Total area of Russia. The total area of Russia with the Crimea

Russians can rightfully claim that they live in the largest country in the world. The area of Russia as of the beginning of 2014 was about 17 125 thousand square kilometers, which is twice as high as Canada, which occupies the second place. And such a large territory for our state has been formed gradually, over many centuries. It all began with a chain of small settlements that arose along the trade route from Scandinavia to Constantinople ("from the Varangians to the Greeks") with the main cities - Novgorod and Kiev. The area of Russian cities at that time was extremely small.

The political and economic ties of Rus were then mainly directed to Europe, but the state had to expand to the north-east, because there were relatively few Finno-Ugric peoples living there, which, mixing with the incoming Slavic tribes, began to form the basis of the Russian ethnos. In the west, however, there were European states where the population density was quite high.

Nascent Rus was more modern than Saudi Arabia

In the 10th and 12th centuries, the Slavs began to actively develop and territories in the interfluve of the Oka and the Volga, where Krivichi moved from Novgorod and the Vyatichi from the southwest. A new trade route was formed along the Volga, which flows into the Caspian Sea, and new shopping centers appeared in the northeast (Ryazan, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, etc.).

By the end of the 12th century, the area of Russia (Rus) was 2.5 million square meters. Kilometers. However, the next few centuries were unfavorable for territorial acquisitions, since in the 13th-15th centuries Rus was disintegrated into small principalities and conquered by the Mongol-Tatar troops, Polish-Lithuanian armies. The development of territories at this time was only in the northern direction (people fled there, having founded a sub-ethnos of pomors on the banks of the Barents and White seas). At that time, the area of Russia is only 2 million square meters. Kilometers, which, however, is larger than the territory of modern Mexico or Saudi Arabia (about 1.9 million square kilometers each country).

The area of Russia is tripled

In the 14th century, the Moscow Principality began to play a special role in the Russian open spaces, which received from the Golden Horde the right to collect tribute from other lands. This state formation gradually strengthened and in 1380 won the first victory over the Mongol-Tatars. Further to the existing territories were joined Great Ustyug, Tula, Rzhev, Nizhny Novgorod, and the victory on the river Ugra in 1480 freed the Russian lands from the Horde dependence and gave the opportunity to expand to the east.

Having come to power, Ivan the Terrible annexed the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates to the Moscow principality, and attempts to expand westward in the 14th and 17th centuries were unsuccessful. At the end of the 16th century, the peaceful development of Siberia and the Urals begins, the Russian settlers come to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, building cities throughout the city and organizing furs. By the end of the 17th century, the area of Russia is 7 million square meters. Km.

Formation of the Russian Empire

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the formation of the Russian Empire began, when Left Bank Ukraine withdrew from the Rech Pospolita and became part of what was then Russia. In the same period, Peter the Great "cut through a window to Europe", seized the territories of modern Estonia and Latvia. Further, when the Commonwealth partitioned the Russian empire, Belarus, Lithuania and the Right-Bank Ukraine moved. In the east it is possible to win over the Ottoman coast of the Azov and Black Seas, and in the west - in the early nineteenth century to annex Finland. In addition, during this period Bessarabia was annexed. The total area of the Russian state by the end of the above period was 16 million square meters. Kilometers.

The area of the Russian Empire reached 24 million square meters. Kilometers

Another approximately 8 million square meters. Kilometers (up to 24 million square kilometers), the area of Russia increased by the beginning of the 20th century due to the entry of Georgia and Armenia (at the request of the rulers of these territories), a number of lands of North Caucasian peoples, the voluntary annexation of almost all Kazakh territories, Kyrgyz lands. The Khiva and Bukhan kingdoms were incorporated into the Russian Empire as a result of wars, and Alaska (which was later sold to America in 1867), Primorye and the Amur Region, in the order of peaceful annexation.

Heavy Twentieth Century

A number of wars and the revolution in the twentieth century constantly changed the political map of Russia, on which those or other territories appeared or disappeared. For example, Finland, which signed independence from the Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century, transferred part of the territories (Vyborg and its surroundings) back to the results of World War II, etc. The Soviet Union, formed in the former territories of the Russian Empire in the post-war period, had a common territory In 22.4 million km and did not carry out any major actions to change the territory, except for the internal transfer of Crimea from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

The collapse of the USSR and the return of the Crimea to Russia

About 17 million 125 thousand square kilometers - that's what area of Russia has turned out after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the separation of 15 republics. It should be borne in mind, however, that the southern territories with the most favorable climate were separated, while the territory of modern Russia includes vast lands with permafrost, where there are quite severe natural conditions for people to live. Therefore, the population of the Russian Federation, whose average density is just over 8 people per square kilometer. Km., Distributed unevenly - most of it is concentrated in the European part of the country, where the maximum density of 4,6 thousand people per square kilometer is revealed. Km. - in Moscow, while in Chukotka it does not exceed 0.07 people per same area.

In March 2014, as a result of the will of the inhabitants of the Crimea, this territory returned to the composition of our country with an excellent climate, and the area of Russia with the Crimea became 17 151 thousand square meters. Kilometers, including the area of the Crimean Federal District - about 26.9 thousand square meters. Km.

Most of Russia's population lives in cities

Once a large area of Russia was covered with forests, and during the Soviet period, the predatory plundering of this natural resource was not allowed, so after the collapse of the USSR, about 46% of the Russian territory possessed enviable forest tracts. Today this figure is much smaller. However, the area of Russia (with the Crimea) is a land that is still rich in various minerals, with beautiful flora, fauna, water resources and places of rare beauty. In the post-Soviet period, the rural population, because of the collapse of the collective farms and lack of work, was drawn to the cities where today up to 77% of the total number of Russians live. The total area of Russia's cities is not yet established. It is known only that megacities with an area of 100 square meters. Km and more in the Russian Federation as of spring 2014 there are more than 120 units, including Moscow with an area of 2550 square meters. Km, Volgograd - about 860 square meters. Km, St. Petersburg - about 1440 square meters. Km. and etc.