Russia, 101 facts about Russia

Today I'm here to talk to you about the cold and mysterious land of Russia but why oh why our teachers in Russia sometimes paid in vodka which Russian leader recorded an album of romantic ballads and how badly would I mispronounce these Russian words with my stupid English mouth two out of three those questions are about to be answered so sit down take a shot of vodka and 

prepare yourself for 101 facts about Russia.

1-okay first off the bats not to blow smoke up their trumpets or anything but Russia is big real big huge in fact it's the largest country by land area at a staggering sixteen million two hundred seventy seven thousand seven hundred forty two square kilometers this makes it almost twice as large as the USA.

2- russia stretches across an amazing 11 time zones more than any other country which must make things difficult they must be terrified of being late all the time so they must be rushing around everywhere yep it was that early I did that joke.

3- okay prepare yourself because I'm getting all the luxuries big fact out of the way first Russia shares a border with 14 countries these countries are Norway Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Poland Belarus China Ukraine Georgia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Mongolia and North Korea Wow Adam what lovely neighbors they are.

4- still not getting the size of Russia's monumental girth right fine well how's this Russia is bigger than Pluto yes that's right Russia is bigger than a whole planet since when.

5- so big are its territorial balls Russia actually stretches across two continents Europe and Asia the Ural Mountains form the conventional border between the two continents which stretch down from the north south in the west of Russia about a quarter of the country lies in Europe that's why they were in the Eurovision Song Contest but the rest is Asia.

6- being a plus-size nation Russia is home to a lot of plus-sized things for instance Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world it holds approximately 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water and is 1642 metres deep making it the deepest lake in the world wide deep and works there's a joke there somewhere but you can do the rest yourselves.

7- the highest mountain in Russia is Mount Elbrus which is also the highest mountain in Europe and Richards a height of five thousand six hundred forty two meters must be great fun to sled down I'm sure.

8- Russia also boasts the longest river in Europe which is the Volga River as in it's called Volga doesn't swear a lot spawning a length of around three thousand six hundred ninety kilometers it has more than two hundred rupee thérèse aka little streams coming off it if these were counted as the main river it would stretch an incredible distance of three hundred fifty seven thousand kilometers that's 92 percent of the way to the moon I mean that only really works if you could walk on water and breathe in space so if your space Jesus really which is Thor technically.

9- with the largest lakes and mountains and rivers Russia maze will complete the set by having the world's largest area of forests seven million seven hundred sixty two thousand six hundred and two square kilometers of Russia is covered in trees approximately six hundred forty two billion of them to be precise accounting for forty five point four percent of the country's land area that means almost half the world's largest country is covered in trees so thank you for the oxygen.

10- Russia is home to the clear chips clear sopka which at four thousand seven hundred fifty metres is the highest active volcano in Eurasia it's considered sacred by some indigenous people who believe it to be the location at which the world was created.

11- 77 percent of Russia is made up of Siberia a vast geographical area that in its broadest definition is known as North Asia however Siberia has a low population density despite being 50 times as large as the UK it's home to only half the amount of people I mean I don't see why it looks it's mix love lovely.

12- Russia meanwhile has a population of around 143 million making it the ninth most populated country in the world.

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13- however there are fears that Russia's population could fall by 50 percent by the year 2050 according to the UK newspaper The Times this is thought to be due to the falling birth rate and high levels of alcoholism and suicide.

14- perhaps as a result of this September the 12th is Russia's day of conception which could possibly be the best public holiday ever couples are encouraged to conceive a child on this date and we all know how that's done and they're given prizes if the baby is born in exactly nine months previous winners have got an apartment and cheeps for their sexy efforts well and a baby as well.

15- according to the Moscow time is in order to get the population a bit more Randy Vladimir Putin invited a sec city boys - boys - men to perform on Valentine's Day in 2013 this turned out to not go ahead hey Vlad can you give me their.

16-by the way I'd like them to sing outside Jennifer Lawrence's house for a bit I want to know their rate. 16 roughly 78 percent of Russians live in European Russia which accounts for less than 25% of the total area of the country.

