About Russia

Russia was formed in 882 as a kingdom of selective cities of western Russia including Kiev. That time Kiev was the center of a trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, and Kievan Rus. In 989 Vladimir I was the ruler of the kingdom who extended to as far south as the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the lower reaches of the Volga River. During 1237-1613 Russia was under the influence of Mongol. In 1237 Batu Khan, a grandson of Jenghiz Khan invaded into Kievan Rus. Over the next three years, the Mongols destroyed all of the major cities of Kievan Rus’ with the exceptions of Novgorod and Pskov. To regain its honor and land in 1480 Grand Duke Ivan III gathered its strength within in Moscow, that time he was strong enough to faceoff with Mongols but it took him almost half of the century to conquer Mongols and to Russia became a unified state. That time Ivan IV grandson of Grand Duke Ivan III. In 1547, he adopted the title of tsar. In 1552 he conquered Kazan and Astrakhan in 1556. In 1613 Michael Romanov was elected as Tsar. The Romanov dynasty to ruled the Russia for 304 years until the Russian Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist state. Since of Ivan IV, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and into their own hands.
By the 19th century, Russia had expanded its territory and its power considerably. Its borders extended to Afghanistan and China, and it had acquired extensive territory on the Pacific coast. The foundation of the port cities of Vladivostok and Port Arthur there had opened up profitable avenues for commerce, and the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to link the European Russia with its new eastern territories. In 1894 Nicholas II acceded to the throne. In January of 1905, the Japanese attacked, and Russia experienced a series of defeats that dissolved the tenuous support held by Nicholas. Nicholas was forced to grant concessions to the reformers, including most notably a constitution and a parliament, or Duma. The power of the reform movement was founded on a new and powerful force that entered Russian politics. The industrialization of the major western cities and the development of the Batu oil fields had brought together large concentrations of Russian workers, and they soon began to organize into local political councils or soviets. It was in large part the power of the Soviets, united under the Social Democratic party, that had forced Nicholas to accept reforms in 1905. In 1912, the Social Democrats split into two camps–the radical Bolsheviks and the comparatively moderate Menshiviks. by 1920 the Bolsheviks were the of Soviet Russia.
The first few years of Soviet rule were marked by an extraordinary outburst of social and cultural change. Although the Bolsheviks had maintained complete control of the economy during the civil war by the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union had become a country in which life was more strictly regulated than ever before. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Soviet Union found itself unprepared for the conflict. In June 1941 the German army invaded into Soviet Russia by seizing most of the Soviet territory in the west, surrounded St. Petersburg and within a few hundred miles of Moscow. In 1942 the Germans launched a new invasion against the southern front in an attempt to gain control of the rail center of Stalingrad on the Volga and the vital Caucasus oil fields. Despite an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers and inferior weaponry, the Russian army succeeded in holding out against the enormous German army. In November, a relieving force managed to encircle the attackers and compel the surrender of the entire force, marking a decisive turning point in the war. From that point onward, the Russian army remained on the attack. By 1944 they had driven the Germans back to Poland, and on May 2, 1945, wall of Berlin was fallen.
In 1990 Russian Republic ended the Soviet era and declared its independence.

Most of the area of Russia is located in the temperate belt. The Arctic territories are located in the Arctic and sub-Arctic belts, but at the same time, a small section of the Caucasus Black Sea coast is located in the sub-tropical belt. Russia has all the climatic zones except tropical: tundra, forest-tundra, forests, forests-steppes, and semi-deserts.
The climate is mostly continental. Most of the country has a so-called harsh continental climate characterized by a big difference between summer and winter temperatures (it gets indeed very cold in Siberia during winter, but it is also very hot in the summer). Average January temperatures are from 0 to -5 degrees in the western Russia, but sometimes -40 degrees in other parts. The average July temperatures are from 1 to 25 degrees.
The climate induces an unbalance between different parts of Russian area, so many large parts of the country have almost no population and development. Russia has only 8 % of arable land.

The majority of rivers are located in the Arctic Ocean basin (Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, and Lena). The Amur, Anadyr, Penzhina and some other rivers are located in the Pacific Ocean basin and Don, Kuban, and Neva flow into the seas bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Russia’s main river, the Volga, flows to the Caspian Sea. Generally, Russia has about 3 million km of rivers.
There are many lakes in Russia, fresh- or salt-water. The largest lakes are Caspian, Baikal, Ladoga, Onega, and Taimir. Lake Baikal is the largest fresh-water lake in the world, it has a maximum depth of 1620 m.
Forest cover about 40 % of the entire Russian territory. The largest forests are in the Siberian taiga, at the eastern part of country and northern part of European territory. The most frequent forest is the coniferous forest. There are also some mixed forest in mid-Russian regions.

Russia has many natural resources including major deposits of oil, coal, natural gas, many strategic minerals, diamonds, and timber. The largest oil-and-gas deposits can be found in Western and Eastern Siberia and on Sakhalin island. The list of Russian mineral deposits includes gold, silver, platinum, cobalt, antimony, zinc, mercury, and many others. Russia abounds in mineral resources whose total potential value (in world prices) is estimated at an impressive $30 trillion.

