Russia is officially known as the Russian Federation. Russia Sprawls across Eastern Europe and northern Asia. It is world's largest country, which covering almost twice the territory of the next largest country, Canada. Moreover, Russia is most populous country and it ranks the eighth number according to population. Russia surrounded by some countries like, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. Moreover, United States, Canada, Armenia, Iran, Turkey and Japan are also Russia's neighbors. Russia is an owner of mostly mineral resources. Moscow is a capital as well as largest city of the country.
Russian state had been grown up during 14th and 15th centuries, and it reached its greatest size in 1914 before the First World War. In 1917, Russia had faced the Great Russian Revolution, at that time the Russian monarchy was overthrown by Bolsheviks. In 1922, the world's first communist state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed Formerly the dominant republic of the USSR, Russia is today on independent country and a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was officially known as the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR).
In 1991, the USSR broke up. After that Russian started transforming itself into a more democratic society with an economy based on market mechanisms and principles. At that time Russia's global role was greatly diminished.

Ancient Rus: - During the third to sixth centuries, Goths, Huns and Turkish Avars came to Russia and stayed there while during the 8th century, Turkic people and the khazars ruled the western portion of the southern steppes. They were removed by a group of Scandinavians and the Varangians, who formed a capital at the Slovic city of Novgorod and then morged with Slavic ruling classes. The Slavs made up the population from the 8th century onwords and slowly assimilated the Scandinavians and native Finno- Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera.
Imperial Russia: - While still nominally under the territory of the Mongols the duchy of Moscow began to declare its influence and at last removed the control of the invaders late in the 14th century.
The Crimean Khanate controlled the Russian state. Russians captured by nomads were sold on Crimean slave markets. In 1571 the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girei, with a horde of 1,20,000 horsemen, create great destruction in Moscow. Annually thousands of Russians attacked by nomads. Many soldiers protected the southern borderland.
At the beginning of the 16th century the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Mongolian invasion and to protect the borderland.
In 1469, Ivan the Great first took the title "Grand duke of all the Russia", married to Sophia Paleologue, a Byzantine Princess, and then he consolidated surrounding territories under Moscow's domination. In 1547, his grandson Ivan the Terrible became the first Tsar of Russia at the age of sixteen. At the end of 16th century Russian Cossacks formed the first settlements in Western Siberia. In 1648 the Cossack Semyon Decanal founded the strait between America and Asia. The greater Russian Empire was born. In 1613, tsar Michael Romano ruled. From 1689 to 1725, Peter the Great ruled. He was brought ideas and culture from Western Europe into underdeveloped Russia Catherine the Great ruling from 1762 to 1796, improve this effort, forming Russia not just as an Asian power but on an equal footing with Britain, France and Germany in Europe She enlarged the Russian empire by the partitions of Poland Russian empire by the partitions of Poland. Russia also took territories from Belarus, Ukraine and earlier parts of the medieval Kievan Russ. In 1783 Russia and the Georgian Kingdom signed the treaty of Gerogievsk.
In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia, but in 1813 the Russian army and its allies, the Austrians and Prussians, defeated the French armies at the Battle of Leipzig and Russia became one of the preeminent European powers of the nineteenth century.
But in 1854, France and Great Britain defeated Russia in the Crimean war. Due to this Tsar Alexander II allowed the Russian serfs for a period of industrialization and modernization. Russia won the war of 1877-1878, forcing the Ottoman Empire to recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I and the worse position of the economy the war caused led to widespread rioting in the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917.
At the close of Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks ruled over St. Petersburg and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks then called by Communist Party. As a result a bloody civil war occurred between Red Army of Bolsheviks and White Army of anti-socialist monarchist in which the Red Army got victory and the Soviet Union was established in 1922.
Russia as part of the Soviet Union: - The Soviet Union was meant to be a transnational workers state free from nationalism, which according to Leninism, is a ruse used by the bourgeoisie to keep the international working classes from realizing their common explosted position and overthrowing the bourgeois. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity was so not emphasized in the early Soviet Union Many non-Russians participated in the new government. One of these was a Georgian named Joseph Stalin. Stalin did some great works. In 1930, Stain launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. He forces rapid industrialization of the largely rural country and collectivization of its agriculture. In 1928, Stalin formed "First Five-Year Plan". In 1936 the USSR was in strong opposition to Nazi Germany and supported the republicans in Spain who struggled against German and Italian armies. In 1938 Germany and the other major European powers signed the Munich treaty. Germany and most of its allies invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The Red Army stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalin grad in 1943. The Soviets drove through Eastern Europe and captured Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. in 1953, Stain died. General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and other leading politicians organized an anti - Berea alliance. Berea was arrested in June 1953 and Khrushchev became the undisputed leader of the USSR. The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, which was Sputnik 1 under the leadership of Khrushchev. But his reforms were unproductive in agriculture and administration. The remainder of the Soviet leadership removed him from power in 1964. in the mid 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev came to power.
Post-Soviet Russia: - In 1991, the USSR broke up. After that Russian started transforming itself into a more democratic society with an economy based on market mechanisms and principles. At that time Russia's global role was greatly diminished.

