CHAPTER 2
• DEFINING
THE REALM
Topics
•Geopolitics of the
“heartland”
•Global warming in the Arctic
•From Czars to Soviets to
21st-century Russians
•Post-Soviet Russia and the
Near Abroad
•Russia’s natural riches
RUSSIA
RUSSIA
MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES
• Largest territorial state in the world
• Northernmost large and populous country
• Stretches west to east some 10,000 km
(6,000 mi) and covers 9 time zones
• Major colonial power—Czars and Soviets to
central government disarray
• Comparatively small population,
concentrated in the west
• Development concentrated west of Ural
Mountains, major cities, leading industrial
regions, transport network, productive
farming areas
• Landlocked multicultural state with few
ports
• Emerging economy highly dependent on
exports of oil and gas
Main Physiographic Regions (4)
The Russian Plain
• Continuation of the North
European Lowland
• Core Area
‒ Moscow
‒ Volga River
• Drains into Caspian Sea
• Heartland—deep within
Eurasian landmass
• Major influence throughout
history on the shaping of
adjacent societies
Siberia
• West Siberian Plain
‒ World’s largest unbroken lowland
‒ Ob River—flows north to Arctic Ocean
• Central Siberian Plateau
‒ High relief, sparsely populated
‒ Yenisey River, Lena River
• Eastern Highlands
RUSSIA
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Kamchatka and Sakhalin
• Contact with Pacific Ring of Fire
‒ volcanoes/earthquakes
• Sakhalin Island—Battleground between Russia
and Japan
• Major oil and natural gas reserves
The Southern Perimeter
• Central Asian Ranges
‒ Lake Baykal—More than
1,500 m (5,000 ft) deep
• Caucasus Mountains—
between Black and Caspian
Seas
RUSSIA
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
RUSSIA
CLIMATES
Harsh Environments
• Moscow farther north than
most major cities
‒ St. Petersburg lies at the
same latitude as the southern
tip of Greenland
• Seasons:
‒ Winters—long, dark, bitterly
cold
‒ Summers—short and
growing season limited
• Continentality—Remote
inland environment without
moderating and moistening
maritime influence
• Permafrost—permanently
frozen groundwater
• Dfb and Dfc Climates
‒ Taiga—”Snowforest”—
boreal forest dominated by
coniferous trees
• E Climates—Arctic
latitudes
‒ Tundra—mosses, lichens,
patches of low grass and
hardy shrubs
Climate and Peoples
• Climate—long-term average
• Weather—atmospheric conditions at a given place and time
• Majority of population concentrated in the west and southwest
• Population in east sparse and clustered along southern margin
Climate Change and Arctic Prospects
• Long-term melting of large sections
of Arctic Ocean ice cover
• Shrinking areas of permafrost
• May improve agriculture
• Possibility of Arctic ports
open year-round—Russian
maritime passage between
Bering Strait and North Sea
• Russian government placed
a metal Russian flag at the
North Pole on the seafloor
under permanent ice of the
Arctic Ocean (2007)
Ecologies at Risk
• Polar bear depends on ample
floating ice to hunt and raise cubs
• Seal, bird, fish and other Arctic
wildlife will be further endangered
• Inuit communities still pursuing
traditional lives in the Arctic
domain losing habitat/food supply
• Oil and gas exploration and
exploitation, occurring in alreadyfragile offshore environments, will
likely increase
RUSSIA
NATURAL RICHES
Vast and Varied
• Oil and natural gas
‒ From North Caucasus to
Sakhalin Island
‒ From western Siberia to
Caspian Basin
• Coalfields
‒ Ural Mountains and Siberia
• Iron ore
‒ From Kursk Magnetic
Anomaly at Ukraine border to
Siberia’s Arctic north
• Gold, lead, platinum, zinc,
nonferrous (non-iron) metals
‒ In and around the Ural
Mountains
• Large Forests and Timber industry
• Animal Trapping for fur
o Example: Amur Leopard (rarest big cat in
the world because of hunting and trapping)
RUSSIA
RUSSIAN ROOTS
Rus—Slav settlements in
