Russia

The first thing that should be apparent is the enormity of Russia. It's BIG! So big that it covers 11 time zones. It is nearly twice as large as the next biggest country Canada, and that is after losing possession of 14 other countries with the breakup of the Soviet Empire in 1991. The former Soviet Union was a behemoth. It was one of the two superpowers, along with the United States. Coast to coast the continental United States stretches 2,500 miles. Russia stretches over 8,000 miles from coast to coast. Russia owns one-sixth of all land on earth, and that's after losing those 14 states and selling the US the property of Alaska in 1867. Known as "Seward's Folly", US Secretary of State William Seward paid $7.2 million for this land which is about two cents an acre. Today's comparison of the world's largest countries reveals the vastness of Russia. Here are the land area figures of the five largest states:

Russia's size is its advantage and its disadvantage. Owning lots of property means you have more wealth, specifically mineral wealth and natural resources, especially fossil fuels. It has more natural resources than any other country. Conversely, because Russia is so big they have problems with communication, transportation, and distribution. A business day begins and ends in the major city of the east, Vladivostok, before the business day in Moscow ever begins. It is hard enough for Americans to deal with four time zones (in continental US), so imagine dealing with eleven.

The population of the country is only 143 million people and dropping, mostly concentrated in the western one-fifth of the country. The others are spread over a large area in little groups along the southern fringe of Siberia, called the region of the Eastern Frontier.

Atmosphere and oceans are linked in the distribution system of the world's heated surface water to higher latitudes through solar radiation. The rotation of the Earth puts those water bodies in motion. This water moves in great currents called gyres. Combative cells called highs and lows are also in motion and are distinct parts of the atmosphere. These pressure cells produce winds that also aid in moving the surface waters. The winds also carry the warmth (or lack of warmth if they are moving toward the equator from the poles) of the water on the surface of the ocean. Think about all these things when you consider the impact of climate types, an important aspect of physiography.

When considering Russia's climate, the humid air masses that are passing over Europe (in the Westerlies wind belt) and finally to Russia are largely depleted of moisture when they get to the latitude and longitude of St. Petersburg (59^o55'N,30^o15'E). This is the best-watered zone in all of Russia and only gets 20 to 40 inches annually (the southeastern US receives 40-60 inches). The Arctic air masses also dominate the interior of the country. Cold air holds less moisture than warm air. The mountain ranges to the south (i.e. the Himalayas) prevent moisture's penetration into the continent. Most of Russia is cold, with short summer growing seasons (D climate), and has long dark winter nights. It is no wonder Siberia means "sleeping land."

The Russian Empire was the largest territorially contiguous empire in the world during the 18th through the 20th centuries. The continent of Asia has passed from hand to hand for centuries. The dominant ethnic group today - the Slavs - arose from the Ukrainian region and were known as Cossacks. But others left their mark as well. Scythians, Mongols (Tartars), Sarmatians, Georgians, Goths, Armenians, and Huns were are just a few.

Moscow was the center of a strong and growing Russia, but Tsar Peter the Great (1682-1725) wanted to make Russia into a European-styled state. He made St. Petersburg the forward capital of the expanding state. Tsarina Catherine the Great, a German by birth - a queen by marriage, would continue to grow the country as well as develop it. By the nineteenth century Russia owned parts of China, Finland, the area around the Black Sea and Poland. Think about the great differences in the populace of the Russian State. Different races, ethnicities, languages, customs, et cetera.

