Religions
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Population in Russia
Population
in Russia
The population of Russia is 141,927,297 as of 1 January
2010. The population hit a historic peak at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before
the breakup of the
Soviet Union. According to the 2002 census, Ethnic Russians make up 80% of the total population, while six other
ethnicities have a population exceeding 1 million - Tatars (3.8%), Ukrainians (2%), Bashkir (1.1%), Chuvash (1.1%), Chechens (0.9%) and Armenians (0.8%). In total, 160 different ethnic groups and
indigenous peoples live within the Russian federation's borders. 73% of the
population is urban.
The Russian Federation
The
Russian Federation
In 2000, Vladimir Putin became president. International observers were alarmed
by, averaging 6.7% annually since the financial crisis of 1998. Russia ended
2006 with its eighth straight year of growth.
In 2008 Dmitri Medvedev, was elected new President of Russia.
Although high oil
prices and a relatively cheap ruble initially drove this growth, since 2003
consumer demand and, more recently, investment have played a significant role.
Russia is well ahead of most other resource-rich countries in its economic
development, with a long tradition of education, science, and industry.
The Russian Federation
The
Russian Federation
In the 1990s Russia suffered an economic downturn that was, in some
ways, more severe than the United States or Germany had undergone six decades earlier in the Great Depression.
Russia came close to a serious civil conflict. The cohesion of the Russian
Federation was also threatened when the republic of Chechnya attempted to break
away, leading to the First and Second Chechen Wars.
Advised by Western governments, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, Russia embarked on the largest and fastest privatization that
the world had ever seen in order to reform the fully nationalized Soviet
economy.
Economic reforms also consolidated a semi-criminal
oligarchy with roots in the old Soviet system. By the mid-1990s Russia had a system
of multiparty electoral politics. But it was harder to establish a
representative government because of two structural problems—the struggle
between president and parliament and the anarchic party system.
Breakup of the Union
Breakup of the Union
By the end of the 20th century, the Soviet Union faced economic and political problems.
Mickhail
Gorbachev announced two reforms: Perestroika and Glasnost. In the revolutions of 1989 the USSR lost its satellites (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia) in Eastern Europe. Suffering from low pricing of petroleum
and natural gas, ongoing war in Afghanistan, outdated industry and pervasive
corruption, the Soviet planned economy proved to be ineffective, and by 1990 the Soviet
government had lost control over economic conditions. There were shortages of
almost all products. By December 1991, the shortages had resulted in the introduction of food
rationing in Moscow and Saint Petersburg for the first time since World War II.
Russia received humanitarian food aid from abroad. The Supreme Soviet of Russia
withdrew Russia from the Soviet Union on December 12. The Soviet Union officially ended on December 25,
1991, and the Russian Federation (formerly the Russian Soviet Federative
Socialist Republic) took power on December 26.
The Cold War
The Cold War
After the World War II there was a conflict between USSR and USA interests which is
known as the Cold War.
It emerged out of a conflict between Stalin and US president Harry Truman over
the future of Europe.
In April 1949 the US sponsored NATO. In 1955 the Soviet
Union established the Warsaw Pact as a counterpart to NATO.
US-Soviet relations deteriorated following the beginning
of the nine-year Soviet War in Afghanistan in 1979 and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, a
staunch anti-communist, but improved as the Soviet bloc started to unravel in
the late 1980s. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia lost the
superpower status that it had won in the Second World War.
Russian revolution
Russian revolution
Russia entered the World War I, as an ally of France. Military failures and bureaucratic ineptitude turned
the population against the government. The war had a demoralizing impact.
Workers and peasants protested. On march, 8, 1917 working women walked out and other workers joined them
and eventually soldiers too. Tsar Nicolas II abdicated. Socialist created the soviet. In July, Alexander Kerensky became ruler. Economic conditions were not improved.
Bolsheviks organized a national movement. Lenin returned from Switzerland. The
soviets won and drove Kerensky into exile. These events are known as the October Revolution.
The National Constituent Assembly was dissolved by Lenin’s troops.
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