1. Identify the two continents that Russia expands across.

2. What mountain range separates Russia into two continents?

Europe and Asia

Europe and Asia

Ural Mts.

1. Russia is the largest country in the world in land area. How does it compare in terms of population?

2. Where do most people in Russia live?

3. Why is only 26% of the population east of the Ural Mts. ?

Europe and Asia

U.S. has almost twice the population as Russia

Urban areas

Because of the harsh, cold climate

Russia is so large---it runs through 11 time zones!

1. What is the capital of Russia?

2. How many major cities are within the Arctic Circle?

3. What Russian city is a port on the Baltic Sea and is disconnected with the rest of Russia?

Moscow

Eight

Kaliningrad

RussianPort Cities

Murmansk Kaliningrad VladivostokSt. Petersburg

Siberia!A convict village in Siberia, early 1900s. Siberia became an important area for the exile of political and criminal prisoners. Lenin and Stalin were numbered among the famous Siberian exile community.

Be good or I’ll send you to…

When a Westerner hears "Siberia", images of frozen tundra and prison camps come to mind. But things are changing even in this lost region.

The Asian part of Russia (east to Ural Mountains) is called Siberia. Siberia is usually sub-divided into Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia and Far East.

The Trans Siberian RailroadAt about 10,000 KM or just under 6,000 miles the Trans-Siberian Railway

covers over 1/3 of the circumference of the Earth and is the world's longest railroad.

Novosibirsk  The 1.5-million Novosibirsk is the third largest city of Russia after Moscow (8M) and St. Petersburg (5M) and the chief city of Western Siberia. Born in 1893 as a future site of a railroad bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob where the latter is crossed by the famous Trans-Siberian Railroad (built in 1890s - 1900s), it officially became a town in 1903. Now it is the unofficial capital of Siberia.

1. Where is the tundra—large, treeless region where only the top few inches of ground thaw during the summer-- found in Russia?

2. What do you call the world’s largest forest area?

3. What lake is the world’s deepest freshwater lake?

Siberia

taiga

Lake Baikal

Siberia Tundra

Taiga

Taiga – huge forests of evergreen trees that grow in subarctic regions.

Animals of the Taiga

Taiga

Tundra

Tundra – vast, rolling, treeless plain in high latitude climates in which only the top few

inches of ground thaw in summer.

A caribou grazing in the tundra.

Lake Baikal

Moscow

Moscow is the capital of Russia and the

governmental center of the center of the

Central region. It is Russia’s largest city and a top economic and cultural center; Moscow is an inland

port.

Moscow

• The Kremlin

• Moscow is laid out in a series of concentric rings that center on the original medieval fortress, the Kremlin. The encircling wide boulevards, the Boulevard Ring, Garden Ring, and Outer Ring Road, delineate the historic expansion of the city.

• Most visitors start a tour of Moscow with the Kremlin and Red Square. Famed for its abundance of cathedrals and the heart of the Russian Government, visitors are immediately confronted with Moscow's contradictions as stunning historic cathedrals stand within a stone's throw of the most architecturally modern and somewhat gloomy edifice of Lenin's Mausoleum.

The Kremlin Walls, the walls of the Kremlin are 19 metres high and six-and-a-half metres thick and are the resting place for the Bolsheviks who died during the battle for Moscow in 1917. Also retained in the walls are the ashes of Maxim Gorky and Yuriy Gagarin, the first man in space.

• The Red Square (Krasnaja Ploshad) was a market place in the fifteenth century and acquired its present name in the seventeenth century.

• Red does not refer to Communism but derives from the old Russian word 'krasniy' meaning beautiful.

• Well known for its May Day parades during the Soviet regime, it is the site of Lenin's Mausoleum and the colorful Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed, with its domes, towers and spires, each bearing a distinctive pattern and color.

• Behind the Mausoleum is the Kremlin wall which contains a mass grave of Bolsheviks who perished during the battle for Moscow in 1917, together with the ashes of a number of well-known Russians, including writer Maxim Gorky and Yuriy Gagarin, the first man in space.

St. Basil’s Cathedral

• The cathedral, sitting at the far end of Red Square, with colorful, onion-shaped domes and spires, has graced the square for over four centuries.

• Built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's capture of the Mongol stronghold of the Kazan in 1552, it’s named after St Basil the Blessed who foretold the Moscow fire of 1547 and whose remains were buried on this site.

• For more than four centuries this remarkable building has survived numerous fires, natural disasters and enemy invasions to delight and astound all who see it.

The Kremlin, in Moscow, includes four palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin Towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the president of Russia.

The Kremlin takes up one side of Red Square

The Kremlin's three corner towers are round in shape and include the Vodozvodnaya (Corner Water Pump) Tower, which stands on the bank of the Moscow River near the Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge.

It was the first tower in all of Moscow to install a machine for drawing up water from the river, and supplied the Kremlin palaces and gardens with a daily supply.

The tower was built in 1488 and is almost 59 meters tall.

Most remarkable of the Kremlin's towers has to be the Gothic-spired Spasskaya (Savior's) Tower, which was built in 1491 The gate was reputed to have miraculous powers and to have saved Moscow from invasion many times. As people walked under the tower they would cross themselves and doff their hats in respect.

When Napoleon rode through the gates in 1812 without observing this custom, it's said his horse shied and his hat fell off, confirming the Russian's belief in its miraculous powers.

St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg is Russia’s second largest city and its previous capital. It’s a major port, rail joint, and trade, cultural, and scientific center. The seaport is one of the world’s largest, but handles somewhat little traffic because the size of foreign trade for Russia is small.

This amazing Old Russian-style church (in St. Petersburg) was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated on March 1, 1881.

The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood

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