Moscow

Moscow (/ˈmɒskaʊ/ or /ˈmɒskoʊ/; Russian: Москва́, tr. Moskva; IPA: [mɐˈskva]) is the capital and the largest city of Russia, with 12.2 million residents within the city limits and 16.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a federal city in Russia.

Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. By broader definitions Moscow is among the world's largest cities, being the 14th largest metro area, the 17th largest agglomeration, the 16th largest urban area, and the 10th largest by population within city limits worldwide. According to Forbes 2013, Moscow has been ranked as the ninth most expensive city in the world by Mercer and has one of the world's largest urban economies, being ranked as an alpha global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is also one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world according to the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth. It is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe; the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe; and the Moscow International Business Center. By its territorial expansion on July 1, 2012 southwest into the Moscow Oblast, the area of the capital more than doubled; from 1,091 square kilometers (421 sq mi) up to 2,511 square kilometers (970 sq mi), and gained an additional population of 233,000 people.

Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR, Russian: Транссиби́рская магистра́ль, tr. Transsibirskaya Magistral; IPA: [trənsʲsʲɪˈbʲirskəjə məgʲɪˈstralʲ]) is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. With a length of 9,289 km (5,772 mi), it is the longest railway line in the world. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea. It has connected Moscow with Vladivostok since 1916, and is still being expanded.

It was built from 1891 to 1916 under the supervision of Russian government ministers who were personally appointed by Tsar Alexander III and by his son, Tsar Nicholas II. Even before it had been completed, it attracted travellers who wrote of their adventures.

Route description

The Trans-Siberian Railway is often associated with the main transcontinental Russian line that connects hundreds of large and small cities of the European and Asian parts of Russia. At 9,289 kilometres (5,753 miles), spanning a record seven time zones and taking eight days to complete the journey, it is the third-longest single continuous service in the world, after the Moscow–Pyongyang 10,267 kilometres (6,380 mi) and the Kiev–Vladivostok 11,085 kilometres (6,888 mi) services, both of which also follow the Trans-Siberian for much of their routes.

Krasnoyarsk Railway

Krasnoyarsk Railway (Russian: Красноярская железная дорога) is a subsidiary of the Russian Railways headquartered in Krasnoyarsk and serving the south of Siberia.

Main information

Its mainline is a link in the Trans-Siberian Railway crossing the Krasnoyarsk Krai and Khakassia. It is wedged between the West Siberian Railway (to the west) and East Siberian Railway (to the east). Its length is estimated at 3157,9 km (as of 2009).

History

Regular traffic on the road between Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) and Krasnoyarsk opened in 1898, between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk in 1899 after the completion of the construction of the largest railway bridge in Asia over the Yenisei.

In the period from January 1904 to October 1905 Siberian railway played a big role in providing military transportation during the Russo-Japanese war. In 1926 built the line Achinsk – Abakan (Achinsk-Minusinsk railway). In 1949 began the construction of the line Novokuznetsk – Abakan, in 1950, began construction of the station Abaza. In the 1960s to build Achinsk – Lesosibirsk, Red Hill – Kiya-Salter, Kamusta – Sayano-Shushenskaya power station. In 1965, completed the construction of the line Abakan – Taishet branch Uyar – Sayan. In the 1970s the line was built resota – Karabula.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal (Russian: о́зеро Байка́л, tr. Ozero Baykal; IPA: [ˈozʲɪrə bɐjˈkɑl]; Buryat: Байгал нуур, Mongolian: Байгал нуур, Baygal nuur, etymologically meaning, in Mongolian, "the Nature Lake") is a rift lake in Russia, located in southern Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast.

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water. With a maximum depth of 1,642 m (5,387 ft), Baikal is the world's deepest lake. It is considered among the world's clearest lakes and is considered the world's oldest lake— at 25 million years. It is the seventh-largest lake in the world by surface area. With 23,615.39 km³ (5,700 cu mi) of fresh water, it contains more water than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of 31,722 km² (12,248 sq mi). Baikal is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, many of which exist nowhere else in the world. The lake was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to Buryat tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal, rearing goats, camels, cattle, and sheep, where the mean temperature varies from a winter minimum of −19 °C (−2 °F) to a summer maximum of 14 °C (57 °F).

Vladivostok

Vladivostok (Russian: Владивосто́к; IPA: [vlədʲɪvɐˈstok], literally ruler of the East) is a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea. The population of the city as of the 2010 Census was 592,034, down from 594,701 recorded in the 2002 Census. The city is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean.

Names

The name Vladivostok loosely translates from Russian as "the ruler of the East"—a name similar to Vladikavkaz which means "the ruler of the Caucasus". In Chinese, the place where the city is situated nowadays was known since the Qing Dynasty as Haishenwai (海參崴, Hǎishēnwǎi), from the Manchu "Haišenwei" or "small seaside village"; the Chinese name can also be interpreted as "sea cucumber bay". In modern-day China, it is officially known by the transliteration Fuladiwosituoke (符拉迪沃斯托克, Fúlādíwòsītuōkè), although the historical Chinese name Haishenwai is still often used in common parlance and outside mainland China to refer to the city. The Japanese name of the city is Urajiosutoku (ウラジオストク; a rough transliteration of the Russian originally written in Kanji as 浦塩斯徳 and often shortened to Urajio; ウラジオ; 浦塩). In Korean, the name is transliterated as Beulladiboseutok (블라디보스토크) in South Korea, Ullajibosŭttokhŭ (울라지보스또크) in North Korea, and Beullajiboseu-ttokeu (블라지보스또크) by Koreans in China.