俄罗斯历史(英文版)

officially Russian Federation , Russian Rossiya or Rossiyskaya Federatsiya country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), Russia has been an independent country since the dissolution of the union in December 1991. Under the Soviet system it was called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (R.S.F.S.R.). With an area of 6,592,800 square miles (17,075,400 square kilometres), Russia is the world's largest country, covering almost twice the territory of either the United States or China. It ranks sixth in the world in population, following China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. The great majority of the people are Russians, but there also are some 70 smaller national groups living within its borders. Most of the population is concentrated in a great triangle in the western, or European, part of the country, although over the past three centuries-and particularly during the early and mid-20th century-there was a steady flow of people eastward to the Asiatic section commonly referred to as Siberia. On its northern and eastern sides Russia is bounded by the Arctic and Pacific oceans, and it has small frontages in the northwest on the Baltic Sea at St. Petersburg and at the detached Russian oblast (province) of Kaliningrad. On the south it borders North Korea, China, Mongolia, and the former Soviet republics of Kazakstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. On the southwest and west it borders the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as Finland and Norway; in addition, Kaliningrad (formerly a part of what was once East Prussia annexed in 1945) abuts Poland and Lithuania. Extending nearly halfway around the Northern Hemisphere and covering much of eastern and northeastern Europe as well as the whole of northern Asia, Russia has a maximum east-west extent, along the Arctic Circle, of some 4,800 miles (7,700 kilometres) and a north-south width of 1,250 to 1,850 miles. There is an enormous variety of landforms and landscapes, which occur mainly in a series of broad latitudinal belts. Arctic deserts lie in the extreme north, giving way southward to the tundra and then to the forest zones, which cover about half of the country and give it much of its character. South of the forest zone lie the wooded steppe and steppe, beyond which are small sections of semidesert along the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. Much of the federation lies in latitudes where the winter cold is intense and where evaporation can barely keep pace with the accumulation of moisture, engendering abundant rivers, lakes, and swamps. The capital of Russia is Moscow, which was also the capital of the R.S.F.S.R. and of the Soviet Union. The republic itself had been established immediately after the Russian Revolution of October (November, New Style) 1917 and became a union republic on December 30 (December 17, Old Style), 1922. Following the termination of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, Russia joined with other former Soviet republics in forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Historically, the territory of European Russia was the core of the expanding Russian state and suffered onslaughts ranging from that of the Mongol hordes in the 13th century to the Nazi invasion of World War II. This historical heritage, together with the country's vast area and natural wealth, which permitted the development of a large-scale industrial economy, gave Russia a unique place of leadership among the former Soviet republics. Its brooding landscapes and the complexities of the prerevolutionary society inspired the prose and music of such giants of world culture as Anton Chekhov, Aleksandr Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, while the October Revolution (of 1917) and the changes it brought were reflected in the works of such noted figures as the novelists Maksim Gorky, Mikhail Sholokhov, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and the composers Dimitry Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev. For the geography and history of Russia's two largest cities, see the articles Moscow and Saint Petersburg. For the history of the Soviet Union as a whole, from the Revolution to 1991, see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For the geography and history of the other former Soviet republics, see Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine. From the beginnings to c. 1700 Prehistory and the rise of the Rus Indo-European, Ural-Altaic, and diverse other peoples have occupied what is now the territory of Russia since the 2nd millennium BC, but little is known about their ethnic identity, institutions, and activities. In ancient times, Greek and Iranian settlements appeared in the southernmost portions of what is now Ukraine. Trading empires of that era seem to have known and exploited the northern forests-particularly the vast, triangular-shaped region west of the Urals between the Kama and Volga rivers-but these contacts seem to have had little lasting impact. Between the 4th and 9th centuries AD, the Huns, Avars, Goths, and Magyars passed briefly over the same terrain, but these transitory occupations also had little influence upon the East Slavs, who during this time were spreading south and east from an area between the Elbe River and the Pripet Marshes. In the 9th century, as a result of penetration into the area from the north and south by northern European and Middle Eastern merchant adventurers, their society was exposed to new economic, cultural, and political forces. The scanty written records tell little of the processes that ensued, but archaeological evidence-notably, the Middle Eastern coins found in eastern Europe-indicates that the development of the East Slavs passed through several stages. From about 770 to about 830, commercial explorers began an intensive penetration of the Volga region. From early bases in the estuaries of the rivers of the eastern Baltic region, Germanic commercial-military bands, probably in search of new routes to the east, began to penetrate territory populated by Finnic and Slavic tribes, where they found amber, furs, honey, wax, and timber products. The indigenous population offered little resistance to their incursions, and there was no significant local authority to negotiate the balance among trade, tribute, and plunder. From the south, trading organizations based in northern Iran and North Africa, seeking the same products, and particularly slaves, became active in the lower Volga, the Don, and, to a lesser extent, the Dnieper region. The history of the Khazar state is intimately connected with these activities. About 830 commerce appears to have declined in the Don and Dnieper regions. There was increased activity in the north Volga, where Scandinavian traders who had previously operated from bases on Lakes Ladoga and Onega established a new centre, near present-day Ryazan. Here, in this period, the first nominal ruler of Rus (called, like the Khazar emperor, khagan) is mentioned by Islāmic and Western sources. This Volga Rus khagan state may be considered the first direct political antecedent of the Kievan state. Within a few decades these Rus, together with other Scandinavian groups operating farther west, extended their raiding activities down the main river routes toward Baghdad and Constantinople, reaching the latter in 860. The Scandinavians involved in these exploits are known as Varangians; they were adventurers of diverse origins, often led by princes of warring dynastic clans. One of these princes, Rurik of Jutland, is considered the progenitor of the dynasty that ruled in various portions of East Slavic territory until 1598. Evidences of the Varangian expansion are particularly clear in the coin hoards of 900–930. The number of Middle Eastern coins reaching northern regions, especially Scandinavia, indicates a flourishing trade. Written records tell of Rus raids upon Constantinople and the northern Caucasus in the early 10th century. In the period from about 930 to 1000, the region came under complete control by Varangians from Novgorod. This period saw the development of the trade route from the Baltic to the Black Sea, which established the basis of the economic life of the Kievan principality and determined its political and cultural development. The degree to which the Varangians may be considered the founders of the Kievan state has been hotly debated since the 18th century. The debate has from the beginning borne nationalistic overtones. Recent works by Russians have generally minimized or ignored the role of the Varangians, while non-Russians have occasionally exaggerated it. Whatever the case, the lifeblood of the sprawling Kievan organism was the commerce organized by the princes. To be sure, these early princes were not “Swedes” or “Norwegians” or “Danes”; they thought in categories not of nation but of clan. But they certainly were not East Slavs. There is little reason to doubt the predominant role of the Varangian Rus in the creation of the state to which they gave their name.