Russia is a great country that impresses with its scale and influence in the world. This country is associated with forests and mountains, clear lakes and endless rivers, diverse flora and fauna. It is here that people of different nationalities live. Next, we suggest reading more interesting and surprising facts about Russia and Russians.
1. Russia is the largest country in the world, with an area of more than 17 million km2, so its length from east to west covers 10 time zones at once.
2. The Russian Federation includes 21 national republics, which occupy 21% of the territory of Russia.
3. Throughout the world, Russia is considered a European country, but at the same time, 2/3 of its territory is in Asia.
4. Russia is separated from the USA by only 4 km, which separate the Russian island of Ratmanov and the American island of Kruzenshtern.
5. The area of frosty Siberia is 9.7 million km2, which is as much as 9% of the land mass of the planet Earth.
6. Forests occupy most of the Russian territory and make up as much as 60% of the area of Russia. Russia is also rich in water resources, which include 3 million lakes and 2.5 million rivers.
7. The lake in Russia, which is located on the territory of the Valdai National Park, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. They say that the water in this lake is healing and holy.
8. In Russia, Swan Lake is not only the name of the ballet, but also the place in the Altai Territory where about 300 swans and 2000 ducks arrive for wintering in November.
9. Mother nature is honored in Russia, therefore 4% of the country’s area is occupied by nature reserves.
10. Russia is the only state in the whole world whose territory is washed by 12 seas at once.
11. Russia is home to the largest active volcano in the world, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which is 4.85 km high and has been erupting regularly for 7,000 years.
12. The climate in Russia is very diverse, and if in Sochi the usual air temperature in winter is +5°C, then in the settlement of Yakutia it can reach -55°C at the same time.
13. The record low air temperature was recorded in 1924 in the Russian city of Oymyakon, and it was as much as -71°C.
14. The first place in the world in gas and oil production, as well as in the export of aluminum, steel and nitrogen fertilizers, is awarded to the Russian Federation.
15. The capital of Russia, Moscow, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with 11 million people living there according to official figures.
16. In terms of population, Russia ranks 7th in the world and has 145 million people, with Russians in Russia making up 75% of the population.
17. Moscow is one of the richest and most expensive cities in the world, and the level of wages in this city differs from the level of wages in other Russian cities by 3, and occasionally 33 times.
18. In Russia, there is one amazing city – Suzdal, on an area of 15 km2 10,000 people live, and which is amazing in that there are as many as 53 temples, majestic in their beauty and decoration.
19. The Russian city of Yekaterinburg in 2002, according to the UNESCO rating, was included in the list of the 12 most ideal cities for living in the world.
20. One of the oldest cities in the world where people still live in Russia is the Dagestan city of Derbent.
21. If we add together the territory of the Netherlands and Belgium, then their area will be equal to the area of the Tambov region.
22. The Russian Federation is considered the successor of the Roman Empire, because the double-headed eagle depicted on its coat of arms symbolizes the Byzantine idea of harmonious interaction between the power of church and state.
23. Russia is rich in its secrets. For example, there are more than 15 cities there that are hidden from everyone, because they are neither on maps, nor on road signs, but nowhere at all, and, of course, foreigners are strictly forbidden to enter there.
24. The Moscow metro is the most punctual metro in the world, because the intervals between trains during rush hour are only 1.5 minutes.
25. The deepest metro in the Russian is located in the cultural capital of the Russian Federation – St. Petersburg, and its depth is as much as 100 meters.
26. The Russian metro was the safest place during the air raids of World War II, and 150 people were born there during the bombing.
27. St. Petersburg is not just called the cultural capital of Russia, but in this city there are 2000 libraries, 45 art galleries, 221 museums, about 80 theaters and the same number of clubs and palaces of culture.
28. Peterhof is one of the most amazing palace and park complexes in the world, because in addition to luxurious palaces, it amazes with a huge number of fountains, of which there are 176 pieces, of which 40 fountains are truly gigantic.
29. They say that Venice is a city of bridges, but no matter how, because there are three times more bridges in St. Petersburg.
30. Russia has the longest railway line – the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting Moscow and Vladivostok. The length of this route is 9298 km, and during the trip it is possible to pass 8 time zones, 87 cities and 16 rivers.
31. Russia also has the largest freshwater lake in the world – Baikal, the volume of which is as much as 23 km3. To imagine its greatness, it is enough to think about the fact that the 12 largest rivers in the world have to flow for a whole year in order to fill Baikal.
32. The most ancient, and therefore the most majestic mountains in the world are the Urals. For example, Mount Pencil, which is part of the Ural Mountains complex, arose more than 4 billion years ago.
33. One of the strangest mountains in the world is the Russian mountain Magnetic, located under the city of Magnitogorsk, which is almost entirely made of iron.
