The Volga is the longest river in Europe at 2,293 miles, and it drains most of Russia’s western core region. The Volga River flows through the core region of Russia, providing transportation, fresh water, and fishing. Both of these cities are in Russia’s far north, with long winters and exceedingly brief summers. Arkhangelsk (which literally means “archangel”), used as a port for lumber exports, has a much shorter ice-free season than Murmansk.
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Relatively warm water from the North Atlantic drift circles around Norway to keep this northern port city fairly free of ice. Murmansk is a major military port for Russia’s navy and nuclear submarine fleet. Petersburg on the Barents Sea are the cities of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Source: Map courtesy of the CIA World Factbook. About one million civilians died of starvation or during the bombardment, and hundreds of thousands fled the city, leaving the city nearly empty by the end of the siege. Its greatest tragedy took place when it was under siege for twenty-nine months by the German military during World War II. It is also known for shipbuilding, oil and gas trade, manufacturing, and finance. Peter in the Bible (not Peter the Great), it is a cultural center for Russia and a major tourist destination. Peter the Great built the city with the help of European architects in the early eighteenth century to rival other European capitals, and he made it the capital of the Russian Empire. The city was renamed Petrograd (1914–24) and Leningrad (1924–91) but today is often called Petersburg, or just “Peter” for short. Located on the Baltic Sea, it is western Russia’s leading port city. Russia’s second-largest city, with a population of about five million, is St. Many want to live in Moscow, but it is financially out of reach for many Russians. Today Moscow is one of the most expensive places to live in the world, with prices based on supply and demand. Although rents, commodities, and domestic goods had fixed prices during the Communist era, the Soviet Union’s collapse changed all that. This world-class city has an extensive subway and freeway system that is expanding to meet current growth demands. During the Communist era, Moscow expanded from its nineteenth-century core (although the city dates from at least the twelfth century) and became an industrial city with planned neighborhoods. A ring of industrial cities surrounding Moscow contains vital production centers of Russian manufacturing. Moscow alone has more than ten million residents, with about thirteen million in its metropolitan area, making it slightly smaller than the Los Angeles, California, metro area. Moscow, Russia’s capital city, anchors a central industrial area that is home to more than fifty million people. Known as Russia’s geographic core, this includes the Moscow region, the Volga region, and the Ural Mountain region. Most of Russia’s population and its major industries are located west of the Ural Mountains on the Russian Plain.