User:Andymilson/RussiaSandbox

Sandbox for the Russia Group - GEOG 2302 - Fall 2018
They don't have anything about the culture/people of Russia so any additions regarding those things would be good.They literally have only one sentence on the population and it's just the population number.


 * Information about the landscape of Russia seems lacking as much of the information does not go into detail such as the distance of the landscape such as the Alp Mountains of the European Plains so information on the landscape would be needed to make the geography of the landscape on Russia much more informative to the reader.

Population Geography
Population geography is the study of a country's patterns of migration, growth and decrease of population related to location. It is helpful in understanding the region's population changes that have occurred over time.

Population
Russia has had a population crisis over the past recent years. Currently, Russia's population is at about 144.3 million people. Russia is ranked as having the 9th largest populations of any country in the world. However over time the population of Russia has been on a gradual decline over time as less children are being born thus meaning that as time goes on, there will be a point in where there won't be enough young people to be able to care for the older generation when the time does come. Russia has the third largest population of immigrants that account for about 8 percent of the population.

Urban
Russia's capital, Moscow, has 12.166 million people; Saint Petersburg 4.993 million; Novosibirsk 1.497 million; Yekaterinburg 1.379 million; Nizhniy Novgorod 1.212 million; and Samara 1.164 million. List of cities and towns in Russia by population. This makes Moscow not only the most populated city in Russia but also the most populated city in Russia.
 * As of 2017, 74.29 percent of the population is urbanized

Population Ethnicity
Russia's distribution of ethnicities is as follows, 77.7% Russian, 3.7% Tatar, 1.4% Ukrainian, 1.1% Bashkir, Chuvash 1%, 1% Chechen, 10.2% Other, 3.9% Unspecified.

Population Pyramid
The most recent population pyramid presents the fertility rate in Russian society. It shows less women are having babies, since the number of children born into society are less than the amount of women in child bearing ages. This can be proven by showing the statistics provided by the population pyramid. The population pyramid provides a visual trend to show how the population is decreasing since women aren't having as much children to replace their generation. The Life expectancy of the population is that for males typically have a life expectancy of 63 years of age and females have a life expectancy of 75 years of age.

Fertility Rate
The fertility rate in Russia has declined over the last 40 years. This proves that women are not having enough children recommended for replacement level based on Russia's population growth. The population pyramid provides a visual trend for fertility rate patterns in Russia.

Birth Rate
In 2017, The Russian State Statistics Agency recently registered 203,400 fewer births when compared to numbers in 2016. This shows a rate drop of around 10.7%. Previously in 2007 there were comparatively much higher numbers for this rate when 1.6 million births were recorded. According to social analysis expert Ramilya Kasanova, who works for the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Registration (RANEPA), most women of child bearing age were born in the 1990's, which would help further explain the decline, or the projected decline of the low birth rates for the next 15 years.

Literacy Rate
For men the average rate of literacy is 99.7%, while for women it is 99.6%, making the total population literacy rate 99.7%. This shows a very high level of development when compared to the rest of the world.

Unemployment Rate
Considering the total population, the unemployment rate is 5.5%. For Russian youth ages 15-24, the unemployment rate for males is 15.4%, 17% for females, and a total rate of 16.1%. These statistics make Russia ranked 85th in the world.

Labor Force
The total work force of Russia is 76.53 Million, ranking 7th in the world. The labor force is 9.4% agriculture, 27.6% industry, and 63% services.

Migration Rate
Russia has a migration rate of 1.7 migrants per 1,000 citizens. Russia is ranked 52nd in the world in this regard. Russia also has the third largest emigration population in the world People began to migrate to Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Today, Russia maintains strong cultural, political, and economic ties with residents of former Soviet states-reflected in ongoing migration patterns- which helps strengthen with its citizenship policy.

Federal Subjects
Russia is split into 85 federal subjects, which can be divided into six different subdivisions: 22 republics (represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity), nine krais, 46 oblasts, three federal cities, one autonomous oblast, and four autonomous okrugs.

Culture Geography
Cultural Geography has been defined to be the study of the relationship between culture and place. It is primarily focused on, but not limited to, the examination of cultural values, cultural diversity, distribution of culture over space, place and identity production, the production of people's ability to communicate, and the ability of peoples to produce knowledge and meaning. Russia displays a diverse cultural geography in which multiple groups of ethnic Indo-European peoples reside, including Slavs, Ukrainians, Serbs, Poles, and other Eastern Europeans. Other groups from Southwest Russia include Chechens, Ingushetians, DGegestanis, with Turkics, Tatars, Chucash, Bashkirs and Sakha who may also derive from the Middle Volga area or Caucasus área. The religious spectrum includes but is also not limited to Christianity (Russian Orthodox Church), Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. With ethnic, political, and migratory movements, and including invasions of many kinds, population patterns and policies have had long lasting effects on Russia's cultural landscape and may pertain to more changes in the future for the country.

