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To Earth (Geography Home Page)Russophonic-Eurasia
Northwest Federal District

Россия--part: North West Federal District--part: Sankt-Peterburg (city), Leningrad1 Oblast, Arckangel'sk2 Oblast, Karelia,3 the Komi Republic, Murmansk Oblast, Novgorod Oblast and Vologda Oblast

How is the land laid out?

The very northwest of Россия (Rossiya4) is part of the Baltic Shield; most of the rest is within the East European Plain.5 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 Peninsula6 and other areas east of Suomi (Finland) and south of the White Sea.7

The Baltic Shield is bounded to its south by a trough extending from the Gulf of Finland through Lakes Ladozhskoye8 and Onezhskoye.9

This part of the East European Plain descends south and eastward, often with escarpments, of which the Valday10 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,11 which separates two north- flowing river systems, the Pechora12 and the Northern Dvina.13 These account for most the plain's drainage. The Volga14 just rouches the area, at the Rybinskoye Reservoir,15 and west of the Valday hills rivers drain into the trough--into the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladozhskoye.

The Northern16 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,17 a double island that separates the Barents18 and Kara19 seas. Yet further north is Franz Josef Land,20 a set of uninhabited islands.

UNESCO honors the Virgin Komi Forests21 (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).

Map

map of northwestern Rossija (Russia)

Who lives there?

About six in every seven people 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)22 is the only city with over a million residents. The other cities of note are Новгород (Novgorod)23 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.24
  • Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings (Novgorod Oblast); Saint Sophia Cathedral is also a tourist attraction.24
  • Kizhi Pogost (on an island in Lake Onezhskoye, Karelia); the island is also a tourist attraction24
    •

    Additionally UNESCO's site for the Struve Geodetic Arc includes two places on Gogland Island (Leningrad Oblast).

    Who was there before?

    Speakers of a subdivision of Uralic languages, Finno-Permian languages, moved into the area from the south between the third and first millenia B.C.E. Early in that period the Permian branch became distinct, eventually giving rise in this area to Komi, still a minority language in the Komi Republic. Proto-Finnic, another branch, split off in the first millenia B.C.E. Over the centuries the dialects diverged somewhat, but national boundaries are the chief reason for regarding the Karelian dialects or languages as distinct from Finnish or even Estonian.

    Eastern Slavs arrived from the south in the second half of the first millenium, settling by Lake Il'men' and its northern river outlet. Further expansion--to the Baltic and the Urals--took place in the centuries around the turn of the millenium, but the colonists probably long remained but an elite minority beyond the vicinty of the lake and river. It was only in the last few centuries that they became the majority throughout the area. The early religion of the people who spoke Komi and Karelian was most likely similar to other Uralic religions. These include a sky god, often inactive, a dualistic creation myth and shamanism. Christian missionaries used violence against people and idols to suppress these religions.

    The pre-Christian East Slavs worshipped many gods including thunder gods, a god of livestock, a solar god and a fertility goddess. Chistianity converted the Slavs, oftern violently, during the 11th and 12th centuries. This area remained Orthodox when Novgorod Principality was absorbed by the Москва (Moskva)25 Duchy to its southeast--a move to prevent its Catholicization by the Lithuanian Empire.

    Around the Area

    Around Franz Josef Land:
    north and east
    south

    Around the rest:
    northeast of Novaya Zemlya
    east of Novaya Zemlya and north of the Yugorskiy Peninsula
    east of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and of the Komi Republic's south, and southeast of the Komi Republic
    south and southwest of the Komi Republic, south of southeastern Archangel'sk Oblast, and east of Vologda Oblast
    south of Vologda Oblast, and southeast of Novgorod Oblast
    southwest of Novgorod and Leningrad Oblast
    west of Leningrad Oblast
    northwest of Leningrad Oblast, and west of Karelia and of Murmansk Oblast
    northwest of Murmansk Oblast
    north of the mainland

    Footnotes

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