Sports in Russia

Sports in Russia are very popular. The most played sports are basketball, ice hockey and football. Other sports played include bandy, martial arts, volleyball and skiing. Russia does very well in basketball, playing mostly in European leagues. This is probably the reason there is only one Russian basketball basketball playing in the NBA. I personally enjoy watching Russian hockey players because they are always very exciting. A few famous hockey players from Russia are Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Alex Ovechkin. All of these players played on the Olympic team in Vancouver in 2010. Earlier I mentioned the sport bandy. Bandy is a sport that is a mix of hockey and soccer. The game is played with 11 players and a goalie, sticks, a ball and is played on a soccer length field covered with ice. The objective of this game is to score on the opposing team's net. I found this very cool because it is a clever mix of two very different sports. Thanks guys. See you next time.

Tourism in Russia

The tourism in Russia has had a rapid growth since the late soviet times. It is fuelled by great cultural heritage and strong natural variety of the country. The most visited cities in Russia are Moscow and St. Petersburg. These are the current and former capital cities of the country.

Moscow, Russia

These cities have wold-renowned museums, theatres, churches, impressive fortifications, beautiful streets and squares and large palaces and parks. Some of these places include Tretyakov Gallery, Mariinsky, Saint Issac's Cathedral, Moscow Kremlin and the Red Square. Moscow displays the best of Soviet architecture and modern skyscrapers, whereas St. Petersburg shows more of classical architecture with many channels, rivers and bridges. The city of St. Petersburg is commonly referred to as Venice of the North.

Venice of the North

Typical Russian souvenirs include matryoshka dolls, samovars, ushankas, papahas, and other fur clothes. Foods that attract tourists include Russian caviar and vodka.

A ushanka with a Soviet symbol

The Black Sea coast of Russia is a very popular resort area, including Sochi, which is the location for the 2014 Olympics. Other tourist attractions include ski resorts, mountains, volcanoes, geysers and steppes.

Sochi, Russia

Thanks for reading everybody. See you next time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Tourism
http://www.igougo.com/attractions-l269-c11-Russia_Tourist_Attractions.html
http://www.squidoo.com/Tourist_Attractions_In_Russia

Russia in WWI and WWII

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, I will be blogging about the very interesting topic; Russia's roles in both world wars.
WWI
WWI started July 28, 1914. Russia entered the first world war to respond to the Ausria-Hungary's declarence of war on Siberia (they were allies). During this war, Russia was part of the Allies or the Triple Entente, which included: the United Kingdom, France and Russia and fought against the Central Powers, consisting of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Russian soldiers training for WWI

In 1916, the Russian army almost completely destroyed the army of Austria-Hungary. The costs of war, high casualties and rumors of corruption formed the Russian Revolution in 1917. WWII officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

WWII
The beginning of World War II was on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war two days later. In between the two wars, Russia created the USSR, which was a union treaty between the Russian, the Ukrainian, the Byelorussian and the Transcaucasian SFSRs (Socialist Federative Soviet Republic).

Russian sniper from WWII

Backing up a month, on August 23, 1939, the Germans and the USSR made a secret non-aggression pact dividing up Poland. From this time to June 18(My Birthday), 1940. In this year the USSR signed a neutrality pact with Japan. On June 22, 1941 the Germans attacked Russia. Italy, Romania, Finland, Slovakia and Hungary declared war shortly afterwards. The U.S. started supplying the USSR in October of 1941. On January 31, 1943, over 90,000 German troops surrendered to the Soviets. This was a big turning point in the war. From then until late April, the Soviets continued to capture and re-capture cities. On April 30, the Soviets invaded Berlin and Hitler commited suicide. On May 2, Berlin was completely captured. The war in Europe was over!

 WOW! That was a long one. If you finished reading this Thank you. I was VERY excited to talk about this because I find it very cool and it means a lot to me personally. See you later!




http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/russia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Soviet_Russia
http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pburdick/world_war_1.jpg
http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/USSR.htmlhttp://www.2worldwar2.com/russia.htm

Current Events

Hello everybody! Today, in my blog, I will be discussing some current events going on in Russia. The biggest news in Russia in my opinion is the re-electing of Russia's president. Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin was recently elected president in March of 2012. He will be taking office on  May 7, 2012 and he will be there for at least another 6 years. He was succeeded Dmitry Medvedev and was president before this from 2000 to 2008. Also, news coming out of Russia is a UTair plane crashed in Siberia. Out of the 31 dead, one was found to be alive a week after the crash. Another story is about the confirmation of a Canadian naval officer passing information to Russia. Other events include Russia trying to improve its university rankings, Russia and the United States negotiating missle defense and my personal favourite is that the 2013 Winter Olympic games will be held in Sochi, Russia. Well, thats all folks! See you later.

President Vladimir Putin

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russia/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/index.php

Russian Flag

Hey guys! As you can see I lied about the topic of this blog. Sorry. Anyways, instead of education, I will be informing you on the Russian flag. The flag consists of 3 equal strips: white, blue and red. These 3 colours have many different explanations of why they were used. The first one is that the colours comes from a coat of arms from the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Another version states that they are associated with the robes of the Virgin Mary. Also there is another explanation telling us that white represents God, blue is the Tsar and red stands for the peasants. These were only a few example and they are all very interesting. When talking about the colours individually, white stands for honesty and peace, the blue represents vigilance, truth, loyalty, perseverance and loyalty and finally, the red shows hardiness, bravery and strength. The current Russian flag became Russia's official flag August 21, 1991. This happened just before Russia became an independent state and before they joined the United Nations. This flag also inspired many flags in the Slavic countries in Europe. Russia also has a National flag day. This is an official holiday, but is not a day off. It is celebrated on August 22. That's it guys. Peace!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Russia
www.flags-flags-flags.org.uk/russian-flag.htm
(sorry miss.s i thought i edited these in)

Russia-Interesting Facts

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3183.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Language

What’s up everybody! The citizens in Russia are called Russians. The population in Russia is almost 143 millions and the annual pop. growth rate is 0.07%. 79.8% of Russia’s population is Russian, 3.8% is Tartar, 2% is Ukrainian, 1.2% Bashkir, 1.1% is Chuvash and 12.1% is a different ethnic group. Russia’s religions include Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Russia’s Official language is Russian; however, Russian citizens speak about 100 to more than 140 other languages. The literacy rate is 99.4% of Russia’s population (This means that almost all of their pop. knows how to read and write). Russia’s work force is an estimated 75 million people. 58.1% of these people work in services, 31.9% work in industry, the remaining 10% work in agriculture. The life expectancy for a male in Russia is 63.03 years, whereas a female’s life expectancy in Russia is 74.87 years. Next week I plan on expanding on either education or religion. See you then!

Hello fellow geo students. For the rest of the semester I will be blogging about the Russian Federation, also known as Russia. Russia has an area of 17 million squared kilometers, making it the largest country in the world. Along with it's large area, Russia has a population of 143 million people, which is the eighth most in the world. Russia extends over the northern part of Asia and covers 40% of Europe. It also covers nine different time zones. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources. It also is the largest oil producer and second largest natural gas producer globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain about one-quarter of the world's fresh water. Other large and well-known facts about Russia are their part in Soviet Union, their big role in the victory of World War II by the Allies and their technological achievements such as the world's first human spaceflight. Watch out for more posts about my country!