Language
About 81 percent of Russia society speak Russian as their main language, but many of the citizens also speak English as a secondary language. Russia is, also, a society dominated by at least 100 different minority languages within its regional areas. Its most popular minority language is Dolgang. Russian is is the most widely spread out of the Slavic languages. For example, Russian is the seventh most spoken language in the world. It is one of the six official languages spoken in the United States, as well. Russian belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of the four languages of the East Slavic language.

Religion
Russia's life has always been centered around religion. There are 5,000 religious associations registered in Russia and more than half follow the Russian Orthodox Church. Islam is the second largest religion with Christianity being the third.

Sacred Places
Names and locations sacred in Russia
 * Alexander Nevsky Monastery(St. Petersburg)
 * Andronikov Monastery(Moscow)
 * Cathedral of Christ the Savior(Moscow)
 * Cathedral of the Annunciation(Moscow)
 * Cathedral of the Archangel(Moscow)
 * Cathedral of the Assumption(Moscow)
 * Choral Synagogue(Moscow)
 * Church of the Savior on Blood(St. Petersburg)
 * Danilov Monastery(Moscow)
 * Holy Trinity Lavra(Sergiev Posad)
 * Ivolginksy Datsan(Ivolginsk)
 * New Jerusalem Monastery(Moscow)
 * Novodevichy Convent(Moscow)
 * Novospassky Monastery(Moscow)
 * Peter and Paul Cathedral(St. Petersburg)
 * Solovetsky Islands(Russia)
 * St. Basil's Cathedral(Moscow)
 * St. Isaac's Cathedral(St. Petersburg)

Folk Culture
The homeland is an important mark on Russian culture. Family is seen as a high value within Russian society since the influence of the soviet union placed a lack of trust on those outside of the family and extended family. Because Russian citizens suffered under the influence of communism, people had to turn to other family members to share resources to survive hardships.

Russia also has a lot of Russian folklore descended from the Slavic myths and traditions. For instance there are characters that depicted in a bright image while some also betray some traditional roots. The comparison of the Baba Yaga who is a witch who lives in a house on top of chicken legs and has a surrounded fence of skulls and bones. While the other is Fire bird who is seen as an enchanted character and is difficult to catch  catching one of its feathers is seen as a challenge for the hero.

Both of these folklore tales can be seen as a good or bad but according to Bradford "must never be antagonized."

Popular Culture
Recent popular culture in Russia includes new music trends which highlight Russian Language hip-hop, an emphasis on digital trends, such as a fervor for social media, which includes but is not limited to Russian based Youtube channels as opposed to state sponsored television channels. There has also been a movement in which business downshifting has allowed for more Russians to stay closer to home to enjoy things such as camping or hiking in the homeland, and allowing locales to further take pleasure in the currents arts and crafts movement. Political protests are nothing new, yet more and more Russians, especially women, are taking more of an interest in this shift of action to ensure that more voices are heard. Furthermore with regards to the popular culture within the political arena, 2018 also marked the anniversary of the assassination of the Romanovs, and includes the 200th birthday of Karl Marx.

Sports
The National Sport of Russia is Bandy, though it is considered the 3rd most popular sport in Russia behind Ice Hockey and Football (American Soccer). Russia was the host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with a total of 12 stadiums across 11 cities hosting games. These stadiums and cities are as follows; Kalingrad Stadium in Kalingrad,Kazan Arena in Kazan, Luzhniki Stadium and Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod Stadium in Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov Arena in Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Samara Arena in Samara, Mordovia Arena in Saransk, Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Volgograd Arena in Volgograd, and Ekaterinburg in Yekaterinburg.

LGBTQ Rights
While it is not inherently illegal to be in a gay relationship in Russia, same sex marriages are not recognized in Russia. Same sex sexual activities were pronounced no longer a criminal offense in 1993. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness until 1999. In 2013 President Vladimir Putin approved the outlawing of promoting a gay lifestyle to minors.

National Anthem
The Russian national anthem is called "Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii", (National Anthem of the Russian Federation). Russia's national anthem was created by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexanrov, Sergey Mikhalkov, and Gabriel El-Registan. Alexander Vasilyevich composed the music while Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan created the lyrics. The anthem is actually an adaption from the Soviet Union's 1944 anthem.

Borders and boundaries
The geography of the country of Russia is an interesting one as while there is no official division line in the country, there are two regions within the country that if the country where to be divided into two sections, those would be the European Russia region of the country, located to the west of the Ural Mountains and it is where most of the population and more favorable climates are located in, and Eurasian, located to the East of the Ural Mountains in which the harsher climates and where most of the least populated areas in the country are located in.

Border Disputes
There was some dispute with its neighboring country Belarus as in early 2017 they introduce free-visa and a few months afterwards Russia put border control along the border between the two countries, which has affected Belarus state-run airlines income, Moscow responded back by saying that this measure was being taken so that it could prevent the growing threat of terrorism.

