50 Fun Facts About Russia

Russia spans how many time zones?

When the sun is setting in Kaliningrad, it is already the next morning in Kamchatka. Russia also covers more than an eighth of the world's inhabited land.

Which mountain range is traditionally taken as the boundary between European and Asian Russia?

About three-quarters of Russians live west of the range even though most of the country's land lies east of it.

At 5,642 metres, which peak is the highest point in both Russia and Europe?

It is a dormant volcano in the Caucasus with two summits, and it beats Mont Blanc by more than 800 metres.

Which river is the longest in Europe?

Eleven of Russia's twenty largest cities sit in its basin, and it drains into the world's largest inland body of water.

What is the maximum depth of Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world?

It holds roughly 22-23% of the planet's fresh surface water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined, and at 25-30 million years old it is also the oldest lake.

What is the nerpa, an animal found only in Lake Baikal?

Nobody is sure how a seal ended up in a lake thousands of kilometres from any ocean. Baikal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Which Russian territory on the Baltic coast has no land connection to the rest of the country?

Formerly the German city of Königsberg, it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and now sits wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Russia's tallest active volcano at 4,750 metres, stands on which peninsula?

The peninsula is home to dozens of active volcanoes and one of the world's densest populations of brown bears.

How long is the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok?

Construction started in 1891 and the through route opened in 1904. It remains the longest railway line in the world.

How much did the United States pay Russia for Alaska in 1867?

That worked out to about two cents an acre. Critics called it 'Seward's Folly' after the Secretary of State who negotiated it, though most newspapers actually supported the deal.

At which world's fair did Russian matryoshka nesting dolls win a bronze medal and first gain attention?

The first set was turned in the 1890s by Vasily Zvyozdochkin to a design by Sergey Malyutin. The name is a diminutive of Matryona.

How deep is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole humans have ever drilled?

Drilling began in 1970 near the Norwegian border and stopped in 1992 when temperatures hit 180 °C. The hole is only 23 centimetres wide.

In which year did the Tunguska explosion flatten some 2,150 square kilometres of Siberian forest?

It is the largest impact event in recorded history, yet no crater was ever found. The first scientific expedition, led by Leonid Kulik, did not reach the site until 1927.

Which video game did Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov create in Moscow in the mid-1980s?

He wrote it in about three weeks on an Elektronika 60. Nintendo bundled it with the Game Boy in 1989 and that version alone sold 35 million copies.

Alexey Pajitnov's falling-blocks game takes its name from 'tetra' plus which sport?

Tetra for the four squares in every piece, and the sport because it was the creator's favourite. He saw no royalties until his rights reverted at the end of 1995.

Which village in the Sakha Republic is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth?

Its weather station recorded -67.7 °C in February 1933. Schools close only when it drops below -55 °C.

Which tsar ordered St Basil's Cathedral built to celebrate capturing Kazan and Astrakhan?

Legend says he blinded the architect so the design could never be repeated, though the architects went on working afterwards. The building has been a museum since 1928.

How many days did the German siege of Leningrad last, from September 1941 to January 1944?

An estimated 1.5 million people died. Supplies came in across frozen Lake Ladoga on the 'Road of Life'.

In which year did Peter the Great found the city of Saint Petersburg on Hare Island?

He moved the capital there from Moscow in 1712 and it stayed the capital until 1918. Peter himself stood around 2.03 metres tall.

Peter the Great imposed an annual tax of one hundred rubles on noblemen who refused to give up what?

It was part of his campaign to Westernise the boyars after his incognito Grand Embassy tour of Europe, where he spent four months working in a Dutch shipyard.

Catherine the Great, Russia's longest-reigning empress, was born in which country?

Born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in Stettin, she arrived in Russia at 15, married the future Peter III and deposed him in a 1762 coup. She annexed Crimea in 1783.

Catherine the Great founded the Hermitage in 1764 by buying paintings from a merchant in which city?

Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky's paintings became the seed of a collection now topping three million items. The museum also keeps a resident population of cats.

How long did Yuri Gagarin's single orbit of Earth aboard Vostok 1 last on 12 April 1961?

He was 1.57 metres tall, handy for the cramped capsule. He died in a MiG-15 training crash in 1968, and April 12 is now Cosmonautics Day.

How many letters are in the modern Russian alphabet?

Two of them, the hard sign and soft sign, have no sound of their own. The last major reform trimmed the alphabet in 1917-18.

Architects from which country built the current Moscow Kremlin walls and towers (1485-95)?

The red brick walls enclose about 27.7 hectares. The Kremlin's Tsar Bell, the largest in the world, has never been rung, and the Tsar Cannon has never been fired.

