his article is about the country. For other uses, see Russia (disambiguation).

Coordinates:  60°N 90°E

Russian Federation

 Российская Федерация (Russian)
 Rossiyskaya Federatsiya

Flag

Coat of arms

Anthem: 
"Gosudarstvennyy Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii"
"State Anthem of the Russian Federation"

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Location of Russia. Crimea, whose annexation by Russia

from Ukraine is mostly unrecognized internationally, shown in
light green.[1]

Capital Moscow
and largest city 55°45′N 37°37′E

Official language Russian

 and national
language

Recognised national See Languages of Russia

languages

Ethnic groups  80.9% Russian
(2010)[2] 3.9% Tatar
1.4% Ukrainian
1.1% Bashkir
1.0% Chuvash
1.0% Chechen
10.7% others

Religion Predominately Orthodox Christianity.

See Religion in Russia

Demonym(s) Russian

Government Federal dominant-party semi-
presidential constitutional republic[3]

• President Vladimir Putin

• Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin
• Speaker of the Valentina Matviyenko
Federation Council
• Speaker of the Vyacheslav Volodin
State Duma
• Chief Justice Vyacheslav Lebedev

Legislature Federal Assembly

• Upper house Federation Council

• Lower house State Duma

Formation
• Arrival of Rurik[4] 862
• Kievan Rus' formed 882
• Grand Duchy of 1283
Moscow
• Tsardom proclaimed 16 January 1547
• Empire proclaimed 22 October 1721
• Republic proclaimed 14 September 1917
• Soviet rule established 7 November 1917
• Soviet Union formed 30 December 1922
• Constitutional reform 12 June 1990
• Belavezha Accords 8 December 1991[a]
• Accords effective 26 December 1991[b]
 • Current constitution 12 December 1993
• Union 2 April 1996
State with Belarus for
med

Area
• Total 17,098,246 km2 (6,601,670 sq mi)[5] (
without Crimea)[c] (1st)
• Water (%) 13[7] (including swamps)

Population
• 2020 estimate  146,745,098
(including Crimea)[8][9]
144,384,244
(excluding Crimea)[8]
(9th)
• Density 8.4/km2 (21.8/sq mi) (225th)

GDP (PPP) 2020 estimate
• Total  $4.519 trillion[10] (5th)

• Per capita  $30,819[10] (50th)

GDP (nominal) 2020 estimate
• Total  $1.657 trillion[10] (11th)

• Per capita  $11,305[10] (61st)

Gini (2018)  37.5[11]
medium · 98th

HDI (2018)  0.824[12]
very high · 49th

Currency Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)

Time zone UTC+2 to +12

Date format dd.mm.yyyy

Driving side right

Calling code +7

ISO 3166 code RU

Internet TLD .ru

.su
.рф

Russia (Russian: Росси́я, tr. Rossiya, IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation,[13][d] is

