Facts and Statistics
Location: Northern Asia, bordering Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland 1,313 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km, Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 227 km, Mongolia 3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206 km, Ukraine 1,576 km
Capital: Moscow
Climate: ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European
Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
Population: 143,782,338 (July 2004 est.)
Ethnic Make-up: Russian 81.5%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%, Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%, Belarusian
0.8%, Moldavian 0.7%, other 8.1% (1989)
Religions: Russian Orthodox, Muslim, other
Government: federation
The Russian Language
Of Russia's estimated 150m population, it is thought that over 81% speak the official language of
Russian as their first and only language. Most speakers of a minority language are also bilingual speakers of
Russian. There are over 100 minority languages spoken in Russia today, the most popular of which is Tartar, spoken by more than 3% of the country's population. Other minority languages include
Ukrainian, Chuvash, Bashir, Mordvin and Chechen. Although few of these populations make up even 1% of the Russian population, these languages are prominent in key regional areas.
All Saints Day,
the day on which Catholics celebrate all the saints, known and unknown,
is a surprisingly old feast. It arose out of the Christian tradition of
celebrating the martyrdom of saints on the anniversary of their
martyrdom. When martyrdoms increased during the persecutions of the late
Roman Empire, local dioceses instituted a common feast day in order to
ensure that all martyrs, known and unknown, were properly honored.
