Population, language, time |
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Russia is a country with a low density of population - 8.7 people per square kilometer. In the vast territories of northern part of the country, in Siberia and the Far East (about 60% of all the territory of Russia), the population density is not much than 3 people per square kilometer. This territories are characterized by local settlements, which makes virtually uninhabited vast spaces of tundra, northern, central and southern waterlogged, and also mountain taiga. The Nenets, the Yamal-Nenets, the Dolgano-Nenets, the Chukotski Autonomous Areas and the Republic of Sakha have a population density from 0,03 to 0,3 people. The highest density of population is in Moscow (along with Moscow) - 324,7 people and excluding Moscow - 140,4 people. The republics of Northern Caucasia have a population density from 30,9 people in the Karachaevo-Cherkess Republic to 82,8 people in North Ossetia. Leningrad and the Tula regions have a population density that is two times lower than in the Moscow region: 75,4 and 70,6 people, respectively. In the Urals and to the east, the density of population distinctly falls. When examining the density of population by economic regions of Russia, there seems to be a certain regularity - the regions with the largest square area have the lowest density of population. Thus, the highest density of population is in the central economic region (61,9 people). More than half of this population lives in the country, small towns and urban villages. The original form of settlement in Russia is the village - from 5 to 5,000 and more yards with vegetable garden and fields adjacent to grow grains and potatoes. The maximum part of population in the village is concentrated in Russian Chernozemie, on the Caucasia and in the agrarian region of the southern part of Western Siberia. It is typical that regions with high numbers of village inhabitants usually have highly stable societies and better health indexes.
In the category of urban population, the inhabitants of big towns, including megapolises, urban villages and towns with developed suburban posads is relative. The social conditions and mode of life of the population in these categories of settlement are essentially different. Large urban villages (especially attached to large factories) often have much more "urban" environments and living conditions than the ancient small towns of Russia (for example, Elni, Opochki, etc.). It's necessary to take into account the population of "posad" of larger towns, which unfortunately is difficult to compute from standard statistics. In most cities with a population of about 100-200 thousand people in the central and southern regions of country in the posads live 50% of the inhabitants. Hence, the total number of big towns of Russian population, in fact, does not exceed one third. The cities of Russia with a population of more than 1 million people are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhni Novgorod, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk.
Ethno-demographic balance
The problem of civic integration in the Russian Federation is mainly connected to the non-Russian part of its population. According to the general census in 1989, this part totaled 18%; during the last eight years this figure has been significantly reduced. One-third of the non-Russian population is composed of the diasporas of people from abroad "scattered about" on the territory of the RF (Ukrainians, Germans, Kazakhs, etc. ); a further one-third lives "beyond the bounds" of their republics of the RF. Groups that live separately are liable to assimilation, and their requirements (if they ever exist) are very seldom beyond partial cultural autonomy. Only title nations that in the aggregate do not exceed 5% of all the population of the country may claim self-determination or separation. In reality, there is no opportunity for separation for the enclave republics of Ural-Volga region, especially because the title nationalities are not the majority of the population (except Chuvashya). Due to the small population of title nations, this group also includes Karelia, the Komi Republics, Sakha (Yakutia) and Buryatiya. Thus, only the republics of Northern Caucasia, Tuva and Kalmykia (with some reservations) can insist on separation in view of their political, geographic, and ethno-demographic factors. They occupy only 2% of the territory of Russia and make up 2,5% of its population. These figures are too small to significantly influence the political system of the country, not to mention threats of a break-up.
Time
Summer-time is applied on the last Sunday of March (in 2006 - March 26, at 02:00 a.m. Moscow time).
Winter-time is applied on the last Sunday of October (in 2006 - October 29, at 03:00 a.m. Moscow time).
You can find time zones and the times to apply summer- and winter-time for other cities on the site: timeanddate.com.
People strive to wake up at dawn to use daylight hours to the maximum. That is why in many countries of the world people use summer and winter time. Coinciding active time with daylight hours allows electricity consumption to be economized: an extra hour is added to the zone time in the spring, and in the autumn, people come back to zone time.
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