a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.[14] Covering an area of
17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi),[15] it is the largest country in the world by area,
 spanning more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area,[16][17] stretching eleven time
zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. The territory of Russia extends from the Baltic Sea in
the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black
Sea and the Caucasus in the south. With 146.7 million inhabitants living in the country's
85 federal subjects,[8] Russia is the most populous nation in Europe and the ninth-most populous
nation in the world.[18][19] Russia's capital and largest city is Moscow; other major urban
areas include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny
Novgorod, Kazan and Chelyabinsk.
The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries
AD.[20] The medieval state of Rus' arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox
Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures
that defined Russian culture for the next millennium.[21] Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number
of smaller states,[22] until it was finally reunified by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th
century. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation,
and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history,
stretching from Norway on the west to Alaska on the east.[23][24] Following the Russian Revolution,
the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR) became the largest and
leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR/Soviet Union), the world's
first constitutionally socialist state.[25] The Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory
in World War II,[26][27] and emerged as a recognised superpower and rival to the United
States during the Cold War. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological
achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the
launching of the first humans in space. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,
the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognised as the
continuing legal personality and a successor of the USSR.[28]
Since 1993, Russia is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic.[3] Vladimir
Putin has dominated Russia's political system since 2000, serving as either president or prime
minister.[29] His government has been accused by non-governmental organisations of
numerous human rights abuses, authoritarianism and corruption. In response, Putin has argued
that Western-style liberalism is obsolete in Russia, while maintaining that the country is still a
democratic nation.[30][31][32]
The Russian economy ranks as the fifth-largest in Europe, the eleventh-largest in the world by
nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by PPP.[33] Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources
are the largest such reserves in the world,[34] making it one of the leading producers of
oil and natural gas globally.[35][36] The country is one of the five recognised nuclear weapons
states and possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads.[37] Russia is a major great power,
as well as a regional power, and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The Russian
Armed Forces have been ranked as the world's second most powerful, and the most powerful in
Europe. Russia hosts the world's ninth-greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, at 29,
[38]
 and is among the world's most popular tourist destinations.[39] It is a permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council and an active global partner of ASEAN,[40][41][42] as well as a
member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the G20, the Council of Europe,
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE), the International Investment Bank (IIB) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and a member of the Eurasian
Economic Union (EAEU).

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Early history
 o 2.2Kievan Rus'
o 2.3Grand Duchy of Moscow
o 2.4Tsardom of Russia
o 2.5Imperial Russia
o 2.6February Revolution and Russian Republic
o 2.7Soviet Russia and civil war
o 2.8Soviet Union
 2.8.1World War II
 2.8.2Cold War
o 2.9Post-Soviet Russia (1991–present)
 3Politics
o 3.1Governance
o 3.2Foreign relations
o 3.3Military
o 3.4Political divisions
 4Geography
o 4.1Topography
o 4.2Climate
o 4.3Biodiversity
 5Economy
o 5.1Energy
o 5.2External trade and investment
o 5.3Agriculture
o 5.4Transport
o 5.5Science and technology
o 5.6Space exploration
o 5.7Water supply and sanitation
o 5.8Corruption
 6Demographics
o 6.1Largest cities
o 6.2Ethnic groups
o 6.3Language
o 6.4Religion
o 6.5Health
o 6.6Education
 7Culture
o 7.1Folk culture and cuisine
o 7.2Architecture
o 7.3Visual arts
o 7.4Music and dance
o 7.5Literature and philosophy
o 7.6Cinema, animation and media
o 7.7Sports
o 7.8National holidays and symbols
o 7.9Tourism
 8See also
 9Notes
 10References
 11External links

Etymology
Main articles: Rus' people and Rus' (name)
See also: Russian (disambiguation)
The name Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated mostly by the East Slavs.
However, this proper name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically
was called by its inhabitants "Русская Земля" (russkaja zemlja), which can be translated as
"Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'". In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from
it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography. The name  Rus itself comes from the
early medieval Rus' people, Swedish merchants and warriors[43][44] who relocated from across the
Baltic Sea and founded a state centered on Novgorod that later became Kievan Rus.
An old Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern
regions of Rus' that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия
(Rossija), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Ρωσσία Rossía—spelled
Ρωσία (Rosía pronounced [roˈsia]) in Modern Greek.[45]
The standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is "Russians" in
English[46] and rossiyane (Russian: россияне) in Russian. There are two Russian words which
are commonly translated into English as "Russians". One is "русские" (russkiye), which most
often means "ethnic Russians". Another is "россияне" (rossiyane), which means "citizens of
Russia, regardless of ethnicity". Translations into other languages often do not distinguish these
two groups.

