Russia Travel Guide

With 17.075.400 km ² Russia is the vastest State stemming from the dismantling of the USSR (22,4 million km ²) of which it represents ¾ of the surface and half of the population. She(it) stays in the first world rank for the surface (31 times France) and her(its) vast territory shelters an enormous potential in term of mineral and energy resources. Russia conceals immense units of landscapes, lined by the icy ocean Arctic in the North, by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean in the East, the Black Sea in the South. Russia is 32.180 km of coast. She(it) counts 37.653 km of borders with ten countries. More still than the USSR, Russia is centred on high latitudes, beyond the 50th parallel of north latitude and for the third(third party) of its territory beyond the 60th parallel. As the oceanic influences are low(weak), we observe well marked natural zones which succeed one another from north to south with an escalation of the continental character as we go away eastward. Of the North southward, a typology established(constituted) by six elements allows to classify the Russian bioclimatic variety:
The tundra: situated in border of the ocean Arctic and on the northern islands. She(it) covers about 2 million km ². She(it) develops mainly on a relief of plains and low trays and reaches(affects) her(its) maximal extension in Central Siberia between the lower courses(prices) of the Ob and the Lena. The plant landscapes are poor and intermittent, mainly established(constituted) by froths(mosses), by lichens and by plants with bulbs or rhizomes. This vegetation undergoes the double handicap of the climate and the poverty of the ground. The taiga: it is the boreal forest. It is the most characteristic environment(middle) of Russia with which it covers 4,5 million km ² or more than quarter of the surface. As the tundra she(it) extends mainly over plains and low trays. Concerning the plant landscape birches and poplars prevail, fir trees, pines and spruces appear in Europe; in Siberia, black pines and larches are met more frequently. The forests of broad-leaved trees: in the South of the taiga goes on on about 3 million km ² forests of broad-leaved trees with ash trees, with charms in which get involved birches and alders. Grounds more favorable to the agriculture(farming) were very widely cultivated but as in the taiga, they are capable of stuffing themselves with water if they are badly drained and peat bogs and swamps can develop there.
Steppes and meadows: in the South of the forest of broad-leaved trees the period of sunshine increases and with him the hydric deficit. The vegetation adapts itself to these climatic conditions, it is the meadow, the continuous herbaceous training(formation) which takes root in a very fine, colloidal black ground, the tchernoziem. These black lands contain a thick superficial horizon, rich in humus appropriate(clean) for cereal crops. By going southward and is it the summer drought becomes more marked, in the meadow succeeds the steppe. The vegetation is opened to it, bass and sometimes leaves the ground with nude. These landscapes mark the major part of the Russian territory. The Mediterranean environment(middle): he(it) is reduced to a slender fringe along the Black Sea. We cultivate the vineyard(vine), the tobacco but also the tea and the citrus fruits there. Mountains: Outside Ural which cuts in two the vast euro-Siberian plain, Russia possesses two mountainous complexes on its Southern borders, in the East, from the Altai to Kamchatka, in the South the northern hillside of the Caucasus which lengthens(stretches out) on 1.100 km between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The river system is mainly constituted by the Ob (3.700 km); the Yenisei (3.500 km), the Lena (4.400 km), the Amur (4.350 km) which serves as border with China and the Volga (3.500 km) which throws(casts) itself into the Caspian Sea.
Connections with France 2500 km separate Moscow and Paris. The companies Air france et Aeroflot assure(insure) 6 daily flights(thefts). The duration of the flight(theft) is of 3:30 am. By the road, the duration of the journey is of 3 days at least. 2200 km separate Saint-Petersburg and Paris. Besides Air France and Aéroflot, numerous European companies assure(insure) connections towards Saint-Petersburg. It is possible to list(count) on average 2 daily flights(thefts). The duration of the flight(theft) since Paris is of approximately 3 hours(am). By the road, the duration of the journey is of 3 days.
The latitude but especially the estrangement of the ocean and the arrangement(measure) of the relief explain the continental character of the climate, more and more marked eastward, with very rigorous winters, with warm but short-term summers and with reduced intermediate seasons. The major part of the territory knows more than 120 frosty days a year. The thermal amplitudes of central Siberia and Russian Far East can exceed 60 °. The precipitation, more raised(more brought up) on the West, are distributed over all year, with for Moscow a monthly pluviometry averages of 62 mm and a maximum in March (88 mm) and a minimum in July (36 mm). The hygrometric degree is raised(brought up) in Saint-Petersburg.
The latitude but especially the estrangement of the ocean and the arrangement(measure) of the relief explain the continental character of the climate, more and more marked eastward, with very rigorous winters, with warm but short-term summers and with reduced intermediate seasons. The major part of the territory knows more than 120 frosty days a year. The thermal amplitudes of central Siberia and Russian Far East can exceed 60 °. The precipitation, more raised(more brought up) on the West, are distributed over all year, with for Moscow a monthly pluviometry averages of 62 mm and a maximum in March (88 mm) and a minimum in July (36 mm). The hygrometric degree is raised(brought up) in Saint-Petersburg.

Main cities
Moscow
The capital counts 8,54 million inhabitants. Political, economic, administrative, cultural and religious center, it is also the center of the communication network of the country with its four airports and his(her) nine stations. However, Moscow is above all an industrial city. She(it) supplied 1/6th of the volume of the production before 1991. Since, his(her,its) economic weight did not stop increasing(growing). The branch of industry is extremely diversified with in particular the metallic construction, the metal industry of transformation(processing), the food-processing industry, the printing office, the high technologies and the search(research). Furthermore, it is the center of the tertiary and financial sectors of Russia. The Government and all the administrations have their seat(siege) there. Because of its intense industrial activity and of the density of the car traffic, the city suffers numerous problems bound(connected) to the atmospheric pollution. During the 90s, a large-scale migratory current came to mark the demography of the city. Numerous having Russians avoid(flee) campaigns(countrysides) or / and Republics recently independent, came to look in the capital for a work to survive. The economic fabric of the city(estate) not being capable of absorbing their requests, the number of eccentrics and unsold articles increased, and in its trail the urban violence.
Saint-Petersburg
Situated in the mouth of the Neva, this city counts 4,7 million inhabitants. Based(established) in 1703 by Peter the Great who made it the capital of Russia, she(it) him(it) will stay until 1918. City in the very rich historical and architectural heritage, nicknamed " Venice of the North " because of the numerous channels(canals) which cross(go through) her(it) it is an intellectual and university center. It is also an important port(bearing), as well as a railway junction which counts numerous industries (shipbuildings, hatch tools, textile and chemical industries)
Novosibirsk
Administrative centre of the eponymic oblast, situated on the Ob, her(it) is the main city of Siberia with a population of 1,39 million inhabitants. It is an industrial area loaded with the manufacturing of machines tools in particular used for the extraction of ores. This city is connected(bound) with the rest of the Federation by the railroad network (Trans-Siberian railway).
Nijni-Novgorod 1,34 million inhabitants are listed(counted) in this city in the confluence of Oka and the Volga. The harbour activity is its main function(office). It is also a railway junction and an important industrial area (construction of automobiles and aircrafts, textiles(textile industries) and electrical equipment). It was one of the main cities of the North of Europe in the Middle Ages. Today she(it) tries hard to attract(entice) the foreign investors to compensate for the crisis of her(its) industrial device.
Ekaterinbourg 1,3 millions Inhabitants is located on the hillside is mountains Ural is an industrial area (steel industry, mechanical, chemical, food-processing industries). It is also a station crossed by the Trans-Siberian railway. Nicolas II and her family were murdered by the Bolsheviks there in 1918.