Russia And Neighboring Countries

Russia and neighbor countries ,Formerly known as the Soviet Union comprises of 15 countries, which

are :

Map of Russia and Neighbouring Countries

Introduction

• These 15 countries was formed under the Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics (USSR)

• Commonly known as Soviet Union

• Disintegrated in 1991 due to several reasons. Eg:

• 1. Too much central power over too many

geographic/social areas

• 2. Government gets way too involved in social &

economic life

• Since the disintegration of the Union, the countries

that comprise the region still share the common

political and economic legacy of the Soviet System

• The emergence of several intergovernmental

organization in the region proves this. Eg :

1. Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

2. Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC)

3. Collective Security Treaty Oganization

Natural Environment

Eastern Siberia-Jan temp < 30 celcius-July avg temp 12 – 16 celcius--Annual diff 45 celcius--closer to Pacific Ocean thus more humid but still have long, very cold winter

Western Russia-Winter temp avg -5 to -10 celcius-Summer avg 15 – 20 celcius-- Diff of 25 celcius

Northern Russia-As the greater distance northward, climate gets colder and winter gets longer--Boreal Climates – 1to 3 months avg temp at least 10 celciusCentral Siberian Plateau-Greater distance inland reduces precipitation(40-80cm)--falls mainly in the summer but have long lasting snow during winter

Southern Russia, Central Asia-Climate more arid - Rely on snowmelt from mountains along the southern borders for water supply

Natural Resources• Russia became a Superpower in mid 1900s when political

power was linked to steel & fuel output

• Rocks in this region contains vast mineral resources

• Iron, gold, diamonds found as well as minerals

• Coals, natural gas, oil, uranium are the types of fuels that

can be found in this region

• Russia is also the home the the world’s largest forest area

that lay across the north of the country which provides

reserve of biodiversity

Environment Problems

Oil Pollution• Frequent oil pipeline breaks, leakages and

spills• A station in Sayano-Shushenskaya collapsed

in Siberia in 2009 which created 80 miles long of oil slick along Yenisey River

• Sumgait (North of Baku in Azerbaijan) is the most polluted place in the world. Used to be main suppliers of petrochemical for the soviet

Nuclear Pollution• The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor

explosion affected around north of Kiev immediately but the fallout was worse in North of Belarus (Chernobyl is now an international tourist venue)

• Kyshtym incident in 1957 in the Urals exposed harmful nuclear radiation to almost 500,000 people

Aral Sea Contraction• Snow on the mountains in Central Asia melts

in the spring providing waters to the rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya that flows into Aral Sea

• Soviet Union adopted a program to use the water on irrigated cotton farms inside and outside the main river basin which extracted the water so much, the river stopped flowing into the Aral sea

• The sea is now less than half of its original size

Threatened Fisheries• The Black sea is surrounded by 5 countries

that practices industry before environment (Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria,Romania)

• Fish stock, plants and animal life in the Black Sea was killed due to toxic waste, ship ballast water and nutrients from fertilized fields

History : Eastern Slavs The land in the region was already been occupied as early as

1500 BC between the Vistula and Dnieper Rivers

From AD 400 – 900 the people, known as proto-slavic divided

into 3 main branches

• Western Slavs : settles in Poland, Chzech, Slovakia

• Southern Slavs : settles in Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia,

Slovenia

• Eastern Slavs : settles in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus

History : Soviet Union• Late in World War 1(1917), the Bolsheviks, a communist

group also known as reds overthrew the provisional gov.

• Civil war started when anti-communists (known as ‘whites’)

tried to force the reds out of power.

• In 1922, the reds gained the upperhand and reclaimed

Belarus, Ukraine & others

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established in 1922

under the leadership of Vladimir I. Lenin

5 Year Plan (WW1)• Emphasis on collectivization and industrialization

• Under collectivization, small farms owned by families were merged to form large farms with thousands of acres

• Larger farm more suitable to use modern machinery

• Gov was the owner of the collectives and the farmers were the employees

• The plan called for gov ownership of all industries which is more commonly known as command economy

• Contrary to capitalism, goods produced was not based on demand & supply, but it was the government decision

• The forced industrialization of USSR was so rapid, the world economic depression of the 1930s did not affect the Soviet

World War 2

• In 1939 Stalin enters to an aggression pact with

Hitler.

• In 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa –

Invasion of the Soviet Union

• Soviet Union survived the invasion largely

because of its size

• Russia moved its war production further so it wont

be within the German’s reach.

• Harsh Russian winter stopped the Nazi

• In 1943, Soviets began rolling back the Nazi and began

winning the war

• By May 1945, Soviet army occupied much of Germany

including its capital, Berlin

• The victory in WW2 allows Soviet to repossess the Baltic

countries, Moldova and new territory in East Central Europe

• This win also allows Stalin to establish communist gov in

East Central European Countries

Communism• Soviet Union’s desire to spread Communism

around the world leads to competition against

Capitalist of the west particularly USA

• This struggle is more known as “cold war” as

they undermine each other’s system

• Both tried to prove the superiority of their

system by taunting each other

• Over time, the Soviet system proved to be

inefficient due to:

- Inequity issues despite declaring against it

- Economic instability due to excessive

spending on military & nuclear weapons

development

- Communist movement worldwide

Perestroika & Glasnost Mikhail Gorbachev appointed to be the

leader of Soviet Union in 1985 and immediately set out to reform the economic and political system.

Emphasis on 2 concepts:• Perestroika – Economic restructuring• Glasnost – Informational Openness

He believes that economy and politics should be separated which is contrary to Soviet previous beliefs thus creating political turmoil.

He also stressed the importance of glasnost which basically means the citizen will be provided with the government information thus allowed citizen to learn about the corruption, government abuse a & forced labor.

