When you hear of the country Russia, what do you think? Maybe of frozen tundras and constant snow storms, however Russia is much more versatile than most are aware. And this is because pre-world war, no one took notice to Russia or were too afraid to venture there themselves. Russia is actually the largest country in the world, taking up about one-sixth of the United States. It is approximately 17,098,242 square kilometers, spanning from its western most point right above Poland, to its eastern most point near the bearing strait (Russia, p.1). Yet this 6.6 million square mile stretch of land is quite different depending on the area you are. West of the Ural Mountains you can find yourself on long stretching plains with low lying hills. While twenty minutes to the west of this mountain range, you can be in the middle of a dense forrest or arctic tundra in Siberia. And towards the southern border of Russia, it is very "all-terrain ", with various mountains, hills, and uneven earth everywhere (Central Intelligence Agency, p.1). Russia is located east of Europe and west of North America, so close where some people living in Alaska or islands off of Alaska consider themselves citizens of Russia instead of the United States. It is located just north of China and also has the longest border with China of about 3,000 kilometers long (Cross-border Resource Management). A lot of these aspects of Russia are the same today as they were pre-World War 1, yet the culture and government was much different. .
Russia at the time was a very desolate place, or so the rest of the world thought. Russia's population in 1914 was right about 140 million people, however because Russia is so unbelievably big, there was lots of room for these people to live (Census of Manufactures: 1914). The population was greatly spread out because there was so much room to inhabit, yet they were also spread out in certain groups or communities.
