Russia (ˈrʌʃə) ![]() | |
| —n | |
| 1. | the largest country in the world, covering N Eurasia and bordering on the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas: originating from the principality of Muscovy in the 17th century, it expanded to become the Russian Empire; the Tsar was overthrown in 1917 and the Communist Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was created; this merged with neighbouring Soviet Republics in 1922 to form the Soviet Union; on the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian Federation was established as an independent state. Official language: Russian. Religion: nonreligious and Russian orthodox Christian. Currency: rouble. Capital: Moscow. Pop: 142 397 000 (2004 est). Area: 17 074 984 sq km (6 592 658 sq miles) |
| 2. | another name for the Russian Empire |
| 3. | another name for the former Soviet Union |
| 4. | another name for the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
A vast nation that stretches from eastern Europe across the Eurasian land mass. It was the most powerful republic of the former Soviet Union; ethnic Russians composed about half of the population. It is the world's largest country. Its capital and largest city is Moscow.
Note: Russia was ruled by czars of the Romanov family from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.
Note: Peter the Great, a czar who reigned in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, attempted to westernize Russian government and culture.
Note: During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks, under Lenin, took control of the government; communists governed from 1917 until 1991.
Note: Russia now occupies the seat on the Security Council of the United Nations formerly held by the Soviet Union.