Unit 7:
Russia and the Republics
Countries of: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
Vocabulary
1. Cultural diffusion–the process of knowledge, skills, and
technology being spread from one culture to another
2. Demographics–the study of, or information about, people's
lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social
grade, employment, etc.
3. Dictatorship–a country, government, or the form of
government in which absolute power is held by an individual or
party
Political Map
Physical Map
Climates
Population Density
Religions
Languages
Ethnic Groups
Russia
Ethnic Make-up
Russia: 80% Russian,
70 other ethnic groups
Mostly Orthodox
Christians, some Muslims &
Jews also
Physical Characteristics
• 1/6 of Earth’s land
surface
• 12 Time Zones
• Northern European
Plain
• West Siberian Plain
• Central Siberian
Plateau
• Russian Far East
Northern European Plain
• 1,000 miles wide
• Chernozem
• 75% of
population lives
here
• Moscow, Kiev,
and St.
Petersburg
located here
West Siberian Plain
• Ural Mountains:
divides Europe and
Asia
• Eurasia
• Area b/w Ural
Mts. And Yenisey
River
Central Siberian Plateau and Russian Far East
• HIGH plateaus
• Lena River
• Kamchatka Peninsula:
120 volcanoes- 20 still
active
• Sakhalin and Kuril
Islands
• Japan still claims Kuril
Islands even though
they were lost to Russia
after WWII
Southern Landforms
Transcaucasia: Caucasus Mts.
Central Asia: Stans, very arid
b/c of high mts to the south
Turan Plain
• B/w Caspian Sea and
Central Asia
• Syr Darya and Amu
Darya Rivers
• Kara Kum and Kyzyl
Kum Deserts
Rivers
Ob River
Volga River: 60% of
Russia’s river traffic
Lakes
Caspian Sea: largest inland
sea, saltwater lake, tourism
Aral Sea: since 1960 – lost
80% volume, irrigation
Lake Baikal: deepest lake in the
world (1 mile), 20% of world’s
freshwater, 1,200 species unique to
the lake, rather clean
Siberia
1. 32 million ppl
live here
2. -90 degrees to
94 degrees
depending on
the season
3. Permafrost to
HUGE swamps
4. See Russian
Winter ppt
Abundant Resources
• Natural Gas, Oil, Coal, Iron Ore, 1/5 of world’s timber, top
producer of hydroelectricity
• Problem: they’re in Siberia
Climate Factors
• Continentality
• Tundra- arctic region
• Taiga- south of the
tundra
• Steppe – chernozemUkraine through
Kazakhstan
• Desert- Turkmenistan
& Western Uzbekistan
Shrinking Aral Sea
• Between 1960
& today, 80%
lost
• Syr Darya and
Amu Darya
diverted for
irrigation
• Pollution – 24
species of fish
originally, all
gone now
• April 28, 1986
• Nuclear reactor
exploded killing 31
people
• Contaminated 100,000
sq. miles
• Evacuated and
resettled 250,000 ppl
• Costs related to the
disaster are over $300
billion
• Millions exposed to
nuclear radiation
Chernobyl
Trans-Siberian Railroad
Russian Expansion
Emergence of Russia
• Russia Under the
Czars:
• Social Structure was
feudalism until the
1800s
• Serfdom was
abolished in 1861
(start of American
Civil War)
• Czar: variant of
Caesar – oversaw
expansion
Peter the Great
• Famous czar who
expanded from the
Baltic Nations to
the Pacific
• Founded St.
Petersburg as the
new capital
• Reading from book
Catherine the Great
• Famous czarina
• Expanded into
Poland, Belarus,
and the Ukraine
• Reading from
book
Russian Revolution
• 1917 Vladimir Lenin led a
revolt against Czar
Nicholas II
• Nicholas and his entire
family were murdered
(Anastasia story)
• Lenin and the communists
took over
• New country is called
USSR (Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics)
Rise of Communism
• Russian Revolution:
1917 – Czars were
abdicated: gave up their
crowns
• Karl Marx - Marxism
• Set up a Republics
Soviet: governing council
• Supreme Soviet:
Moscow – national laws
• Command Economy: all
businesses are govt.
owned
• Collective Farms: under
Stalin, group farming
Soviet System
• Lenin and Stalin:
Communist Dictatorship
• Millions resisted and sent
to forced labor camps &
prisons in Siberia
• Red Army: Soviet military
• Cold War: nukes, tanks,
jets, subs- world power
Sputnik and the Space Race
• October 4, 1957
• world's first artificial
satellite
• marked the start of the
space age and the U.S.U.S.S.R space race.
End of Communism
• Mikhail Gorbachev: glasnost –
openness in media
• Perestroika: economic
restructuring – gradual change to
capitalism
• Privatization: selling govt. owned
businesses to private indv.
