RUSSIA Topics Geopolitics of the heartland Global warming in the Arctic From Czars to Soviets to 21st-century Russians Post-Soviet Russia and the Near.

RUSSIA

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

CHAPTER 2• DEFINING

THE REALM

RUSSIA

• 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

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES

RUSSIAPHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

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

Main Physiographic Regions (4)

RUSSIAPHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

The Southern Perimeter

• Central Asian Ranges‒ Lake Baykal—More than

1,500 m (5,000 ft) deep

• Caucasus Mountains—between Black and Caspian Seas

Kamchatka and Sakhalin

• Contact with Pacific Ring of Fire‒ volcanoes/earthquakes

• Sakhalin Island—Battleground between Russia and Japan

• Major oil and natural gas reserves

RUSSIACLIMATES

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 already-fragile offshore environments, will likely increase

RUSSIANATURAL 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)

RUSSIARUSSIAN 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

•Turkic-speaking Tatars‒ Around Slavic/Russian core

in the Volga River Basin and Crimean Peninsula

‒ Tensions between Christian Slavs and Islamic Tatars

Grand Duchy of Muscovy

•14th Century‒ 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

RUSSIABUILDING 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

RUSSIABUILDING 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

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: REGIONS OF THE REALM

RUSSIARussia’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•Population implosion

‒ Population declines as death rate exceeds birth or immigration rates

•Male life expectancy dropped

•Out-migration

Volatile Economy- Emerging markets

Private property, upstart companies, trade, foreign investments, stock exchange

- BRICsWorld’s biggest emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China)

RUSSIANREGIONS

• The Russian Core

• The Southeastern Frontier

• Siberia

• The Russian Far East

RUSSIATHE 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 railroads converge in Moscow from all directions

Povolzhye—Volga Region

• Canal links Volga River 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 one-third of country’s population)

St. Petersburg•Formerly Leningrad

•Russia’s second city

•Population 4.6 million

•Outside Central Industrial Region

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATHE 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

RUSSIATRANSCAUCASIA: RUSSIA’S EXTERNAL PERIPHERY

• Georgia‒ Orthodox Christian‒ Conflicts with Russia

• Azerbaijan‒ Islam‒ Oil‒ Exclave—Naxcivan on

Iranian border‒ Territorial Conflict with

Armenia—Nagorno-Karabakh

• 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.