HCCM - About Russia

Russian Federation is washed by the waters of 11 seas and 3 Oceans. The topography of the country is very diverse. We have a lot of planes such as: East European plane, which forms the most part of European Russia; Tundra; Taiga, which is the world's largest forest region and has an area about the size of the United States; Steppe; West Siberian plane. There are also regions with the predominance of the mountains: Ural mountains, they form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia; Caucasus mountains, one of the peaks, Mount El'brus, is the highest point in Europe, at 5,642 meters; Altay mountains. The most powerful rivers are: Volga, Europe's longest river, is by far Russia's most important commercial waterway; Don; Enisey which has a longitude of 4,000 kilometers; Ob '.

The climate of Russian Federation is very varied. There is a subtropical climate in the South of the country, temperate one in the Centarl part and Arctic in the North.

Russian Federation has borders with the following countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus', Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea.

The territory of the Eastern European plane was populated for thousands of years with different tribes and nations. The Slavic population came here from the Central Europe in the 6th -7th centuries A.D. They found here fruitful soil, bountiful forests and powerful rivers and decided to stay here living in good relations with Finish and Turkic tribes.

The first Russian State named Rus' was founded in the year 866 A.D. Our forefathers built great and impressive cities and fortresses, made diplomatic contacts with all important States of Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, developed pottery and agriculture, had trade with Vikings, Greeks, Arabs and Germans. The Duke of Rus' Vladimir The Red Sun by his own will accepted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire and converted the population of his State into that religion in the year 988 A.D. That fact conducted to building of beautiful churches and monasteries. Brothers Kirill and Methodius from Bulgaria developed an alphabet specially designed for the Slavic population of the Balkans and Eastern Europe on the base of Greek alphabet and rulers of Rus' started to use this alphabet instead of old Slavic writing called glagolitsa. Nowadays we use this Greek-origin alphabet which is called Cyrillic. In Rus' the level of literacy was very high as well as the level of the juridical system. The code of laws based both on the ancient Slavic traditions and Christian believes was drew up under the reign of Duke Yaroslav The Wise in the beginning of the 11 th century and was called “Russian Truth”.

In the 12th century, however, Rus' stepped into a formation typical for all the Europe of those days: from one powerful State appeared more than a dozen of small kingdoms. This led to the fact that strong nomads from the Central part of Asia Mongols tried to conquer some Russian kingdoms. For about 2 centuries those kingdoms had to pay render to the rulers of Mongols.

In the 14th century a provincial town once called Moscow proclaimed the idea of the unification of all the Russian lands. The idea was welcomed by some kingdoms with happiness, others, on the contrary, did not want to be under the control of Moscow. Notwithstanding, the process has started and to the middle of the 16th century all the kingdoms were united into a State called Moscowy. The significant role in this process played a Tsar Ivan The Terrible who also added vast territories of Eastern Europe, Ural and Siberia to his State.

Moscowy grew bigger and wealthier. In the end of the 17th century the State expanded it's borders till the Baltic Sea in the West, till the Arctic Ocean in the North, till the Pacific Ocean in the East and till the Caspian Sea in the South. Under the ruler Peter The Great the State got the other name – Russian Empire and Peter The Great was the first Russian Emperor. He made a lot of innovations in the lives of the nobles and common people: introduced the Western style of clothes, architecture, sent a lot of people to study in England, Holland and Germany. He built a new capital for the State on the shores of the Baltic Sea and gave the city his name: Saint-Petersburg. Peter The Great initiated the building of the of a powerful military and trade fleet. Under the reign this Emperor appeared beautiful cities, fortresses, museums and theatres.

In 1812 the troops of Napoleon raided into Russian Empire with a desire to conquer it as they already did with Italy, Germany, Austria and some other countries. But the foreign armies were defeated and Russian troops entered Paris in the year 1813. During the 19th century Russian Empire developed literature, artistry, engineering, science. Constellation of genius people worked during this century in Russia and that period is known as a “Golden Age” of Russian culture. Russian Empire grew bigger and added vast territories of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Russian Empire entered the 1st World War in 1914 and was in a coalition with Great Britain and France. In the year 1917 a revolution occurred and the communists came to power in the country. The State gained the other name: United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The communist rulers made very significant changes in life of the people: proclaimed that everything should belong not to a State, eliminated the private property, fought against the religion, introduced new technologies into agriculture and all the fields of industry.

The period between 22.06.1941 and 09.05.1945 is the most terrible one in our history. The Axis Germany entered USSR with a desire to annihilate the country and enslave the population. 27 million people lost their lives in the Great Patriotic War as in Russia called the Second World War. Our people showed a great faithfulness and love to their Motherland in that devastating war. And they won in that battle for life. On the 9th of May 1945 Soviet Army entered the Berlin and finished that war and the terrible racist regimen. This day is celebrated in our country as a Victory Day and is one of the most loved holidays. The country recovered from the war and proceeded to develop science and culture. In the year 1962 the first man from the Earth entered the outer space. He was a citizen of the USSR and his name was Yury Gagarin. That has happened on the April 12th 1962.

