Interesting facts about Russia - Russia Facts

Interesting facts about Russia - Russia Facts

Russia Facts you will read in this article will certainly blow your mind like they do with me. If your more for a video than reading facts : Here is a video assembling all these crazy facts about Russia. Details and sources are in this article.

Here are some interesting Facts about Russia which were chosen and researched especially for you.

• Russia is bigger than Pluto.

Yep, the world's largest country has a surface area of a little over 17 million square kilometers, while the Solar System's smallest planet comes in at around 16.6 million. Whoops, did we say "planet?" Well, now it's awkward...

• 77% of Russia is made up of Siberia.

Siberia covers 77 per cent of Russia. The area of Siberia is more than 50 times that of the UK; the population about half that of the UK. Siberia has a population density of less than eight people per square mile. Lake Baikal in Siberia is 400 miles long, 50 miles wide and a mile deep. It is the world’s largest freshwater lake and contains 20 per cent of the world’s non-frozen fresh water supplies. Yakutsk in Siberia is said to be the coldest city on Earth. The average January temperature is around –40C, though it can be hot in summer. The Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Vladivostok takes a week to complete its journey. The Siberian tiger is the largest member of the cat family. Only about 500 remain in the wild. In 1995, the Isle of Wight Zoo had to give special training to its Siberian tigers as it was the first time they had ever seen snow. The highest point in Siberia is the volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka, considered sacred by many locals as the place the Earth was created.

• Each Russian consumes 18 litres (4.8 US gal) of alcohol per year, doubling what experts consider dangerous.

• Russia & America are less than 4 km apart at the nearest point.

• There are over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths in Russia each year.

In June 2009, the Public Chamber of Russia reported over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths annually, noting that Russians consume about 18 litres (4.0 imp gal; 4.8 US gal) of spirits a year, more than double the 8 litres (1.8 imp gal; 2.1 US gal) that World Health Organization experts consider dangerous.

• In Russia it's now Illegal to tell kids Gay People Exist.

• A russian woman in the 1700s gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets in just 40 years with the same man.

• In 1908 the Imperial Russian Olympic Team arrived in London 12 days too late for the games because they were not using the Gregorian calendar yet.

• The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for just US$7.2 million in 1867.

• Stalin didn't start learning Russian until he was 8. His mother tongue was Georgian.

• The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown in Russia from 32,000-year-old seeds.

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years. (Related: "'Methuselah' Tree Grew From 2,000-Year-Old Seed.") A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

• Japan and Russia still haven't signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Islands dispute.

• Gorbachev recorded an album of Russian romantic ballads in 2009.

On 16 June 2009, Gorbachev announced that he had recorded an album of old Russian romantic ballads entitled Songs for Raisa to raise money for a charity dedicated to his late wife. On the album, he sings the songs himself accompanied by Russian musician Andrei Makarevich.

• Beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013.

• Foxes are domesticated like dogs by Russian scientists since 1959.

The Russian Domesticated Red Fox is a domesticated form of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). As a result of selective breeding, the new foxes became tamer and more dog-like. The result of over 50 years of experiments in the Soviet Union and Russia, the breeding project was set up in 1959 by Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev. It continues today at The Institute of Cytology and Genetics at Novosibirsk, under the supervision of Lyudmila Trut.

• There was a "Beard Tax" in Russia, during Peter the Great's Reign, paid by anyone who had a beard.

In 1698, Emperor Peter I of Russia instituted a beard tax to modernize the society of Russia following European models. Those who paid the tax were required to carry a "beard token". This was a copper or silver token with a Russian Eagle on one side and on the other, the lower part of a face with nose, mouth, whiskers, and beard. It was inscribed with two phrases: "the beard tax has been taken" (lit: "Money taken") and "the beard is a superfluous burden". Those who resisted the ban on beards were forcibly and publicly shaved.

• There's a museum in Russia that hires cats to protect its artworks against rodents.

The State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg ‘hires’ cats to protect its artworks against rodents. The so-called ‘guard cats’ go unnoticed as they dwell in the attics and basements, away from the tourist eye. The museum administration has been ‘employing’ these highly skillful ‘guards’ ever since the museum was founded in 1764. The State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg ‘hires’ cats to protect its artworks against rodents. The so-called ‘guard cats’ go unnoticed as they dwell in the attics and basements, away from the tourist eye. The museum administration has been ‘employing’ these highly skillful ‘guards’ ever since the museum was founded in 1764. Even though nowadays rats and mice can easily be exterminated using chemicals, the museum cannot do without cats who have become its living legend and mascot.

• The word “vodka” comes from the Russian word “voda” that means “water”.

Vodka is a drink which originated in Eastern Europe, the name stemming from the Russian word 'voda' meaning water or, as the Poles would say 'woda'. The first documented production of vodka in Russia was at the end of the 9th century, but the first known distillery at, Khylnovsk, was about two hundred years later as reported in the Vyatka Chronicle of 1174. Poland lays claim to having distilled vodka even earlier in the 8th century, but as this was a distillation of wine it might be more appropriate to consider it a crude brandy. The first identifiable Polish vodkas appeared in the 11th century when they were called 'gorzalka', originally used as medicines.

• Lake Karachay in Russia is the most radioactive and polluted lake in the world.

Lake Karachay , sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, is a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility, located near the town of Ozyorsk (then called Chelyabinsk-40).