Russia has the world’s fifth largest population (148,8 million people) after China, India, the United States, and Indonesia. Russia is a multiethnic society. The largest ethnic groups include Russians (81.5%), Tatars (3.8%), Ukrainians (3%), Chuvash (1.2%), Bashkir (0.9%), Byelorussians (0.8%), Moldavians (0.7%), etc. Over 80 % of the population name Russian – the official language of the country – as their native. Other languages are used in ethnic minority regions. Russia has equal religious diversity: with the main religions being Russian Orthodox Christianity and Muslim overall over 150 confessions could be found across the country.
All in all, 73 percent of Russian citizens live in urban areas.
The Russian Federation has 1067 major cities, with 13 of them inhabited by one million and more people each. The largest cities are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. Administratively, the Russian Federation is divided into 21 republics, 6 krays (federal territories), 2 federal cities, 49 regions, 1 autonomous region, and 10 autonomous areas.

Russia has over 50,000 state public libraries in total possession of over a billion books. There are about 1500 museums (historical, ethnographic. memorial, of folk crafts, fine and applied arts, theatre, music, natural sciences, technology and many others). Twenty open-air ethnographic museums present folk architecture, arts and everyday life. Today, folk art in Russia survives in two basic forms – handicrafts practiced on a broad scale and works of art created by gifted persons working at home.

Grozny was founded in 1818, when the fortress Groznaya was built. It was the military outpost of the Russian Empire that played an important role during the Caucasian War. It was populated by the Terek Cossacks.

After the Caucasus War, in 1869, the settlement received the name Grozny (meaning “fearsome”). The town was growing slowly before the discovery of oil, happened in the beginning of the 20th century. Soon, Grozny became the center of the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus region.

During the Soviet times, Grozny was several times repopulated by Russians or by Chechens and Ingush. For example, before the World War II, the population of Grozny included a lot of Chechens and Ingush people, but, in 1944, almost all of them were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberian regions of the USSR for “collaboration” with Nazi Germany.

Grozny city climate is temperate continental with mild winters, long and hot summers. The city is not protected from the cold northern winds, and therefore, in contrast to the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar region, winters are colder here. The average temperature in January is -3.2 degrees Celsius, in July – +23.9 degrees C.

Large-scale reconstruction of the city was carried out in recent years. The airport “Grozny” offers flights to Moscow.

Since the founding of the city of Grozny, there has been an active increase in the population.

But since the 90s, the situation has changed dramatically. After the revolutionary actions and the beginning of the military conflict, the population of Grozny was almost halved. A huge number of people of Russian nationality, as well as the Ingush, Ukrainians and Jews, hastily left the city, leaving their property, houses and valuables in the city.

For almost 10 years, tens of thousands of people left Grozny annually. The military operations that took place also could not help but leave their mark on the general demography of the region. But by 2000, there was a tendency for population growth. In 2002, the population of Grozny was 210 700 people. By 2009, that number was already 231,200.

At the moment, the population of Grozny is close to 300,000 people. A record number of Grozny residents accounted for 1989, when almost 400 thousand people lived in the city.

Chechens live their lives, not like life in other cities of Russia. Here the Russian language is very often replaced by Chechen, which you can hear on TV and in the store and in municipalities. However, one should not assume that no one speaks Russian here. Russians are respected here, but since most Chechens live here, people increasingly prefer their native language.

The courage and modesty of women are valued here. You will not be able to see girls in miniskirts and with a deep neckline in Grozny. The female population here more often walks in hijabs or, at least, with a head covered with a handkerchief. In Grozny, as well as throughout Chechnya, Islamic traditions and customs are highly valued. Therefore, if you decide to call in Grozny as a guest, you need to take into account who lives by what laws.

Each neighborhood lives its own quiet life. The courtyards are well maintained and clean. Nearby is located all the necessary infrastructure (kindergartens, schools, hospitals, supermarkets). Here, children’s playgrounds are kept and fined, for example, for parking in the area set aside for children’s play.

Now, Grozny is replete with many new modern buildings, a business center, and new beautiful office buildings. The construction of new facilities does not stop here for a single day. In Grozny, the streets are actively restored, which gives the city a special comfort, which is not found in every city in the North Caucasus. Regardless of whether you were just passing through Grozny, or you came here for a visit, you will immediately feel that you are taking care of the inhabitants.

Rough-route taxis drive around the city almost around the clock, which can easily take you anywhere in Grozny and beyond. According to the tradition of the southern republics, there is not very developed public transport, such as trolley buses and buses.

In Grozny, over the past decade, many new schools and universities have been opened. Education in the city is reaching a new level, which attracts young people from all the republics of the North Caucasus to the city.

A favorite vacation spot of Grozny residents, like most Caucasians, is a restaurant. In Grozny, there are a lot of them, for people of different incomes. Here you will also find cozy cafes where young people like to spend their time. Large and small restaurants where Chechens love to celebrate all the events. Here there are expensive VIP-restaurants, whose clients are businessmen, politicians and top managers of firms.

The main objects of the cultural life of Grozny:

Grozny Russian Drama Theater named after M. Lermontov (Kirov Avenue, 13a),
Chechen State Drama Theater named after Kh. Nuradilov (Esambaev Avenue, 9),
Chechen State Theater for Young People (Staropromyslovskoye Highway, 36),
Chechen State Youth Theater Serlo (Theater Square, 1/75),
The State Symphony Orchestra of the Chechen Republic,
The National Library of the Chechen Republic (at the intersection of Dagestan (Ugryumov) Street and Lorsanov Street),
The Republican Children’s Library of the Chechen Republic (part of the National Library),
The National Museum of the Chechen Republic (Lorsanov Street),
Chechen State Philharmonic (Theater Square, 1/75).