I.
Introduction
Russia (Russian Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), independent republic in
eastern Europe and northern Asia, the world's largest country by area. Russia was once the
largest and the most prominent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR,
or Soviet Union). In 1991 the USSR broke apart and Russia became an independent country.
The USSR had a totalitarian political system in which Communist Party leaders held
political and economic power. The state owned all companies and land, and the government
controlled production of goods and other aspects of the economy, a system known as a
command, or planned, economy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia began
transforming itself into a more democratic society with an economy based on market
mechanisms and principles. Russia has made many successful changes: There have been free
elections at all levels of government; private ownership of property has been legalized;
and large segments of the economy are now privately owned.
The transformation is far from complete, however. In the economic sphere, privatized
assets have not been allocated fairly among the population and privatization of land is
still in its infancy. Russia must also deal with the large-scale environmental destruction
and other problems inherited from the Soviet Union. In the political arena, a stable
society based on citizen involvement in local, regional, and national affairs has yet to
develop.
The transformation has affected the people of Russia in a variety of ways. Under the
Soviet system, Russians became accustomed to having the government define many aspects of
their lives. For many, the collapse of the USSR and the Communist ideal created an
ideological void, and Russians increasingly turned to traditional and nontraditional
faiths to fill that void. The post-Soviet era has also seen an overall decline in Russia's
population, despite the influx of immigrants from other parts of the former Soviet Union.
Russia has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate of the
industrialized countries. In addition, the incidence of several infectious diseases
increased markedly in the post-Soviet era. The social welfare system, already constrained
by inadequate funding, was greatly challenged to combat these growing problems.
In general, Russia's climate is similar to that of Canada. Much of the land lies north of
the 50th parallel of latitude and far from the moderating influences of oceans. Like
Canada, although colder and with greater temperature extremes in many places, most of
Russia has a harsh continental climate. Although climate, and to some degree soils, limit
the country's agricultural wealth, mineral wealth is considerable: Russia's mineral
resources are unmatched by any other country.
Russia's borders measure more than 20,100 km (12,500 mi). On the north Russia is bounded
by extensions of the Arctic Ocean: the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi
seas. On the east the country is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and several of its
extensions: the Bering Strait (which separates Russia from Alaska), the Bering Sea, the
Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In the extreme southeast Russia abuts the
northeastern tip of North Korea. On the south it is bounded by China, Mongolia,
Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Black Sea. On the southwest it
is bounded by Ukraine, and on the west by Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, the Gulf of Finland,
and Finland. In the extreme northwest, Russia is bounded by Norway. Lithuania and Poland
border Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea.
Administratively, Russia includes 21 republics; 6 territories known as krays; 10 national
areas called okrugs; 49 regions, or oblasts; 1 autonomous oblast; and 2 cities with
federal status. The capital and largest city is Moscow.
II. Land and Resources
In both total area and geographic extent Russia is the
largest country in the world. With an area of 17,075,200 sq km (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia
constitutes more than one-ninth of the world's land area and nearly twice the area of the
United States or China. From north to south Russia extends more than 4,000 km (2,400 mi)
from Arctic islands in the Barents Sea to the southern border along the Caucasus
Mountains. From the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to Big Diomede Island (Ratmanov
Island) in the Bering Strait, Russia's maximum east-west extent is almost 10,000 km (6,200
mi), a distance encompassing 11 time zones and spanning nearly half the circumference of
the Earth. Russia stretches across parts of two continents, Europe and Asia, with the Ural
Mountains and Ural River marking the boundary between them.
Russia's principal islands lie in the Arctic and Pacific oceans and their extensions.
Farthest north, in the Arctic Ocean, is Franz Josef Land, an archipelago consisting of
about 100 small islands. The other main Arctic islands, from west to east, include the two
islands of Novaya Zemlya, Vaygach Island, the group of islands called Severnaya Zemlya,
the New Siberian Islands, and Wrangel Island. Between these major islands lie numerous
small islands and island chains. In the Pacific Ocean are the Kuril Islands, which extend
southwest in an arc from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the main islands of Japan. Russia
occupies and administers all the Kuril Islands, although ownership of the southernmost
islands is disputed with Japan. The Pacific also includes the large island of Sakhalin,
which separates the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan.
Russia contains complex geologic structures and surface formations. Very simply, however,
the landmass consists of vast plains in the west and north, and a discontinuous belt of
mountains and plateaus in the south and east. The upland and mountainous regions include
most of Siberia and extend to the Pacific.
III. Population
Russia's total population in 2000 was estimated at
145,904,542, making the country the sixth most populous, after China, India, the United
States, Indonesia, and Brazil. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the number of
immigrants to Russia has exceeded the number of Russians leaving the country. However, the
rate of natural increase (the number of births compared to the number of deaths) has been
negative since 1992. In 2000 the birth rate was 9.7 per 1,000, while the death rate was 15
per 1,000.