• 25% Russians die before reaching the age of 55, compared to just 1% in the U.S., and Vodka is to blame.

Drinking is so engrained in Russian culture there's a word that describes a drinking binge that lasts several days: "zapoi." Russian men who down large amounts of vodka — and too many do — have an "extraordinarily" high risk of an early death, a new study says. Researchers tracked about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. They interviewed them about their drinking habits and, when about 8,000 later died, followed up to monitor their causes of death. The risk of dying before age 55 for those who said they drank three or more half-liter bottles of vodka a week was a shocking 35%.

• It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.

Drivers in Moscow are currently facing what the city authorities have declared "clean car month". Many cars have been out of use over the harsh winter. But motorists who fail to ensure that their vehicles are free of dirt and grime are liable to be fined. Needless to say, it is not popular with car owners who are are questioning the legality of the move. They say it is just an opportunity for unscrupulous traffic policemen to fine drivers.

• It is believed Russia has at least 15 secret cities with their names, and locations unknown.

A closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel and/or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight. They may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations which require much more space or freedom than is available in a conventional military base. There may also be a wider variety of permanent residents including close family members of workers and/or trusted traders who are not directly connected with its obscured purposes. Closed cities are a feature of heavily militarized countries and secretive regimes, and many still exist in the successor countries to the Soviet Union. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations"

• A third of all Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Does the sun revolve around the Earth? One in every three Russians thinks so, a spokeswoman for state pollster VsTIOM said on Friday. In a survey released this week, 32 percent of Russians believed the Earth was the center of the Solar system; 55 percent that all radioactivity is man-made; and 29 percent that the first humans lived when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. "It's really quite amazing," spokeswoman Olga Kamenchuk said of the survey that polled 1,600 people across Russia's regions in January, with a 3.4-percent margin of error. "All of them (the questions) were absolutely obvious... the data speaks of the low levels of education in the country." However, people tend to forget what they have been taught at school if it is not part of daily use, she added: "I wonder whether our colleagues in other countries would find any different." The study also found that women were more likely than men to believe the scientific fallacies.

• Wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances to beat Moscow's traffic.

Ever been stuck in a nasty traffic jam and wished you could fire up an emergency siren and watch the cars around you make themselves scarce? I think we've all had that fantasy once or twice. But the mega-wealthy class in Russia have figured out how to turn it into a reality. According to this story in Canada's National Post, cops in Moscow have been ordered to inspect ambulances after learning that VIP commuters are riding around in "ambulance taxis" that cost as much as $200 per hour. These aren't just ordinary ambulances, either. They've been cleverly fitted with fancy and luxurious interiors so their passengers can eat caviar and sip champagne while they blow through traffic with lights and sirens blazing.

• In Russia, during times of economic disparity or high inflation, teachers can be paid in Vodka.

• 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water is in a single lake: Russia's Lake Baikal.

• The first Russian child to receive the vaccine against smallpox was called "Vaccinov," given a pension and observed all his life.

• The Russian mayor of Megion, west Siberia, banned excuses.

Alexander Kuzmin, mayor of Megion in western Siberia, said that officials must stop using phrases such as "I don't know" and "it's lunch time".
Mr Kuzmin said city officials should help improve people's lives and solve their problems, not make excuses.
The mayor's press office said the list consists of 27 forbidden phrases, including "there's no money".
BANNED PHRASES INCLUDE:
What am I supposed to do?
I'm not dealing with this
We're having lunch
The working day is over
Somebody else has the documents
I think I was off sick at the time
Mr Kuzmin warned in a statement that "the use of these expressions by city administration officials
while speaking to the head of the city will speed their departure."

• Russia's notorious murderer Vladimir Nikolayev ate some of his victim's body, then gave the rest of the meat to a friend, whose wife served it to his family thinking it was a kangaroo.

• Apple Is Worth More Than The Entire Russian Stock Market.

• Russia has over 8400 nuclear weapons, more than any other country.

• In Canada, Mexico, India, Russia and Israel, bank notes have Braille-like markings on them for the blind.

• In 1600, a volcano eruption in Peru caused a famine that killed about 2 million people in Russia.

The Russian famine of 1601–1603 was Russia's worst famine in terms of proportional effect on the population, killing perhaps two million people, a third of Russian people, during the Time of Troubles, when the country was unsettled politically and later invaded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The many deaths contributed to social disruption and helped bring about the downfall of Boris Godunov, elected as tsar during the interregnum. The famine was part of worldwide record cold winters and crop disruption, which in 2008 geologists linked to the volcanic eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru.

• Of all the countries that celebrate an independence day, 58 are independent of the UK, 26 of France, 21 of Russia and 21 of Spain.

• Homosexuality and abortion were decriminalised in Russia under Lenin's leadership.

The Russian Communist Inessa Armand publicly endorsed both feminism and free love, but never directly dealt with LGBT rights. Through the abolishment of old Tsarist laws, the Russian Communist Party effectively legalized no-fault divorce, abortion and homosexuality. The initial Russian Soviet criminal code contained no criminalization of homosexuality as the subject was omitted. Yet, the legalisation of private, adult and consensual homosexual relations only applied to Russia itself. Homosexuality or sodomy remained a crime in Azerbaijan (officially criminalised in 1923), as well as in the Transcaucasian and Central Asian Soviet Republics throughout the 1920s. Similar criminal laws were enacted in Uzbekistan in 1926 and in Turkmenistan the following year.