After the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, Russia began transforming itself into a more democratic society with an economy based on market mechanisms and principles, and it is succeeded to achieve economic growth. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's first slight recovery showing signs of open-market influence occurred in 1997. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis reached at its highest point in the August depreciation of the ruble. This was followed by a debt default by the government in 1998. Due to this, the living standards of the population had been decreased. The economy started recovering in 1999. imports made expensive and boosted local production. Then rapid economic expansion had been possible. The GDP growing by an average of 6.7% annually in 1999-2005 on the back of higher petroleum prices, a weaker ruble and increasing service production and industrial output. Due to productive import barriers and rampant corruption, the country achieved a huge trade surplus.
The economic development of the country has been extremely uneven: Moscow Contributes one - third of the total GDP of the country while it have only a tenth of the total population. GDP increased by 7.2% in 2004 and 6.4% in 2005. Due to high world oil prices, the recovery has been possible in 2000 and 2001. Even today, Russia is highly dependent on exports of commodities like oil, natural gas, metals and timber. In recent years, the internal consumer demand has been increased.
The country's GDP shot up to reach 1.2 trillion in 2004, making it the ninth largest economy in the world and the fifth largest in Europe. it the current growth rote is sustained the country is expected to become the second largest European economy after Germany and the sixth largest in the world within a few years. In 2005, GDP reached at $756 billion and Inflation was 10.9%
By April 1st, 2006 Russia's international reserves reached $206 billion and projected to grow to $230-280 billion by the end of 2006 and $300-400 billion expected at the end of 2007.
The greatest challenge facing the Russian economy is how to develop the small and medium sized enterprises with a young and dysfunctional banking system, which dominated by Russian oligarchs. Oligarchs, who often use the deposits to lend to their own businesses, own many of Russia's banks. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have attempted to kick-start normal banking practices by making equity and debt investments in a number of banks, but with very limited success. Disproportional economic development of Russia's own regions is also a big problem of the country. Encouraging foreign investment is also a major challenge due to legal, some cultural, linguistic, economic and political peculiarities of the country. There has been a significant inflow of capital in recent years from many European investors attracted by cheaper land, labor and higher growth rates than in the rest of Europe. Amazingly high levels of education, and societal involvement achieved by the most of the people including women and minorities, secular attitudes, mobile class structure, better integration of various minorities in the mainstream culture set Russia for apart from the majority of the so-called developing countries and developed countries.
Russia has been able to pay off much of its huge debt due to rising oil prices. Since 2003, exports of natural resources started decreasing in economic importance as the internal market has strengthened considerably largely stimulated by intense construction and consumption of increasingly diverse goods and services.
GDP: - According to the 2006 estimate, Russia's total GDP is about $1.748 trillion and its per capita GDP is about $2,142.
Currency: - Ruble is Russian currency.
Foreign Investment: - Some international firms are investing in Russia. As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia had nearly $26 billion in foreign direct investment inflows during the 2001-2002 period.

Population: - Russia is the most populous country in the world. It ranks as the world's eighth largest population. According to the 2005 estimate its total population is about 1,42,800,000. Russia has low average population density due to its enormous size. Its population density is about 8.4 persons per sq. km. Inhabitants of Russia are living in the European part of Russia, in the Ural Mountains area, in the south-western and south-eastern parts of Siberia. Russian population includes more thant 160 ethnic groups. As per the 2002 cempus, 79.8% of the total population is ethnically Russians 3.8% Tatar, 2% Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1% Chuvosh, 0.9% Chechen, and 0.8% Armenian. The remaining 10.3% comprises those who didn't specify their ethnicity. Moreover some other ethnic groups are also living in their respective regions in Russia, which are Avars, Azerbaijanis, Belarusiane, Buryats, Chinese, Euenks, Georgians, Germans, Greeks, Ingushes, Inuit, Jews, Kalmyki, Karelians, Kazakhs, Koreans, Maris, Mordvins, Nenetses, Ossetians, Poles, Tuvans, Udmurts, Uzbeks, Yakats and otheres.
Religion: - The Russian Orthodox Church is the main religion of Russia. Islam is the second most widespread religion. Moreover, some Russian people Induction also follow Protestant faiths, Judaism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Ethnic Russians are mainly Orthodox, while Turkic and Caucasian people follow Islam religion so they are Muslim. Slavic people follow neopaganism.

Languages: - The Russian language is the official language of Russia, which is the mostly spoken in business, government and education. More than 100 languages are spoken in Russia. Some of the ethnic republics have declared official regional languages but most of the population adopted Russian as their mother tongue. Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script that means these languages must be written in only Cyrillic alphabet.