Geography |
The Russian Federation, located in Eastern Europe and northern Asia, is the world's largest country in terms of area (17 097 610 km2). On the north Russia is bounded by extensions of the Arctic Ocean: the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas. On the east the country is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and several of its extensions: the Bering Strait (which separates Russia from Alaska), the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan. In the extreme south-east Russia abuts the northeastern tip of North Korea. On the south it is bounded by China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Black Sea. On the south-west it is bounded by Ukraine and on the west by Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, the Gulf of Finland, and Finland. In the extreme north-west, Russia is bounded by Norway. Lithuania and Poland border Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea.
Russia can be divided broad geographic regions. From east to west they are the European plain; the Ural Mountains; the mountain systems and ranges along much of Russia's southern border; and the lowlands and uplands of Siberia, including the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, and the mountain ranges of north-eastern Siberia.
Much of the land of European Russia is a rolling plain with an average elevation of about 180 m. Much of the northern part of European Russia, which was subjected to continental glaciation, is flat and poorly drained, with many swamps and lakes. The southern part of European Russia contains rich soils that support most of the region's agriculture. At the far southern edge of the plain, between the Black and the Caspian seas, are the Caucasus Mountains. These include Mount Elbrus (5 642 m), the highest point in Europe.
The Ural Mountains, running from north to south, form the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia. These old worn mountains reach an average height of only about 600 meters. The highest elevation is Gora Narodnaya (1894 m).
Between the Urals on the west and the Yenisey River in the east, and stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the southern steppes, lies the West Siberian Plain, vast lowlands that make up perhaps the largest area of level land in the world. This enormous plain covers more than 2.6 million km2 and rises no more than 150 meters above sea level. The lowlands are extremely flat and poorly drained, with many marshes, swamps, and peat bogs.
The rolling Central Siberian Plateau slopes upward toward the south from coastal plains along the Arctic Ocean. The land has an average elevation of 500 to 700 m. Streams cut deeply through the region. The Sayan and Baikal Mountains rise more than 3 350 m along the plateau's southern edge.
The East Siberian Uplands, east of the Lena River, are mainly a wilderness of mountains, basins and plateaus. The mountains rise to 3,000 meters and form part of a series of ranges along the eastern coast of Asia. About 23 active volcanoes are found on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The highest, snow-capped Klyuchevskaya, rises 4,750 m. The mountains continue offshore and form the Kuril Islands, which contain about 100 volcanoes, including 30 that are active.
Russia has many rivers, the longest of which lie in Siberia. The Lena River, the longest, is 4 400 km long. It, like the Amur, Ob, and Yenisey rivers, empties into the Arctic Ocean and is frozen for seven to nine months of the year. The Volga River, the longest river in European Russia, originates north-west of Moscow and flows 3 531 km to the Caspian Sea. Other important rivers in European Russia include the Don and the Northern Dvina.
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.