Question

Explain how Russian history impacted its modern-day geographic landscape

Answer 1

Russia is the largest country in the world, containing 1/8 of the entire world’s land area (see Figure 3.1). Russia is also the northernmost large and populous country in the world, with much of the country lying above the Arctic Circle. Its population, however, is comparatively small with around 143 million people, the majority of whom live south of the 60 degree latitude line and in the western portions of Russia near Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Russia stretches across eleven time zones, spanning 6,000 miles from Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast. The country also includes the exclave, or discontinuous piece of territory, of Kaliningrad situated between Poland and Lithuania.