How Big is Russia

 At 171 million square kilometers, Russia is the world's largest country in terms of area. It is 25 times larger than France and 47 times larger than Germany. The reasons behind Russia’s enormous size can be found in its history.

First of all, Russia, like many other European countries, went through a period of territorial expansion. Up until the 15th and 16th centuries, numerous principalities were continually at war with each other until Moscow won the upper hand, suppressing all of its rivals and uniting the territories populated by Russians.

This is when things got interesting. Under Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584), Russian Cossacks moved to conquer lands on the other side of the Ural Mountains in Siberia and the Far East. These regions account for 77% of the Russia’s total area. In other words, it was the conquest of Siberia that turned Russia into the largest country geographically.

Large area, small population

The Soviet Union, which replaced the Russian Empire, was even larger, covering 22.4 million square kilometers. Russia’s current borders were formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which occurred when that huge country, having failed to build a sufficiently cohesive communist empire, disintegrated into 15 independent states.

Despite Russia's immense geographical size, its population of 146 million people ranks only eighth in the world. This is just 10 million more than Japan, which has an area that is 45 times smaller. Kolosov stresses that large parts of Siberia and the Far East, especially in the north, remain largely uninhabited and are characterized by a harsh climate that is challenging for humans to live in.