World Geography #5 "Russia and the Near Abroad"

The Ukraine

Ukrainians: - second largest ethnic group in the Slavic Core - closely related to Russians in language and culture Ukraine means "at the border" or "border land" - a buffer between Russia and neighboring lands - industrial and agricultural assets were vital to USSR - fertile black earth soils have made Ukraine a great "breadbasket" of wheat, barley, livestock, and other products - generous endowments of coal and iron ore

Extreme Continental Climate

- severe winter cold but warm/hot summers - lowest official temperature ever recorded in Northern Hemisphere at Siberian settlement of Verkhoyansk (-90F) - short growing seasons (avg. 150-day frost-free season) - aridity and drought - less than 20" avg. annual precipitation)

Volga-Don Canal

- major link in the inland waterway system - connected the White Sea and Baltic Sea in the north with the Black Sea and Caspian Sea in the south - series of 13 locks

Farming in the Fertile Triangle

- most of Fertile Triangle is within Russia - Russia still faces difficulties in transforming state-run into free-market farming - Russia has been slow to privatize farming - Russia remains a net food importer Global-scale production of wheat, barley, oats, rye, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, sunflower seeds, cotton, milk, butter, and mutton

West Siberian Plain

- one of the flattest areas on earth - waterlogged country underlain by permafrost - tremendous flooding

Role of Topography

- plains typify the region west of the Yenisey River 1. Ural Mountains 2. West Siberian Plain 3. Central Siberian Uplands 4. Mountainous Southern Rim of Region

Russian Revolution of 1917

- protest against sacrifice of Russian forces during WWI - overthrew Nicholas II, last of the Romanov tsars

Command Economy

- series of five-year economic plans under Stalin - Gosplan (Committee for State planning) in Moscow

A Babel of languages

complex cultural and linguistic mosaic: - 30 major ethnic groups - more than 100 languages spoken Main Language Families: - Indo-European: Slavic (Russian, Belarusian & Ukrainian), Romance (Moldovan/Romanian), Aremenian, - Altaic - Turkic (Kazakh, Kyrghz, Turkmenian, Uzbek) - Caucasian - Kartvellan - Uralic - Finno-Ugric - Proto-Asiatic (cukotko-kamchatkan)

Role of Rivers

Rivers formed natural passageways: - used for trade, conquest, and colonization - helped Russians advance from the Urals to the Pacific in less than a century - Rivers drain into numerous oceans and seas

Economic Roots of the 2nd Russian Revolution - Gorbachev

Reform Policies of Gorbachev - Glasnot - openness - Parestroika - restructuring

Mountainous Southern Rim of Region

- Caucasus, Pamir, Tien Shan, and Altai Mountains

Vladimir Putin

- former KGB officer of the Soviet Union - became very popular Russian President and Prime Minister

Geopolitical Issues

"The Greatest Geopolitical Catastrophe of the Century" - Vladimir Putin, in a 2005 speech, discussing the collapse of the Soviet Union 3 Cocentric Spheres of Geopolitical Concern: 1. within the Russian Federation (unity of Russia itself) 2. Russia's relationships with its Near Abroad 3. Russia's relationships with the Rest of the World

Central Siberian Uplands

- between Yenisey and Lena Rivers (1,000 to 1,500 feet)

Geopolitics in the Near Abroad

- Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - Energy Shortages and Supplies - Russia using fossil fuels as a political weapon - Irredentism: 25 million ethnic Russians living in the 14 former Soviet states & desires of Russians living outside of Russia to achieve their own rights & territories - Territorial Issues - control of the Crimean Peninsula and Kerch Strait, GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) - orientation toward Europe and away from Russia - Russia's military presence in more than 1/2 the former Soviet countries (Peacekeepers or conquerors?)

