Seuraa blogiani Bloglovinin avulla Follow

Total views on my most magnificent blog

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Russia, Cool Facts #83

<= 82. Monaco                                                                                                         84. Kazakhstan => 




1. Russian Expansion 

Russia covers nowadays 11 time zones. The most widely separated points in Russia are 8000 km apart from each other. How did Russia get so big ? It started when the Grand Duchy of Moscow started growing and annexing other areas to itself.

In 1478 Moscow annexed Novgorod Republic
In 1485 Moscow annexed the Grand Duchy of Tver

1613 After a period of political instability the Romanovs step into power, during this time the Tsardom of Russia expanded overland to the east, north and south when at the same time western European countries colonized the Americas and later Africa. Eventually the Russian Empire became the third biggest empire in the history by total area.

Russian expansion

Russian Empire in 1866


Soviet Union


2. Double-Headed Eagle 

The double-headed eagle on Russia's coat-of-arms comes originally from the Byzantium Empire, which was the Eastern Roman Empire after the partition of Rome. Constantinople fell in 1453, which meant the end for the Byzantium Empire.

Later in 1472 Russia's Grand Duke Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. Thus Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Byzantium Empire and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own symbol, which eventually became Russia's coat-of-arms.

Byzantine Palailogos Dynasty symbol
Russian Federation coat-of-arms


3. Russia's 160 Ethnicities 

Russia has a population of about 143 million people, the population has declined from the peak 148 million from the year 1991 when the Soviet Union fell. Over 80% of the population are ethnic Russians and the rest are other ethnicities. The biggest minorities in Russia are Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs and the Chuvashes. 

The different ethnicities in one country have caused some clashes and wars before so this is why there are 22 autonomous republics out of the 85 federal districts in Russia to give the different ethnicities power to make decisions about the areas they are inhabiting. 

22 Russian Republics: 

1. Adygea
2. Altai
3. Bashkortostan
4. Buryatia
5. Dagestan
6. Ingushetia
7. Kabardino-Balkaria
8. Kalmykia
9. Karachay-Cherkessia
10. Karelia
11. Komi
12. Mari El
13. Mordovia
14. Sakha (Yakutia)
15. North Ossetia-Alania
16. Tatarstan
17. Tuva
18. Udmurtia
19. Khakassia
20. Chechnya
21. Chuvashia
22. Crimea



4. States of Soviet Union 


The Soviet Union was established in 1922. Soviet Union is not Russia. The Russian Federation was only the dominating state of the Soviet Union, which consisted of 15 separate states. 

The Russian Federation became also the legal successor of the Soviet Union after its dissolution in 1991, which meant that Russia received Soviet Union's seats in different organizations. 

Russia was the first country to leave the Soviet Union, the other states followed Russia and in December 26, 1991, The Soviet Union stopped existing. 

States of the Soviet Union:

1. Russia
2. Ukraine
3. Uzbekistan
4. Kazakhstan
5. Belarus
6. Azerbaijan
7. Georgia
8. Tajikistan
9. Moldova
10. Kyrgystan
11. Lithuania
12. Turkmenistan
13. Armenia
14. Latvia
15. Estonia


Soviet Union states

5. Russian Explorers

In the 1600s Russia grew a lot through exploration and colonization of vast areas in Siberia. In 1648 Fedot Alexeyev and Semyon Dezhnyov were the first people after the native Americans to cross the Bering Strait between Asia and North America.

The colonization continued to the 1800s when Russia colonized Alaska and founded settlements even in California like Fort Ross. It's also reported that a Russian expedition with Vostok and Mirny ships sighted Antarctica for the first time in history.