17- though the majority of Russians are of Eastern Slavic descent the name Russia comes from the ruse people who were Norse however many Russian scholars claim that they were indeed slabs so who knows.

18- ruse in Old Norse by the way means they're men who Rao see now you can impress all your argumentative Old Norse friends.

 19- the official name for Russia is a Russian Federation the Russian Federation began in June of 1991 with the election of Boris Yeltsin following the fall of the Soviet Union.

20- the country is split into 46 are blasts 22 republics 9 craze for autonomous okrugs three federal cities and one autonomous Oblast collectively known as the federal subjects there are 85 federal subjects in total but two of them are internationally recognized as being part of Ukraine since Russia kind of nicked them in 2014.

21- Russia was the dominant nation in the Soviet Union or the USSR you know that thing that the Beatles song about once which began in 1922 and lasted 69 years.

22- Soviet Russia began a few years earlier than that when Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks to victory over the provisional government known as the October Revolution which existed after the last Tsar of Russia nicholas ii was executed along with his whole family in Yekaterinburg following the February revolution sounds like a fun afternoon.

23- nicholas ii was the last Tsar of Russia and his family the Romanovs no relation to Black Widow had ruled the country for over 300 years.

24- after the fall of the Tsar and the rise of the Bolsheviks Lenin ran the government but when he died in 1924 Joseph Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals and took power eventually becoming a brutal and infamous dictator.

25- Stalin wasn't actually Russian but Georgian Stalin didn't start learning Russian until he was eight till he was eight quit Stalin dude at Russian make jokes by him should I.

26- when Stalin was young he worked as a weatherman yep you heard that correctly at the age of 21 he started work at the tipless meteorological observatory where he hoped to record data like rainfall and humidity exciting times for young Joseph.

27- Stalin loved movies American cowboy movies in particular interestingly though Stalin wasn't a huge fan of anti-communist John Wayne and entertain the idea of having him assassinated yeah entertaining idea assassination.

28- oh yeah and he was also responsible for the deaths of millions of people according to the International Business Times estimates on the exact. of people killed under Stalin vary wildly between three and sixty million victims generally though if three million is too conservative estimate of how many people you've killed you're probably a bit of a bad guy.

29- Stalin famously said that a single death is a tragedy a million deaths is a statistic except he probably didn't say that there's literally no reliable evidence that Stalin ever made this comment I mean it sounds like something he would say but no dice Marilyn Manson does say it in his song the fight song though so someone said it.

30- the current President of Russia is the one and only Vladimir Putin Putin has been both Prime Minister and president twice from well done him.

31- Putin is a former KGB agent having joined in item 5 and left in 1991 the KGB were effectively Russia's secret police agency and were at one point the largest agency of its kind in the world.

32- in 2007 Putin was named Person of the Year by Time magazine.

33- ever the polymath and probably to show off his person 4-year status Putin has his very own instructional judo DVD yep actually real you can find out in the internet somewhere although you should probably pay for it otherwise well I don't know.

34- here is a picture of Vladimir Putin here is a picture of Dobby the house-elf am Harry Potter do you think they look similar while some Russian lawyers thought so in 2003 Russian lawyers attempted to sue Warner Brothers as they claimed the character of Dobby was based on Vladimir Putin and Putin is a free elf.

35- it was reported that Russia has actually considered investigating a ban on the one thing that's getting humanity through these tough times fidget spinners this is not just because they're annoying but because Peters opponent was seen playing with one and so there are allegations they have an anti-putin brainwashing sentiment that and apparently they're harmful to children.

36- there are roughly 120 ethnic groups in Russia who speak more than 100 languages they speak more than 100 languages good grief I really need to pull my finger out and download duolingo.

37- however the vast majority of people in Russia are ethnic Russians comprising 81% of the population.

38- by far the most commonly spoken language in Russia is chocol Russian which is spoken by about 85% of the population and is the official language of the country - absolutely nobody surprise.

39- as you may well have noticed Russian is written in a different alphabet - what most of us are used to and no it isn't just a font glitch Russian is in the Cyrillic alphabet and is named after Saint Cyril.

