Jump to content

Portal:Russia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome to The Russia Portal

The flag of Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, and extends across eleven time zones; sharing land borders with fourteen countries. Russia is the most populous country in Europe and the ninth-most populous country in the world. It is a highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and cultural centre.

Human settlement on the territory of modern Russia dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. The East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated; the Grand Duchy of Moscow led the unification of Russian lands, leading to the proclamation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics, within which it was the largest and principal constituent. The Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s, amidst the deaths of millions under Joseph Stalin's rule, and later played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for ideological dominance and international influence. The Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space. (Full article...)

Featured article

  Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Selected picture

Did you know...

Kirill Eskov

In this month

Nativity Cathedral built by Dmitrievich (ca. 1405)

Glass of mors

Mors (Russian: морс) is a Russian non-carbonated fruit drink prepared from berries, generally lingonberries and cranberries (alternatively bilberries, strawberries, raspberries or sea-buckthorn may be used), popular in Russia, Ukraine and other Slavic countries. (Full article...)

Selected biography – show another

Ordzhonikidze in 1937

Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 24 October [O.S. 12 October] 1886 – 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman.

Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an early age and quickly rose within the ranks to become an important figure within the group. Arrested and imprisoned several times by the Russian police, he was in Siberian exile when the February Revolution began in 1917. Returning from exile, Ordzhonikidze took part in the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. During the subsequent Civil War he played an active role as the leading Bolshevik in the Caucasus, overseeing the invasions of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR), which helped form the Soviet Union in 1922 and served as the First Secretary of the TSFSR until 1926. (Full article...)

In the news

13 April 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
During Palm Sunday, two Russian Iskander-M ballistic missiles carrying cluster munitions strike the centre of Sumy, Ukraine, killing at least 31 people and wounding 84 others. (ABC News) (BBC News)
12 April 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon is downed during combat operations against Russian forces, with the pilot killed in action. (Ukrinform)
11 April 2025 – Russia–United States relations
The U.S. president's special envoy Steve Witkoff meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss settlement options for the Russo-Ukrainian war and a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Putin. (CBS News)
10 April 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
A video leaked by Ukrainian officials and verified by the Associated Press shows Russian soldiers summarily executing four Ukrainian prisoners of war last month in Piatykhatky, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. (AP)

More Did you know (auto generated)

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

WikiProjects

Selected quote

Yuri Gagarin
I could have gone on flying through space forever.
Extended content
Featured articles
Featured lists
A-Class articles
Good articles

Topics

Tasks

Things you can do Привет and Welcome! The following is a list of things you can do:

Russian editions of Wikimedia projects

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Wikiproject information

Discover Wikipedia using portals