Russia's inland bodies of water are chiefly a legacy of extensive glaciation. In European Russia, the largest lakes are Ladoga and Onega northeast of St. Petersburg, Lake Peipus on the Estonian border, and the Rybinsk Reservoir north of Moscow. Smaller man-made reservoirs, 160 to 320 kilometers long, are on the Don, the Kama, and the Volga rivers. Many large reservoirs also have been constructed on the Siberian rivers; the Bratsk Reservoir northwest of Lake Baikal is one of the world's largest.

The vast majority of Russian citizens are literate.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 broke out, decimating the Imperial empire. It was this revolution that marked the end of Imperial Russia and the dawn of a new era in Russia's history.

By the night of the 27th of February 1917, effective civil authority in Russia had collapsed. The cabinet resigned and Nicholas II abdicated the throne in an effort to unify his country.

In the revolutions of 1989 the USSR lost its satellites in Eastern Europe. Glasnost allowed ethnic and nationalist disaffection to reach the surface. Many constituent republics, especially the Baltic republics, Georgian SSR and Moldavian SSR, sought greater autonomy, which Moscow was unwilling to provide.

The 1932 Soviet symbolizing the reform of "old ways of life" is dedicated to liberation of women from traditional role of the oppressed housekeeper. The text reads: "8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against the kitchen slavery". "Say NO to the oppression and Babbittry of the household work!".

Russia is home to some of the oldest lakes in the world, such as Lake Baikal - an estimated 25-30 million years old.

In the early decades of the 19th century, Russia expanded into Transcaucasia and the highlands of the North Caucasus. In 1831 Nicholas crushed a major uprising in Congress Poland; it would be followed by another large-scale Polish and Lithuanian revolt in 1863.