Russia, the largest country in the world, is big, very big, comprising
roughly 1/6th of the world's land mass and its double the size of the United
States. Russia is primarily a northern country which covers mostly north of
China and east of Europe. However, it tends to resemble Canada and Alaska more
in terms of climate since Russia leans closely to the Arctic. Since Russia is
similar to Canada and Alaska, Russia’s climate tends to be based on long
winters and short summer. This is possible because Russia’s land mass is close
to the sea. However, this also means that the agricultural growing season tends
to be short, limiting the types of crops that can be grown.
Most of
the land consists of vast plains: steppe to the south, taiga in the center;
tundra to the north. This vast Eurasian plain, stretching from the Pacific
Coast all the way into Central Europe, is broken only by the Ural Mountains in
the middle--mountains that because of their low height have never really been a
barrier to travel or invasion. There are mountain ranges along the southern
border of Russia. Meaning that Russia’s land possesses mostly every ecosystem
ever know, except for the tropical ecosystem. And with such a large variety of
ecosystem, Russia even holds a variety of animals known such as the lynx, snow leopard,
brown bear and many more.