Soviet Russia Under Lenin and Stalin

By the time 1917 arrived, the country was ripe for revolution. The peasants were tired of going hungry while Tsar Nicholas II lived in opulence. There were being defeated in a terrible way by the Germans in WWI. With Nicholas leading the troops at the front (and doing a bad job of it), the country was experiencing demonstrations and strikes, especially in the capital Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) by workers and peasants alike. When Nicholas' troops refused to put down the dissidents, he was forced to abdicate the throne thus ending three hundred years of Romanov rule in Russia. A provisional government was set up to deal with the issues of the day. During this time the growing power of the Petrograd Soviet (soviet means "council" in the Russian language) was gaining notoriety and influence among the radical workers. During the early days of Bolshevism, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became its leader and would eventually create the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The October Revolution in 1917 (actually in November, but the Russians used the old Julian calendar at the time) put government in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks meant to bring a new socialist society to the world based on the espoused socialist ideologies of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engals. Their publications titled Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto were intended to give power to the people through an all-powerful, all-altruistic government that controlled every facet of the economy. They were very much against the excesses of capitalism.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) ended the Russian role in WWI with the Germans. Its terms were severe with the loss of millions of acres of land, but Lenin believed the war was lost anyway and that world revolution would soon engulf the European powers, rendering the treaty null and void. Lenin was right about the terms, but not in the way he had envisioned. The treaty was voided at Germany's defeat at the hands of the Western powers later that year. He would have to wait for his "world revolution". But the people of Russia were content with the Reds' slogan of "bread, peace, and land."

A civil war immediately engulfed the whole of Russia. It would pit the Bolshevik (now calling themselves Communists) Reds against the Menshevik Whites who would likely restore the old tsarist regime, or at least the provisional government. The Reds executed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, his four daughters, and his hemepheliac son, Alexis, to prevent their rescue and return to the throne. (The last Romanov family was finally given a proper state burial in 1998, witnessed by Boris Yeltsin. Before that they had been buried in a mass, unmarked grave in Yakaterinburg, Siberia.) The Reds defeated the Whites in their terrible battle for power in 1922. It's likely that millions died from battles and starvation. Thus, the birth of the USSR was off to an inglorious beginning.

USSR "Federalism" and The New Economic Policy

As Lenin and the Bolsheviks worked to form their country's government, they controlled the destinies of over 100 peoples. They decided on Soviet Socialist Republics and based their government on federalism, the distribution of power in an organization between a central authority and the constituent units. This was only in theory though because any one of the republics could supposedly leave the Union. In reality, secession was not a possibility. So began the Russification of the masses whereby ethnic Russians came to the outlying republics to teach the language, economic plan, and communist ideologies to the people. Moreover, whole peoples were uprooted and moved to outlying regions to "populate" the frontier areas.

The New Economic Policy (NEP), implemented in 1921, was effective in remaking the USSR economy. The economy was back to pre-war status in 1927, a remarkable turnaround considering the devastating effect of WWI. Lenin suffered a number of severe strokes that took his life in 1924. Joseph Stalin (a Georgian whose name means "steel") took the reign of power and became one of the world's worst tyrants. Stalin once said, "a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." Stalin would take no opposition too lightly as he consolidated his power. He implemented "Five Year Plans" that would end the NEP, eliminate all capitalism, and establish a truly socialist economy - one that would eventually evolve into an autocratic state. To do this he would have to develop Russia's heavy industry and collectivize agriculture, which was symbolically recognized on the flag as the hammer and sickle.

Gosplan, the state planning commission, believed crop production would greatly increase if the state took control of the farmlands. The government took control of large landowners' property, as well as the land of the peasant farmers. They established two types of farms: kolkhoz (a collective farm) and sovkhoz (a state farm).

The sovkhoz was a large-scale operation of grain and meat production that was highly mechanized and required little human labor. This was vehemently opposed by the farmers of the USSR. For example, Joseph Stalin was angry that Ukrainian farmers did not meet their output quotas in the 1930s because they burned their crops, destroyed their equipment, and slaughtered their animal herds. For this Stalin confiscated their remaining crops for that year and closed part of the Russia/Ukraine border, allowing millions to starve to death. After the Soviets realized that sovkhoz farms were not going to produce the amount of food needed, they implemented kolkhoz, smaller-scale, more efficient farms.

By 1939, about 90% of all farms had been collectivized. By making farming highly mechanized, this freed people to go to the cities to work in factories. The people did not willingly go, but were removed from their land or killed. (The Great Purge, as it became known, eliminate anywhere between 30 and 60 million people in Stalin's USSR.) Stalin wanted to turn the backward Russian state into a modern socialist-modeled country. The populace was forced into the cities and worked on these major endeavors:

By 1940, the USSR stood behind only the United States and Germany in total industrial production. However, the Soviet people suffered as consumer goods were not deemed important by the Politburo (the Political Bureau) and housing units were spartan and in short supply.