the area of Ukraine
• Kiev and Novgorod
combined to form a large
state
‒ Northern taiga forest to
southern steppe (semiarid
grassland)
The Mongol Invasion
• Warfare for power/resources
Grand Duchy of Muscovy
• Turkic-speaking Tatars
• 14th Century
‒ Around Slavic/Russian core
in the Volga River Basin and
Crimean Peninsula
‒ Tensions between Christian
Slavs and Islamic Tatars
‒ Extended Moscow’s trade links from Baltic to Black Sea
‒ Religious ties with Eastern Orthodox Church, Constantinople
• 16th Century
‒ Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
‒ Transformed into major military power and imperial state
RUSSIA
BUILDING THE RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
Czarist Russia
Peter the Great (1682-1725)
• Consolidated Russia’s gains
• Endeavored to make a
modern European-style
state
• Built St. Petersburg
‒ Forward capital
• Founder of modern Russia
Catherine the Great (1760-1796)
• Pushed Russia’s border to Black Sea
• Penetrated corridor between Black and Caspian Seas
• Cossacks advanced from east, crossed Bering Strait, entered Alaska
• U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867
‒ $7.2 million
RUSSIA
BUILDING THE RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
Nineteenth-Century Expansion
• Poland
• Finland
• Central Asia
• Beyond Amur River
‒ Vladivostok City
• Trans-Siberian Railroad
(1892)
• Russo-Japanese War
‒ 1904-1905
‒ Defeated by Japan
‒ Forced out of Manchuria
Multinational Empire
• Annexed and incorporated
many nationalities and
cultures
• More than 100 nationalities
RUSSIA
THE SOVIET UNION
Political Framework
•Revolution of 1917 - social
movement by the multi-ethnic
peoples
•Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR)
‒Vladimir Lenin—communist
leader and chief architect
•Divided into 15 Soviet
Socialist Republics (SSRs)
‒ Russian Republic—largest
SSR
‒ Broadly corresponded to a
major nationality’s territory
‒ Minorities in areas
designated as Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics
(ASSRs)
• Lots of boundary disputes
• Phantom Federation
‒ Moscow maintained absolute control
over the SSRs
• Russification
‒ Moved minority peoples eastward and
replaced with Russians
‒ Substantial ethnic Russian minorities in
all non-Russian republics
‒ Forced relocations
RUSSIA
THE SOVIET UNION
Soviet Economic Framework
• Centrally Planned Economy
‒ Two Objectives
• Accelerate industrialization
• Collectivize agriculture
• Sovkhoz—grain-and-meat factory with
agricultural efficiency through maximum
mechanization and minimum labor
requirements
• Command Economy—
assigned the production of
particular manufactures to
particular places
‒ Government controlled
RUSSIA
THE NEW RUSSIA
• Soviet Union imploded
(December 25, 1991)
• Mikhail Gorbachev
resigned
• SSRs declared their
independence, depriving
Russia of crucial
agricultural and mineral
resources
Complex Cultural Mosaic
• Russians form the majority
• Non-Russian
‒ Caucasus Mountains
• Georgians
• Armenians
• Azeris
‒ Central Asia
• Turkic peoples
RUSSIA
THE NEW RUSSIA
Cities Near and Far
•73% urbanization
•Transcaucasus region less
urbanized
‒ Tbilisi
‒ Baki (Baku)
‒ Yerevan
•Russian Core
‒ Moscow
‒ St. Petersburg
•Historic urban cities
‒ Novgorod
‒ Kazan
‒ Yekaterinburg
•Industrial cities
‒ Omsk
‒ Krasnoyarsk
‒ Novosibirsk
•Far East
‒ Vladivostok
RUSSIA
THE NEW RUSSIA
Near Abroad Countries
• Satellite States
‒ Former eastern Europe and
Soviet republics
• Near Abroad
‒ Newly formed countries that
surround Russia
‒ Former Soviet republics
from Baltic states to
Kazakhstan
• Russia will intervene if
threatened by surrounding
states
‒ Power with UN
‒ Military might
Realm in Flux
• Russian Federation – “managed democracy”
• Improvements in freedom and opportunity
• False-capitalism, corruption, and major
income inequality
‒ 2011—antiregime street protests in Moscow and
other cities
