Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok (which means "power of the east"),
passing through the major cities of Perm, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk,
and Irkutsk.

The country spans two continents, Europe and Asia, and shares borders
with several of the former republics as well as with Norway, Finland, Poland,
China, Mongolia, and Korea. Much of Russia is rather flat, with some moun-
tainous areas in the eastern part, which is called Siberia. The two best-known
mountain ranges are the Urals, low mountains separating Europe from Asia,
and the beautiful Caucasus Mountains, which lie on the southern border
between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The tallest mountain in Russia
is Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus, at 18,481 feet. In the east, Kamchatka pen-
insula, part of the Pacific ring of fire, is home to numerous volcanoes.

Russia lies much farther north than the United States, more on a level
with Canada. The far northern part of Russia is quite cold and has little
sunlight in the winter. With its permanently frozen subsoil, or permafrost,
this area is inhospitable to large plants like trees. The land north of the tree
line is known as the tundra. In the south lies the steppe, or open prairie,
which provides some good land for agriculture. In between the tundra and
the steppe is the taiga, or forest land, the largest coniferous forest in the
world. The most common tree is the larch, although there are many other
kinds of trees, such as spruce and pine.

Russians have a deep love for nature, particularly for their forest. Russia
has even been known as "wooden Russia" because so much of it was built of
wood. Their most beloved tree is the birch tree, with its distinctive white
black-flecked trunk. Russian movies and books are full of references to the
birch tree, and even stores where foreigners shopped were named beriozka,
or little birch tree in communist times. Some of the economy has depended
on logging, but at the same time, Russians have long been aware of the
necessity to preserve their forest land. A hundred years ago, playwright Anton
Chekhov addressed this problem in his play Uncle Vanya.

Rainfall in Russia is greatest in the summer, although annual rainfall ranges
only 16-32 inches in the west and even less in the northeast and south central
areas. Russians are used to a lot of snow in the winter and have at least three
different words for blizzard. They have been known to express disappoint-
ment if a winter is unseasonably mild and lacking in snow.

Russia is traversed by several major rivers. In the west flows the Volga, the
longest river in Europe. Interconnected waterways, including the Volga,
make it possible to go by water from St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland
to Moscow, then eventually all the way to the Caspian Sea, a salt lake which
is the largest inland body of water in the world. Other long rivers in western

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