Britannica Guide to Russia

Today's Russia remains a land of contrasts: between old and new, east and west, town and country, between its public and private faces. And nowhere are they more striking than in central Moscow, w^rhere the luxury shops that have replaced the old state department store, GUM, confront Lenin's Mau­soleum across Red Square, while the fearsome Lubyanka, now home to Russia's state security service, looks out onto a modest stone monument dedicated to those who died in Soviet prison camps. Funded by individual donations, this is the closest thing Russia has to a national monument to the estimated 15-30 million victims of the Gulag. A true reckon­ing with the past is still ahead.

The changes that Russia has experienced within one gen­eration help to explain why it sometimes comes across as oversensitive, self-absorbed, and clumsily defensive about its imperfections in democracy and law. But its periodic snarls can be deceptive. The Russia that is emerging into the twenty-first century is more prosperous, more secure within its borders, and more at ease with itself than for many a year - perhaps even for more than a century.

PART I

CONTEXT

RUSSIA - FACTS AND FIGURES

Official name: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya {Russian Federation).

Form of government: federal multiparty republic with a bicameral legislative body (Federal Assembly comprising the Federation Council: 172 members'; State Duma: 450).

Head of state: President.

Head of government: Prime Minister,

Capital: Moscow.

Official language: Russian.

Official religion: none.

Monetary unit: ruble (RUB). Demography

Population (2007): 141,378,000.

Density (2007): persons per sq mile 21.4, persons per sq kilometre 8.3.

Urban-rural (2007)²: urban 73.0%; rural 27.0%. Sex distribution (2004): male 46.49%; female 53.51%. Age breakdown (2006)^г: under 15. 14.9%; 15-29, 24.7%; 30­44, 21.5%; 45-59. 21.9%; 60-69. 8.4%; 70 and over, 8.6%. Population projection: (2010) 139,390,000; (2020) 132,242,000.

Ethnic composition (2002): Russian 79,82%; Tatar 3,83%; Ukrainian 2.03%; Bashkir I,i5%; Chuvash 1.13%; Chechen 0.94%; Armenian 0.78%; Mordvin 0.58%; Belarusian 0.56%; Avar 0.52%; Kazakh 0.45%; Udmurt 0.44%; Azerbaijani 0.43%; Mari 0.42%; German 0.41%; Kabardinian 0.36%; Ossetian 0.35%; Dargin 0.35%; Buryat 0.31%; Sakha 0.31%; other 4,83%. Religious affiliation (200S): Christian 58.4%, of which Russian Orthodox 53.1%, Roman Cathotic 1.0%, Ukrainian Orthodox 0.9%, Protestant 0.9%; Muslim 8.2%^{3, 4}; traditional beliefs 0.8%; Jewish 0.6%; nonreligious 25.8%; atheist 5.0%; other 1.2%. Major cities (2006)²: Moscow 10,425,075; St Petersburg 4,580,620; Novosibirsk 1,397,015; Yekaterinburg 1,308,441; Nizhny Novgorod 1,283,553; Samara 1,143,346; Omsk 1. 138,822; Kazan 1,112,673; Chelyabinsk 1,092,958; Rostov-na-Donu 1,054,865; Ufa 1,029,616; Perm 993,319. Households (2004): Total households 51,209,000; average household size 2.8; distribution by size (1995): I person 19.2%; 2 persons 26.2%; 3 persons 22.6%; 4 persons 20.5%; 5 persons or more I i.5%.

Vital statistics

Birth rate per 1,000 population (2006); 10.3 (world average 20.3); (2005) within marriage 70.0%, outside marriage 30.0%.

Death rate per 1,000 population (2006): 15.2 (world average 8.6).

Natural increase rate per 1,000 population (2006): —4,9 {world average i 1.7).

Total fertility rate (average births per childbearing woman; 2006): 1.38,

Marriage/divorce rates per 1,000 population (2006): 7.8/ 4.5.

Life expectancy at birth (2005): male 58.9 years; female 72.4 years.

Major causes of death per 100,000 population (2006): circulatory diseases 860; malignant neoplasms (cancers) 200; accidents, poisoning, and violence 191, of which suicide 30, transport accidents 27, alcohol poisoning 20; diseases of the digestive system 62; diseases of the respiratory system 58; infectious and parasitic diseases 25. Adult population {ages 15—49) living with HIV (2005); 1.1% (world average 1.0%).

Social indicators

Educational attainment (2002). Percentage of population age 15 and over having no formal schooling 2.1%;

primary education 7.7%; some secondary 18.1%; complete secondary/basic vocational 53.0%; incomplete higher 3.1%; complete higher 16.0%, of which advanced degrees 0.3%. Quality of working life (2006). Average workweek (2004): 40 hours. Annual rate per 100,000 workers of: injury or accident 290; industrial illness 16.0; death I 1.8. Average working days lost to labour strikes per 1,000 employees 0.2.