Bering Strait
Vostok and Mirny ships near Antarctica

Timeline

300s Goths from the west established a kingdom in Central Russia, which was conquered by the Huns and Avars in the following centuries
500s Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Bielorussians) arrived to Central Russia from southern Poland
600s Khazars establish a kingdom, which ruled the area for 300 years from Dnepr to the Caspian Sea
842 Viking Rurik established Novgorod, which was the central areas of the Rus people
882 Rurik's successor Oleg conquered Kiova
988 Kiova's ruler Vladimir The Great turns into Orthodox faith, Russian church is attached to the Patriarchate of Constantinople
1100s Kiova's power diminishes as the kingdom is divided into small principalities
1230s Kiova gets destroyed permanently after the Mongol conquests. Genghis Khan's son Batu established the Golden Horde Khanate, with Sarai as the center near the current Volgograd. The Golden Horde Khanate ruled the Russian principalities for 300 years
1396 Tatar army of Timur Lenk conquered the capital of the Golden Horde after which the Khanate separated into eight different Khanates: Sibir, Qasim, Kazan, Astrakhan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Crimean and Khiva Khanate 
1472 Ivan II married Sofia Palaigos, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own and eventually Russia's
1480 Russians defended themselves successfully as Great Horde attacked
1500s Tatar Khanates are one by one annexed under Moscow's rule
1584 Ivan IV dies and Russia is a regional superpower at the time
1598 The Rurik dynasty dies as Ivan's sons died
1600s Poland and Sweden take advantage the chaotic situation in Russia and conquer areas from Russia
1613 Mihail Romanov becomes the Tsar and starts the 300-year Romanov rule
1668 Tsar Alexei I built the first Russian warship and at the same time the Tsar accepted Russia's first official flag
1682 Peter the Great reformed the country and brought new technology as he stepped into power
1694 As the navy was inaugurated Peter the Great started using the white-blue-red tricolor flag, which he had designed
1700s During the Great Northern War Russia conquered Karelia and Ingria back from Sweden and also Estland and Livland. Russia also expanded to the American continent conquering Alaska
1713 Saint Petersburg becomes the capital of Russia
1700s In the end of the century during Catherine the Great Russia annexed West Ukraine, Belarus, Krim and areas from the Caucasus to Russia
1809 Russia conquers Finland from Sweden, making Finland an autonomic Grand Duchy
1850s Russia loses in the Crimean War to Turkey and its allies France and UK, nevertheless Russia continues expanding to Central Asia
1861 Alexander II freed the serfs
1867 Russia sells Alaska to USA with 7,2 million dollars
1904-05 Russia loses the war against Japan
1917 The Tsar is overthrown after the February revolution. Vladimir Lenin's bolsheviks take the power in the October revolution. Russia enters civil war.
1920 Bolshevik red army wins  the war against the anti-Communist White movement
1922 Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia establish the Soviet Union
1924 Josef Stalin steps into power after the death of Lenin
1941 Germany attacked Soviet Union in the World War II
1945 About 20 million had died in Russia as the World War ended
1953 Stalin dies and Nikita Khrushchev becomes the new leader of Soviet Union
1955 Warsaw Union is established as a response for Nato
1964 Leonid Breznev becomes the leader of Soviet Union
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the last leader of Soviet Union
1991 Gorbachev is overthrown in a coup by conservative communists but they couldn't get the support of the army and KGB. With Jeltsin's lead the Russian Federation declares about its independence followed by all other states of Soviet Union.
1991 December 26 Soviet Union stopped existing, Boris Jeltsin becomes the first president
1990s As Russia shifted from communism to capitalism, the change caused chaos and poverty increased
1994 War in Chechen Republic which had declared independence 
1997 Russian troops withdraw from Chechen Republic
1999 Chechen guerrillas attack neighboring Dagestan and declare it as an Islamic Republic, this event is followed by the second Chechen War 
2000 Vladimir Putin followed Jeltsin as the president. Putin has restored the most important natural resources under the control of the state 

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semyon_Dezhnev
"Maailman maat liput ja historia" by Kimmo Kiljunen

1 comment:

  1. CRIMEA - IS UKRAINE!
    ABKHAZIA/ SOUTH OSSETIA - IS GEORGIA!

    ReplyDelete