Russia Facts

The country has rich mineral and energy resources. The mighty Volga, Europe's longest river, flows from northern Russia into the Caspian Sea. A bleak behemoth, Siberia encompasses more than half the territory but is home to less than 20 percent of the population. Siberian workers toil at prying natural gas, oil, coal, gold, and diamonds from the frozen earth. Commodities such as fur and timber also earn coveted foreign currency.
Invading Mongols controlled Russia from 1240 to 1380. In 1547 Ivan IV, a Muscovite prince, adopted the ancient title of caesar (tsar in Russian). He and his successors unified fragmented lands and began taking the region that is today Siberia.
Russia looked westward after 1698, when Peter the Great returned from his travels in Europe. Conquering territory along the Baltic Sea, he built his mostly landlocked realm a port capital, St. Petersburg (known from 1924 until 1991 as Leningrad), and established Russia's first navy. Russia entered the 20th century as enormous and imperial.
The forced abdication of Nicholas II in March 1917 ended tsarist rule. In November Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a Marxist, gained power and moved the capital to Moscow—deep in the Russian interior. The new communist state would look inward, expanding and confronting the West. Eventually the Soviet Union came to consist of 15 republics. Soviet planners relocated entire peoples, to reward or punish. Relocation often moved minority peoples eastward (often to Siberia) and replaced them with Russians—who came to teach the Russian language, to organize (and often dominate) the local Communist Party, and to implement Moscow's decisions. Military power and Soviet security forces held the empire together—extending Soviet control into Eastern Europe after World War II.
Mikhail Gorbachev took office in 1985 and unveiled sweeping plans for economic restructuring (perestroika), soon followed by unprecedented political openness (glasnost). The Soviet Union dissolved after a failed coup in 1991, producing Russia and 14 independent republics—with Russian minorities totaling some 20 million. Russia seeks to protect these minorities, maintain its economic influence on resources (like oil), and confront separatism at home (as in Chechnya).
ECONOMY

• Industry: Mining and extractive industries, machine building, shipbuilding, road and rail transportation equipment, communications equipment
• Agriculture: Grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables; beef
• Exports: Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, fur

Russia

St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square has nine chapels, each with a unique dome.

Sometime in the 12th century the principality of Muscovy wriggled out from under Mongol rule, and by the early 17th century, a new Russian empire stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific. • Today, post-Soviet Russia spans 11 time zones, is the largest nation on Earth, and bestrides the globe like a political and economic colossus. • Lenin remains in his tomb in Red Square, and the lights of the Kremlin burn brightly late into the night, but Russia has long since shed its Soviet skin. • The economic collapse of a decade ago is a distant memory. • Moscow today cuts its own deals, calls its own shots.

Moscow, Russia

Cast in a warm glow, the multidomed Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square is the site of a fireworks show every New Year's Eve.

This massive metropolis captures Russia at her most extreme: her communist austerity and her capitalist indulgence; her devout orthodoxy and her uninhibited displays of wealth and power; her enigmatic ancient history and her dazzling contemporary culture. Moscow is the seat of political power in Russia, but it is also the country’s cultural and commercial center. From the storied streets surrounding Red Square to the modern new Moscow-City, the Russian capital is crammed with artistic, historic, and otherwise sacred sites. Sometimes intellectual and inspiring, sometimes debauched and depraved, it is always eye-opening.

Kurdistan, Iraq

Considered an oasis of peace and stability in a historically volatile region, the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northeastern Iraq is drawing a growing stream of curious Western visitors to its ancient cities, snowcapped mountains, and bustling bazaars. The 2010 expansion of Erbil International Airport—located in the provincial capital and main commercial center—has improved access to the region and helped fuel tourist infrastructure development. Recent advances include construction of several new luxury and business hotels and additional escorted small group tours focused on Kurdish ethnic heritage and historic sites.

Experienced guides such as Hinterland Travel and Kurdistan Adventures lead 8- to 16-day cultural tours. Highlights include Erbil’s historic citadel and Grand Mosque, the ruins of Salahaddin’s Fortress in Shaqlawa, and the Jarmo Neolithic village archaeological site (7,000 B.C.) located in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. Some itineraries include excursions into Kurdish ethnic regions in eastern Turkey and northwestern Iraq.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea’s rugged mountain terrain and remote island location (east of Indonesia and north of Australia) have created a protective cultural and ecological buffer of sorts against the outside world. More than 800 languages, 1,000 distinct cultures, and an unparalleled range of biodiversity are represented in this tropical archipelago where seashells were currency until 1933.

Solo travel can be challenging, so it’s best to sign on with an experienced guide to explore isolated highland villages, secluded Bismarck Sea wreck-diving sites, and Sepik River Sacred Houses. Join the August Asia Transpacific Journey small group Mount Hagen Sing-Sing trip for an insider’s view of Papua New Guinea’s signature entertainment spectacle: a raucous celebration of dance, arts, and culture attracting competitors from more than a hundred tribes, including the Huli wigmen (above).

Shikoku, Japan

Mountain-ringed Shikoku—the smallest and least visited of Japan’s four main islands—is best known for its "walk of life," the 88-Buddhist-temple pilgrimage retracing the footsteps of the eighth-century monk and scholar Kōbō Daishi. Completing the 745-mile-plus (1,200-kilometer-plus) island-wide circuit on foot is an intense physical and spiritual workout that can take a month or more.

Save time—and your knees—by covering the steep route via bus and riding the train up Mount Koya, the pilgrimage’s traditional start and end point. Many Shikoku temples offer basic lodging for visiting pilgrims or o-henro-san. Affordable, traditional accommodations also are available at Shikoku’s rustic to luxurious ryokans, traditional, tatami mat Japanese guest houses. The island’s upscale Yamatoyabesso ryokan is located in Dogo Onsen, an ancient hot springs area welcoming nobility and artists to its therapeutic waters since the sixth century. Shikoku remains a thriving folk art center for weavers, washi (paper) makers, and candle makers.

Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec

The 11,714-square-mile (30,340-square-kilometer) Gaspé (Gaspésie) Peninsula is Quebec’s wind-and-sea-sculpted continuation of the Appalachian range. Divided into five natural areas—the Coast, Land's End, the Bay of Chaleur, the Valley, and the Upper Gaspé—the peninsula contains six wildlife sanctuaries, 25 of Quebec’s highest peaks, and four national parks. Remote Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock National Park are the summer nesting home of 250,000 birds and site of legendary Rocher-Percé, the haunting limestone arch rising from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Summer (June-September) activities include kayaking, canyoning, hiking, sailing, and horseback riding. Winter on the Gaspé brings every imaginable cold weather adventure from downhill skiing and snowmobiling to ice climbing and dog sledding. Drive the 550-mile (885-kilometer) Grand Tour loop (north or south at the Route 132 split in Sainte-Flavie) for a coastal overview of the peninsula, or choose one of Gaspésie Tourism’scustom routes focused on specialty interests like gardens, lighthouses, or paleontology.