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Northwest Federal District (Россия or Rossiya)

How is the land laid out?

This district has two separte parts, one large, the other just Kaliningrad Oblast. The large part has on its west Suomi (Finland), the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic countries; to its north is the Arctic Ocean; east, the Ural Federal District; southeast, the Volga Federal District; and south, the Central Federal District. Kaliningrad Oblast is a wedge, facing the Baltic Sea, between Lithuania and Poland.

The very northwest of Россия (Rossiya1) is part of the Baltic Shield; most of the rest is within the East European Plain.2 The Ural Mountains bound the east and the Arctic Ocean the north.

The Baltic Shield consists of alternations of rocks scraped by glaciers with shallow depressions containing lakes or marshes. This area includes the Kola Peninsula3 and other areas east of Suomi (Finland) and south of the White Sea.4

The Baltic Shield is bounded to its south by a trough extending from the Gulf of Finland through Lakes Ladozhskoye5 and Onezhskoye.6

This part of the East European Plain descends south and eastward, often with escarpments, of which the Valday7 Hills--a watershed boundary--is the most known. During the melt of glaciers, lakes, such as Il'men', formed behind these hills. Much further east is an older watershed boundary, the Timan Range,8 which separates two north- flowing river systems, the Pechora9 and the Northern Dvina.10 These account for most the plain's drainage. The Volga11 just rouches the area, at the Rybinskoye Reservoir,12 and west of the Valday hills rivers drain into the trough--into the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladozhskoye.

The Northern13 Ural Mountains have only one tall ridge and that does not reach 2,000 meters. At their northernmost they bend northwest and point toward Novaya Zemlya,14 a double island that separates the Barents15 and Kara16 seas. Yet further north is Franz Josef Land,17 a set of uninhabited islands.

UNESCO honors the Virgin Komi Forests18 (Komi Republic) as a natural World Heritage Site.

The Timan Pechora Oil Basin lies between the Urals and the Timan Ridge and includes the Nizhne-Chutinskoye Field that staddles northern Komi and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangel'sk Oblast. The Vaktyl Gas Field is located along the right bank of the Pechora near its confluence with the Vaktyl (Komi Republic).

The Valikaya19-Narva River system, including Lake Chudskoye,20 flows into the Gulf of Finland.

Who lives there?

The great majority speak Russian as their first language, and most of the rest learn it. No other first language accounts for as many as one in twenty.

More than nineteen in every twenty are culturally Russian Orthodox Christian, though the degree of observance, or even belief, varies, a relic of communism's coercive bias toward aetheism.

Санкт-Петербург (Sankt-Peterburg)21 is the only city with more than a million residents. The other cities of note are Новгород (Novgorod)22 and Мурманск (Murmansk).

UNESCO honors five places as cultural World Heritage Sites:

  • Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands (Arkhangel'sk Oblast).
  • Ensemble of the Ferrapontov Monastery (Vologda Oblast)
  • Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments (Sankt-Peterburg); The Hermitage Museum is also a tourist attraction.23
  • Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings (Novgorod Oblast); Saint Sophia Cathedral is also a tourist attraction.23
  • Kizhi Pogost (on an island in Lake Onezhskoye, Karelia); the island is also a tourist attraction23
    •

    Additionally UNESCO's site for the Struve Geodetic Arc includes two places on Gogland Island (Leningrad Oblast). Partly in this area (Kaliningrad Oblast) and partly in Lietuva (Lithuania) is the Curonian Spit, another World Heritage cultural site.

    Within the Area

    St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast, Archangel'sk Oblast, Karelia, the Komi Republic, Murmansk, Novgorod Oblast and Vologda Oblast
    Pskov and Kaliningrad Oblasts

    Footnotes

    1. Also transliterated as Rossija; Russia in English.
    2. Vostochno-Evropeyskaya Ravnina in transliterated Russian. Also called the Russian (Russkaya) Plain.
    3. Kil'skiy (or Kolskij) Poluostrov in transliterated Russian.
    4. Beloje (or Beloye) More in transliterated Russian.
    5. An alternate transliteration is Ladožskoje Ozero or, in English, Ladoga. It is Europe's largest lake.
    6. An alternate transliteration is Onežskoje Ozero, or in English, Onega. It is Europe's second largest lake.
    7. Valdayskaya (or Valdajskaja) Vozvyshennost' (or Vazvyšennost') in transliterated Russian.
    8. Timanskiy Kryazh (or Timanskij Kryaž) in transliterated Russian.
    9. Or Pečora. It is Europe's sixth longest river.
    10. North is svernaja or svernaya in translierated Russian. The river is Europe's tenth longest.
    11. Europe's longest river.
    12. Rybinskoje vodochranilišče (or vodokhranilishche) in transliterated Russian. It is perhaps Europe's fourth largest lake.
    13. Severnyy or Severnjy in transliterated Russian.
    14. Or Novaja Zeml'a. The northern island is Europe's fourth largest; the southern is sixth.
    15. Barencevo (or Barentsevo) More in transliterated Russian.
    16. Karskoje or Karskoye More in transliterated Russian.
    17. Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa in transliterated Russian.
    18. There are two units: the Pechora-Ilych Natural Reserve and Yugydva National Park.
    19. Also transliterated from Russian as Valikaja.
    20. Or Peipsi. Also transliterated from Russian as Čudskoje.
    21. Saint Petersburg in English. Formerly Petrograd, that is Petertown, and Leningrad, that is, Lenintown.
    22. Could be translated as new town.
    23. http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-russia/, acc. Dec. 6, 2016. The Hermitage Museum comprises six buildings including the Winter Palace.