Russia Fast Facts

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Ethnic groups: Russian 77.7%, Tatar 3.7%, Ukrainian 1.4%, Bashkir 1.1%, Chuvash 1%, other or unspecified 14.1% (2010 census, most recent available)

Religion: Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.)

GDP (purchasing power parity): $3.751 trillion (2016 est.)

GDP per capita: $26,500 (2016 est.)

Unemployment: 5.3% (2016 est.)

Other Facts:
One of the top producers of natural gas and oil in the world.

The legislative body, the Federal Assembly, is made up of the lower house, the State Duma, and the upper house, the Federation Council.

Russia spans nine time zones.

Contains one fourth of the world's fresh water.

Timeline:
1613 - Mikhail Romanov's coronation establishes the Romanov dynasty, which lasts for more than 300 years.

1917 - The Bolshevik Revolution begins. The new government formed eventually becomes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a communist country.

July 1918 - Tsar Nicolas II and the royal family are executed by the Bolsheviks, in Yekatrinburg, Russia.

January 21, 1924 - Vladimir Lenin, founder and first leader of the USSR, dies. He is replaced by dictator Joseph Stalin, who leads until his death in 1953.

1939-1945 - Helps the Allied Powers defeat Nazi Germany during World War II. Other Allies include the United States, Great Britain, France and China.

1955 - The Warsaw Pact is organized, creating a military alliance of communist nations in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

October 4, 1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite, which starts the "space race" between the Soviets and the United States.

April 12, 1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to go to space.

October 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: During one of the most dangerous confrontations of the "Cold War" between the communist Eastern Bloc countries and the West, the Soviet Union installs nuclear missiles on Cuba capable of reaching most of the US. President John F. Kennedy orders a naval blockade of Cuba, and six days later, the Soviets agree to remove the missiles.

December 1979 - The USSR invades Afghanistan. The last troops leave in 1989.

March 11, 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary of the Communist Party. During his time as leader of the USSR, he advocates political and social reforms called "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness), and participates in a series of summit meetings with US President Ronald Reagan.

June 1991 - Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Republic, the largest of the Soviet republics, in the first democratic presidential election in Russian history.

August 1991 - Yeltsin helps put down a coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

December 19, 1991 - President Yeltsin issues a decree ordering the Russian government to seize the Kremlin from the USSR.

December 21, 1991 - Eleven of the 12 Soviet republics sign an agreement to form the Commonwealth...

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Russia Fast Facts - CNN