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Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country. Russia is a highly urbanised country including 16 population centres with over a million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and its cultural capital.

The East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated; the Grand Duchy of Moscow led the unification of Russian lands, leading to the proclamation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics, within which it was the largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s and later played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for ideological dominance and international influence. The Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space. (Full article...)

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The Battle of Kulikovo by Blinov

Stewed beef, GOST 5284-84

Tushonka (Russian: тушёнка, IPA: [tʊˈʂonkə], from тушение, 'braising') is a canned stewed meat especially popular in Russia and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. It has become a common name for different kinds of canned stewed meat, not all of which correspond to the strict GOST standards.

Tushonka can be used and preserved in extreme situations, and therefore is a part of military food supplies in the CIS. For the people of the Soviet Union, tushonka was a part of military and tourist food supplies; at some extreme periods of time it could be bought only with food stamps. (Full article...)

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Laika (/ˈlkə/ LY-kə; Russian: Лайка, IPA: [ˈlajkə]; c. 1954 – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.

Little was known about the effects of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and animal flights were viewed by engineers as a necessary precursor to human missions. The experiment, which monitored Laika's vital signs, aimed to prove that a living organism could survive being launched into orbit and continue to function under conditions of weakened gravity and increased radiation, providing scientists with some of the first data on the biological effects of spaceflight. (Full article...)

In the news

18 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
A Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian weapons depot in Toropets, Tver Oblast, causes an explosion large enough to be detected as an earthquake by monitoring stations. Local residents are told to evacuate and schools in the region are closed. (The Guardian)
17 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Southern Ukraine campaign
Russian artillery targets the town of Komyshuvakha in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, killing two people and injuring five others. (Reuters)
Doctors Without Borders halts its operations in Russia after its government removed the organization from its roster of approved foreign charities. (Al Jazeera)
17 September 2024 –
Meta Platforms bans Russian state media from Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, including RT and Rossiya Segodnya, citing alleged deceptive tactics used by the networks to carry out "influence operations" while evading detection. (CBC News)

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You know, I never planned to leave. I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. You know, I played their game, pretending, of course. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB... Horrifying.
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