34. Russia has the largest, densest and almost wild forest in the world – the Siberian taiga, half of which has not yet been mastered by man.
35. In the capital of the Russian Federation there is one fountain, which is part of the architectural group “Alexander and Natalie”, from which it is not ordinary water that beats, but drinking water, which you can gladly quench your thirst on a hot summer day.
36. Located on Borovitsky Hill, the Moscow Kremlin is the largest fortress in the world, preserved since the Middle Ages, and its area covers 27.5 hectares, and the length of the walls is 2235 m.
37. The largest and oldest museum in the whole world is the Russian Hermitage Museum, which has 3 million exhibits, and if someone wants to see them all, giving each exhibit just one minute, this person will have to go to the museum as if to work, for 25 years.
38. The Hermitage is also famous for the fact that the staff of the museum includes not only people, but also the most ordinary cats who have their own passport with a photo and earn their Whiskas by catching rodents in the museum, preventing them from spoiling the exhibits.
39. Russia hosts the largest library in Europe – the Public Library, which was founded in Moscow in 1862.
40. In the small town of Kizhi there is a church resembling a work of art, which is interesting because not a single nail was spent on its construction.
41. In Russia, there is the world’s largest university building – Moscow State University, the height of which, together with an exquisite spire, is 240 meters.
42. In Moscow, you can see the highest building in Europe – the Ostankino TV tower, which is 540 meters high.
43. The world’s largest bell was cast in Russia by masters Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail. This is the Tsar Bell, which is 614 cm high and weighs 202 tons.
44. The oldest Christian temple is located on the territory of the Russian Federation – this is the temple of Tkhaba-Erda, built in the VIII-IX centuries, which is located in Ingushetia.
45. Russia has one of the world’s largest urban parks – Izmailovsky Park, which was founded in 1931 and now covers an area of 15.3 km2.
46. The largest botanical garden in Europe is again Russian. This is the botanical garden. Tsitsin, which was founded immediately after the end of World War II in 1945.
47. The world’s largest tram network is located in St. Petersburg and is as much as 690 km.
48. The record-breaking issue of a paper newspaper took place in May 1990, when 22 million copies of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspapers were published.
49. The frame of the world-famous New York Statue of Liberty was smelted in one of the Russian cities – Yekaterinburg.
50. Russia is a paradise for tourists with many beautiful and interesting tourist and excursion routes, among which the Golden and Silver Rings of Russia, as well as the Great Ural Ring are considered the best.
51. One of the most beautiful valleys in the world is the picturesque Lotus Valley, located near Astrakhan, from which it is impossible to look away at the moment when all the lotuses are blooming.
52. In 1949, the Kalashnikov assault rifle was designed in Russia, then part of the USSR, and now the number of AKs in the world exceeds the number of all other assault rifles, even if you put them all together.
53. The most famous and loved by the whole world game of Tetris was invented in 1985 in Russia by programmer Alexei Pajitnov.
54. Matryoshka was invented in 1900 by Russian craftsman Vasily Zvezdochkin, but the merchants demonstrated it at the World Exhibition in Paris as old Russian, and for this the nesting doll was awarded a bronze medal.
55. In Russia, an ancient version of the now so popular electric kettle was invented – a samovar, which, although it worked on coal, and not on electricity, still performed the same function of boiling water.
56. Among the Russian inventions, it is worth highlighting a bomber, a TV set, a searchlight, synthetic detergents, a video recorder, a backpack parachute, an electron microscope and many other things useful in the household.
57. There is no end to inventions in Russia, and just recently, at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, which is located in Siberia, a completely new breed of foxes was bred, which are very domestic, affectionate and resemble dogs and cats in their habits.
58. Near the building of the Novosibirsk Institute of Cytology and Genetics, a monument was erected to the same laboratory mouse on which experiments are being carried out, this mouse is depicted in the form of a scientist weaving a DNA thread.
59. It was in Russia that a rather strange at first glance sport was invented – helicopter golf, in which 2 helicopters drive a huge ball with a diameter of 1 meter into the pocket with 4-meter clubs.
60. Antarctica was discovered on January 16, 1820 by a Russian expedition led by Mikhail Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
61. The first person to conquer outer space was again the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who made his first flight into space on April 12, 1961.
62. And the Russian cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev made another record in space – he stayed there for a whole 803 days.
63. Russian writers Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky are the most widely read authors in the world.
64. Russian champagne, which was made in Abrau-Durso in 2010, received a bronze medal at the international wine competition International Wine & # 038; Spirit Competition.
65. In Russia, equality between men and women came 2 years earlier than in the USA, because in Russia women received the right to vote in 1918, and in the USA – only in 1920.
66. In Russia, unlike all other states, there has never been slavery in the full sense of the word. And serfdom was abolished in it in 1861, which was 4 years earlier than slavery was abolished in the USA.