The United States and Western European powers were seen as First World entities after WWII. The socialist powers, with the Soviet Union assuming leadership, were seen as the Second World. They were in direct competition with the First World. Therefore, countries that were not in either of these two categories were considered Third World. Third World meant that those countries were agrarian, underdeveloped, and unaligned with the First and Second.

Being in the Second World economy of the Soviet Union did not seem so bad from the outside looking in, as the world was forced to do. It appeared everyone had something to eat. Manufacturing had progressed quite well. The military was extremely strong and the space age was at the forefront of the Soviet mind. In fact, it was the Soviets that were first into space with Sputnik, the first satellite in orbit; the dog Laika, the first animal in space; and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Their economic system of total state ownership could focus efforts, skills, and resources on tasks regardless of the cost, but this was very different from the capitalist model. The 1959 Kitchen Debates between Premiere Nikita Khrushchev and American VP Richard Nixon brought this to light to the Soviet leaders' eyes. When Nixon toured a model US kitchen with Khrushchev in Moscow at the US Trade and Culture Fair, Khrushchev claimed the new refrigerator, stove, oven, and dining ware were Western propaganda. He knew that he couldn't allow his people to believe that these things were normal for Americans to have in their homes. It meant that outright revolt would occur because the Soviet people had none of these things. He was even so bold as to claim that all these things were provided in new Russian homes, and the Russians didn't even have to pay for the house and the things inside it. [That these houses even existed was a blatant lie that would later be realized.] When glasnost (openness) came about, the world could see the commissars had failed the Soviet people. The sheltered Russian people would eventually see this, too.

Glasnost meant that the media had more freedom to report the truth, as the state-sponsored newspaper Pravda ("Truth") was supposed to do. Also allowed were open discussions and criticism of government officials, which was not allowed in the strict Soviet state prior to Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership. Gorbachev implemented perestroika (literally "restructuring") whereby the power of the central government was handed over to each economic entity as determined by the supply/demand principles of capitalism (e.g. a textile factory determined the number and type of clothes to produce based on profit/loss margins; factory managers were no longer told where to obtain their raw materials and could sell to whomever they pleased; factory managers could actually fire employees, an unthinkable act under strict communism; small private enterprises were allowed to flourish in retail sales and agriculture).

All of these governmental changes were contradictory of TRUE communism, where everyone makes the same wage, there are no disparities of wealth between the people, and the government controls every facet of life and commerce. Everyone was supposed to have the same income and luxury goods no matter what the job. This was supposed to be a utopian society where there was no hunger, no theft, no wants. Everyone was meant to be equal, but it went against every human inclination of reward for hard work, as in capitalism's case.

All of these changes were implemented in 1985 and would lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union because Gorbachev was unprepared to deal with the rampant nationalism the erupted across the state. It became very difficult to create a new structure of economic power. In the end the soviet system suffered an economic breakdown worse than any country had ever experienced. The government's central planning agencies totally failed and no free-market replacement was there for the transition. Gorbachev resigned as president in 1989 and the Russian economy was nearly paralyzed by 1990. The country broke apart in 1991 and the Russian Republic sought to bind the former SSRs into a grand coalition called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This doomed attempt would lead to the devolution of the USSR. Fifteen new countries (fourteen of which Russia calls the Near Abroad) were established from this maelstrom and an uneasy Russian state had to face the coming 21^st century. [Check out this article on the Soviet Collapse to see what has happened over the past decade since the USSR dissolved.]