Eastward Expansion of the Russian Empire

- Cossack expeditions reached the Pacific in 1639 - continued down west coast of North America to Fort Ross in California (1812-1841) - Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 for 2 cents per acre and withdrew from North America - during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Russian tsars annexed the Amur region, the Caucasus, and Turkestan

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

- Economic Association - Russia and 11 of the former Soviet States - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the EU (instead of CIS) in 2004

Russian Triumphs over Powerful Invaders

- King Charles XII of Sweden - 1709 - Napoleon I of France - 1812 - Adolf Hitler - WWII

Russia's Road to Misdevelopment

- Russia is classified as "misdeveloped country" Boris Yeltsin's "Economic Shock Therapy" - rapid transition from command economy to capitalism - widening gap between rich and poor - Russia's GDP plummeted, shrinking by half in 1990s 1. agricultural and industrial production fell dramatically 2. largest fall in production for any industrialized country in peacetime - Underground Economy: Russia's new economic geography: 1. Russia became a kleptocracy, with rampant CORRUPTION 2. organized crime became pervasive 3. widespread bartering resulted from declining value of the ruble

The Far East

- Russia's mountainous Pacific edge - mostly thinly populated wilderness - economy driven by ports, fisheries, and forest industries - most people live along 2 transportation arteries: 1. Trans-Siberian Railroad 2. lower Amur River Island of Sakhalin: - geopolitics involving Russia and Japan over its control - important for its off-shore petroleum and natural gas - contains about 1% of global oil reserves

Land Use/Agriculture

- Russian taiga is the largest continuous area of forest on earth - wheat, sugar beets, sunflowers, livestock in the black-earth belt of the steppes - cotton in the irrigated areas of Central Asia

Vikings

- Slavic tribes came under the influence of Viking adventurers known as Rus or Varangians - rise of Kiev in 9th century

Marxism

- Soviet economic system was an application of the economic and social ideas of German philosopher Karl Marx

World War II

- USSR allied with France and Britain vs. Germany - relocation of Soviet industries eastward - 20 million Soviet lives lost, considerable damage

Soviet Enterprises in Agriculture & Industry

- Virgin and Idle Lands (increase the production of grain) - Hero Projects - construction of dams, railways, plants, etc.

Lake Baikal

- deepest body of freshwater in the world - more than 1 mile deep in places - contains 1/5 of world's unfrozen freshwater - oldest lake in the world at 30 million years of age - contains 1,80 endemic plant and animal species

Second Russian Revolution

- demands for new freedoms and greater autonomy - rise of Boris Yeltsin, champion of reformer's cause - Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991 - Soviet Union was voted out of existence the next day and replaced by 15 independent countries

Soviet Policy and Russification

- effort to implant Russian culture in non-Russian regions and to make non-Russians more like Russians - Policy was generally a failure because of strong nationalist sentiments throughout the Soviet Union

Russian & Soviet Union Keys to Success against Invaders

- environmental rigors that invaders faced - overwhelming distances - defender's love of their homeland - willing to lose great numbers of soldiers in combat - "scorched earth" strategy to protect the motherland

"Putinomics"

- export Russia's natural resources to flood Russia with wealth: profits will be rolled into manufacturing and high-tech industries so that Russia enjoys a more stable, diversified economy - energy represents about 2/3 of the value of Russia's exports: 6% of the world's proven oil reserves, 27% of the world's proven natural gas reserves, 2nd largest coal reserves - Problems: 1. will not be possible to sustain production of natural resources 2. Russia has faced one of the greatest brain drains

The Region of Russia & Near Abroad

- former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) - Cold War versus U.S.-led western bloc - split in 1991 into 15 independent nations 1. Russian Federation 2. 14 other countries comprising "The Near Abroad" - Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) a. economic association b. Russia and 11 former Soviet states c. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the EU in '04 - fluidity in delineating region - trends toward political fragmentation and decentralization

Permafrost

- frozen ground that makes construction difficult - buildings and pipelines must be elevated and insulated

Tatars

- in 1237, Batu Khan brought all Russian principalities except Novgorod under Tatar rule - decline of Tatar power in the 15th century

Area and Population

- largest world region: area of 8.5 million square miles - the region spans 11 time zones! - Regional population of 282 million 1. Russia - 142.8 million 2. Ukraine - 45.7 million 3. Uzbekistan - 28.5 million - vast region but sparsely populated - average population density of 32 per square mile - rates of population change: 1. 1.8% growth among Islamic Central Asian countries 2. 0.4% loss in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus

