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What comes to mind when you think of Russia? Tundra? Snow? Probably. But
today we’re going to take a look at the Russia you’ve never seen before.
Given that it’s the world’s biggest country, it has quite a bit of
diversity within its borders. It’s not all snow and ice! These are some
Really Cool Facts About Russia You Might Not Know.
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Lake Baikal contains more than one fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh
water. Russia as a country contains one quarter of the world's unfrozen
fresh water.
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Moscow is the biggest city in Europe with
13 million people. London comes second with 8 million.
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The highest mountain in Europe is Mount Elbrus which can be found in the
Caucasus Range. It stands at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft).
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The busiest metro system in Europe can be found in Moscow with an
average daily ridership of over 6 million people.
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On the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia, you can go trekking on
volcanoes. Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the highest active volcano in both
Europe and Asia.
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As the biggest country in the world, Russia contains 10% of the Earth's
arable land.
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The Volga River is the longest river in Europe.
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Why so many divisions? Well, only 80% of Russia is actually ethnically
Russian. The country is home to more than 160 different ethnic groups.
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As many of you may know, Russia has played a huge part in space
exploration. In fact, Russian and English are the two official languages
of the International Space Station.
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After the
United States (46 million), Russia has the second largest number of
immigrants in the world (12 million). A lot of them are from former
Soviet countries.
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More than 100 languages are spoken within Russia's borders. And remember
those republics? Many of them have their own official languages.
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Russia has the largest energy and mineral reserves of any country in the
world and provides Europe with most of its oil.
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With the world's largest forest reserves, Russia has been called the
"Lungs of Europe." It's second only to the Amazon in the amount of
carbon dioxide that it absorbs.
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Russia has 15 cities with a population of over 1 million people. This is
largely due to a highly urbanized population. |