Citizen were also allowed to express their feelings towards the government which later resulted in the deformation of the union.

Muscovy• Emerged in the pricipality of Vladimir-Suzdal, on the trade

between the Baltic and Black Seas

• Insignificant trading post , and it soon grew in importance.

• By 1440s, the grand prices of Moscow conquered the other

Rus’ principalities.

• The consolidated territories governed from Moscow known as

Muscovy.

• By 1480, Muscovy was so powerful and Mongol authority so

weak and Grand Prince Ivan simply stopped paying tribute to

the Mongols.

The Russian Empire• In 1613, Mikhail Romanov ascended the throne.

• From 1480, Muscovy’s territory continued to expand.

• The greatest territorial expansions were made under Peter the

Great(1682-1725), Catherine the Great(1762-1796), and

Alexander 1 (1801-1825)

• By the early 1900s, the Russian Empire achieved its greatest

extent.

• Russia was a world power but its strength was derived from

its sheer size only.

SOVIET UNION

Background• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

• Group of countries under Russian influence that came

together to be one larger country

• The largest country in the Union was Russia,

and Kazakhstan was the second.

• The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow.

• Existed from 1922 to 1991. It was the first country to

have an official communist government.

SUBREGIONSCan be divided into sub-regions that share many similar characteristics:

The Slavic countries: the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus, and Moldova

The Southern Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

Central Asia: Kazahkstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan

The Slavic Countries

• Russian Federation is far the largest in land area of any country in the subregion and in the world.

• In Mid-2010 it had 77% of the world region’s area

• Experienced economic hardship in the 1990’s

• Remains a nuclear power & continues to hold one of the five permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

Countries• Became independent only in 1991

• Ukraine was independent only for a brief period after World War 1 until it became part of the Soviet Union in 1922.

• Belarus was never independent before 1991 and was usually part of either the Russian Empire or the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom

• Moldova was never independent and has been distinct territory for fewer than 200 years

Economic Development• Soviet economic policies tied the Slavic countries closely

together, but many Ukranians, Belarusians and Moldovans prefer greater independence for their countries

• Developed heavy industry during Soviet times but did not keep equipment up to date.

• The economies began growing again in the 2000s

• GDPs have increased on average by 6-8 percent in most years.

• Oil and gas only accounted about 13% of Russia’s GDP in 1999, but increased to almost 32% in 2007.

• Ukarinian economy has been helped by rising global prices for steel

• Belarus has done little to reform its bureaucracy and economy.

Foreign Investment

• 1990 – Corruption, poor infrastructure, unwieldy bureaucracy prevented foreign investment

• After the mid 2000’s – FDI in Russia expanded rapidly and reached a height of about $70 billion in 2008

• The greatest amount of investment was mainly by foreign corporations interested in Russia’s vast mineral wealth

The Southern Caucasus

• Three countries in Southern Caucaus which is Georgia,

Armenia and Azerbaijan.

• Located on the other side of caucasus mountain or also

referred as Transcaucasus means “the area beyond the

mountain”.

• Caucasus mountain from Russia and were once a

Russian colonies

• The term Southern Caucasus is used refer to these

countries, Northern Caucasus applied to the part of the

Caucasus in the Russian Federation.

•Different languages families, so most have little common.

•Georgian language is in the caucasian language family and has

unique alphabet.

•Armenian belong to Indo-European language family but stand

alone its own branch.

•Azerbaijan is in the ural-Altaic language family.

•Georgian and Armenian have a same religion which is christian.

•The Armenian claims their country was the first in the world adopt

christianity.

•Azerbaijani are islam.

•Arab introduced islam to Azerbaijan.

Economic Development•All these three countries have climates warmer and can

produce agricultural products not available to the north.

•Eg, Georgia supplied 90% of the soviet unions tea and citrus

fruits. Armenia supplied fruit, especially grapes. Azerbaijan

produced tobacco, cotton and rice.

•Since 1991, increase their industrial and service sectors.

•Georgia located on the sunny, warm, eastern shores of the black

sea, it has great tourist potential. Eg, $80 million of Sheraton

hotel opened in Batumi .

•Azerbaijan located on the Caspian sea, will become one of the

worlds leading oil proucers.

Central Asia

• Former soviet union which is Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,

Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

• Similar landlocked situation, arid or semiarid climates,

wide spread of islam.

• Amu Darya and Syr Darya are one of the cradles of

human civilizations.

• Its become important role in trading goods and ideas.

• Bukhara city located in Uzbekistan become one of

leading centers of learning, culture and art of muslim.

• Some of islam greaters historians, geographers,

astronomers and other scientists come from this area.

• These five countries were once part of Turkestan land.

•Many of their ancestors were nomadic, and their culture reflect the

traditional ways. Eg, Kazakh culture, it is customary to ask about

well-being of someones livestock before inquiring about the person

health.

•Nomadic people live in the yurt.

•Modern central asia no longer live in yurt but become important

symbol in certain country. Eg, Yurt is the important symbol that

appears on Kyrgystan flag.

•Turkmens good in carpet making and horse breeding. Exp, there

have five traditional carpet design incorporated into Turkmenistan

flag.

•Akhalteke , a breed of horses well adapted to the desert, where

there are national emblem for Turkmenistan.

Yurt Kyrgyzstan flag

Turkmenistan flag Akhalteke

Economic Development

•These five countries was redirected supplying need of

Russia.

•Soviet later continued developing the cotton industry

but also imposed other form of economic development.

•Eg, Industrilization based on producing iron, steel and

tractors. Farming focused on growing cotton.

•New oil and natural gas pipeline has been build

between Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and China.