40- confirming some people's most absurd serotypes about Russia it's interesting to note there is actually no word in Russian for fun that is there's not an exact translation so Russian sometimes get close to having fun but they can't really speak about it.

41- however there are a significant. of minority languages in Russia one of the most minor is the tur Sami language of the Kola Peninsula at the moment only two people speak it must add some real pressure to their chats and must feel like a slap in the face to their friends the meaning of life the guarantee used in Russia are rubles I said ruble Clive are you deaf also who even gets that reference anymore.

43- Russia is many things and one of those things is a technological pioneer in fact the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite named Sputnik back in 1957.

44- this caused the entire population of the USA to freak the hell out due to a perceived deficit in the technological prowess of their country this was known as the Sputnik crisis and effectively began the space race I'm pretty sure I said that exact same sentence last week.

45- the space race by the way is not another name for Rainbow Road but was a period of competition between Russia and the USA Jassi could do the coolest space things first Russia certainly took an early lead following the launch of Sputnik they put the first man Yuri Gagarin into space and were the first nation to touch Mars in that there Mars to probe crash-landed onto the red phone surface when its parachute failed to deploy still counts though I guess.

46- the Russians were also the first nation to launch a dog into space and have it orbit to the earth yes the Russians sent an adorable pooch named Laika into orbit and despite it sounding more like some sort of elaborate dare the mission did indeed prove that living creatures can survive the launch process Lika did not however survive the whole being in space indefinitely process and instead became a crime-fighting Superdog protecting the oppressed in the far reaches of the galaxy haha just kidding she died.

47- the official residence of the Russian president is the gremlin oh no sorry I mean the Kremlin which is found in the capital city of Moscow her name Kremlin means fortress which is an apt description of the imposing fortification and guess that's right time and again it's good ring.

48- Moscow is also home to the Austin Kino tower which is the tallest freestanding building in Europe.

49- Moscow is currently home to more billionaires than anywhere else in the world combined with a grand total of 74 billionaires living there now that's a lot of billionaires setting up a lemonade stand there would be a good investment.

 50- Moscow is the capital city of Russia although official place by st. Petersburg is the capital for more than 200 years from 1712 to 1917 or Petersburg often gutter to lose that title.

51- an interesting feature of Russia is Karl and Grodd Oblast which is a small semi Enclave located between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea separated from the rest of Russia by about 360 kilometers the Oblast is home to almost a million people and is about half the size of Belgium.

52- the flag of Russia is an attractive tricolour of white blue and red ha like so many other great ones it was originally used on the Russian merchant ships becoming the official flag of the Sodom of Russia in 1699 it was however replaced by this snazzy red hammer and sickle Laden. during the Soviet Union but was reinstated when the USSR finally kicked the bucket.

53- The Hermitage Museum located in st. Petersburg is Russia's largest museum it's also home to dozens of cats who and I quote here hunt and illuminate Robin pepper maniacs good pussy.

54- whore subbotnik is the day when denizens of Russian cities volunteered to tidy up the streets they call home these days usually coincide with other holidays particularly dunnan's birthday which is the 22nd of April.

55- there's a bronze statue of a dog in plaza chatter of Lutz keep metro station in Moscow with a very shiny nose this is because it's good luck to give it a rub I should point out that it's good luck to give it a rub doesn't work so well with humans unless you ask very nicely.

56- if you ever travel to Russia and for whatever reason want to give someone flowers it's of paramount importance that you give them an odd. even.s of flowers are customary at funerals and to give it on an even. bouquet outside of this context is very rude indeed.

57- the word vodka comes from the word vada which means water which there's an awful lot about how Russians approach drinking.

58- during times of economic hardship teachers in Russia can be paid in vodka that's not that weird actually you made a drama teacher who did the same thing except with wine and tears.

59- beer was not considered an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013 as anything containing less than 10% alcohol was classed as a foodstuff and not alcoholic see officer I was simply having a Russian lunch in the park at 4 o'clock in the morning.

60- a depressing 25 percent of Russian men died before the turn 55 due in part to excessive alcohol consumption in fact to otter through the Russian men who died died drunk yep there it is those of the consequences.

