Russia is the largest country in the world, located in both Europe and Asia. It has a population of over 100 million people from various ethnic backgrounds, with Russians making up about 80% of the population. Russia has a long history and culture that was influenced by the Byzantine Empire and later Western powers. It is a global power with significant natural resources, particularly gas and oil, and a highly literate population.

1. Nation Report 1 part 1Russia: Why is it Special?

2. GeographyRussia is the largest country in the world.It is located both in Europe and in AsiaRussia is the world’s top producer of natural gas and is the second largest oil producer.

3. Geography Cont’d.Russia has huge deposits of timber, coal, ore, petroleum, and other minerals as well as the resources listed on the pervious slide.Russia is divided into five natural zones: tundra, tiaga, steppe, arid, and mountain. Since Russia is such a huge country it has a lot of different climates. It’s capital is Moscow, which is the largest city in Russia.

4. PeopleThere are a vast variety of people living in Russia. The Statistics from Wikipedia shows the break down of the ethnic background in Russia from approximately 2002.79.8% of the population is Russian (full), 3.8% are Tatars, 2% are Ukrainians, 1.2% are Bashkirs, 1.1% are Chuvash, 0.9% are Chechen, 0.8% are Armenians, and 10.4% are other.

5. People Cont’d.Russians have a free education policy that is granted to everyone and is stated in the Russian constitution. The literacy rate is 99.4%, that is very high and very impressive considering how low the United State’s rate is.Below is a picture of Moscow State University.

6. CultureRussian culture is said to be started by East Slavs and their pagan beliefs. It was also strongly influenced in the earlier years by the Byzantine Empire and Slavic culture.Since Peter the Great, Russia has been influenced by Western culture as well. Their culture is very unique and has a long history.

7. Culture Cont’dRussian culture appreciates the arts in many forms such as: literature, philosophy, classical music, ballet, architecture, painting, cinema, and animation. These arts listed above have had a rather large impression the rest of the world. In Russia there are a vast variety of languages. Russian being the dominate religion. Russian is considered one the hardest languages to learn.

8. HistoryOne of the first human bones was found in Russia dating to be about 350,000 years old. And in prehistoric times many nomadic tribes occupied Russia.From 980-1015 Vladimir the Great reigned Europe and introduced Christianity from Byzantium In 1547 Russia took ideas from Third Rome and Grand Duke Ivan IV (Ivan the terrible) was crowned Tsar of Russia. In which he created the first Russian representative body.

9. History Cont’d.Under Peter the Greats’ rule Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721 and was then recognized as a world power. Russia fought against attacks from Napoleon in 1812 under the reign of Alexander I. Nicholas II took over his father’s reign (Alexander II) in 1894. (Nicholas is pictured) The Russian Revolution of 1917 occurred in two major acts. The first revolution was known as the February Revolution over threw the monarchy, they declared their political party Provisional Government. This ended the reign of Nicholas II, he and his family were thrown in prison and later killed, ending the Tsar era.Russia then became the Soviet Union under the rule of Vladimir Lenin. After his death Joseph Stalin took over. Once the Nazi’s came into power USSR entered the League of Nations. Since then Russia has been a major threat to the United States and Britain with its nuclear power and its strength in sciences. They have been in competetion with the United States since after World War II, plotting and planning.

10. Sources:Google ImagesThe book: The Second World by: ParagKhanahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians