Out of Office - Mother Russia

Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is the first post in my Out of Office (OoO) series. Each one will include a brief description of a country along with some statistics and there contributions to society. Followed by my experiences of visiting said country, in this case Russia.

Russia is the largest country on earth and spans eleven time zones. Due to its size, Russia contains a diverse population with a rich, albeit turbulent history. Despite being approximately 1/8 of the Earths land mass, Russia is sparse with a population totaling just 144 million. For reference, Japan has a a population of 127 million. Some statistics of Russia are as follows;

• Population - 144.1 million (for reference Japan has 127 million)
• Area (approx) - 17.1 million km²
• Primary language - Russian
• Dominant religion - Orthodox Christianity
• Life expectancy (m) - 64.7 years
• Life expectancy (f) - 76.3 years

A short timeline summary is provided below for those more interested in history;
Grand Duchy of Moscow, 1283-1547.
Tsardom of Russia, 1547-1721.
Russian Empire, 1721-1917.
Russian SFSR, 1917-1922.
Soviet Union, 1922-1991.
Russian Federation, 1991-Present.

The economy is heavily reliant on natural resources and as such seen consistent growth from 1998-2008 with the rising price of oil. Since then growth rates have diminished due to a combination of falling commodity prices and international sanctions.
Russia is seeking to economically reform in a variety of ways to promote growth. Recently, Russia also seems to be opening up to cryptocurrency. For example, Vladimir Putin attended The International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg and held a meeting with the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin. While Russia appears to have less global brands and household names relative to some other countries, they've contributed immensely to modern society.

Petrol cracking, modern society is heavily dependent on the automobile, the car however is dependent on petrol. Converting crude oil into petrol is not a simple process, original distillation methods provided a return of only 10-20%. Petrol cracking was a method invented by Vladimir Shukhov in 1891; with an efficiency of 70%, revolutionising the industry.

Transformers, unfortunately I'm not referring to Autobots and Decepticons here. However, electrical transformers are a seriously underappreciated development. Pavel Yablochkov and Ivan Usagin published their design in the 1870s before demonstrating prototypes in Paris and St Petersburg. In 1882, French inventors Lucien Gaulard and Josiah Willard Gibbs patented the open-core transformer.
Keeping with the theme of electricity, Fyodor Pirotsky developed the first electric powered rail wagons (1874-1876). One experiment near Sestroretsk transported 40 people, although the first electrified tram line did not open until 1882. This was located in Berlin and based on Fyodor's design.

War
A country the size of Russia does not come to be without war and bloodshed. Obviously this is not unique to Russia, every major country has committed dubious acts in its past. It is important to note Russia's position in various wars has altered history significantly, particularly that of Europe.
While many of you will be rightly thinking of Russia's involvement in WWI and WWII, it is also important to remember Napoleon's (1812) invasion into Russia. Despite Napoleon suffering no significant loses in battle while in Russia, the Russian strategy of retreating and scorching earth resulted in the infamous Russian winter almost completely wiping out his army. Russia and its allies pushed into Europe, in short the demise of Napoleon was largely in part to the Russians.
Russia also gave birth to one of the worlds most famous weapons designers, Mikhail Kalashnikov. Contrary to popular belief Mikhail did not set out to design weapons. While, he was a general in the Russian military, he originally wanted to construct agricultural machinery. In 1947, a soldier in hospital questioned why Russian soldiers lacked rifles compared to the well equipped Germans. Mikhail, being a soldier, designed a gun for a soldier. Simple, reliable and named the Avtomat Kalashnikova. First manufactured in 1947, thus the AK-47 was born.

The man that likely prevented WW3, Vasili Arkhipov.
Vasili Arkhipov is credited with preventing a nuclear strike during the Cuban Missile Crisis, had he failed much of the world would likely have been destroyed.
On October 27th 1962, the US navy was tracking four Russian submarines in international waters heading towards the exclusion zone the US had placed around Cuba. Long story short, three of the submarines surfaced due to the US using practice depth charges. One, known as B-39 remained at depth believing real charges were being used and that war had broken out (between the Soviet Union and USA). The captain, Valentin Savitsky unable to contact the Soviet Union ordered his crew to retaliate with nuclear torpedoes. However, Russian submarines require not only the captain but the next two ranking officers keys to fire. While one confirmed the launch order, Arkhipov refused. Not only did he prevent the launch, he convinced the captain to surface to contact the Soviet Union. Its important to remember that this would have likely resulted in the destruction of the submarine if they had been at war.

Russia was also the first space faring nation on Earth. They have numerous accomplishments in relation to space here are some the most memorable;

• 1957 Sputnik 1, the first satellite.
• 1957 Sputnik 2, the first animal in orbit (Laika).
• 1959 Luna 2, first probe to impact the moon.
• 1961 Vostok 1, first person in space (Yuri Gagarin).
• 1963 Vostok 6, first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova)
• 1968 Zond 5, first living being to journey to the moon and return (tortoises).
• 1971 Salyut 1, first space station.
• 1986 Mir, first permanently manned space station.

Back down on the ground, aside from contributing to technological advancements Russia is also renowned for its literature and ballet.Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Pushkin are two of the most famous authors. You may well have heard of masterpieces such as Anna Karenina and/or War and Peace. Russian literature is not a topic I am very familiar with, if anyone has recommendations please comment.
Without delving too much into the history, ballet was introduced and started to thrive under Peter the Great. The most famous theaters are the; Bolshoi located in Moscow and, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. By the early 1900s Russian ballet was also being embraced in other nations, particularly in Parisian society. One of the more well known ballets, is Swan Lake.

My time in Russia
I arrived in Russia during November, lets just say it was cold. Like frozen canals, cold.

Monument to the conquerors of space

Some hot Borsch to warm up;

Russia also has crazy nice shopping malls, many of which are underground.

These, much like home tend to have overpriced coffee but its sooo good;

Russia also has amazing architecture, for example see the State History Museum and Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow;

Whats not shown in the previous is pictures is what makes Russia a truly fascinating place to visit, the people. Despite economic woes and current political tensions they were upbeat with great banter, lastly make sure to use the underground if you visit, its amazing.

For some lighthearted entertainment please see the YouTube video below, its pretty great.

Finally, if you're still with me - thanks for reading and feel free to ask my anything (always looking for constructive criticism too :)