61- a male life expectancy in Russia is just 63 which is lower than in Iraq and North Korea Russian women on the other hand have a life expectancy of 75 years girl power yes.

62- as a result there are over 10 million more women than men in Russia our to the double X chromosome I think.

63- let's move on from the whole drinking stuff shall we in 2010 a heat wave in Russia caused the death of over 1,000 people the majority of whom drowned as a result of going swimming while drunk Oh God they just touch stop today Nintendo.

64- Moscow has a beautiful subway system which is the busiest in Europe and is used by 9 million people every day that's more than the subway in NYC and the London Underground combined got busier than the tube Wow hell exists.

65- remember that crazy Lenin dude and how he died in 1924 well those Russian chaps decided to embalming and put him on display you can actually go and visit Lenin's body in Moscow right now.

66- while you're there there's a bar in Moscow staffed almost entirely by twins the bar is inspired by Soviet era film in which a girl enters an alternate dimension and finds her twin named the kingdom of the crooked mirrors wow you must feel drunk literally as soon as you enter that dang place.

67- the iconic st. Basil's Cathedral was designed by post Nikia Cobb left legend has it that Archer was completed the cutely named Ivan the Terrible wanted to make sure that Jakov left would never be able to make anything as beautiful ever again Ivan did this by blinding him Wow what's a terrible thing to do you really wouldn't think that as Ivan.

68- Russia is home to the coldest inhabited place on the face of the earth or in MACUL on February 6 1933 the local weather station recorded a truly disgusting temperature of minus 60 7.7 Celsius Wow my god isn't that the temperature that Vanilla Ice thinks he is.

69- all you make on it's relatively close to you cute sick which holds the crown of the coldest city in the world Wow does my ex-girlfriend live there hi Oh.

70- close by we also find the town of Verkhoyansk which currently holds the Guinness world record for the greatest temperature range in the world summer temperatures have reached as high as 37 degrees Celsius then plummet in the winter to a horrendous minus 68 degrees Celsius a temperature difference of 105 packing to go there must be a ninth man.

71- Russians like to spend their summers in country houses outside of the city which are known as dashes looks dashing to me.

72- former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev is known for many things such as his guidance of Russia after the Cold War or his commitment to openness and democracy but all of these achievements tremble in comparison to Gorbachev album of romantic ballads which he recorded to raise money for a charity dedicated to his late wife on the album entitled songs for razor he sings alongside famous Russian musician Andrei makarevich.

73- this I think may be one of my favorite of facts ever in 1989 the Soviet Union traded seventeen submarines a cruiser a frigate and a destroyer to Pepsi to enable the soft drink to be sold in the Soviet Union at the time this deal made Pepsi the world's sixth largest military power and yet coke is still better how did that happen.

74- in the 1870s Russia built a circular warship it suffers from a barely poor reputation owing to the fact that it performed poorly in anything but the car missed waters and also had a habit of spitting in circles like the balls floating in a bath all bork's.

75 -a museum in st. Petersburg claims to possess the severed penis of Gregor Roy Rasputin a Russian mystic who became friends with the family of nicholas ii remember the family that was brutally executed yeah that one rush of history is fun anyway what do they use that penis for a doorstop.

76- Princess Alexandra claim that Rasputin's killed her son of hemophilia this is attested to in the popular disco song Rasputin by German group boney M.

77- in an attempt to modernize Russia with Western ideals Peter the Great instituted attacks on having a beard those who paid the tax had to carry around a beard token some versions of which bore an inscription reading the beard is a superfluous burden something tells me the piece of the great couldn't grow a very great beard.

78- everybody loves a funny dashcam video but many people are boynton doubt the seemingly disproportionate amount of dashcam videos that come from Russia the reason for this is an increasing amount of people were targeted by fraudsters throwing themselves on to slow-moving cars and claiming that they were run over dash cams became a method of guarding against this.

79- Russia will soon be home to a war theme ski park which is being built by oscar-winning Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita mikhalev the resort will feature burnt-out tanks and rubber barbed wire whore so Russian so very Russian.

