Why is Russia so BIG?

Why is Russia so BIG?

How do they keep a shared national identity over such a large land area?

everything west of the ural mountains is taiga with hardly any people.

She is only decent looking because she is part white.

>american education

It is not THAT big, it's just a bit bigger than the usa or brazil.

Maps make it look bigger

they almost wipe out natives

this

But he's right, there are less than 40 million people living in Ural, Siberia and Far East regions combined.

I never realized that africa is bigger then russia

it's still as big as Southern America

Europeans should have colonized Africa murrican way.

Is this supposed to make Russia's size less impressive?

By maintaining the system of governance invented by Ivan the Terrible.

Russia is an excellent example of how geography determines destiny. There is a reason why Russia constantly degenerates into autocracy and the USSR was no exception.
The reason why Russia's geopolitical strategy ever since Ivan the Terrible has primarily remained the same - for the Russian people to survive they needed large tracts of land to fall back on. This was their defense in the event of invasion as Russia's two most vulnerable areas are easily accessible via the European Plain. Examples of course include Napoleon and Hitler who both invaded Russia's most vulnerable areas - others are of course the Polish and Swedes.
So in order to maintain survival Russia has to fall back and if you look at their colonisation process they stopped every time they met a major geographical barrier and then constructed cities. Now these cities were so far apart and so isolated that they lacked the ability to be self-sufficient and all are reliant upon Moscow.
Moscow is Russia. Without Moscow there is no Russia. I know it seems silly, but think about it. The Government has to control these ethnically diverse regions, the distances of which between them increases exponentially (Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk but each supplies the other in a chain), - the logistics are mind boggling to comprehend. So Russia has to be autocratic, it has to follow a 'realist ideology' in regards to the international system in order to maintain its very survival.”

Britain was doing that but then Germans went and started two world wars and ruined everything.

>The Government has to control these ethnically diverse regions

Most of russian regions are ethnically homogeneous though.

It's true. It's just bears out there.

Russia is a Federation, has little mini republics within - pretty much a gas station masquerading as a country, with a long railroad that is the backbone of Siberia. Like Canada, most of the people live in the South and the rest is too cold and peaty to live in, unless you are a Yakut or something. Also, the Mercator projection warps it so it actually as big as the Northern half of Africa. Still big though, but Siberia is an unforgiving hellhole. I lived in Yakutsk.

Still, Russia has to keep the non-Russians in check, especially the Caucasians .

Are you a Yakut.

1/4 Yakut, 1/4 Russian slav, 1/2 white American

All the far east of Russia including the biggest region (Yakutia) contains only 3-6 millions people. but that territory few times more than france for example

Serious man?

So Americans could have a military base in Russia right now. And you guys wouldn't even know.

USA officially had supply base for Afghan forces really here.

Malaria made it difficult for white people to live in Africa. Isn't it strange that the largest white population was in South Africa (furthest from Europe)? That's because malaria isn't as bad down there.

Also, Africans didn't die off from Old World Diseases like the Native Americans did. That's the primary reason (North) America could be repopulated with white Europeans.

Baltic Germans from Estonia made it big. Russians were a little cattle type of thing.

I meant the "west of the ural" part
Though that probably was not intentional, so I'm just bitching

Highly unlikely, they've only settled lesser parts of Russia.