Rossyiah

Russian Empire Российская империя (Russian) Rossiyskaya Imperiya
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem:  "Государственный гимн Российской империя]]" "Gosudarstvennyy gimn Rossiyskoy Imperiya" "State Anthem of the Russian Empire"
Capital and largest city	Moscow
Official language and national language	Russian
Religion (2017)	81% Christianity]] —78% Orthodoxy —3% Other Christian 4% No religion 10% Islam 5% Others
Demonym(s)	Russian
Government	Dominant-party monarchy
• Tsar	Kirill II Romanov
• Prime Minister	Zinon Smeshnoy
• Chairman of the Imperial Revolutionary Organization	Gavril Chernyavsky
• Chairman of the State Duma	Vyacheslav Siyanitsa
Legislature	Assembly of Russia
• Upper house	State Council
• Lower house	State Duma
Formation
• Novgorod built	circa 862
• Kievan Rus	879
• Grand Duchy of Moscow	1283
• Tsardom of Russia	16 January 1547
• Russian Empire	22 October 1721
• Current constitution	12 December 1993
Area
• Total	22,740,655 km2 (8,780,216 sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2020 estimate
• Total	$4.519 trillion
• Per capita	$30,819
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	$1.657 trillion
• Per capita	$11,305
Gini (2018)	37.5 medium
HDI (2018)	0.824 very high
Currency	Russian ruble (₽) (RUB)
Time zone	UTC+2 to +12
Date format	dd.mm.yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+7
ISO 3166 code	RU
Internet TLD	.ru .su .рф

Russia, or the Russian Empire, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.

It is the largest country in the world by surface area, spanning over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones and over 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south. Its territory includes part of Eastern Europe as well as part of Northern Europe and all of Northern and Central Asia. It has five climate zones such as tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population was collectively known as Russian peoples.

Russia covers over 22,402,200 km², spanning more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones.

Russia is administratively divided into Governorates and Governorates General. Moscow is the country's capital and largest city, other major urban areas include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Chelyabinsk and Samara.

History

The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The medieval state of Rus' arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states, until it was finally reunified by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which became a major European power, and the third-largest empire in history. Following the failed Republican Revolution and the following Civil War, the Russian Empire engaged in a phase of institutional, political and economic modernization. The Russian Empire played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, and emerged as a recognised superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War. The Cold War era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. Following the dissolution of the Russian Sphere of Influence in Europe in 1991, the Russian Empire reconstituted itself as a constitutional monarchy. Following the constitutional crisis of 1993, a new constitution, mirroring the Cold War constitution, was adopted.

Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognised nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads. Russia is a major great power, and has been characterised as a potential superpower.

Government and politics

From its initial creation until the 1905 Revolution, the Russian Empire was controlled by its Tsar/Emperor as an absolute monarch, under the system of tsarist autocracy. After the Revolution of 1905, Russia developed a new type of government which became difficult to categorize. In the Almanach de Gotha for 1910, Russia was described as "a constitutional monarchy under an autocratic Tsar". While the emperor retained many of his old prerogatives, including an absolute veto over all legislation, he equally agreed to the establishment of an elected parliament, without whose consent no laws were to be enacted in Russia. The "unlimited autocracy" had given place to a "self-limited autocracy". Whether this autocracy was to be permanently limited by the new changes, or only at the continuing discretion of the autocrat, became a subject of heated controversy between conflicting parties in the state.

The 1917 Republican Revolution attempted to impose a Federal Republic. This attempt ultimately failed and the Russian Civil War broke out. After the 1921 Peace of Petrograd, a new institutional system was devised.

There are three power hierarchies in the Empire: the legislature represented by the Supreme Legislative Council of the Russian Empire (Высший Законодательный Совет), the government represented by the Council of Ministers (Совет Министров), and the Imperial Revolutionary Organization (Имперская революционная организация), a sort of ruling political party . The Emperor retains paramount powers.

Military

The Russian military is divided into the Ground Forces, Navy, and Air Force. There are also three independent arms of service: Strategic Missile Troops, Aerospace Defence Forces, and the Airborne Troops. It is mandatory for all male citizens aged 18–27 to be drafted for a year of service in Armed Forces.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, the second-largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and the only modern strategic bomber force outside the United States. More than 90% of world's 14,000 nuclear weapons are owned by Russia and the United States. Russia's tank force is the largest in the world, while its surface navy and air force are among the largest.

The country has a large and fully indigenous arms industry, producing most of its own military equipment with only a few types of weapons imported. It has been one of the world's top supplier of arms since 2001, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales and exporting weapons to about 80 countries. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, found that Russia was the second biggest exporter of arms in 2010–14, increasing their exports by 37 per cent from the period 2005–2009. SIPRI estimated in 2020 that Russia is the third biggest exporters of arms, only behind the US and China.

Subdivisions

The Russian Empire comprises eighty-nine Governorates (Russian: Провинция) and the Grand Duchy of Finland, in turn subdivided into Governorates. Seven Governorates (Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Sevastopol, Kerch, Nikolayev, Rostov) are Special Cities (Russian: Особые города).

Governors are appointed by the Emperor.

Of these Governorates, some are grouped into four Governorates-General (Russian: Генерал-губернаторство). Governorates-General consist of set of Governorates.

Each Governorate-General is governed by a Governor-General, an high-ranking military officer. The Governor-generals acted as commanders in chief of the armed forces and the supreme civil authority, mostly responsible only to the Tsar. Governor-generals supervise Governors, but do not directly participate in the administration of the subordinated Governorates. As of 2018 there are four Governorates-General:

• Baltic General Governorate;
• Russian Turkestan;
• Caucasus Viceroyalty;
• Grand Duchy of Finland.