the russian federation is located in both europe and asia. it is, by far, the largest country in the world. it extends from kaliningrad (a small district, formerly german, between poland and lithunia) in the west to chukotka, a county at the north-eastern end of asia. the population is 147 mio, the capital is moscow, since the 13th century.
mini-history: the medivial state of "rus" emerged in the 9th century; its centre was the town novgorod; later kiev was the center. from about 1450 onwards, the "grand duchy of moskva" became dominant. the tsardom of russia began in 1547. in 1917 the monarchy was abolished, and russia became a communist country, called sowjet union. yet this, very powerful, state collapsed in 1989, and was followed in 1991 by the russian federation.
russia's accomplishment in architecture, in literature, in music, in technology and so on are immense and beyond this 'mini-info' - thus only one achievement shall be mentioned: the sowjet union enabled the world's first human-made satellite (1957) and the launching of the first human into space (1961).
between 1977 (re moscow) and 2012 (re chukotka) i've visited russia 6 times.
conventionally, the russian federation is portrayed as three principal regions: european realm, siberian area, far east territory. for your information: the galleries for russia are presented in two separate sets of galleries: <> "russia - european realm" (currently: moscow, st petersburg, kizhi, valaam, nenets) <> "russia - asian realm" (currently: vladivostok, kamchatka, chukotka; in prep.: siberia)
