One of the main reasons I made this 10 facts about Russia page is there's so much to learn about our country! History, geography, culture, demographics - you'll be literally drowning in the sea of information!
Sure, there is no way to learn all of that fast - but the good news is that you don't have to! Instead of processing tons of data, you can just read through the 10 facts about Russia - and quickly grasp the big picture of what our country is all about.
And then, if you wish, you can read through the rest of my site - and learn whatever else you've missed. After all, that's why I'm here for 
Yep, that's right - the first and most important piece of all the 10 facts about Russia! If the Soviet Union was 1/6th of the Earth's landmass, the Russian Federation is "only" 1/8th. You can say we shrank a little bit - but we're still number one in terms of size.
Russian Federation includes 13 seas (yes, that's thirteen!), and has the biggest land border in the world. That's one of the reasons we still use landmines - there's simply no other efficient way to guard such a huge territory.
..."but how about the rest", you ask? Simple - they were (and are) the presidents of the Russian Federation.
Boris Yeltsin was the first such President, by the way, while Gorbachev became the USSR's first democratically elected leader shortly after he was appointed as the General Secretary of the Communist Party.
His name was Gagarin.Yuri Gagarin. This man was the first in mankind's history who made it to orbit and successfully flew around the globe several times on 12th of April 1961.
I'd bet you've heard about another man - Alan Shepard, who was the first American astronaut. However, his flight was suborbital, while Gagarin's mission was a full-scale space flight.
To bring down the tension, I must admit that Americans were the first who landed on the moon - so we're pretty even here
OK, moving on with 10 facts about Russia. And the next one is...
I totally agree. Russian women are the most beautiful in the world - although I must say I'm biased - after all, I'm married to one
If you think I'm wrong - come on, drop by to Russia and disprove me! Wander around Moscow, go to Samara and Volgograd - and you'll see I wasn't lying even a bit!
Thought otherwise? Well, think again! Russia has got more than 100 nationalities - Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, Bashkirs - it would take a separate page to list them all.
Plus, nearly all of world's major religions are practiced in Russia - Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and many smaller, exotic ones.
Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pushkin - rings the bell? How about Aivazovsky and Vasnetsov? Gogol and Turgenev? Lomonosov and Karamzin?
This is just a small portion of world's greatest minds who were born in Russia. If you've never heard about these names - do some research, because these people's donation to the world culture is hard to overestimate!
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you're talking about Russia? Come on, be frank - you've been thinking of Kalashnikov!
Indeed, our weapon brands are among the most recognized in the world. The USSR threatened everyone with ballistic missiles (our presidents still do from time to time, but thanks god they are much more sober).
"Topol-M","S-400","Su-34"...the list can go on forever. Can't say I'm particularly proud of such "fame", but at least we can make *something* good :p
In 1918, Russian women were granted suffrage. Same thing happened earlier in many other countries including Canada, but the US has only granted the voting rights to women in 1920.
The same about slavery - Russia freed its serfs in 1861 as part of the Emancipation Reform by Tsar Alexander II. In US, it only happened in 1865, with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Having a population of more than 10 million residents, Moscow became Europe's biggest city. In addition, I would say Moscow is the fastest growing city in Europe. It's not hard to check - just look at our traffic jams and the amount of construction works around
UPDATE: Moscow just got bigger, its expansion is underway as we speak. Hopefully it means less jams and affordable housing, but I suspect it will be the other way around
Planned by Stalin, Moscow metro was supposed to shelter most of the city's population in case of nuclear war. Just look at how deep the central stations are, and you'll see I'm not exaggerating.
If you look closely in the passages, you'll see that most of them have metal sections. These sections actually hide metal blast doors that will seal off the stations in case of WWIII.
- See more at: http://www.moscow-russia-insiders-guide.com/10-facts-about-russia.html#sthash.shV1JAFc.dpuf.
