Russia — 2

eng » Архив "Russia"

Архив по теме:"Russia"

(Page 2)

Russian Industrial Regions

The present pattern of industrial location in Russia was set during the early Five-Year Plans. Distinct industrial regions remain, based on their industrial history. They are old centers of market-oriented, labor-intensive industries; old centers of heavy industry; new energy-based industrial regions; and emerging industrial regions. These regions represent a decision-making struggle. Industrial planners wanted to locate new plants at […]

Industrial Historical Geography

Russia's Industrial Revolution began during the 1700s. Before this time, manufacturing was done at home by hand, using simple machines.Most pre–Industrial Revolution artisans and skilled laborers worked in rural areas. They made the products needed by their family, friends, and those who lived in their village. The use of complex, expensive, and large power-driven machines took manufacturing out of the home […]

Agriculture in Russia in the Early Twenty-First Century

              Russia is a major importer of food. In most years, at least 20 percent of all food consumed is imported. Russia buys food from the United States, western European countries, and the former Soviet republics. Agriculture in Russia faces severe climatic limitations. As a result, average productivity per acre is much lower […]

Yeltsin’s Plans to Privatize Agriculture in Russia

Boris Yeltsin, who led Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, directed all state agencies involved to submit suggestions on how to reform Russian agriculture. This was part of his effort to privatize agriculture. His 1991 decree guaranteed Russian farmers the opportunity to become independent of the state agricultural system. This decree led to a decline in agricultural production and […]

Gorbachev’s “New Food Program”

Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the Soviet leader in 1985, had a strong background in agriculture. He had served as the Politburo's member in charge of agriculture before he became first secretary of the Communist Party. The Politburo was the highest governing body of the Communist Party. Gorbachev attempted to increase incentives for farmers to produce more food and to improve the […]

Brezhnev’s “Nonblack Earth Program”

Khrushchev was removed from power and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. Brezhnev had been secretary of the Central Committee of the Kazakhstan Communist Party during the initial years of the “Virgin Lands Project.” When he came to power, he immediately raised the prices paid to farmers for their products and guaranteed a wage for collective farmers. His main goal […]

Khrushchev’s “Virgin Lands Project”

Stalin's death in 1953 led to a period in which the members of the Communist Party inner circle decided who would lead the Soviet Union. The man chosen was Nikita Khrushchev, who became the leader of both the Communist Party and the country. Khrushchev had a sincere desire to substantially improve the Soviet people's diet. In order to increase the availability […]

Collectivization under Stalin

The Communist Party needed capital to finance its plans to industrialize the Soviet Union.Many Bolsheviks favored paying for the new factories and mines by forcibly taking agricultural products from the peasants. After much debate within the party, the method chosen to finance industrial growth was Stalin's policy of all-out socialization of agriculture. An institutional “revolution from above” was initiated in the […]

Lenin’s Agricultural Policies

To gain support of rural dwellers, in November 1917, the urban-based Bolshevik government nationalized all land in Soviet Russia. The expropriated land was not given to the farmers. It remained in the hands of the state. Huge state farms and state-directed cooperative farms were created. From World War I until 1921, successful farmers were discriminated against. Their produce was frequently confiscated. […]

Rural Russia under the Tsars

Agriculture under the tsars in the mid-1800s was exceedingly backward and very inefficient. A Russian farmer produced enough food for himself, his family, and two other people in a good year. An American farmer at that time produced enough food for himself, his family, and 10 other people. The freeing of serfs in 1861 failed to improve the quality of […]

Russia in the twenty-first century

Vladimir Putin became the acting president of Russia on December 31, 1999, and president on May 7, 2000. His election sidelined proposals to reduce the president's power. The people supported the new constitution. They wanted to eliminate the decision-making stalemate between the president and Parliament. Conflicts between the executive and legislative branches of government had paralyzed the nation's economy to […]

Russia after communism

Most of Russia's people were skeptical about adopting a Westernstyle democracy in 1991. Russian president Boris Yeltsin warned the people that the country had more problems than a parliamentary democracy could resolve.He advocated instead a “presidential government.”Keeping the old Soviet government model, Yeltsin attempted to reform Russian society. (The Russian Constitution, which had been rewritten in 1977, was amended in 1991 to […]

