Russia

Overview

Russia has for many years been a land of mystery and intrigue to Westerners. For hundreds of years, depending on the direction of political winds, Russia has been an enigma, a friend, or an enemy of the West.

It is a miraculous country and still mysterious to many foreigners, with many cultural and historic treasures, unspoiled nature; and industrious, bright and hospitable people. Russia mothered Peter and Catherine the Great, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tchaikowsky, Nabokov, among others, who have contributed to the rich cultural heritage.

Russia is geographically enormous, far larger than Canada or the United States. It is still the biggest country in the world, stretching from Poland to Korea and from the Polar Regions to the deserts Asia. It is also the country with the most number of neighbors in the world.

On this huge landmass there are many of the worlds greatest sights to discover. St. Petersburg and Moscow are surely exciting places to start your sightseeing of Russia, with world class museums, churches and other historic centers well worth exploring.

Siberia

Siberia has a reputation for freezing cold, banishment and husky dogs, and I can fully assure you that it lives up to every one of these preconceptions. Travelling on the Trans-Mongolian Express, I arrived in the Siberian Capital of Irkutsk at a mild -17 degrees, to find myself greeted by stony faced fur clad women who looked like they belonged more to the 19th century, than a modern, G8 member nation.

During the 19th century, Irkutsk was the `Paris of the...more

History

Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1928-53) strengthened Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15 independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period. While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and an erosion...more