Russia
Russian
Russia (Russian: Росси́я, Rossiya), also the
Russian Federation (Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya;
listen (help·info)), is a transcontinental country extending over
much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic
comprising 84 federal subjects. Russia shares land borders with the
following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast):
Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast),
Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It is also close to the
U.S. state of Alaska, Sweden and Japan across relatively small
stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and La
Pérouse Strait, respectively).
At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is by far
the largest country in the world, covering more than an eighth of
the Earth’s land area; with 142 million people, it is the ninth
largest by population. It has the world's eighth largest economy by
purchasing power parity GDP. Russia extends across the whole of
northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning 11 time zones and
incorporating a great range of environments and landforms. Russia
has the world's largest mineral and energy resources, and is
considered an energy superpower. It contains approximately
one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water and has the world's
largest forest reserves.
The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs. The Slavs
emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th
centuries AD. Founded and ruled by Vikings and their descendants,
the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century
and adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning
the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian
culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately
disintegrated and the Russian lands were divided. The most powerful
successor state to Kievan Rus' was Moscow, which gradually came to
dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the
18th century, the Grand Duchy of Moscow had expanded through
conquest, annexation and exploration to become the huge Russian
Empire, stretching from Poland eastward to the Pacific Ocean.
Russia established worldwide power and influence from the times of
the Russian Empire to being the preeminent constituent of the Soviet
Union, the world's first and largest Communist state, and can boast
a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts and
sciences. The Russian Federation was founded following the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, but is recognized as the
continuing legal personality of the Soviet Union. Russia is a
permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a
leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the G8.
It is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and
possesses the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass
destruction. Source: wikipedia.org |
Romania
Romanian
Romania (dated: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian:
România, IPA: [ro.mɨˈni.a]) is a country in Southeastern Europe. It
shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the
Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.
Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea. It is
located roughly in the lower basin of the Danube and almost all of
the Danube Delta is located within its territory.
Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state. As a nation-state, the
country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859
and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in
1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At
the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the
present day Moldova) were occupied by USSR and Romania became a
member of Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989,
Romania started a series of political and economic reforms that
allowed for Romania to join the European Union on January 1, 2007.
Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population
(with 22 million people among the European Union member states. Its
capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti /bu.kuˈreʃtʲ/
(help·info)), the 6th largest city in the EU with almost 2.2 million
people. In 2007, Sibiu, a large city in Transylvania, was chosen as
European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on March 29,
2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie
and of OSCE.
The name of Romania (România) comes from Român
(Romanian) which is a derivative of the word Romanus ("Roman") from
Latin. The fact that Romanians have said the name is a
derivative of Romanus (Romanian: Român/Rumân) is mentioned as early
as the 16th century by many authors, including Italian Humanists
travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia. The oldest
surviving document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter
(known as "Neacşu's Letter from Câmpulung") which notifies the mayor
of Braşov about the imminent attack of the Ottoman Turks. This
document is also notable for having the first occurrence of
"Rumanian" in a Romanian written text, Wallachia being here named
The Rumanian Land - Ţeara Rumânească (Ţeara (Latin Terra = land). In
the following centuries, Romanian documents use interchangeably two
spelling forms: Român and Rumân. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the
late 17th century led to a process of semantic differentiation: the
form "rumân", presumably usual among lower classes, got the meaning
of "bondsman", while the form "român" kept an ethno-linguistic
meaning. After the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the form "rumân"
gradually disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the
form "român", "românesc". The name "România" as common homeland of
all Romanians is documented in the early 19th century. This name is
in use officially since December 11, 1861. Source: wikipedia.org |
Ukraine
Ukrainian
Ukraine (English pronunciation /juːˈkreɪn/;
Ukrainian: Україна, Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/) is a country in Eastern
Europe. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland,
Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the
southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city
of Kiev (Kyiv) is Ukraine's capital.
From at least the 9th century, the territory of present-day Ukraine
was a center of the medieval East Slavic civilization forming the
state of Kievan Rus', which disintegrated in the 12th century. From
the 14th century on, the territory of Ukraine was divided among a
number of regional powers and by the 19th century the largest part
of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest
under the Austro-Hungarian control. After a chaotic period of
incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917–1921)
following the Russian Revolution and the Great War, Ukraine emerged
in 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged
westward shortly before and after the Second World War, and again in
1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one
of the co-founding members of the United Nations. Ukraine became
independent again after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This began a transition period to a market economy, in which Ukraine
was stricken with eight straight years of economic decline. But
since about the turn of the century, the economy has been
experiencing a stable increase, with real GDP growth averaging about
seven percent annually.
Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one
autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status:
Kiev, its capital, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black
Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a
semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and
judicial branches. At the end of 2004, the country underwent an
extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance of
power among the parliament, the prime minister, and the cabinet, as
well as their relationship with the president.
The Ukrainian word Ukrayina is from Old East Slavic ukraina
"borderland", from u "by, at" and the Slavic root kraj "edge;
region". In the Ukrainian language krayina simply means "country".
In English, the country is referred to without the definite article,
conforming to the usual English grammar rules for names of
countries. Before the country's independence in 1991, usage with the
article as "The Ukraine" was of some occurrence. The term 'Ukraine'
rather than 'The Ukraine' is established in diplomacy and
journalism. Source: wikipedia.org
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