Communist dictatorship

Massive general strikes, hunger, and a loss of faith in Nicholas II led up to the Bolsheviks seizing control of Russia. Vladimir Lenin, the Communist Party leader, was a brilliant revolutionary. His leadership of the highly disciplined Communist Party, combined with the country-destroying events of 1917, enabled the Bolsheviks to overthrow the tsarist system. Immediately following their seizure of power, they […]

Tsarism

The peoples of Russia have been governed by some of history's most oppressive and authoritarian political regimes. One family—the Romanovs—governed Russia's diverse ethnic and linguistic groups for more than 300 years. Initially elected by the noble gentry during the “Time of Troubles,” the Romanovs developed a form of government called tsarism. The male who inherited the throne of imperial Russia was […]

Russia’s future population

Prior to the breakup, the Soviet Union had one of the fastestgrowing populations among the world's developed countries. Its annual population growth rate was approximately 0.9 percent, slightly lower than that of the United States. However, by the early 1990s, Russia's population began to decrease at a rate that alarmed government officials and economic planners. Low birthrates and higher death rates […]

Urban/rural contrasts

Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, and particularly during the first Five-Year Plan, Russians migrated from rural areas to urban areas in search of jobs and better lives. Today, Russians in large urban areas have a higher standard of living than those from rural regions. They also have better medical and social services, better schools, more interesting jobs, and pay […]

Migration and mobility

Russia's population began to decline shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, even though it had been growing since World War II. The current socioeconomic transition Russia is experiencing accounts for most of this decline. Russian leaders are worried that the slow population growth could create labor shortages in areas of economic growth. It also could lead to uncontrolled internal […]

Religion

Russian society has always depended upon a common set of beliefs to blend together its diverse members. These beliefs had a place of origin and entry into Russia, routes of diffusion, and patterns of distribution. Religions of Russia vary greatly, and include beliefs in one God, many gods, ancestor worship, forest glade spirits, magic, and idol worship. The majority of those […]

Ethnic groups

Beginning at the pivotal point of Moscow, Russian influence expanded continuously outward. In just more than 500 years (from 1462 to 1991), it spread to cover more than one-third of Europe and nearly half of Asia. The tsars and then the Soviet commissars brought much territory and many ethnic groups under their control. They governed large numbers of people from diverse […]

Regional distribution of population

Population distribution and redistribution in Russia has been managed by the government. Recently, it has been modified by the economic restructuring associated with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The population hub of imperial Russia was Moscow, which was the largest city in the Soviet Union. In 1724, Peter the Great ordered the first census taken in tsarist Russia. It covered […]

Population characteristics and trends

In the first half of the twentieth century, imperial Russia was transformed from a backward but powerful multiethnic nation into a major world superpower. Yet, from October 1917 until the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, the people of the Soviet Union experienced one catastrophe after another. Millions of Russian soldiers died during World War I. At least […]

The Soviet Union, Russia, and the Independent Nations of the Former Soviet Union: 1945–Present

The Soviet Union, Russia, and the Independent Nations of the Former Soviet Union: 1945–Present

The Russian Revolution of 1917 launched the largest political and social experiment ever undertaken—the formation of the Soviet Union. Under the direction of the Communist Party, there was tremendous economic growth in the 1930s.With victory over the German Army in World War II, the Soviet Union became second in power only to the United States. Following World War II, the […]

Revolutionary and Soviet Russia: 1877–1945

Revolutionary and Soviet Russia: 1877–1945

Internal unrest and national strikes presented great challenges for the tsars. The people wanted a stronger voice in national government. Between 1877 and 1917, the tsarist government battled a succession of progressive and revolutionary parties. Eventually, extremists overpowered the moderates and murdered Tsar Nicholas II. Then, empire builders pushed back the frontier in southeastern Siberia and in central Asia. Still, […]

Reform and Autocracy: 1801–1876

Reform and Autocracy: 1801–1876

Tsar Alexander I, leader of the European response against French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, has been called the “savior of Europe” and the “reformer of Russia.” Alexander's reign began with the great hope of providing relief for the common Russian people. It ended in frustration and revolt. His sincere early efforts to resolve Russia's internal problems were diverted so he could work […]

Catherine the Great’s Russia: 1762–1796

Catherine the Great’s Russia: 1762–1796

With the ascension of Catherine II (“The Great”), a true leader came to the throne. Catherine considered herself the executor of Peter the Great's reforms.Her greatest achievements were in adding territory and people of different cultural groups to Russia's empire. She directed two wars against the Turks, extending the Russian border to the Black Sea. Her troops occupied the Crimean Peninsula […]