67. Russia is practically a military state, because in terms of the number of military, this country ranks second after China.
68. In relation to the gross domestic product, Russia has the lowest public debt in the world.
69. In Russia, there is a funny myth about the myth that Americans think that in Russia the inhabitants calmly walk around the cities with their bears. Bears don’t walk around Russia, and Americans don’t think so either, but nevertheless, Russians are very fond of buying a souvenir T-shirt with an inscription in English: I was in Russia. There are no bears.
70. Although the Russians do not smile at everyone they meet, like Europeans, nevertheless, the distinctive features of this nation are openness, breadth of soul and sincerity.
71. In Russia, it has historically developed so that Russians prefer to make decisions collectively, constantly consult and give advice.
72. Russians very often in their lives hope for good luck and “maybe”, and they consider themselves, though not the most intelligent nation on earth, but the most spiritual.
73. The most characteristic pastime for Russians is home cooking until late, during which they talk about everything in the world, except for work.
74. Russians do not trust anything cheap, preferring to buy things more expensive, but at the same time they love “freebies”, so they take everything they can for free.
75. Most of the issues and problems in Russia are solved exclusively through connections, agreements.
76. Corruption is highly developed in Russia. To get one of the many services that can be obtained for free, you need to pay a bribe. Although it is possible not to give, but in this case it will take a very long time to wait for the solution of the issue.
77. The most favorite holiday in Russia is the New Year, the celebration of which usually lasts 2 weeks and ends only on January 14 for the Old New Year.
78. Due to shortages in Soviet times, Russians began to suffer from hoarding, so they try to never throw anything away, but at the same time, if they suddenly lose half of their trash, they may not even notice it.
79. Formally, in Russia there is a ban on walking dogs on playgrounds and on smoking in a public place, but in fact, almost no one ever receives a fine for this.
80. In Russia, in 2011, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was reformed, as a result of which the police became the police, but Russians cannot understand the reasons for this reform to this day.
81. One of the most popular genres of TV programs and serials that are shown on the central Russian television is a crime thriller.
82. One of the most popular and long-running series in Russia is the series “Street of Broken Lanterns”, the first series of which was shown on television in 1998 and which continues to this day.
83. In 1990, the wonderful TV game “Field of Miracles” was released in Russia for the first time, which is an analogue of the American show “Wheel of Fortune” and which is successfully broadcast on Channel One to this day, coming out without fail every Friday.
84. The most beloved and popular entertainment show in Russia is KVN, which, by the way, has already been visited several times by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
85. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, over the past 35 years, about 35 million people have left Russia for permanent residence abroad.
86. Despite constant migration, all Russians are patriots who do not allow anyone to scold their country and its authorities.
87. The most popular social network all over the world is Facebook, but in Russia this is not the case at all, where Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki networks are most preferred.
88. The most popular search engines in Russia, along with the world-famous Google, are Yandex and Mail.ru.
89. Russian computer scientists are considered the most powerful and intelligent hackers all over the world, and a special department “K” has even been created in the police to catch them.
90. When it was the opening day of a 700-seat McDonalds restaurant on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow, city residents who wanted to visit it came to the door of the restaurant as early as 5 in the morning and there were as many as 5,000 people in line.
91. In Russia, the most popular dish is sushi, and the Russians love it even more than the Japanese.
92. Now in an ordinary Russian family you rarely meet more than 4 children, and most often there are 1-2 of them, but before the revolution of 1917 in an ordinary Russian family there were at least 12 children.
93. At the moment, the Russian nation is considered the most drinking in the world, but under Ivan the Terrible, people in Russia drank only on holidays, and that wine was diluted with water, and the alcohol strength varied between 1-6%.
94. Tsarist Russia is famous for the fact that in those days it was as easy as bread to buy a revolver in a store.
95. In Russia, in the 30s of the twentieth century, the largest sturgeon in the world was caught in the Tikhaya Sosna River, inside which 245 kg of delicious black caviar were found.
96. Russia is also famous for the fact that farting fish were discovered there in 1980, which the Swedish Navy confused with Soviet submarines, for which they were subsequently awarded the Ig Nobel Prize.
97. The Soviet Union made a huge contribution to the victory over the fascists, therefore, in honor of this outstanding event, a military parade is held annually on Red Square in Moscow on May 9.
98. If you think in terms of international law, then Japan should have been in conflict with Russia since the Second World War due to the fact that the dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands did not contribute to them signing a peace treaty, but nevertheless these countries live in in full agreement with each other.
99. Men aged 18-27 are drafted into the army. It is rare to see the children of politicians, businessmen or celebrities in the army. The majority of servicemen are people who could not find work.
100. Russia is an amazing country that has almost inexhaustible natural resources and a colossal historical and cultural heritage.