The Russian Territory

by Oscar Mario Rosas Tabera
(Chofu, Tokyo, Japan)

Everybody can locate Russia on a map because of one reason: Russia is the biggest country in the world! Have you ever wondered why?

One day, I was searching the internet and found that Russia had the greatest territorial expansion because of two main reasons:

1. The Permafrost: The northeast part of Russia is so cold that many regions have the same climate conditions during the whole year. Because of that, those regions have snow all year long. No matter if it's summer or it's winter, these places are not habitable due to the cold. But even if we can think that it's impossible to live there, Russians know that it is not as you might think. One clear example is Oymyakon (a little town known by many people as the coldest place in the world).

After all this explanation, you might think: what is the point in this? Well, much of the territory of Russia is so cold that it leads us to think that nobody wants to live there, and so, maybe that's the reason why nobody wanted to claim that part of the world, except for Russia.

2. The Conquests: All the great empires in the world wanted to expand their territories as much as possible, and so, the Russian Empire is no exception. They took territories from the Mongol Empire, and after the Mongol Empire's fall, they took another part as well. Also, they took territories from Sweden, and after the invasion of Finland, they took more territory from the Swedish Empire.

From the Ottoman Empire, from Eastern Europe, and from China, and finally Alaska... That's the second reason why Russia has such a big territory.

After this brief lesson of history, I can say that if somebody has problems with Russia, maybe that somebody has to think about it twice.