Romanov Succesion: 1726–1762

Romanov Succesion: 1726–1762

From 1726 to 1762, the succession to the Russian throne was hopelessly confused. Peter the Great's decision to allow the current ruler to choose his or her own heir had brought many poor rulers to power. This period includes the reigns of Catherine I, Peter II, Anna, Ivan VI, Elizabeth, and Peter III. With the exception of Empress Elizabeth, many […]

Peter the Great’s Russia: 1690–1725

Peter the Great’s Russia: 1690–1725

Peter the Great developed a deep interest in boats from the Dutch sea captains he hired to handle Russian commercial interests. He became determined to give Russia a port on the Gulf of Finland and a port on the Black Sea. As part of this plan, Peter captured the Turkish stronghold of Azov at the mouth of the Dnieper River […]

Romanov Russia: 1599–1689

Romanov Russia: 1599–1689

Russia had just passed through the most difficult period in its history. It had been more painful than the 1917 revolution, the civil war, and the breakup of the Soviet Union would be centuries later. Plundering Cossacks had ravaged the lands. Native armies pillaged the countryside. Whole regions had been depopulated. Year after year, crops were destroyed. Towns were deserted. Men, […]

Moscovite Russia: 1463–1598

Moscovite Russia: 1463–1598

In 1463, the principality of Moscow was almost a solid block of territory. It included the upper Volga River, the Moskva River, the Oka River, portions of the Northern Dvina River in the north, and the Don River to the south. It extended to the Tatar city of Kazan in the east. Ivan III, the Great (1462–1505), captured the city-state […]

Moscovite Rus: 1147–1462

Moscovite Rus: 1147–1462

At the beginning of the Christian era, the Slavic people were divided into three large cultural groups in three distinct portions of eastern Europe. The West Slavs lived in what is now central and southern Poland; the Middle Slavs lived between the east slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and the Dnieper River; and the East Slavs lived in the Don […]

Russia: environmental concerns and preservation

Environmental concerns and preservation

The need to preserve the natural environment is not equally recognized by all people. In some countries, tall chimneys belching choking black smoke are regarded as symbols of progress, rather than contributors to environmental degradation. Economic well-being is important to every country and its people. Simply stated, people need to feed families on a dayto-day basis, rather than concerning themselves […]

Russia: water resources

Water resources

As might be expected for a country of such vast size, Russian water resources are enormous. Its territory contains some of the world's longest rivers and largest lakes.Hydrological potentials, however, are not equally distributed.While more than two million rivers flow through Russia, some areas remain parched during summer months when water is needed for agricultural purposes in particular.When lakes are included, […]

landform of Russia

Landform and physiographic region

Because of its vast size, Russia contains rocks and minerals from almost every geologic period. Lev Berg, born in Russia in 1876, was an outstanding physical geographer. He was the most respected physiographic scientist in both imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Berg believed that Russia's physiographic regions had formed over millions of years. They resulted from involved processes that took […]

Siols of Russia

Siols of Russia

Agriculture and food production were very important to Russian tsars. Russian scientists were encouraged to study soils and classify them according to food productivity. The “father of soil science” was Vasily Dokuchaev. He was born in Russia in 1846. In 1883, he wrote a book called Russian Chernozem.Dokuchaev believed that chernozem (which means “black earth”) soils were created by the mutual […]

Russia: Natural Vegetation

Natural vegetation

Vladimir Koppen believed that the natural vegetation native to an area reflects the total physical environment of that place. There are nine vegetation regions in the huge Russian cultural realm. Seven are major east-west vegetal belts. Two are formed by a unique combination of special physical conditions. The total forest area is estimated at 2.9 million square miles (4.7 million square […]

Russia Weather and Climate

Weather and climate

The landscape of Russia is impacted greatly by its climate. In particular, temperature extremes characterize Russia's weather. Low winter temperatures have a tremendous impact on basic physical processes and human activities. Extremes in temperature and low annual precipitation are a direct result of Russia's high latitudinal position and of its location in the northern part of Asia, the world's largest landmass. […]

Russia

Introducing Russia

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. — Winston Churchill Throughout the past century, Russia and the United States have been at the center of world political and economic events. In 1904–05, Russia fought Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. The president of the United States, Theodore […]