Government
Russia's government has an Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and Judicial Branch. Chief of State has been President Vladimir Putin, since May 7th, 2012. The Legislative Branch is made of the Federation Council, 170 seats, 4 year terms. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is made of 170 members divided up into the The Judicial Panel for Criminal Affair, The Judicial Panel for Civil Affairs, and The Military Panel.


 * Suffrage is given at the age of 18 and is universal.

Political Parties
The list of Russian political parties and their leaders are as follows:


 * A Just Russia (Sergey Mironov)
 * Civic Platform (Rifat Salakhutdinov)
 * Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Gennady Zyuganov)
 * Liberal Democratic Party (Vladimir Zhirinovsky)
 * Rodina (Aleksei Zhuravlyov)
 * United Russia (Dmitry Medvedev)

Agricultural Geography
One billion acres of land is arable in Russia but only about 0.1 percent is permanent agriculture. The landscapes that decorates the region is one of the most varied environments because of the following:


 * Tundra landscapes that cover most of the region, where conditions are harsh because of the cold climates and plant life is not very well supported to grow because of the harsh conditions, this has become a problem with agriculture as the unfavorable condition make agriculture more difficult.
 * Mountain Ranges also are spread through the the region such as the Ural Mountains which have become the division line between European Russia Eurasia Russia and if the region were to be divided into two, this is where it would be divided
 * In the region of European Russia, it is also has the European plains which extend about 2,000 miles.

When it comes to the number on the workforce that is involved in agriculture workforce it was reported to be about 9.4% of the population in 2016

The main export of Russia is grain which is about 6% of the the world trade, other products that are exported include fish and oil with 3%, meals with 2%, and meat which accounts for less that 1%.

Climate
In general, Russia's climate ranges from warm, hot dry summers to frigid winters with heavy snowfall. It is difficult to generalize Russia's climate since it almost has all the climate zones of the world expect the tropical climates. Thus, Russia's climate has been divided into three sections: Northern and Central European Russia, Siberia, and Southern European Russia.

Northern & Central European Russia
This area of Russia has the most varied climate. During the summer, the climate is mainly dry and sunny which would typically last for nine hours. The region along the Baltic coast is the mildest. Starting in early October is when winter begins for Russia. The winters are quite cold with frost and snowfall.

Siberia
Siberia is the region with the most extreme climate in Russia. The summers are warm to hot in this area. Siberia has intense winters because the climate is mostly dry with strong winds/snowstorms and very low temperatures. Winter usually lasts from the end of October to mid March. The coldest place in Russia is Oimjakon in the central Sibirian region. Also, the Artic sea is ice-bound from November to the end of March.

Southern European Russia
This regions's climate is mediterranean influenced. Southern European Russia has hot, dry summers, especially the Russian Steppes.The north and northeastern areas near the Black Sea have milder winters. However, this region has frequent rainfall all year long.

Pre-industrial Agriculture
Agriculture has always been important for Russia. Russia's land was worked by its peasant class.

Russian Economy
The recent falling in the Russian economy has turned and its momentum is expected to peak at a modest 3.1% in 2018. Russia has shown further macro-economic security, by continuing its recovery, which has been intensified by non trading sectors. Higher energy prices, which has heightened the trade surplus, has proven to also continue the trend in strengthening the current economy. A Central Bank cleansing, has helped the State controlled banking assets growth, which helped the almost 70%increase with combined assets for the Russian Banking system. With focus on a new digital infrastructure, new socio-economic benefits can only happen with the implementation of newer policies that can sustain and accelerate this transformation. Although the outlook is mostly positive, the paradigm shift from the still recovering economy, forecasts show that this may not fully happen until the year 2020.

Trade
Russian foreign trade exports are mainly derived from oil and petroleum (gas and coal), steel, metals and minerals. The emphasis in export is mainly focused on the oil and petroleum industry. Other important exports include machinery, equipment, fertilizer, timber, and natural gas. CIS countries heavily rely on the Russian export industry, as it provides most of their needs. Russia imports machinery and equipment, vehicles, consumer goods, foodstuff, chemical products, and industrial consumer goods. Major trading partners with Russia are Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and Finland.

Russia's GDP
Russia's GDP was 1.578 trillion USD in (2017)

Russia's GDP per capita was 10,743.10 USD ‎(2017)

Russia's Gross National Income
was 3.655 trillion PPP dollars ‎(2017)

Currency
The Russian Ruble is Russia's money.

1 Russian Ruble = 0.015 United States Dollar.

Poverty
In 2015, it was estimated that about 13.3% of the population lives below the poverty line in Russia.

“Russia Country Profile.” BBC News, BBC, 16 July 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17839672.

“Russian Migration: In and Out.” The Globalist, 25 May 2018, www.theglobalist. com/russia-migration-population-india-mexico/.