Chapter 2. Lesson 2

Росси́я Russia covers more than 6.5 million square miles or, roughly speaking, an area more than TWICE the size of the United States. The Ural Mountains divide the country into a European (western) half and an Asian (eastern) half.

To the west, Russia shares borders with Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. Southern Russia extends to the Caucasus Mountains, which form the frontier with Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the east, that portion of Russia known as Сиби́рь Siberia stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China in the south.

The southern portion of Russia is composed primarily of flat, treeless plains known as степь steppe. Siberia itself is comprised of a northern belt of permanently frozen, treeless plains ту́ндра and, more southerly, vast evergreen forests тайга́́́. The tundra region has one of the harshest climates known to mankind, with extremely long, cold winters and brief, often sweltering summers.

Санкт Петербу́рг St. Petersburg , founded by Пётр Вели́кий Peter the Great on the Gulf of Finland as a "window to the West", has been nicknamed the "brain" of Russia. This is mostly due to its "European" look, thanks to a regular, grid-like pattern of city planning. Москва́́ Moscow, on the other hand, is often referred to as the "soul", thanks to its more chaotic growth over the years and a more "Russian" look.

The climate of Moscow is more continental than that of St. Petersburg, with summer temperatures averaging in the high 70s. Summers in both cities can be humid (though the level of humidity there can hardly compare with that of a typical DC summer!), with frequent thunderstorms that seem to come up without much warning. Winter can begin as early as October, with the first significant snowfalls in early November. Winter temperatures in Moscow, as in St. Petersburg, average in the mid-teens. Thanks to the effects of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland, winters in St. Petersburg tend to feel more damp than those in Moscow. In general, the weather in these cities is similar to that in the northeastern U.S.