In 1992, almost all of the former Soviet administrative units signed the Russian Federation Treaty. Those who did not and sought autonomy (i.e. Chechnya) were dealt with severely by the Russian military. Today, re-privatization of agriculture is occurring at the risk of declining food production. (Meat, vegetable, milk and grain production has declined yearly since 1989.) Political instability (i.e. unemployment, unpaid wages, pension-fund shortages, food shortages) has caused production of raw goods like coal, oil and lumber to decline, again slowing an influx of foreign revenue. By the late 1990s, Russia had deteriorated to a barter economy, meaning people trade goods to circumvent taxes. The ruble was severely devalued and many people trusted the value of vodka more than the ruble. Many people have to purchase items from the black market. The economy of Russia was about the size of tiny Iceland's a couple of years ago. Their birthrate is falling precipitously in these uncertain times (projected to drop by 8 million by 2010). The fall was a long one for the former world superpower. [Instructor's Note: Over the past year (2001) the Russian economy has made a dramatic turnaround. Growth in the economic sector has been remarkable, but one shouldn't get too excited. Russia has a long way to go to have a moderate standard of living. Russia has jumped to second in the export of crude oil (behind Saudi Arabia). They'll need this revenue to fuel their drive toward modernity. The youth of Russia are eager to create a new Russia. Once the old vanguard of communism is dead, I feel that Russia will make a huge impact in the world's economic sector.]

The following regions of Western Russia are the economically important parts of the country. These industrial regions mark the greatest production for the country and are the foundations of Russia's economically dwindling potency.

Moscow, surrounded by boreal forest, is the primate city of the Russian core (population is 9.3 million). Primate city is defined as a country's largest - ranking atop the urban hierarchy - most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not always) the capital city. Road and rail connect this city to its hinterland. Moscow's importance is paramount because of its capital status. Its primacy used to be more evident because it was the center of the USSR's centrally planned economy. Now with market reforms in place, it will have to settle with the seat of government only, as free market capitalism rages outside of its control.

Surrounding cities of the core include St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad and Petrograd), the most important port city for the core area, and Nizhniy Novgorod the so-called "Soviet Detroit" producing box-like automobiles. Ivanovo produces textiles, while Tula has mining and metallurgical industries. Each of these cities would have served a specific segment of the communist economy ten years ago. Today, they do whatever it takes to survive in an incredibly competitive world.

The Ural Mountains stretch over 2,000 miles south from Novaya Zemlya (two islands in the Barents Sea) and terminates in neighboring Kazakhstan. The mountains mark the eastern limit of the Russian Core. It also marks the beginning of Asiatic Russia. Magnitagorsk, a city nestled in the chain, means "magnetic mountain" and is named for the large iron ore deposits located there. A compass used in the area would not point to magnetic north. Rather it would point to the lode in the ground, hence its name. The major cities of Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg (named for Catherine the Great) anchor this industrial region.

The Volga River is the dominant river of the Core. The Volga is connected to the Don River via a canal just south of Volgograd, which makes the Black Sea accessible. The canal is necessary because the Volga naturally flows toward the Caspian Sea. The problem here is that the Caspian Sea is actually the world's largest lake, being totally surrounded by land. That means no international shipping can take place without the canal. The Black Sea has access to the Mediterranean Sea via the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles. This is Russia's vital link to the world because for all its vast territory Russia has very few ports that operate year-round. The Volga is their lifeline.

This is an area of heavy manufacturing and good-quality iron ore and coal made it a primary region. A key city in this regions is Novosibirsk. Novosibirsk means "New Siberia" and is at the intersection of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and Ob River, making it halfway point between Moscow and Vladivostok along the TSR line. The TSR's construction was begun in 1892 to connect the far-separated eastern frontier to the core in the west. To make the trip from Moscow to Vladivostok you had better allot two weeks of time because it is over 5,000 between the cities and the TSR makes frequent stops.

Tomsk and Novokuznetsk are developed and modern cities. Steel production and aluminum (from Urals bauxite) are manufactured here. This area was to be the leading industrial complex for Russia in the West, but demand for heavy metals in the east has shifted their market focus.

Baykal means "sea" in Russian. The Russians fondly call it the "Sea of Mirrors" and the "Pearl of Siberia." It is the deepest freshwater lake in the world - more than a mile down in some places. It contains more water than all the Great Lakes combined. It continues to grow yearly, literally widening and deepening by centimeters. That's a lot in geologic time. It is a result of a deep rift zone in the Eurasian Tectonic Plate. Maybe a million years from now, if all things continue as they have for centuries, the lake will totally separate the continent of Asia.

