30 Fascinating Facts About Russia

Russia is the world’s largest country (by area), accounting for more than 11% of the Earth’s landmass. It reaches all the way from Northern Asia to Eastern Europe. The Arctic Ocean is bounded to the north by Russia and to the east by the Pacific ocean. Russia is a multicultural country with over 190 ethnic groups recognized as nationalities. The people of the country give special importance to friends and family. So, have a glance at these 30 fascinating Russian facts that will astound you.

1. Russia shares land borders with North Korea, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia to the south. Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Norway to the southwest and west.
2. The official name of the country is Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiy).
3. Russia comes on the second spot just after Canada to have the most number of lakes. It has over 2.8 million lakes, out of which 98% of the lakes have a surface area of less than 1 Km2.
4. Lake Ladoga of Russia is the biggest lake in Europe and the 13th biggest freshwater lake on the planet.
5. Ice skeeing was invented in northern Russia and dated back to about 6000 BC.
6. The dialing code for Russia is 007, which is also recognized as the number of James bond movies.
7. Russian has no generic word for ‘blue’ color, but only two different words for ‘light blue’ and ‘dark blue.’
8. A woman in Russia named Mrs. Vassilyev gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets over 27 separate labors. The grand total of children was 69, and she gave birth to the babies between the year 1725 to 1765.
9. There are about 23 villages in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region that are entirely inhabited by men. These villages are the most remote and inhospitable regions of Russia.
10. The last Polish monarch, Stanislaw Poniatowski, died in prison in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1798.
11. Vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Russia, and over ten percent of the Russian government’s income comes from the sale of vodka.
12. The average Russian consumes about a pint of vodka a day or one-half of a half liter.
13. Some significant inventions took place in Russia, which had a hard positive impact on the world. Some of these inventions are the helicopter, transformers, synthetic rubber, grain harvester, petrol cracking, the periodic table, backpack parachute, electric railway, electric lamp, and the radio.
14. Oymyakon town of Russia is the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth. The temperatures average around -58° F in the winters. The all-time low temperature was recorded in the month of February 1993 when the temperatures reached −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F).
15. The Russian railway network is the third-largest in the world and stretches over 85,000 km.
16. The Trans-Siberian Railway (the Moscow-Vladivostok line) is the longest and one of the most busiest railway line in the world. The railway line is stretched over a distance of 9,289 km.
17. Russia is the biggest country on the planet, and it even has a bigger surface area than the planet pluto. The surface area of Pluto is 16.7 million sq km, while the Russia surface area is 17,098,242 sq km.
18. The country covers 1/7th of Earth’s total land and has 15 neighboring countries, which is the highest than any other country.
19. When Russia was known as the soviet union, it was mandatory for the high school students to learn to assemble and take apart an AK-47 rifle to get graduated.
20. The game Tetris was invented by a software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in the year 1984.
21. There are over 29 world heritage sites in Russia, out of which 18 are cultural, and 11 are natural. Twenty-four more properties are there on UNESCO’s tentative list.
22. Russia has the highest number of forest cover than any other nation. Around 46.4% or 885 million hectares of land are covered in forests.
23. The nation is the second-largest oil exporter on the planet and accounted for 11.4% of the total oil exports.
24. Sputnik 1 is the world’s first artificial satellite and was launched on October 4, 1957.
25. The Volga River originates in Russia and is the longest river in Europe and 16th in the world. It stretches over 3690 km.
26. Russia’s biggest exports include crude petroleum ($133 billion), petroleum gas ($71.5 billion), refined petroleum ($67.4 billion), coal briquettes ($36.5 billion), and gold ($14.6 billion), with the majority exported to China ($101 billion), India ($40.4 billion), Germany ($27.7 billion), Turkey ($25.3 billion), and Italy ($25.1 billion).
27. Russia’s top imports are packaged medicines ($9.11 billion), broadcasting equipment ($7.15 billion), cars ($6.38 billion), computers ($3.94 billion), and motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($3.64 billion), with the majority of imports coming from China ($75.4 billion), Germany ($15.5 billion), Turkey ($9.24 billion), Kazakhstan ($8.78 billion), and South Korea ($6.33 billion).
28. Antarctica was first discovered by two Russian explorers Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first confirmed sighting of mainland Antarctica was made on January 27, 1820.
29. The dog Laika of Russia was the first animal sent to space and orbit the Earth.
30. There is a bell kept on display in the Moscow Kremlin, which is the heaviest bell in the world. The name of the bell is Tsar Bell (Tsar kolokol III), and it weighs a whopping 216 tons.