In what year were the illuminated red stars placed on top of the Kremlin towers?

The Kremlin has twenty towers, and the star-topped Spasskaya Tower carries the clock whose chimes ring in the Russian New Year.

Which tsar commissioned the first Fabergé Easter egg, the Hen Egg, in 1885?

He gave it to his wife Maria Feodorovna. Fifty imperial eggs were made before the 1917 revolution stopped production; 44 survive in whole or part.

On which night does Ded Moroz, Russia's Grandfather Frost, deliver presents?

He is helped by his granddaughter Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, wears a heel-length coat in red or blue and rides a troika.

Which town in Vologda Oblast is regarded as the official home of Ded Moroz?

Children write to him there much as Western children write to Santa at the North Pole.

In which city were Nicholas II and his family shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House in July 1918?

Their remains were located in a forest in 1979 and formally exhumed in 1991. The Russian Orthodox Church canonised the family in 2000.

In which year did the first line of the Moscow Metro open to the public?

The first stretch ran 11 kilometres through 13 stations. Today it is the busiest metro system outside Asia, and Park Pobedy station lies 73 metres underground.

Which German commander surrendered the 6th Army at Stalingrad on 2 February 1943?

Hitler had promoted him to field marshal the day before, expecting him to die rather than surrender. The city was renamed Volgograd in 1961.

Which battle of 7 September 1812, west of Moscow, was the bloodiest single day of Napoleon's Russian campaign?

Napoleon reached Moscow a week later to find it deserted and set ablaze by its governor Fyodor Rostopchin. Of the men who crossed the Neman, only about 120,000 came back.

Which prince led the group of nobles who murdered Grigori Rasputin in late 1916?

Rasputin's hold on the imperial family came from his apparent ability to ease the haemophilia of the heir, Alexei. His body was dumped in the Malaya Nevka river.

Which Russian composer conducted at the opening concert of New York's Carnegie Hall in 1891?

He was the first Russian composer to make a lasting international impression, with Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture. He died of cholera in 1893.

Roughly how much did the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics cost, the most expensive Games ever?

Sochi, with an average February temperature of 8.3 °C, is the warmest city ever to host a Winter Olympics.

Which Russian chemist published the periodic law and his periodic table of elements in 1869?

He left gaps for elements not yet discovered and correctly predicted the properties of gallium, scandium and germanium. Element 101 is named after him.

Legend credits Mendeleev with vodka's 40% standard. Russia actually fixed it in which year, when he was nine?

He was born near Tobolsk in Siberia in 1834, and his doctoral thesis on alcohol-water solutions is what fed the myth.

In which year was the Tsardom of Russia proclaimed, with Ivan IV crowned as its first tsar?

Peter the Great upgraded the title in 1721, proclaiming the Russian Empire after defeating Sweden in the Great Northern War.

On what date in 1922 was the Soviet Union formally established?

It lasted 69 years and dissolved at the end of 1991, leaving Russia its permanent seat on the UN Security Council and the world's largest nuclear stockpile.

The Hermitage Museum's main building is a former residence of the Russian emperors. What is it?

Storming it in October 1917 became the founding image of the Bolshevik revolution, even if the real event was far less cinematic than Eisenstein's film.

Which Russian sea has the lowest surface point in the country, 28 metres below sea level?

Despite its name it is really the world's largest lake, and Russia shares its shore with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan.

Roughly what share of Russia's population identifies as ethnically Russian?

The rest belong to more than 190 ethnic groups, including Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvash and Chechens.

Which of these Siberian rivers is the longest, at about 5,380 km including its Irtysh tributary?

The Yenisei runs about 5,075 km and the Lena 4,294 km. All three flow north into the Arctic Ocean.

What does the name of Ded Moroz's granddaughter and helper, Snegurochka, mean in English?

She has no counterpart in Western Santa lore. In East Slavic tradition she is Grandfather Frost's granddaughter and helper.

How long is Russia's coastline, the fourth longest of any country?

Most of it faces the Arctic Ocean and is frozen for much of the year, which is why warm-water ports have mattered so much in Russian history.

With how many countries does Russia share a land border?

It is also one of only three countries in the world that border three oceans, with links to a great number of seas.

How far apart are the Diomede Islands, split between Russia and the United States?

Kunashir in the Kuril Islands, four of which Japan disputes, lies just 20 km from Hokkaido.

How long has a Russian presidential term been since the 2008 constitutional amendment?

The 2008 amendment extended the term from four to six years; the president appoints ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister.

According to the Primary Chronicle, the name Rus' derives from a people of which origin?

The Finnish word for Swedes, ruotsi, shares the same root, and the three original Rurikid princes came from among the Rus'.