RUSSIA Prepared by Elena V Fedorova VSUE Vladivostok

RUSSIA Prepared by Elena V. Fedorova VSUE Vladivostok, 2005

COUNTRY PROFILE § § § Geography Languages Constitution People Religions National

Geography

Russia on the map of the world

Russia is a country lying in eastern Europe and northern Asia. It has an area of 17, 075. 4 t legal successor of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that ceased to exist on Decemb Russia includes: 21 autonomous republics, 49 "oblasts" (regions), 6 "krais" (territories), 10 autonomous "oblast, " 2 capital cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg, a total of 89 subjects. Russia's population - 145. 5 million. Russia is a multinational state. People of more than 10 territory. Russians constitute more than 4/5 of the entire population. Russia has common borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the no west; with Ukraine in the southwest; with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in the southeast. Russia is washed by the Arctic Ocean - the Barents, Beloye (White). Kara, the north; by the Baltic Sea in the northwest; by the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas in the s of Okhotsk and Japan in the east. The territory of Russia is divided into 11 time belts, from Chukotka to Kaliningrad Region. F almost 4, 000 kilometers, and from east to west - more than 9, 000 kilometers. The overall b kilometers. Russia occupies one-eighth of the Earth's land surface and more than 3/4 of th

Political Administrative System § § § § Central federal district Northwestern federal district Volga federal district Southern federal district Ural federal district Siberian federal district Far-Eastern federal district

Central Federal District § § § § § Belgorod Region Bryansk Region Ivanovo Region Kaluga Region Kostroma Region Kursk Region Lipetsk Region Moscow Region Ryazan Region Smolensk Region Tambov Region Tula Region Tver Region Vladimir Region Voronezh Region Yaroslavl Region

gions: Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Voronezh, Ivanov, Kaluga, Kostroma, Kursk, Lipetsk, M square kilometers. It borders Belarus and Ukraine in the west, the Northwestern Federal Dis n - 37, 309, 000. Most of the people live in the cities. spected iron ores (Kursk Magnetic Anomaly). tripoli, gypsum, limestone, chalk; glass, mold, building and ballast sand, brick earth, claydite ry's industrial production. The most important industries are ferrous metallurgy, electricity g nko

North Western Federal District § § § § § Arkhangelsk Region Kaliningrad Region Komi Republic Leningrad Region Murmansk Region Nenets Autonomous Area Novgorod Region Republic of Karelia Vologda Region

2 republics (Karelia, Komi), 7 regions (Archangel, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murma orth, the NWFD borders on Norway and Finland is washed by the White, Barents, and K c composition: more than 100 different ethnic groups. eveloped mining areas (Murmansk Region) boasting major effective sources of mineral raw ts of diamonds, bauxites, oil, gas condensate, carbonate raw materials, industrial and b posit of amber (Kaliningrad Region) accounting for over 90% of the world reserves. erkesov.

Volga Federal District § § § § Chuvashia Republic Khabarovsk territory Kirov Region Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area Nizhni Novgorod Region Orenburg Region Penza Region Perm Region Republic of Bashkortostan Republic of Mariy-El Republic of Mordovia Republic of Tatarstan Samara Region Saratov Region Udmurt Republic Ulyanovsk Region

15 subjects of the Russian Federation, including six republics (Bashkortostan, Marii-El, Mor District in the north, the Ural Federal District in the east, the Southern Federal District in the t in terms of population. Its multi-ethnic population accounts for 22. 1% of Russia's total (32, 1 ussia's industrial production (23. 9%). Engineering and the fuel and energy industry hold lea

Southern Federal District § § § Astrakhan Region Kabardin-Balkar Republic Karachai-Cherkes Republic Krasnodar Territory Republic of Adygea Republic of Daghestan Republic of Ingushetia Republic of Kalmykia Republic of North Ossetia - Alania Rostov Region Stavropol territory Volgograd Region

subjects of the Russian Federation: 8 republics (Adygeya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, Kabardin sq. km. In the west it borders the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, in the north - Ukraine and th e than 120 ethnic groups: Russians, Ingushis, Osetians, Circassians, Abazins, Nogais, Kara e oil and gas (the Krasnodar Territory is Russia's oldest oil-producing region - since 1864), sten, heavy spar, polymetals, rare-earth metals, silver, gold, marble and marbleized buildin in the North Caucasus. It holds more than 6. 5 billion tons of coal reserves. New coal mines ources of fresh water - the Azov-Kuban reservoir - has a significant reserve of thermal and m non-ferrous industry, and chemical, petrochemical and woodworking industries. oped due to favorable climatic conditions and fertile soils (Krasnodar and Stravropol Territo

Ural Federal District § § § Chelyabinsk Region Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area Kurgan Region Sverdlovsk Region Tyumen Region

ous areas (Khanty-Mansi, Yamalo-Nenets) and 4 regions (Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Ch uth, the UFD borders on Kazakhstan; in the west, on the Volga and North Western Federal hnic composition: over 120 ethnic groups, including small Northern peoples. 17% of national industrial output and 15% of federal budget revenues. It boasts almost one system and the main enterprises of Russia's biggest oil companies - LUKOIL, YUKOS, Tyu es of building stone, building sand, brick clays, and ornamental stone. There are numerous ing, fuel-and-power, nuclear, and agricultural industries are important. shev.

