Russia: Physical Geography

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CURVING AROUND THE NORTH POLE in a huge arc, Russia (the Russian Federation) spans almost half the globe from east to west and about 4,000 kilometers from north to south. Divided into eleven time zones [timezone map], Russia is by far the world's largest country. It occupies much of Eastern Europe and northern Asia [ruwor] . The country's terrain is diverse, with extensive stands of forest, numerous mountain ranges, and vast plains.

On and below the surface of the land are extensive reserves of natural resources [ruoil] that provide the nation with enormous potential wealth. Russia ranks sixth in the world in population, trailing China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. The population is as varied as the terrain. Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians) are the most numerous of the more than 100 European and Asiatic nationalities.

The Ural Mountains [ruphysq] [rueleves], which extend more than 2,200 kilometers from north to south, form the boundary separating the unequal European and Asian [wweuctsm] sectors of Russia. The continental divide continues another 1,375 kilometers from the southern end of the Ural Mountains through the Caspian Sea and along the Caucasus Mountains. Asian Russia is about as large as China and India combined, occupying roughly three-quarters of the nation's territory. But it is the European western quarter that is home to more than 75 percent of Russia's inhabitants [rupopden]. This acutely uneven distribution of human and natural resources is a striking feature of Russian geography and population. Despite government attempts to settle people in sparsely populated Asian areas abundant in resources [ruoil], this imbalance persists.

Russia's topography includes the world's deepest lake and Europe's highest mountain and longest river. The topography and climate [ruclimat], however, resemble those of the northernmost portion of the North American continent [naclimat]. The northern forests and the plains bordering them to the south find their closest counterparts in the Yukon Territory and in the wide swath of land extending across most of Canada. The terrain, climate, and settlement patterns of Siberia are similar to those of Alaska and Canada.

The text above is from RUSSIA: A Country Study
[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ru0056)]