Russia is the only major industrialized country in which demographic indices are worse
than in earlier years, largely because illnesses have increased as the quality and
availability of health care have declined. Although it has increased slightly since 1994,
male life expectancy of 59 years in 2000 is still below the 64 years in 1990; female life
expectancy during the same period dropped from 74 years to 72 years. Infant mortality rose
from 17.4 deaths per 1,000 births in 1990 to 22.7 per 1,000 in 2000.
The overall population density of Russia is 9 persons per sq km (22 per sq mi), but the
population is unevenly distributed across the country. The population density of a
particular area generally reflects the land's agricultural potential, with localized
population centers occurring at mining and industrial centers. Most of the country's
people are concentrated in the so-called fertile triangle, which has its base along the
western border between the Baltic and Black seas and tapers eastward across the southern
Urals into southwestern Siberia. Although the majority of the population remains
concentrated in European Russia, the country experienced substantial eastward migration
before 1917 and after World War II (1939-1945), especially to southern and far eastern
Siberia. Such migration was strongly encouraged by the government during the Soviet
period. In recent years, this migration has been reversed, with many Russian citizens
leaving northern Siberia and far eastern Russia for European Russia.
Throughout much of rural European Russia, the population density averages about 25 persons
per sq km (65 per sq mi). The heaviest population densities are in sprawling urbanized
areas such as Moscow Oblast. On the other hand, more than one-third of the country's
territory has a population density of fewer than 1 person per sq km (3 per sq mi). This
includes part of northern European Russia and huge areas of Siberia.
From 1989 to 1996 nearly half of all urban settlements declined in population, although
several towns and cities increased dramatically in size during the same period, especially
those associated with oil and natural gas production in western Siberia and the
Volga-Urals regions. The population in several towns in the North Caucasus area increased
rapidly in the 1990s as a result of the inflow of refugees from war-torn Chechnya.
During the Soviet period thousands of ethnic Russians migrated to other Soviet republics.
This trend began to reverse in the mid-1970s, and since the dissolution of the USSR in
1991 ethnic Russians have returned to the Russian Federation in even larger numbers.
Southwestern Russia (from the North Caucasus to southwestern Siberia), Moscow, and Saint
Petersburg have been the main destinations for immigrants. Foreign nationals, such as
Chinese, have immigrated to far eastern Russia and large cities in European Russia in
comparatively small numbers.
IV. Economy
The Soviet Union had a planned socialist economy, in which
the central government controlled everything from production planning and prices to
distribution. The Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe had planned economies as well.
After the breakup of the USSR, Russian reformers were confronted with the daunting task of
building a modern capitalist economy while simultaneously striving to create a democratic
state based on effective laws and reliable administrative structures. The collapse of
Communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union at
the end of 1991 disrupted the close economic relations Russia had previously enjoyed with
neighboring Communist states and other Soviet republics. Political turmoil and uncertainty
inside the Russian government also contributed to the country's economic woes. Compared
with most of the former planned economies of Eastern Europe, Russia experienced an
unusually severe and protracted drop in officially reported economic output.
By 1998 the traditional emphasis on heavy industry, especially military output, had
shifted sharply toward consumer needs and services, and a few signs indicated that the
economy had begun to grow for the first time in nearly a decade. Russia's vast natural
resources and highly educated workforce also enhanced the prospects for a successful
transition to capitalism. However, certain governmental and market institutions necessary
to generate long-term investment and entrepreneurship had not yet been firmly established,
leading some experts to predict that steady economic growth would be impossible for Russia
to sustain.
According to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank),
Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) in 1998 totaled $276.6 billion. Services accounted
for 57 percent of the GDP, while industry, which includes manufacturing, mining,
electricity generation, and construction, accounted for 35 percent. The agricultural
sector, including forestry and fishing, contributed 8 percent.
V. Government
The Russian Federation became an independent state in
December 1991 as a result of the collapse of the USSR. During the Communist era the
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was the largest of the USSR's 15
republics. The present Russian Federation occupies the same territory as the former RSFSR.
Since independence, Russia has adopted a new constitution and system of government.
Russia is a federal and presidential republic governed under a constitution that took
effect in 1993, replacing the 1978 constitution of the RSFSR. The central government is
composed of three independent branches: the executive (the president and prime minister),
legislative (the Federal Assembly), and judicial. The government is responsible to the
president, and the executive branch is considerably more powerful than the other two
branches. The constitution is largely the creation of Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who
dominated Russian politics from independence until his retirement from politics in 1999.
Yeltsin was elected the RSFSR's first president by popular vote in June 1991, and he
retained this position in Russia after the Soviet Union dissolved later that year. In June
1996 he was reelected to a second four-year term, but he resigned the presidency in
December 1999.
To some extent presidential decrees can take the place of laws, thereby evading
legislative scrutiny. Furthermore, the legislature has only limited rights to investigate
government activity. Nevertheless, the legislature can reject the budget, draft
legislation, publicize government errors and malpractice, and, at the price of its own
dissolution and new parliamentary elections, bring down the government by repeated votes
of no confidence.
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