Characterized by vast dimensions, from the Urals to the Kamchatka Peninsula, and a sparse population of 15 million, Siberia is a storehouse of mineral wealth. Gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, as well as, oil and natural gas are found in this area. Yet there were few people here to wrest these minerals from the earth until Joseph Stalin exiled political dissidents and criminals here to serve their prison terms. Many never returned. The taiga is the vast, largely coniferous, snow-forest that begins where the tundra ends. It is incredibly far-reaching and counts fir, spruce, and larch among its floral denizen.

Siberia is a permafrost region. Permafrost is permanently frozen subsoil. Only the top one to three meters thaws during the summer. Because most roads become inaccessible quagmires during the summer, this necessitates that lots of work be completed during the winter. The winters are tremendously harsh with temperatures sometimes dropping to -80^oF or more. Not only is it hard for humans to function under such cold extremes (when exposed flesh will freeze within one minute), but tools also do not respond (freezing and breaking). The continually expanding and contracting earth also inhibits progress. A pipeline may crack or an oil drill-rig's shaft may shear off during drilling. Lots of environmental degradation have occurred over the years from oil spills and the like. However, Russia gets 60% of its revenue from the sale of coal, oil and natural gas, and most of it comes from the Tyumen oil field of West Siberia. This is evidenced by the Siberian Gas Pipeline that stretches into Western Europe.

The Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM Railroad) is another rail line that parallels the TSR and transports goods across the country. This railroad, as well as the TSR, must be kept open during the winter by icebreaker trains. The hope is that the BAM will help develop areas north into Siberia. Today, only portions of the railroad are in regular use due to economic problems and an uncooperative environment.

In the vicinity of Vladivostok, the "Lord of the East," and Nakhodka is a rapidly growing eastern port area that lies juxtaposed to Japan, a potentially great trading partner. The cities' position on the Sea of Okhotsk (literally the "Hunter Sea") lends to ocean fishing for salmon, herring, cod, and mackerel. Their areal advantage with regard to Japan is lost because of Russia's possession of four small islands in the Kurile chain - formerly held by the Japanese. Russia took these islands (Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and Hobomai) after WWII and will not return them - even with a recent $26 billion offer from the Japanese. This money would have elevated the burden of operating these islands and opened a new door of economic prosperity to Russia. But remember the Far East is over 5,000 miles away from the Russian Core. That's why the Far East has the proclaimed republic of Primorskiy Kray in a move for greater autonomy and eventual sovereignty.

This area is made up of three states along the axis of the Caucasus Mountains - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with differing languages, religions, and traditions. This area is dominated by centrifugal forces - forces that tend to divide a country such as internal religious, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological differences. These forces disrupt progress for the entire region.

Iran has historic ties to Azerbaijan through the Shi'ite religion. Turkey has a long history of adversarial relationships with the Armenians. The Turks were guilty of genocide in the early 20^th Century. They killed more than a million Armenians. Russia pulls the economic strings of all these countries and is militarily involved in Georgia. Abkhazian separatists ousted Georgian forces in a 1992-93 war that ended in de facto independence for the region. Russian peacekeepers have been there ever since. The Abkhazian rebels share similar interests with the Islamist rebels of Chechnya.

A paramount concern in this region is the continual fighting in Chechnya. The Chechens are unwilling to bend to Russian might. They want a free, Islamic state and fought a terrible, bloody war from 1994-96. Fighting erupted again in 1999 with no end in sight. The Russians will not let them out of the Russian Federation because to do so would mean that a hundred other minority ethnic groups in Russia would want out of the federation. This would spell the end of Russia as we know it. The oil of the Caspian Sea is also something the Russians still want to control. A pipeline stretches from the Caspian Sea, through Chechnya, and onward toward Europe - and it's big money for the Russians.

Country	Area in Square Miles
Russia	6550.7
Canada	3849.7
United States	3717.8
China	3705.8
Brazil	3265.1