 Winston Churchill described Russia as “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. These words still ring true for the largest country in the world. Most outsiders have only a vague idea of its realities. A mixture of the
decadent grandeur of old Russia and the dismal heritage of the Soviet era, it’s a country full of intrigue and mystery.
 It is a land of extravagant palaces and brutal winters, of meandering rivers and majestic mountains, of physics advisors and blockbuster ballet, of legendary vodka, and a midsummer sun that never sets. Its people are passionate and resilient. While they may appear austere, they also possess a fun-loving nature, are animated story-tellers and can be disarmingly generous and hospitable.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leo Tolstoy and Maria Sharapova are just a few of Russia’s famous characters whose spirit, poise and prose have enhanced the world with their inherent flare. Lest we forget the inventor of radio, Alexander Popov and the esteemed scientist Dmitri Mendeleev who created our periodic table of elements and the formula for making 40% vodka and spirits.
Russia has the world's fifth largest population of 148.8 million people. It contains some 130 nations and ethnic groups and covers one-eighths of the earth’s surface from Europe to Asia. It is covered by vast plains and mountain ranges, with a wealth of natural resources.
 The architecture is both glorious and hideous, the history is moving and monstrous, and the
art is sensational. With the dismantling of the Soviet Union there has been a major revival of interest in Russia's pre-Soviet past. This shift has spawned an effort to regain its national heritage. Churches are being restored all across the country,
Russian writers and artists whose works had been banned are once again being honoured, and the unique characters of ancient communities are re-establishing themselves.
The capital city of Moscow, founded in 1147, is Russia's mythic refuge. It is a self contained city with an assembly of palaces, armouries, and churches - a medieval fortress that links the modern nation to its legendary past.
Big, beautiful, brutal and intriguing, Russia is indeed an enigma that beckons to be sampled by any serious traveller.
Weather
 The best time to visit Russia is in May, June, September and October, when temperatures are mild by Russian standards, ranging from 1°C to 25°C. Rainfall usually occurs in July and August, while the winter months of November through March are below freezing, with short, dark days. However, snow scenes can be beautiful and ski conditions are prime during January and February. Beware of dangerous falling icicles in early spring (March/April)! The climate of Russia varies from Arctic and forest tundra to forests and semi-deserts.
History
 Russia has a long and dramatic history, reading like an epic novel of heartbreak and bloodshed. Perhaps the most famous or important events in Russia’s history are those the surrounding Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, the Patriotic War of 1812, the 1917 Russian Revolution and World War II.
 The founding of Novgorod in 862 AD by the Viking Rurik of Jutland is traditionally taken as the birth of what became the Russian state, although human habitation throughout Russia dates back to
Neolithic times (4000 - 2000 BC) and beyond.
Centuries of prosperity were squashed in the 13th century by the marauding Mongolian Tatars, who dominated until 1480. The 16th century witnessed the ugly expansionist reign of Ivan the Terrible, whose incursions into the Volga region antagonised Poland and Sweden to Russia's later cost. When the 700-year Rurikid dynasty ended with the childless Fyodor, vengeful Swedish and Polish invaders each bloodily claimed the Russian throne.
The issue was finally settled in 1613, with the 16-year-old Mikhail Romanov issuing in a dynasty that was to rule until 1917.
Peter the Great, the dynasty's strongest ruler, celebrated vanquishing the Swedes by building a new
capital in Saint Petersburg.
Peter the Great died in 1725. To this day he remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful new member of modern Europe, many of his reforms failed to take root, and it was not until the reign of
Catherine the Great that his desire to make Russia into a great European power was achieved.
On December 25, 1761, Peter III, a grandson of Peter the Great, was crowned Czar. In less than a year his reign ended when he managed to offend the entire court and his wife Catherine received
wide spread political and public support to take his place. Peter was confronted with a prepared declaration of his abdication and a week later he was dead.
Catherine the Great went on to become the most powerful sovereign in Europe. She established the Hermitage Museum, commissioned buildings all over Russia, founded academies, journals, and libraries.
When Catherine the Great died in 1796, she was succeeded by her son Paul I. Paul's reign lasted only five years and was by all accounts a complete disaster. He was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who is remembered mostly for having been the ruler of Russia during Napoleon Bonaparte's epic Russian Campaign.
 Napoleon’s Russian Campaign, also called the Patriotic War of 1812, was the beginning of the end of Napoleon's Empire. Russia became the place of the destruction of the Great Army. Yet even as Russia emerged more powerful than ever from the Napoleonic era, its internal tensions began to increase.
