brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1924-53) 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. A determined guerrilla conflict still
plagues Russia in Chechnya.

Geography Russia

Location: Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is sometimes
included with Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and
the North Pacific Ocean

Geographic coordinates: 60 00 N, 100 00 E

Map references: Asia

Area: total: 17,075,200 sq km water: 79,400 sq km land: 16,995,800 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly less than 1.8 times the size of the US

Land boundaries: total: 19,990 km border countries: Azerbaijan 284
km, Belarus 959 km, China (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km,
Estonia 294 km, Finland 1,313 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km,
North Korea 19 km, Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 227 km,
Mongolia 3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206 km,
Ukraine 1,576 km

Coastline: 37,653 km

Maritime claims: continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of
exploitation exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM

Climate: ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in
much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the
polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in
Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast

Terrain: broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest
and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border regions

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m highest point:
Gora El'brus 5,633 m

Natural resources: wide natural resource base including major deposits
of oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber note:
formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder exploitation
of natural resources

Land use: arable land: