".
No nation has been as bountifully supplied with rivers as Russia. They may provide a leisurely system of transportation but it is expensive, using boats and barges in the summer and skies and seas in the winter. In the Valdai hills rise the headwaters of the Western Dvina which flows into the Gulf of Riga, the Dnieper and Don which enter the Black Sea, and the mighty Volga with its many mouths opening upon the Caspian. Except for the Amur which empties into the Pacific, the great rivers of Siberia (Ob, Yenisei, and Lena) flow north into the Arctic.
Because of the meandering length of the rivers of European and Asiatic Russia, and their gradual drop to the Sea, and because each gathers up many tributaries, the nation possesses a criss-cross pattern of natural highways. The tributaries rise in close proximity allowing men and goods to move over easy portage or canal from one river system to another. It has always been easy to travel by boat or sled from the Baltic to the Black and CaspianSeas or to the Arctic or Pacific as well. Moscow is advertised as the port of five seas since she is connected by canal to all the great rivers.
Four fifth of Russia lies in the temperate zone but much further north than any other great power. Leningrad is on the same latitude as Stockholm and Anchorage. Moscow is in the latitude of Edinburgh and Sitka. Kiev in South Russia is as far north as Calgary, and one of the southern most parts of Russia ... the Crimean resort town of Yalta as far north as Minneapolis and Bangor, Maine.
Russia's climate is continental, distinguished by extremes of heat and cold. Temperatures are generally lower and winters longer in Russia than in other places on the same latitudes because of the distance from the Atlantic and because the Scandinavian mountains deflect the warm air of the Gulf Stream. The icy blasts of the Arctic sweep south across the great plain without encumbrance. This accounts for the fact that there is little temperature difference north and south, although there is considerable variation east and west. The Black Sea is stirred to fury in winter by violent Arctic storms which race south across Russia without a break.
The mean January temperature at Arkangelsk near the Arctic Circle is 8 degrees Fahrenheit, but it is the same at Kazan 500 miles to the south and much further east. The average at Moscow is 12 and at Astrakhan on the Caspian only seven degrees higher. The severity of winter temperatures can be seen by making the following comparison of January means: London: 30; New York: 31; Minneapolis: 14; St. Louis: 32. Odessa on the Black Sea is as cold in the winter as Oslo, Norway, nine hundred miles to the north. In the dead of winter temperatures can drop to 35 below zero in Leningrad, 44 below in Moscow, 60 below in Tomsk, 84 below in Yakutsk and 90 below in Verkhoyansk. Such temperatures can have a crippling effect on shipping. The port of Arkangelskfreezesfor at least six months of the year, Leningrad for three months, the Black Sea ports for two, Astrakhan and Vladivostok for four. The summer temperatures go to the other extreme. The July average temperatureat Arkangelsk is 62 degrees, at Leningrad 64, at Moscow, Tomsk and Yakutsk 66, at Astrakhan 68, and at Odessa 73. But the July extremes can reach 97 in Leningrad, 99 in Moscow, 102 in Yakutsk, 109 in Tashkent, 93 in Verkhoyansk, well over 100 everywhere on the steppe, and as high as 158 in the Central Asian desert.
The growing season is short in Russia.only two months of the year are free of frost in Northern Siberia, about 100 days in the northern half of European Russia and between four and six months in South Russia. The Russian farmer has to work hard to beat the autumn frost. There is little work outside in low temperatures because of the icy winds, and the few hours of daylight. Unsheltered animals cannot survive the first blizzard. Travel is dangerous. The Russian bear in short is forced to hibernate.*
Spring comes with a rush in mid-April in most of European Russia. Flowers and grass flourish even in the desolate tundra. Iris, crocus, tulip and hyacinth abound in the south. Autumn brings brilliant color since much of Russia is blanketed with deciduous forests. For reasons of topography, climate and soil, only about one acre in eight is arable. Most of this land lies in European Russia south of Leningrad, but some of it stretches to the Ob river beyond the southern Urals. In 1967 about 500,000,000 acres of land were under cultivation -- slightly over two acres per inhabitant. Much land cannot be cultivated due to lack of rainfall. Annual precipitation is less than 20 inches in much of European Russia, the minimum for profitable forming. Around the Caspian it is less than ten inches. Rainfall accompanied by violent electrical storms is greatest in early summer. Sudden downpours can ruin fields and cause erosion. Dredging of rivers and harbors is a constant necessity. East of the Urals the rainfall is nowhere above 20 inches except on the Kamchatka peninsula and the maritime provinces along the Sea of Japan.
In a country where the climate varies from Subtropical to Arctic, there is a great variety of vegetation. Nearly 15% of Russia is tundra most of which is uninhabitable. In the far north little but lichens and moss grow during the three months when the surface thaws. Farther south you will find heather, blackberries, cranberries and a profusion of wild flowers. ALL few stunted birches, fir and willow grow in the southern tundra. Below the tundra is the taiga covered with spruce, pine, cedar and fir. These forests stretch from Arkangelsk to the Sea of Okhotsk. Much of the taiga is marshy. South of the taiga is the zone of mixed forests, where coniferous and deciduous trees appear interspersed--oak, fir, elm, maple, ash, linden, lime, birch and hornbeam. Much of this forest has been cleared west of the Urals and is low under cultivation. Flax and rye are the staple crops here. A fifth of the world's forests lie inside the USSR. These two forest zones cover over half of all Russia.