The history of the communist regimen in our country has ended in the year 1991. Since then the country is called Russian Federation. The terrible years of after the breakdown of the USSR have passed. Nowadays, Russian Federation is quickly developing in the fields of economy, industry, science and many others. It's a member of the G8 club. This year Russian Federation is hosting the summit of G8 leaders.

Russian literature is famous all over the world for a constellation of genius writers and poets who created a wonderful and brilliant masterpieces.

The first amazing written work is called “The Word about Igor's Squad” created by a monk Nestor dates back to the 10th century A.D. It's a ballade telling about the fighting of one of the Dukes of Ancient Rus' – the former name of Russia – Igor with the nomads and is a real pearl of the World Medieval literature.

Among the authors who lived in the later times the following ones are well-known: Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet, Tyutchev, Tolstoy, Gogol', Dostoevskiy, Nabokov, Blok, Sholokhov, Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, Esenin. The list of Russian brilliant writers and poets can be prolonged for few more pages. Each of the authors is unique but all of them had a wonderful merit of penetrating into the very inside of human nature. Reading the novels and poems of Russian authors one can realy understand how deep they could see the nature of the human feelings, sufferings, emotions, can feel the real interest of the authors to the destiny of their Motherland, can find oneself in the typical Russian nature with it's unique gold of the summer field, it's emerald of the strong forest, it's platinum of the winter road, can understand the misterious Russian soul. The works of a lot prominent writers and poets some of whom are Nobel Prize winners aretranslated into many foreign languages.

There are a lot of theatres in the Russian Federation. Each town with the population of more than 50 000 people has at least one theatre. The most famous and most adorable theatres, however, are Bol'shoy Theatre in Moscow and Mariinskiy Theatre in Saint-Petersburg. They are well-known for their history, traditions and brilliant spectrum of troops and plays, representing both Russian and European best scenarios. The School of Russian opera and ballet is recognized as one of the best all over the World.

Each small town has a museum. The biggest museums in Russian Federation are Pushkin Museum and Tretyakov State Art Gallery in Moscow and Russian Museum and Hermitage in Saint Petersburg posses one of the richest collections of art in the World.

The holidays celebrated in each country are firmly connected with the history and traditions of the country. We would like to present you the State holidays of Russian Federation as well as the holidays widely celebrated by the people throughout the calendar year.

The year starts with a New Year holiday and it is the 1st of January. However, the population of Russian Federation doesn't work till the 10th of January. Because on the 7th of January we have another National holiday – Christmas.

On the 25th of January it's a Day of Saint Tatyana. This day is considered to be the Students' holiday. The matetrof fact that on the 25th of January in the year 1755 a Moscow State University was founded. The students celebrate this holiday all over the country.

The holiday on the 23rd of February is called the Day of the Fatherland Defender or a Man's Day. On this day women make presents to men.

On the contrary, the men give presents to women on the 8th of March when the country celebrates International Women's Day.

In the end of February or in the beginning of March the country faces 7 days called maslenitsa or a Pancake Week. During this week people cook pancakes which symbolyze the Sun and the victory of a coming Spring over the cold and long Winter. Also this week the people are prepearing themselves for the 7 weeks of a strict Great feast before Easter. On the Sunday before the starting of the Great Feast people appologyze for everyone for anything bad they did during the last year and this day is called a Forgiven Sunday.

The Easter is widely celebrated all over the country. People colour the eggs and cook special Easter food: an Easter cake and Easter cheese.

And on the 9th of May Russian federation celebrates the Victory Day. On this day in the year 1845 teh Red Flag of victory was hanged above the main building of the Axis Germany meaning the end of the World War II. Every year there is a military parade on the main squares of the cities. Young generation present flowers to the participants of the war. People decorate their clothes, bags, cars with the ribbon os Saint George. The Medal of Saint George is the highest military award in Russian Federation and has 2 colours: black and orange which symbolyze smoge and flame.

In the end of May there is a Last Bell day. That's a day when the pupils of the last year in school have their last classes and hear to the last bell in the school ringing to say good bye to them and opening the door into the adult serious life. The pupils wear long ribbons around their bodies with the year and school number written on them.

The 3rd Saturday of June is a Day of medical worker. Everybody celebrate doctors and nurses. However, it's also a holiday of medical students.

On the September the 1st pupils and students start their new studying year. Children and young people bring flowers to the teachers and professors. This day is called the Day of Knowledge.

November the 4th is a National holiday – The Day of Peace and Agreament. On that day we remember the withdrawal of Polish Armies from Moscow in 1613 and the Socialist revolution in 1917.

We are proud to be medical students and future doctors of Russia. We love our Motherland and want that as many medical students from the foreign countries as possible could see, touch and feel our wonderful country!