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Did you know that Russian drink doble the amount of tea that the United States drink per week? Tea is the most popular drink in Russia. Russia also played a leading role in the Soviet Union. Want to learn more about Russia? Great! Keep reading.

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Russia has about 20,000 lakes and River. It is also home to currently the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal has about 20% of the world unfrozen fresh water. It also contain 2,000 species of plants and animals of which the majority cannot be found anywhere else. It covers 6,601,668 square miles and 14 countries border Russia. Russia stretches across both Europe and Asia. The Ural mountain separate the European side to the Asian side. Some cool things about Russia are that a 32,000 year old flower’s remains were used to grow a new plant and native to Russia, the Kaluga fish can grow to more than 18 feet and can weigh 2,200 pounds. There are also so many bears in Russia that the bear is often used as a national symbol. Summer can be really hot and humid. Only one - tenth of Russia’s land is used for farming. The rest is either too hot or too cold

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Dancing is a large part of Russian culture. Russian ballet is known throughout the world. Russian also tend to be really good at chess. For example,Russia as produced many chess players that have earned the title “grandmasters”. The are only about 1,100 “grandmasters” in the world. The best chess player enter a tournament that is held throughout the country. Russia also has a strong development in areas such as mining, metal, chemicals and energy productions. Because of all it’s natural resources it played a leading role in the Soviet Union.
The biggest holiday in Russia is the celebration of a new year. Russia will go visit family, drink champagne and set of fireworks. Another holiday falls on June 12 and is called Russian day. It celebrates the end of the Soviet Union and the formation of modern Russia. The 7th week before Easter, many Russians do not eat meat. Instead they eat pancakes! This holiday is called Maslenitsa or pancake week. It celebrates the beginning of spring. The pancakes are said to symbolize the sun.

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- The largest set of Russian nesting dolls included 51 pieces.
- Russia’s alphabet has 33 letters.
- In Oymyyakon, Russia, it once hit -90F, the lowest temperature officially observed outside Antartica.
- Russia eat more than 37 billion pounds of potatoes each year.
- A 1952 earthquake that occurred of the coast of Eastern Russia caused a Tsunami that hit Hawaii.

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Watch this video to learn about the history of Russia.https://safeshare.tv/x/ss5af9fff029d95#

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Russia used to be part of the Soviet Union but that collapsed in 1991 leaving Russia independent causing big political and economical changes in Russia. When the Soviet Union crashed the government put radical reforms to change the centrally controlled economy into a market economy based on private enterprises. The change was slow and difficult that caused extreme hardship on the Russian people. In the 1990s, Russia’s population was around 149 million people and then it began a steep decline. Some of the reason it decline decline where low birth rates, alcohol use, high smoking rating rates, etc. When the Russian government started to recognize the decline they took an extra step to reverse the trend. For example, They gave payments to woman who had more than one child.

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Moscow is the Russia’s capital city. It contain more than ten  million people. In the center of this city, on the north side of the Moscow river, is a huge square. This is the famous red square. To the east side of the square see the walls of the Kremlin. Kremlin comes from the Russian word meaning fortress. For many hundred of year, Russia was ruled from this area. Also in Red Square you will find the beautiful St. Basil Cathedral. At night the colorful tower and onion domes are lit up in the night sky. It was built by Tzar Ivan lV ( Tzar are Russian emperors). Ivan was known as “the Terrible” because of his fierceness. The building next to the Kremlin wall is the Tomb of Lenin and opposite to the square is a famous department store called GUM.