• Boris Yelstin: 1991 – 1st
democratic president
• Vladimir Putin: 2000 – 2nd
democratic president
Distance Decay
• Size & harsh climate make transportation hard
• ¾ raw materials from Siberia
• Rivers frozen in winter
• Railroads: 93,000 mi of track,
• Federal Districts to gain more support over regional leaders (7: Central, FarEastern, Northwest, Siberian, Southern, Urals, and the Volga)
Economic Problems
• Very polluted: oil spills; cancer
• Shortage of money
• 1998 Economic Crash: 40% of
population in poverty
• Inflation: Ruble: >$0.01
• No health care
• Black Market: trade through barter,
off the books
• Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, divorce,
and suicide are on the rise
Russian Mafia
• By 1998 the mafia had
control of 40% of
private companies and
60% of govt. owned
companies
• No tax revenue from
those businesses
• Mother Russia’s
Children
Transcaucasia: Georgia, Armenia, & Azerbaijan
Caucasian Culture
• MANY Languages
(3 families)
• Most are Christian
or Muslim
• Russian territory
until 1991
• 50 different ethnic
groups
Georgia
• Tourism and wine
industry in subtropics
• Tourism slowed with
Abkhazian conflict
• Supras: dinner party
• Walnuts big part of
diet
• Own alphabet
• Mostly Christian
Azerbaijan
• Oil industry
• Lots of underground gas
and oil wells
• Many earthquakes
• Most speak Azeri or
Russian and use a Latin
alphabet
• 93% Muslim
• Democracy
• More Armenians live
outside Armenia than
in it
• Own alphabet
• Lake Sevan is one of
the world’s largest
mountain lakes
• Armenian and Russian
are main languages
• Mostly Christian
• Democracy
Armenia
Chechnya
• Was not released from Russia
at the fall of the Soviet Union
• Russian invasion from 19942001
• Chechens want independence
• Own language, separate ethnic
group
• Russian refuses
Ossetia
• Northern Ossetia is still
part of Russia
• Southern Ossetia is part
of Georgia
• Want independence,
both countries say no
• Resulted in 40,000
refugees
• Truce, but no
independence
Nagorno-Karabakh
• Azerbaijan claims the
region b/c of history
• Armenia claims the
region b/c ¾ of its
population is ehtnic
Armenian
• Cease-fire in 1994 left 1
million refugees
• Now considered an
enclave of Armenia
Central Asia: the “Stans”
The Silk Road
The Great Game
• Struggle between
Russia and Great
Britain for control
of Central Asia
• Soviets won and
held control until
1991
• Soviet nuclear
industry in Northern
Kazakhstan
• Between 1949 – 1989;
Soviets exploded 470
nuclear devices
• 180,000 sq. mi.
effected
• 1 million ppl exposed
to radiation
• Radiation still present
Nuclear Testing
Oil in the Region
• Turkmenistan
and Kazakhstan
have lots of oil
• Oil is the reason
for the Great
Game
Ethnical Problems in Central Asia
• Soviets drew boundary lines
according to largest ethnic groups
• Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen,
and Uzbek
• Not perfect: Uzbeks 24% of
Tajikistan, many Tajiks in
Uzbekistan; Uzbeks are 9% of
Turkmenistan and 14% of
Kyrgyzstan
• Many speak Russian and their
ethnic language
• Most are Muslim
Yurt
Baltic Republics
Baltic Republics
Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania
• Lithuania and Latvia share a similar language,
whereas Estonia’s language is more similar to
Finnish
• Lithuania is Roman Catholic, whereas Latvia and
Estonia are Lutheran
• In 1939 all three were annexed: formally added to
the Soviet Union
• In 1991 they finally gained their independence
Trying to Diversify
• Estonia: mining,
shipbuilding,
manufacturing
• Lithuania: food
processing, shipbuilding,
manufacturing
machinery
• Latvia: productions of
cars, pharmaceuticals,
electrical equipment
Russian Republics
Ukraine
“Little Russia”
• E. Orthodox
• Kiev (capital): 1st Russian
state began here over 1,000
years
• 1920s Soviets forced
farmers to give up land –
Result: ppl burned crops,
govt tried to seize crops &
8 mil died of starvation
• Chernobyl disaster 1986:
12.3 mil acres polluted
• Used to be part of the
Breadbasket of Europe
Belarus
• Mainly Slavic
• Orthodox
• Economy: industry
and services, oil
reserves, potash –
fertilizer
• 1/5 of farmland
contaminated in
Chernobyl disaster
Moldova
• Densely populated
• Former Romanian
principality
• Most people are
Romanian descent
• Exports: wine, sugar
beets, and seed oils
• 98% Eastern Orthodox
Catholic
Effects of Communism