 80- in the 1700 a Russian woman by the name of mrs. Vasily f gave birth to 16 pairs of twins 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets with the same man wow that sounds like a question on a mathematics exam the answer by the way is 69 kids I suppose that's a lot of bang for your buck or rather a lot of buck fiat bang.

81- in 1867 the USA bought Alaska from Russia for just 7.2 million dollars adjusting for inflation by the way that's the equivalent to about 118 million dollars that's roughly the production cost for two average budget Hollywood films it's not even that much for a whole bit of the country.

82 -Russia often Bikash with Japan about who owned a. of the Kuril Islands a string of islands that connect depan to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula to be fair they look lovely I'll have one if they're going Russia appears to be having the last laugh though is it currently has jurisdiction over all of them.

83- the most radioactive and polluted lake in the world is Lake Karachay in Russia it's said to be so radioactive that standing next to it for just one hour would kill you or turn you into the Hulk but probably more likely killed you.

84- you know Helmand Grand Theft Auto you can go into a spray garage to get rid of your wanted levels or the cops will leave you alone it's kind of the same in Russia sort of it's a crime to drive around in a dirty car in Russia this is supposedly to make sure all the license plate is not obscured by muck so spraying over this dirt would work right or did I just click bait this fact.

85- Alexander Koosman the mayor of McGee on in Western Siberia is known for banning excuses saying that city officials should help improve the people's lives and solve their problems not make excuses in fact he even has a song about it named no excuses oh no wait sorry that's Allison chains my bad.

86- Russia hands in its possession around 7,000 nuclear weapons the most of any nation on earth compensating for something Russia just kidding please don't Bombers.

 87- according to The Huffington Post around 56 percent of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union.

88- the dining code for Russia is double-oh-seven hey Russia that our thing what can I say maybe we just took it from Russia With Love.

89- Russia unfortunately has a very serious heroin problem Viktor even off the head of the Federal Drug Control Agency estimates that roughly seven million Russians are addicted to drugs approximately 1.5 million of them are addicted to heroin.

90- of the world's most popular video games all about building blocks into the hope that they disappear of all time Tetris was created by russian alexey pajitnov in 1984.

91- even the tetris theme tune is in russia and is in fact a 19th century Russian folk song which tells the story of a man and woman haggling over fabric which I mean I'm Raven sure game theory could argue that that's the hidden tale behind Tetris in Russia it's known as koruba Yankee everywhere else it's known as the tetris thing tube.

 92- there exists an odd russian superstition which claims that whistling indoors will call to all your money to flower the window oh so that's why I'm poor I keep this thing to whistle by FlowRider all I'm just kidding I would never play that in my house.

93- another well-known Russian superstition holds that shaking hands over a tall way is bad luck and will cause those shaking hands to argue.

94- Russia is ranked 130 first out of 176 and transparency international 2013 corruption perception index that makes it um pretty damn corrupt not my words guys it's just the index it's just the index.

95 -the longest railway line in the world is the trans-siberian railroad which connects Moscow to the Russian Far East it was built between 1891 and 1916 and is an incredible nine thousand two hundred and eighty-nine kilometers long.

96- there's a village in Russia called Suze doll that despite being only 15 square kilometers is home to an incredible 53 churches so no excuse for missing Sunday Mass I suppose.

97- in 1820 a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica it was led by a Russian of German descent who possess the fabric see over the top named Fabian Godley from Bellingshausen.

98- the deepest hole on earth fantastically named the Kola super-deep borehole is in Russia otherwise why would I've mentioned it and is an incredible 12 kilometers deep it was created purely so they could see how deep they could drill they literally just did it for a large.

99- due to its much criticized gay propaganda law it's illegal in Russia to tell children that gay people exist the law was authored by yelena Messalina who incidentally believes that the phrase gays of equal to could be considered extremism nice woman nice not at all insane and awful woman the same woman also authored a law that decriminalized domestic abuse instead making it a misdemeanor again such a lovely woman.

101- even though they seemed ages away from each other Russia and America are less than four kilometres apart at the nearest point keep your friends close and your enemies four kilometers apart apparently.

 interesting anyway I'm bored.

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