History
Main article: History of Russia

Early history
Further information: Scythia, Ancient Greek colonies, Early Slavs, East Slavs, Huns, Turkic
expansion, and Prehistory of Siberia
See also: Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic
Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic-Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.[47]
In classical antiquity, the Pontic Steppe was known as Scythia. Beginning in the 8th century
BC, Ancient Greek traders brought their civilization to the trade emporiums
in Tanais and Phanagoria. Ancient Greek explorers, most notably Pytheas, even went as far as
modern day Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea. Romans settled on the western part of the Caspian
Sea, where their empire stretched towards the east.[dubious  –  discuss][48] In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD a
semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia until it was overrun by Huns.
Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which
succeeded the Greek colonies,[49] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike
tribes, such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.[50] A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the
lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.[51]
The ancestors of modern Russians are the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some
scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pinsk Marshes.[52] The East Slavs gradually
settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev toward present-
day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th
century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia[53] and
assimilated the native Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Merya, the Muromians, and
the Meshchera.

Kievan Rus'
Main articles: Rus' Khaganate, Kievan Rus', and List of early East Slavic states
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival
of Varangians, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they
were Vikings of Scandinavian origin, who ventured along the waterways extending from the
eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[54] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian
from Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his
successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev,[55] which had been previously paying tribute
to the Khazars. Oleg, Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all
local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several
military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states
in Europe.[56] The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–
1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox
Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code,
the Russkaya Pravda.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as
the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer,
heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.[57]

The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constant in-fighting between members
of the Rurik Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit
of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in
the south-west.
Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–
40[58] that resulted in the destruction of Kiev[59] and the death of about half the population of Rus'.
[60]
 The invading Mongol elite, together with their conquered Turkic subjects (Cumans, Kipchaks,
Bulgars), became known as Tatars, forming the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the
Russian principalities; the Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and Volga
Bulgaria (modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia) for over two centuries.[61]
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland, while the Mongol-
dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev,
established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[21] The Novgorod together
with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and were
largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander
Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as
the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242, breaking their attempts to colonise the
Northern Rus'.

Grand Duchy of Moscow

Main article: Grand Duchy of Moscow

Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo,

depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

The most powerful state to eventually arise after the destruction of Kievan Rus' was the Grand
Duchy of Moscow ("Muscovy" in the Western chronicles), initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal. While
still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert
its influence in the Central Rus' in the early 14th century, gradually becoming the leading force in
the process of the Rus' lands' reunification and expansion of Russia.[62] Moscow's last rival,
the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade center and the easternmost port of
the Hanseatic League.
Times remained difficult, with frequent Mongol-Tatar raids. Agriculture suffered from the
beginning of the Little Ice Age. As in the rest of Europe, plague was a frequent occurrence
between 1350 and 1490.[63] However, because of the lower population density and better hygiene
—widespread practicing of banya, a wet steam bath—the death rate from plague was not as
severe as in Western Europe,[64] and population numbers recovered by 1500.[63]
Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow and helped by the Russian Orthodox Church, the
united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in
the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow gradually absorbed the surrounding principalities,
including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.
Ivan III ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole
of Central and Northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion. He was also the first to take the title
"Grand Duke of all the Russias".[65] After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed
succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the
niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, and made the Byzantine double-headed
eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms.

Tsardom of Russia
Tsar Ivan the Terrible, 19th-century evocation by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897

Main article: Tsardom of Russia

See also: Moscow, third Rome
In development of the Third Rome ideas, the Grand Duke Ivan IV (the "Terrible")[66] was officially
crowned first Tsar ("Caesar") of Russia in 1547. The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws
(Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and
introduced local self-management into the rural regions.[67][68]
During his long reign, Ivan the Terrible nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by
annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of the disintegrated Golden
Horde): Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga River, and the Siberian Khanate in southwestern
Siberia. Thus, by the end of the 16th century Russia was transformed into
a multiethnic, multidenominational and transcontinental state.
However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the
coalition of Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade.[69] At the
same time, the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, the only remaining successor to the Golden
Horde, continued to raid Southern Russia.[70] In an effort to restore the Volga khanates, Crimeans
and their Ottoman allies invaded central Russia and were even able to burn down parts of
Moscow in 1571.[71] But in the next year the large invading army was thoroughly defeated by
Russians in the Battle of Molodi, forever eliminating the threat of an Ottoman–Crimean
expansion into Russia. The slave raids of