Russia

📖 In short

Russia is the biggest country in the world by area, stretching from eastern Europe across northern Asia to the Pacific Ocean, almost twice the size of Canada! Its capital is Moscow. It has vast forests, long rivers, frozen plains and mountains.

🤩 Did you know?

Lake Baikal is more than 1600 meters deep.
Lake Ladoga near Saint Petersburg is the biggest lake in Europe.
Russia's capital is Moscow, and the currency is the ruble.
Russia was the biggest republic of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991.

🗂️ Fact file

Capital: Moscow.
Official language: Russian.
Official name: Russian Federation.
Currency: The ruble.
Area: 17,075,400 km².
Population: 1998 estimate: 146,120,000 people. 1989 census: 147,021,869 people. 2003 estimate: 144,811,000 people.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A huge country

Russia is so big it has 11 time zones! When people wake up in the west, it's already evening in the east.

🔍 Siberia and the taiga

In the Asian part of Russia is Siberia, with very cold winters and vast pine forests called the taiga, home to the Siberian tiger and the brown bear.

💡 Lake Baikal

Siberia has Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake in the world. It holds more fresh water than any other lake, and a seal found nowhere else lives in it.

🎯 Moscow and the long train

Moscow has the Kremlin and Red Square. From there the Trans-Siberian Railway sets off, the longest train line in the world, traveling more than a week to the Pacific Ocean.