Siberian Federal District § § § § Altai Territory Chita region Evenki Autonomous Area Irkutsk Region Kemerovo Region Krasnoyarsk Territory Novosibirsk Region Omsk Region Republic of Altai Republic of Buryatia Republic of Khakassia Republic of Tyva Taimyr Autonomous Area Ust-Ordynsk Buryat Autonomous Region

ubjects of the Russian Federation, including 4 republics (Altai, Buryat, Tyva and Khakas), 2 e kilometers. It borders China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan in the south, the Far-Eastern Fede lives in the countryside. The Kemerovo region is the exception. It is one of Russia's most d s: polymetallic ores, salt, mirabilite, iron ore, tungsten, molybdenum, berillium, tin, fluor-spar res carrying valuable additives such as bismuth, indium, scandium and others. Titanium ore and Omsk regions). Work is underway to implement a program for the development of gas f in the development of the District's economy, with coal and electricity production forming its odworking enterprises (including sawmills and pulp-and-paper mills). y

Far Eastern Federal District § § § § § Amur Region Chukotka Autonomous Area Jewish Autonomous Region Kamchatka Region Koryak Atonomous Area Magadan Region Maritime Territory Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Sakhalin Region

0 subjects of the Russian Federation, including 2 Territories (Khabarovsk, Maritime), 5 Reg Strait, Proliv Izmeny, and Sovetsky Proliv) and on China. In the north, it is washed by the Ea composition: more than 100 ethnic groups, including Russians, Ukrainians, Yakuts, the Nan msomolskiy and Khingan-Olonoyskiy ore areas), mercury, apatite ores (Dzhugdzhur and Bal stem of long-distance pipelines. The carrying capacity of the Okha-Komsomolsk main pipeli huge water reserves, both surface and subterranean and is a leading area on the national sc world scale and unique both numerically and quality-wise. The Sakhalin-Kurile basin is one h raw material reserves, and the existing industrial and social potential create favorable con Pulikovsky.

Time zones

each belt. The width of a time belt is 15 degrees in longitude. The first belt is the one in the meridian runs. In reality, on the ground the borderlines between the time belts run not along meridians bu close to the meridians. For large countries crossed by several time belts, the borderline be of administrative-territorial division of those countries. The territory of the Russian Federation includes 11 time belts - from the 2 nd to the 24 th. T Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski is 9 hours. The difference between Moscow and West European cities is not very big. It is three hours' difference with Paris, Rome, Vienna and Berlin. The time difference with America is York to 13 hours with Hawaii. In Russia, like in many other countries, there is "winter" time introduced for saving electrici Going over from winter to summer time usually occurs on the last Sunday of March, and g Sunday of October. When such a change is made, clocks and watches are put one hour a Because it is difficult to change one local time into another, it was agreed to use common activity (in particular, in radio communication). It is time that corresponds to the zero (Gree World time is called Universal Time (UT), and in scientific and technical literature a more e used in practice in different countries and associated with world time is called Universal Ti Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the outdated name for world time.

Languages

The Russian Language § In accordance with Article 68 of the Russian Constitution, the Russian language is a state language in Russia's territory. It is taught as first language in educational institutions, official documents are published in Russian, and Russian is used in the country's legislative, executive and judicial institutions. However, the fact that Russian is a state language throughout the Russian Federation does not mean that subjects of the Federation cannot designate ethnic languages as a state language in their territory. Russian is one of the world's commonest languages. In 1990 there were more than 250 million Russian-speaking people in the world. Russian is the mother tongue of more than 100 million people. Russian is the working language of the executive bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Russia-Belarus Union state. It has the status of a working language at the World Customs Organization and is used in the harmonized system of commodity description and encoding. Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian belongs to the Eastern group of Slavonic languages of the Indo-European family of languages. The written language is based on the Russian alphabet. As distinct from Romanic and Germanic languages, the article and perfect verbal forms are absent from the Russian language. Its case system is much more developed, and the Russian sentence has a looser word order. With a reform of the Russian language in the offing, a draft bill On the Russian Language and a style sheet and orthographic rules are being studied by research institutions and the Russian Language Council under the government.

