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Countries and territories where Russian is an official language

  • BashkortostanRussia unilaterally abolished Bashkortostan's 1994 powers agreement on the 7th of July 2005.
  • ChechnyaIn 1944, the entire Chechen and Ingush peoples were deported. Over 60 percent of those deported perished.
  • DagestanDagestan, Russia's southernmost republic, has 14 official languages. Its mountains keep communities apart.
  • Zabaykalsky KraiZabaykalsky Krai is a federal subject of Russia, the kind of region known as a krai, and it sits in the Russian Far East. Its administrative center is Chita. The census of 2010 counted 1,107,107 people living there. For a place that few…
  • IngushetiaIngushetia is one of Russia's poorest republics, yet in 2017 it had the country's highest life expectancy.
  • BuryatiaBuryatia's Soviet-era leaders were promised autonomy, then lost land and the word Mongol.
  • TuvaPhysicist Richard Feynman never managed to reach Tuva, a republic in Russia. His long attempt became a book.
  • KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan lies farther from the sea than any other individual country on Earth. Even its rivers cannot reach an ocean, because every one of them empties into a closed drainage system. Yet this landlocked nation in the mountains of Central…
  • TajikistanTajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, was once a mountain town of roughly 1,000 residents. Now it has 1.24 million people.
  • SevastopolGerman planners chose the name Theodorichshafen for Sevastopol in case of final victory over the Soviet Union.
  • KazakhstanKazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence. It did so on the 16th of December 1991.
  • AbkhaziaAbkhazia has two governments claiming the same ground. Only five UN member states call it independent.
  • South OssetiaOnly five United Nations members recognize South Ossetia as a country. Every other country calls it Georgian land.
  • Krasnodar KraiIn July 2012, a wave five meters high hit the Russian town of Krymsk at night. At least 159 people died in Krymsk alone.
  • Ukrainian Soviet Socialist RepublicOn the 1st of December 1991, 92.3 percent of Ukrainian voters chose independence.
  • KalmykiaKalmykia is the only place in Europe where Buddhism is the majority religion.
  • Sakha RepublicThe Sakha Republic in Russia is larger than Argentina but has only about one million people.
  • Jewish Autonomous OblastStalin's Jewish homeland in Russia's far east was meant as a border outpost. A general wrote it was no favor to Jews.
  • Komi RepublicPrisoners planned and built all of the Komi Republic's major cities. Vorkuta began as a mine, Rudnik No. 1.
  • Republic of Crimea (Russia)In March 2014, Crimea voted on joining Russia with less than two weeks to prepare.
  • Republics of the Soviet UnionThe 15 Soviet republics could legally leave the union, yet Moscow's Politburo decided almost everything.
  • Russian-occupied territoriesOn August 28, 2008, Georgia's parliament voted unanimously to call Russian troops occupying forces.
  • TransnistriaIn Transnistria, saying the word Transnistria in public can bring a fine of 360 rubles or up to 15 days in jail. The region's Supreme Council passed that law on the 4th of September 2024. Local authorities prefer another name for their…
  • Russian Soviet Federative Socialist RepublicThe Russian SFSR, largest Soviet republic, had no presidency until 1990. It had no anthem of its own until then.
  • Byelorussian Soviet Socialist RepublicMonths after losing over two million people, Byelorussia won a seat at the United Nations.
  • Kaliningrad OblastKaliningrad Oblast is part of Russia, but no Russian land touches it.
  • Soviet UnionOn December 26, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev officially recognized the Soviet Union's dissolution.
  • RussiaRussia spans eleven time zones, more than any other country. Its borders touch fourteen nations.
  • Russian EmpireRussia sold Alaska to the United States for 11 million rubles in 1867. Russia called its colony indefensible.
  • BelarusBelarus lost a quarter of its people in World War II. Its population did not return to its prewar level until 1971.
  • Federal subjects of RussiaRussia's 1993 constitution removed the Soviet-era right of regions to secede.

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