RUSSIA: REGIONS OF THE REALM
IN THIS CHAPTER
• Running a country with
nine time zones
• Moscow: From Soviet
capital to global city
• Where Russia meets China,
Japan, and the Korean
Peninsula
• The cold beauty of Siberia
• Moscow’s explosive growth
RUSSIA
Russia’s Changing Political
Geography
Russia’s New Federal Structure
•1992—Russian Federation Treaty
‒ Republics committed to cooperation
in new federal system
‒ Some units refused to sign,
Chechnya and Tatarstan
•2000—Putin created new
geographic framework
‒ Enhanced the power of Moscow
over its regions
‒ Combined 83 units into 8 new
administrative units
‒ Regional governors to be appointed
rather than elected
A Shrinking Population
•
‒
Volatile Economy
- Emerging markets
Private property, upstart companies, trade, foreign investments,
stock exchange
- BRICs
World’s biggest emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
Population implosion
•
•
Population declines as death
rate exceeds birth or
immigration rates
Male life expectancy
dropped
Out-migration
RUSSIAN
REGIONS
•
•
•
•
The Russian Core
The Southeastern Frontier
Siberia
The Russian Far East
RUSSIA
THE RUSSIAN CORE
• Core Area
‒ Population concentration,
biggest cities, leading
industries, densest
transportation networks,
most intensively cultivated
lands
• Extends from western
border to the Ural
Mountains
Central Industrial Region
• Oriented toward Moscow
• Centrality—roads and
Povolzhye—Volga Region
railroads converge in
• Canal links Volga River
Moscow from all directions with the lower Don River
and the Black Sea
• Significant oil and gas
reserves
The Urals Region
• Eastern edge
• Not particularly high
• Metallic mineral resources
Moscow
•Urban, political, economic
and transportation systems
focus
•Population of 13 million
•Megacity hub of an area
comprising some 50 million
inhabitants (more than onethird of country’s population)
St. Petersburg
•
•
•
•
Formerly Leningrad
Russia’s second city
Population 4.6 million
Outside Central Industrial
Region
RUSSIA
THE SOUTHEASTERN FRONTIER
• Southeastern flank of the
Ural Mountains to the
headwaters of the Amur
River
• Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbas)
‒ Raw Materials, Iron, Coal
‒ Novosibirsk: Intersection of
Trans-Siberian Railroad and
the Ob River
• Lake Baykal Area
‒ Mining, lumbering, and
farming
‒ Surrounded by rugged,
remote, and forbidding
country
‒ Irkutsk: Principal service
center for Siberian region
SIBERIA
• Ural Mountains to the Kamchatka Peninsula
• Larger than United States, population only 15 million
• Russia’s freezer
• Resources - Oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, precious
minerals, metallic ores including iron ore and bauxite
• Major rivers - Ob, Yenisey, Lena
‒ Flow northward/ Hydroelectric power in river basins
RUSSIA
THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST
• Largest Federal District
• Area beyond the
Southeastern Frontier to the
Pacific coast, the island of
Sakhalin, the Kamchatka
Peninsula
• Significant reserves of oil
and natural gas
• Potential trade with Japan
and China
RUSSIA
THE SOUTHERN
PERIPHERY
8 Ethnic Republics
• Kalmykiya
‒ Buddhism
• Adygeya
‒ Orthodox Christian
• Chechnya
‒ Refused to sign the Russian
Federation Treaty
•
•
•
•
•
Ingushetiya
Dagestan
North Ossetia
Karachayevo-Cherkessiya
Kabardino-Balkarita
RUSSIA
TRANSCAUCASIA: RUSSIA’S
EXTERNAL PERIPHERY
• Georgia
‒ Orthodox Christian
‒ Conflicts with Russia
• Azerbaijan
‒ Islam
‒ Oil
‒ Exclave—Naxcivan on
Iranian border
‒ Territorial Conflict with
Armenia—NagornoKarabakh
• Armenia
‒ Christian
‒ Landlocked
Homework
1. Read Textbook Chapter 2a/b
2. Homework:
• Choose one “@from the Field Notes”
subsection topic in Ch.2 textbook; research
and summarize (1 page).
OR
• Choose a realm/region within or adjacent
to Russia to review in detail (1 page). Use
Chapter 2b for ideas and information,
research and summarize.