Russia

The biggest country in the world — 11 time zones

Russia is the biggest country in the world — 11% of all the land on Earth! It is so wide that when it's morning on one side, it's already evening on the other — 11 time zones. Baikal is the deepest lake, the Siberian taiga the largest forest, and Yakutia gets −60 °C. Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, was Russian. Russia lies in both Europe and Asia, with the Ural Mountains dividing it in two.

Capital: Moscow. Language: Russian.

The Russian Federation covers 17.1 million km² (1st in the world, 11% of the land), with 146 million people (77% in the European part), over 190 peoples, 11 time zones and borders with 14 states (the most in the world). Nature: taiga (20% of the world's forests), tundra, permafrost (65%), Baikal (20% of the world's fresh water), the Volga (Europe's longest river), Elbrus (5,642 m, Europe's highest peak). History: Kievan Rus (9th century), the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Peter I (empire from 1721), the 1917 revolution, the USSR (1922–1991), the Federation since 1991. Science: Mendeleev (the periodic table), Sputnik 1 (1957), Gagarin (1961). Economy: oil and gas (40% of exports), wheat (the world's top exporter), metals. Culture: Pushkin, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, the Bolshoi. Ties with Uzbekistan: 1865–1991, now the main trading partner, with over 2 million Uzbek migrants.

Fun facts

• Russia borders 14 countries — the most in the world.
• Siberia has permafrost: the ground is frozen 1 km deep.
• A train takes 7 days to cross Russia from one end to the other.