By: Jesse Berzonski Russia

Russian Geography Comprising much of eastern Europe and northern Asia, it is the world's largest country in total area. The country contains 40 UNESCO Biosphere reserves.

More facts Geographers traditionally divide the vast territory of Russia into five natural zones the tundra zone, the taiga, or forest, the steppe, or plains, zone, the arid zone, and the mountain zone. The East European Plain encompasses most of European Russia.

Best of Russian geography Russia is a water-rich country, divided into twenty watershed districts. The earliest settlements in the country sprang up along the rivers, where most of the urban population continues to live. The Volga, Europe's longest river, is by far Russia's most important commercial waterway. Forty of Russia's rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers are east of the Urals.

Russian culuture Russian culture started from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded areas of Eastern Europe. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world and claimed succession to the Byzantine legacy in the form of the Third Rome idea.

Russian fairtales and folklore Old Russian folklore takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important part of Slavic mythology. The oldest bylinas of Kievan cycle were actually recorded mostly in the Russian North, especially in Karelia, where most of the Finnish national epic Kalevala was recorded as well.

architecture Russian architecture began with the woodcraft buildings of ancient Slavs. Since the Christianization of Kievan Rus‘. For several centuries Russian architecture was influenced predominantly by the Byzantine architecture, until the Fall of Constantinople. In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin baroque of the 1690s.