The Russian Empire

- lasted from the 15th century to the 20th century - immense land empire built around core of Moscow

Bolshevik Revolution

- led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) - Bolshevik faction of the Communist Party seized control - establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922

Ural Mountains

- low, narrow range separating Europe from Asia - average elevation of less than 2,000 feet

Chernobyl

- site of 1986 nuclear power station explosion - north of Kiev, Ukraine - rendered parts of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia incapable of safe agricultural production - there is still an 18-mile exclusion zone today Aftermath: - 100,000-200,000 people still severely affected - 4,000 deaths expected to ultimately be attributed to disaster - Ukraine decommissioning all of its Chernobyl-type nuclear plants

The Wild North

- sub-region lying north and east of the Fertile Triangle and west of the Pacific coast - taiga (coniferous forest) - tundra Northern Sea Route: - waterway developed by the Soviets to provide a connection with the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean - ports of Murmansk and Arkhangeisk - navigation of full route was only possible for about 4 months per year with the help of icebreakers, but global warming is now allowing navigability a greater proportion of the year - possibility of constructing a rail link between Siberia and North America (Alaska)

People and Resources of the Core Land

- the Slavs are the dominant ethnic group - resources are distributed unevenly in this region - the Fertile Triangle: 1. AKA "Agricultural triangle" and "Slavic Core" 2. functional hub of the region 3. contains 75% of region's people and larger share of its cities

Expansion under the Tsars

1. Ivan the Great (1462-1505) - northward thrust; annexed Novgorod 2. Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) - Eastward conquest giving Russia control over the Volga 3. Peter the Great (1682-1725) - defeated the Swedes to gain a foothold on the Baltic Sea - St. Petersburg established as Russia's "Window on the West" 4. Catherine the Great (1762-1796) - secured a frontage on the Black Sea

The Caucasus: Cauldron of Conflict

Caucasian Isthmus has been an important north-south passageway for thousands of years - dozens of ethnic groups have migrated into this region - mostly small ethnic populations confined to mountain areas - different nationalities have maintained their ethnic characteristics and cultural traditions History of animosity between Armenians and Azeri Turks: - Armenian genocide resulted in deaths of around 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1918 - twice as many Armenians live outside Armenia than live in it - Armenian-Azeri dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh enclave - Turkey and Armenia established diplomatic relations in 2009 which helps Turkey's application to the EU

Central Asia

Central Asia almost entirely a region of interior drainage - with exception of the Irtysh, all other streams drain into enclosed lakes and seas, or gradually lose water and disappear Historically, peoples in this region were pastoral nomads: - over time they drifted away from nomadism, with the Soviet government forcibly collectivizing the remaining nomads into permanent villages Most people today live in heavily irrigated valleys: - irrigation is essential for farming - causing water shortages in some areas: Shrinking of the Aral Sea

Geopolitics Within Russia

Complex Political categories: - 48 oblasts (regions) - 7 krais (territories) - 21 republics (varying levels of autonomy) - 4 okrugs (ethnic subdivisions of oblasts/krais) - 2 federal cities - 1 autonomous oblast * Chechnya and Tatarstan pushing for independence * Geopolitical significance has to do with resources: - oil and gas (Tatarstan and Bashkhortostan) - coal deposits (Komi Republic) - dianomds (Sakha)

Physical Geography and Human Adaptations

Factors affecting this immense region: - cold temperatures - infertile soils - marshy terrain - aridity - ruggedness

The Far Abroad

International Relations: - peaceful succession to the Cold War - the Warsaw Pact has dissolved - Russia became a member of the Group of 8 (G-8) in 1997 Energy Issues: - concerns about Russia being a reliable trading partner for oil and natural gas Weapons Proliferation Issues: - Russia's assistance to nuclear and would-be nuclear weapons powers - reduction of nuclear arsenals - threat of "loose nukes" With whom will oil-rich Central Asia align? - Russia, Turkey, or Iran? - Turkey's dream of Pan-Turkism - combating narcotics and terrorism

Byzantines

Kievan Russia had close contacts with Constantinople - accepted Christian faith from Byzantines - Orthodox Christianity became a fixture of Russian life - Moscow becomes the "Third Rome"