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 by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country. Russia is a highly urbanised country including 16 population centres with over a million inhabitants. Its capital as well as its largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and its cultural capital.

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. Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. 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. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s 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...

Alexander II of Russia

In this month

Sviatoslav depicted in artwork by Ivan Akimov

Two paskhas with candles (with a kulich and Easter eggs in the background)

Paskha (also spelled pascha, or pasha; Russian: па́сха; [ˈpasxə]; "Easter") is a Slavic festive dish made in Eastern Orthodox countries which consists of food that is forbidden during the fast of Great Lent. It is made during Holy Week and then brought to Church on Great Saturday to be blessed after the Paschal Vigil. The name of the dish comes from Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Easter. Besides Russia, Ukraine, etc. Pasha is also often served in Finland.

Cheese paskha is a traditional Easter dish made from tvorog (like cottage cheese, Russian: творог, romanized: tvorog), which is white, symbolizing the purity of Christ, the Paschal Lamb, and the joy of the Resurrection. It is formed in a mold, traditionally in the shape of a truncated pyramid which symbolizes the first Passover in Egypt, a nod to Christianity's early Jewish beginnings and a reminder that the Last Supper of Jesus was a Passover Seder. Others believe the pyramid is a symbol of the Trinity, the Church; Tomb of Christ). It is usually served as an accompaniment to rich Easter breads called paska in Ukraine and kulich in Russia (where the "paskha" name is also used in the Southern regions) and Poland “Pascha”. The Easter foods; bread and cheese paska are very rich and made of many dairy items given up during Great Lent. They are brought to church on Easter to be blessed by the priest. (Full article...)

Selected biography – show another

Lenin in 1920

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments to the ideology are called Leninism.


Born into an upper-middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brother's 1887 execution. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Tsarist government, he devoted the following years to a law degree. He relocated to Saint Petersburg in 1893 where he became a senior Marxist activist. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye in Siberia—where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya—for three years. After his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent theorist in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). In 1903, he took a key role in the RSDLP ideological split, leading the Bolshevik faction against Julius Martov's Mensheviks. Following Russia's failed Revolution of 1905, he initially campaigned for the First World War to be transformed into a Europe-wide proletarian revolution, which, as a Marxist, he believed would cause the overthrow of capitalism and the rise of socialism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar and established a Provisional Government, he returned to Russia and played a leading role in the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new government. (Full article...)

In the news

12 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine campaign
Six people are killed and at least 19 others are injured in Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (The Kyiv Independent)
12 July 2024 – Gazpromavia Flight 9608
A Gazpromavia Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashes near Kolomna, Moscow Oblast, Russia, killing the crew of three people. (Reuters)
12 July 2024 – Finland–Russia relations, Russian emigration during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Parliament of Finland passes a law allowing border guards to restrict asylum seekers from crossing the Finland–Russia border. (CNN)
11 July 2024 –
CNN reports that American and German intelligence agents foiled a plan by Russia to assassinate Armin Papperger, the CEO of German defence company Rheinmetall. (CNN) (Politico)
10 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Two Ukrainians are killed by Russian drone and missile attacks on a port in southern Odesa Oblast, Ukraine, which damaged port infrastructure, an energy facility, and a civilian ship. (Reuters)

More Did you know (auto generated)

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

WikiProjects

Selected quote

Sergei Prokofiev
In my view, the composer, just as the poet, the sculptor or the painter, is in duty bound to serve Man, the people. He must beautify human life and defend it. He must be a citizen first and foremost, so that his art might consciously extol human life and lead man to a radiant future. Such is the immutable code of art as I see it.

Featured content

Extended content
Featured articles
Featured lists
A-Class articles
Good articles

Topics

Related portals

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