Constitution

Constitution § Chapter 1. The Fundamentals of the Constitutional System § Chapter 2. Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen § Chapter 3. The Federal Structure § Chapter 4. The President of the Russian Federation § Chapter 5. The Federal Assembly § Chapter 6. The Government of the Russian Federation § Chapter 7. Judicial Power § Chapter 8. Local self. Government § Chapter 9. Constitutional Amendments and Review of the Constitution

We, the multinational people of the Russian Federation, united by a common fate on our land, establishing human rights and freedoms, civic peace and accord, preserving the historically established state unity, proceeding from the universally recognized principles of equality and self-determination of peoples, revering the memory of ancestors who have conveyed to us the love for the Fatherland, belief in the good and justice, reviving the sovereign statehood of Russia and asserting the firmness of its democratic basic, striving to ensure the well-being and prosperity of Russia, proceeding from the responsibility for our Fatherland before the present and future generations, recognizing ourselves as part of the world community, adopt the CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

People

Nationalities in the population of Russia

y representatives of more than a hundred nationalities and ethnic groups. The majority of the ately 93% of the country's overall population, out of which more than 80% are Russians. Mor bazians, Adygeis, Balkars, Ingushetians, Kabardins, Karachayevs, Ossetians, Cherkessians th - Altais, Buryats, Tuvas, Khakass, Shors, Yakuts and almost three dozen of the so-called ethnic composition of the population of Russia were obtained during the national census in : total population - 147022, Russians - 119866 (81. 53%), Tatars - 5522 (3. 76%), Ukranians n: 146370, Russians - 117884 (80. 58%), Tatars - 5821 (3. 98%), Chuvash 1837 (1. 26%), Pe

Nationalities in the population of Russia § § § § § Bashkirs Byelorussians Chechens Chuvash Germans Mordva Peoples of Daghestan Russians Tatars Ukrainians

Religions in Russia

Religions in Russia § § § Buddhism Islam Judaism Orthodoxy Roman Catholicism

i-confessional state formation in spite of the fact that in the pre-revolutionary period of Russ eligious life in the country acquired freedom, for the first time in the history of Russia, the Co e religious-confessional structure of Russia during the past 15 -20 years. Today there ap ussia - Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Catholicism - there also numerous rel aditional for Russia - Lutherans, Protestants, Old Believers, followers of Zoroastriansm, fire- tation, such as "The Church of Jesus, " "New Apostolic Church, " charismatic movements su " - Mormones ("Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"), Jehovah's Witnesses, White B vement ("New Age, " "New Aquarius") of an occult nature that have as their objective to dev mainly on young people. est religious currents in Russia are: Christianity, first of all, Orthodoxy that is traditional for R

Buddhism

followers. The religion is professed by less than one percent - around 900, 000 people - of th l of Budhism traditional to Russia. Other forms of Buddhism, predominantly marginal, have l heterogeneity, Russia's Buddhist sangha (community) does not have a single center. is the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia (BTSR), the successor of the USSR Buddhist ia (BCSBR) is an alternative to the BTSR. It sprung up in July 1998 after its followers seized and local centralized organizations: Inter-District Buddhist Society of Tyva, Tyva Buddhist Kalmykia are members of the Buddhist Association of Kalmykia, which is headed by a repre es (based in Ivolginsk and Aginskoye datsans), their student body totalling 150 people.

Islam

he peoples belonging to the Nakhsko-Dagestani and Abkhazo-Adygian language families, t n the Russian Federation. The Muslims in the Turkic group of peoples profess Hanafi Maz'h re represented rather weakly. They include certain marginal syncretic Sufi Orders, the Akhm not have a single center. The Soviet pattern for the administrative-territorial division of the M ting the Muslim wold in Russia is going on between the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims in ssia and the European members of the CIS (CSBM) is the successor of the Orenburg Maho maximally rigid organizational structure - its chairman, bearing the title of Supreme Mufti and uslim communities throughout Russia with the exception of the Northern Caucasus and the marily a consultative body that includes equitable SBMs, the heads of which automatically be hat is fully controlled by its Chairman, Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, is the Spiritual Board of Muslims R) was established in August 1997 by the former head of the Supreme Coordinating Center rds of the Muslims in Northern Caucasia (CCSBMNC) that includes the majority of SBMs of f the Republic of Ichkeria (Chechnya) formally united more than 600 communities. At the mo

Judaism

ulation, Judaism is the fourth biggest religion in Russia. The number of the faithful is believe s represented by both Talmudic and non-Talmudic varieties. The main trends in Talmudic J single center and is split on the confessional principle. The main clash for spheres of influen nizations, but they do not wield much influence.