Most of southwestern Russia consists of the Russian Steppewhich takes in the entire Ukraine and stretches in a broad belt beyond the Urals to the Altai Mountains on the Chinese border. The steppe is treeless except in the river bottoms. The rich black soil makes the steppe, particularly in the Ukraine, one of the finest agricultural areas in the world. Winter wheat has long been the principal crop and the Ukraine has earned its reputation as the breadbasket of Europe. That is the reason why the Ukraine has been the envy of German expansionists for centuries. From Odessa Russian wheat moves to all parts of the world. Sugar beets, soybeans, potatoes, sunflowers, cotton and rice are also becoming important secondary crops. Prolonged interference with the flow of these products can paralyze or cripple the nation, since 20% of Russia's population lives in the Ukraine. During World War Two the Ukraine also produced half of the nations coal and two thirds of its iron. Since there are heavy concentrations of industry in the Ukraine, Russia was hard put to survive after Hitler conquered it in 1941.
In the area east and north of the Caspian Sea is the vast expanse of the Russian desert and semi-deserts. This takes in between a fifth and a sixth of all Russia. Profitable agriculture can be carried on only with the aid of irrigation. Some shepherding and Cotton growing is being done here now thanks to irrigation.
The Black Sea littoral south of the Caucasus enjoys a very humid subtropical climate, where annual rainfall may exceed 80 inches. Oranges, lemons, tea, olives, bamboo and grapes are grown here. Some tropical products are also produced in the valley of the Pamirs and other south Russian mountain ranges along with sheep and goat herding.
Russia is one of the most richly endowed nations in the world in mineral wealth. But only recently has much of this been exploited or even discovered. Siberia is still a largely untapped reservoir of potential mineral riches. One fifth of the world's known coal deposits lie inside Russia which ranks second only to the US in the size of its reserves. Over half of the world's oil reserves lie within the borders of the Soviet Union. There are also immense deposits of iron, copper, nickel, bauxite, zinc, lead, manganese, platinum, tin, mercury, antimony, radium, molybdenum, graphite, boron and other elements indispensable to modern industry.
SOME FACTS ABOUT RUSSIA ...
Total population is about 141.4 million people,Annual growth rate (2007 est.): -0.484% (population declining). withabout 72.9% urban population. Most of the population are Russians (81,5%), with more than 100 other nationalities (Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%).
Life expectancy (2007 est.)--59.12 yrs. men, 73.03 yrs. women.
Per capita income: $12,200 (2011 est.)
INTERNET USERS: 25.689 million (2010)
TELEPHONES: 40.1 million (2010)
CELL PHONES: 120 million (2010)
MILITARY SERVICE: 18-27 years of age for compulsory or voluntary military service; males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age; 2-year service obligation; plans call for reduction in mandatory service to 18 months in 2007 and to 1 year by 2008; reserve obligation to age 50
Country / Dollars (billions) / % of total / Rank
Please see for further details.
United States / 420.7 / 43% / 1
China * / 62.5 / 6% / 2
Russia * / 61.9 / 6% / 3
United Kingdom / 51.1 / 5% / 4
Japan / 44.7 / 4% / 5
France / 41.6 / 4% / 6
Germany / 30.2 / 3% / 7
India / 22 / 2% / 8
Saudi Arabia / 21.3 / 2% / 9
South Korea / 20.7 / 2% / 10
EXPORTS: $303.9 billion (2010 est.)
IMPORTS: $164.7 billion (2010 est.)
The official language is Russian. Every autonomous republic uses its own language as the second official language. Religions: Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Judaic and others. 1066 cities and towns, 2070 urban settlements.
The official name of the state: Russian Federation. It is a democratic federative republic. The country was formed as independent 24 August 1991 from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of Soviet Union. The current Constitution was adopted 12 December 1993 by national referendum.
Russia is divided into 21 autonomous republics, 10 autonomous okrugs, 6 krays, 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 1 autonomous oblast and 49 oblasts. The national capital is Moscow.
The chief of the state - President, elected by popular vote for a four-year term. The current president is Vladimir Putin(since March 2012). Note Russian law states a person can run for President for three (3) consecutive term. Mr. Putin was President from 2000 – 2008. Stepped out for one (1) term, then ran again for another term. He can still run for another term 2016 – 2020 before he must step down again for four (4) years … then … … …
The legislative branch is bicameral Federal Assembly (Federal'noye Sobranie), which consists of State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) and the Federation Council (Sovet Federatzii).
The executive branch is run by the government. The head of the government is appointed by the president with approval of the State Duma.
Russian health and education systems, which used to be of the highest standard during the Soviet times, have slowly deteriorated. Inflation, started in 1992, reached its peak in 1994, and increased 10 000% by the end of 1997. In 1998 the government implemented a 1000% denomination of national currency (Rouble), turning back prices from thousands rubles to rubles.
August 1998 brought a new serious crisis. The exchange rate of US Dollar flew up from 6 to 24 rubles in less than 6 weeks. Small businesses were almost devastated. Prices for consumer goods increased in 4-5 times with the salaries increased only on 20-30%.
However, the crisis gave a boost to the development of national industries, which could not compete with foreign goods with the low dollar rate. Now, 5 years after the crisis, the results become visible with reviving the industrial enterprises, particularly in production of consumer goods and food processing.
Currently the average salary is Russia is about US$100 (salary of a teacher, government employee etc).
The government experiences permanent difficulties with collection of taxes and fulfilling the national budget. A lot of economic activity is officially unaccounted for and organized crime plays a significant role.
QUESTIONS:
1. How large is Russia ... and where is Russia located ?
2. Where does most of Russia's population live ?
3. State the names of 2 of Russia's rivers which flow southward.& 1 which flows northward.
4. How does Russia's latitude and climate affect it ... its people ... its economy ... its history ?