Russia

Russia is a state in northern Eurasia and geographically the largest of the earth. The State is also officially called as the Russian Federation and has existed since 1992. Russia is the successor of the Soviet Union as a nuclear power, and had 2006 over 142 million inhabitants. This important industrial nation is a G8 member and permanent member of the UN Security Council. The Russian currency is the Russian Rouble (RUB), the capital is Moscow.

Russia was first a Grand Duchy, then a Tsarist empire, and later one of ethnic Russians dominated multi-ethnic state. Today, Russia is a Semi-presidential Republic and the country is bordering China, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, North Korea, Alaska and the Baltic Sea, the Arctic Ocean, Sea of Japan, Okhotsk Sea, Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Russia is divided into eight large landscapes. Russia has many lakes, as the Lake Baikal, and several hundred rivers. The most important river is the Volga. Other rivers in Russia are: Angara, Amur, Neva, Volkhov, Daugava, Pregolya, Don, Dniepr, Kama, Kuban, Ob, Obsha, Oka, Pechora, Chulym, Irtysh, Tobol, Sura, Vyatka, Yenisei, Suna, Selenga, Tunguska, Lena, Indigirka, Kolyma, the Urals, Northern Dvina, the Western Dvina and many others .

The landscape of Russia is full of mountains and mountain ranges. The most important mountains are: the Altai, Baikal Mountains, Chamar-Daban, Caucasus, Ergaki, Kondyor Masif, Kurai, Putoran, Saylyugem Mountains, Stanovoy Range, Tannu-ola Mountains, Chersky, Verkhoyansk Range, Yablonoi Mountains and Ural Mountains.

The ten largest cities in Russia: Moscow - in Central Russia, 10.10 million inhabitants; St. Petersburg (or Leningrad ) - in northwest Russia, 4.58 million inhabitants; Novosibirsk - in Siberia, 1.42 million inhabitants; Nizhny Novgorod ( or Gorky ) - in Volga, 1.35 million inhabitants; Yekaterinburg Sverdlovsk - in the Urals, 1.26 million inhabitants; Samara Kujbyschew - in Volga, 1.16 million inhabitants; Omsk - in Siberia, 1.15 million inhabitants; Kazan - in Volga, 1.11 million inhabitants; Chelyabinsk - in the Urals, 1.07 million inhabitants; Ufa - in Volga, 1.04 million inhabitants.

This really big and cold country can crossed with the Trans-Siberian Railway from west to east. Of the approximately 2500 airports and airfields the most important two are located in the vicinity of the capital: Sheremetyevo-2 and Domodedovo. In the cities one can go by trams, trolley buses, suburban trains and the subway. The tourists in Russia are mostly interested in culturally interesting cities and regions. St. Petersburg and Moscow are the first two destinations. Especially the Moscow Kremlin Palce and the Red Square are the most visited places.

Russian celebrities:
Russian writer of world ranking are: Dostoevsky, Gogol, Gorky, Pasternak, Pushkin, Solzhenitsyn, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Turgenev. Unforgettable is the composer Peter Tchaikovsky of the 19th century and the pianist, composer and conductor Rachmaninov. Moreover, the folk songs Kalinka and Katyusha, film directors Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, ballet artists, like Anna Pavlova, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and others, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Russian State Ballet, the painters Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Andrei Rublev, Ilya Repin, Marc Chagall, Mikhail Wrubel, Valentin Serov, Vasily Surikov, Ivan Aiwasowski and Isaac Lewitan.