Orthodoxy

argest religious association in Russia. At the moment is consists of 128 eparchies (diocese deaneries (Finnish, Hungarian and Mexican) and 5 eparchies. Parishes of the Russian Orth 8 eparchies, more than 19, 000 parishes and approximately 480 monasteries. n 150 archpriests, 17, 500 priests and 2, 300 deacons. , 26 theological seminaries and 29 theological schools that did not exist before the 1990 s. T ments is supervized by the Educational Committee of the ROC. rmed at the end of the Xth century. It was headed by the Metropolitans obedient to the Patr ations in 1721, the Church came under the supreme administration of the Holy and Governi om (Council of Peoples Commissars) of the RSFSR on January 23 (February 5) 1918, the R d in Russian Orthodoxy a movement under slogans of modernizing the cult that led to a sch ly interfered in the affairs of the Church, and the clergy was subjected to reprisals. After the opolitan Sergiy (Stragorodsky) Patriarchal Locum Tenens. Since 1983 the Moscow Patriarch t bodies of church authority and administration are the Local Council, the Council of Archprie

Roman Catholicism

creed in terms of the number of followers. There are nearly 500, 000 people professing the r communities, but their number shrunk dramatically after Ukraine and the modern Baltic cou ssia-based Poles and Lithuanians, a portion of Germans, most Latgalians (a sub-ethnic gro was restored in Russia on April 13, 1991. As of today, Russia has four Apostolic Administra Aquinas College of Philosophy, Theology and History in Moscow with branches in St. Peter ck many centuries. The Old Russian state was formed with active participation of individuals ism, " the official rupture between Rome and Constantinople. Historians assert, however, tha the Roman Catholic Church in Russia is habitually dated by the year 1684, when Tsarevna the Catholic Church in the Russian Empire was made to suffer some perceptible losses. Mo nging to the Roman Catholic Church in the Russian Empire in the early 20 th century. On Ap ree "On Separation of the Church from the State" became the official pretext for the start of ate 1980 s and the early 1990 s assisted in the revival of the Roman Catholic Church. At their

National Symbols § § § National Anthem Flag Presidential Standard National Seal

and the national anthem are symbols of the Russian state. The national symbols of the Rus

National Anthem of the Russian Federation

nslation)

Text of the National Anthem of the Russian Federation (Lyrics by Sergei Mikhalkov; an unofficial translation) § Russia, our holy Russia, our holy great nation! Russia, the country Russia, the country so so dearly loved! A powerful tremendous glory, A powerful will, a tremendous glory, Are your inheritance for future and past. Refrain: Glory to to land of of freedom and unity, Nations as as brothers united stand tall, Given wisdom our Given by by ancestors, wisdom our national, Glory, our land, we are Glory, our land, we are proud of of you! From the southern seas to to the polar region Spread our forests and fields. You inimitable, , You are unique in in the world, inimitable Native land protected by by God! Refrain. Wide spaces for dreams and for living Are opened for us us by by the coming years. Faithfulness to to our Fatherland gives us us strength. Thus so it Thus it it was, so it is is and always will be! Refrain: Glory to to land of of freedom and unity, Nations as as brothers united stand tall, Given wisdom our Given by by ancestors, wisdom our national, Glory, our land, we are Glory, our land, we are proud of of you!

The State Flag of the Russian Federation

an official symbol of state power; embodies state sovereignty. in of the Russian Federation signed Decree "On the State Flag of the Russian Federation" he Russian Federation shall be a right-angled piece of bunting of three equivalent horizonta ion reproduces the merchant marine flag that existed in Russia since 1705 (from 1873 on, i n since Peter I's times as well: the upper stripe is white, the middle blue, and the lower red. ays symbolic of human qualities: white, nobility and frankness; blue, fidelity, integrity, irrepro e hoisted atop the buildings of the supreme bodies of state power and administration, embas lized flag-pole (mast) in front of a building or atop a building. Whenever raised vertically, the

Standard of the President of the Russian Federati

n Federation, a symbol of the presidential power, was formalised by President Boris Yeltsin ng of three equivalent horizontal stripes of the color of the National Flag - white, blue, and re The staff has a tip in the shape of a metallic spear. A silver bracket fixed to the staff has the me of the President's Kremlin residence, whereas the standard itself is permanently in the P it is placed in the presidential plane and the presidential automobile, in rooms during impor

National Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation

ederation is an official state symbol of the Russian Federation. The State Duma passed on D ederation is a quadrangular red heraldic shield with rounded lower angles and a pointed extr he red background keeps historical continuity with the color gamut of the late 15 th - 17 th cen Russia's National Coat of Arms represents indissolubility and continuity of national history. It

§ COUNTRY PROFILE § Geography. Political Administrative System Languages. Russian Language Constitution People. Nationalities Religions National Symbols. National Anthem. Flag. Presidential Standard. National Seal