The 19th century began with a bang, thanks to Napoleon, and ended with the country in ominous turmoil. The next 100 years of events lead up to the
1917 Revolution. The long-suffering serfs were freed in 1861 and there was growing opposition to the repressive and autocratic tsarist rule. Peasants were angry at having to pay for land they regarded as their own, liberals advocated constitutional reform along western European lines and terrorists assassinated Alexander II in 1881. Many radicals fled, including the famous exile
Vladimir Ulyanov, better known as Lenin.
 Under the young and notoriously weak Nicholas II, humiliating defeat in the war with Japan (1904-5) led to further unrest. The massacre of civilians on
Bloody Sunday led to mass strikes and the murder of industrialists. Social Democrat activists formed workers' councils (soviets), and a general strike in October 1905 brought the country to its knees. The czar finally buckled and permitted the formation of the country's first parliament (duma), only to disband it when he didn't like its leftist demands. Russia's disastrous performance in WWI fomented further unrest. Soldiers and police mutinied and a reconvened duma assumed government, manned by the commercial elite. Soviets of workers and soldiers were also formed, thus creating two alternative power bases. Both were unified in their demands for the
abdication of the czar, an action Nicholas was forced to undertake on 1 March 1917.
The previously exiled Lenin had founded the Communist Party, and along with Leon Trotsky, led their comrades into the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Russian Revolution ended the long reign of czars in Russia and created the communistic Soviet Union. Czar Nicholas II served as the last emperor of Russia from 1895 to 1917. He, his wife, and their children were executed following the Revolution.
 Leon Trotsky later served as a leader of the Soviet Union under Lenin. After Lenin's death, Trotsky was exiled and later assassinated.
The economic consequences of the revolution were disastrous, culminating in the enormous famine of 1920-21.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established in 1922 and, following Lenin's death in January 1924, a new world record in the mistreatment of fellow humans was achieved by his successor, Stalin. Millions were executed or exiled to Siberian concentration camps.
 Russia's non-aggression pact with Germany set the scene for WWII, with Hitler and Stalin passing states between them. The tables turned in 1941 when Hitler's Operation Barbarossa issued in a bloody period of warfare that would eventually kill a sixth of the population.
At the war's end, the Soviet's 'liberation' of Eastern Europe was soon recognised as a misnomer. Russia's extended control over much of Eastern Europe was the key to its emergence as one of the world's superpowers. Stalin re-established the old pattern of unpredictable purges and, as the
Cold War developed, he established Western ideology as the country's new enemy.
 Following Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Krushchev emerged as leader and cautiously attempted to de-Stalinise the Party, while brazenly arming Cuba. His efforts were undone by the conservative Brezhnev, and JFK's brinkmanship. Despite increased repression, dissident movements sprang up. But change was on the way and Russian communism's poor image was soon thoroughly overhauled by
soviet iconoclast Mikhail Gorbachov.
 Gorbachov introduced political and economic reforms and called for greater openness. In 1988 he held elections to transfer power from the Party to a new parliament.
Reduced repression led to the eventual independence of the 15 Soviet republics, with the
Baltic republics leading the way. This reduced sphere of influence and severe economic crisis caused Gorbachov domestic strife.
By 1990 the Soviet Union had been voted out of existence, to be replaced by a
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On December 25, Gorbachev resigned, and on midnight of December 31, the Soviet flag atop the Kremlin was replaced by the Russian tri-colour. Post-Soviet Russia was marked by the
misdealing of corrupt officials, financiers and gangsters, as well as soaring rates of drug abuse, racketeering and murder.
 A reactionary coup in August 1991 opened the way for an even more radical successor,
Boris Yeltsin. The Yeltsin era was marked by the globalisation of the Russian economy. By 1999 things were looking even shakier as Yeltsin regularly sacked his governments and the economy grew steadily gloomier.
In March 2000, Vladimir Putin became president of Russia. Russia became the world's largest oil exporter outside of OPEC and, much to everyone's surprise, the economic climate brightened. By the turn of the millennium, Moscow could boast more billionaire residents than any other city except New York.
Russia's military reputation, however, continued its decline. In August 2000 the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea, losing the entire crew. The
war in Chechnya dragged on. About 120 people died when paratroopers stormed a Moscow theatre where Chechen rebels had taken the theatre audience hostage. A similar hostage-taking by Chechen terrorists occurred in a Beslan school in September 2004, leaving over 300 head dead, more than half of them children.
Clearly Russia is no stranger to tragedy and change. As Russia enters the 21st century, development and reconstruction are at an all-time high and
tourism is on a rise, perhaps sparked by curiosity of this tumultuous, captivating country.
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