Honestly, the sheer scale of Russia is kind of impossible to wrap your head around until you’re sitting on a train for six days straight. People always say it’s the 1st largest country in the world, but that sounds like a dry trivia fact from a fifth-grade geography quiz. In reality, it’s a logistical nightmare and a geographic miracle all rolled into one.
We’re talking about 17.1 million square kilometers.
That is roughly one-eighth of the habitable land on Earth. If you dropped the entire United States into Russia, you’d still have enough room left over to fit Australia. It’s a place where you can stand on a beach in Kaliningrad and be closer to London than you are to your own countrymen in Vladivostok.
The 11 Time Zone Headache
Most countries deal with one, maybe three time zones. Russia has eleven.
Imagine it's 2026. You’re in Moscow, waking up at 8:00 AM to a gray, slushy Tuesday. You call a friend in Kamchatka to say hi. For them, it’s already 5:00 PM. They’re literally finishing their workday while you’re still trying to find matching socks. This isn't just a quirk; it's a massive hurdle for everything from TV broadcasts to the 2026 federal budget sessions.
For decades, the Russian railway system—the famous Trans-Siberian—ran entirely on Moscow time. It didn't matter if you were in the middle of a frozen forest in deepest Siberia; the station clock said 3:00 PM because that's what time it was at the Kremlin. They finally changed that a few years back to use local time, mostly because travelers were losing their minds trying to figure out when to actually stand on the platform.
Why is it so big, anyway?
It wasn't always this way. Back in the 1400s, "Russia" was basically just a chunk of land around Moscow. Then came the expansion.
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Historians like Vladimir Kolosov often point out that Russia expanded eastward because, frankly, there wasn't much stopping them. While the western borders were a constant bloodbath of wars with Poland, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire, the east was... empty. Well, not empty, but sparsely populated by indigenous groups who didn't have the centralized military power to halt the Cossacks moving toward the Pacific.
By the time Ivan the Terrible and later Peter the Great were done, the map looked like an ink spill that just wouldn't stop growing. Siberia alone makes up 77% of the country’s landmass.
The Climate Paradox of 2026
You’ve probably heard that the 1st largest country in the world is a frozen wasteland.
Kinda true. Kinda not.
In Yakutsk, the temperature can hit $-50°C$ in the winter. Your eyelashes freeze together. But in the summer? It can swing to $+30°C$.
Right now, in early 2026, the world is watching Russia’s permafrost very closely. As the planet warms, that "permanent" ice is melting. This sounds like it might be good—more farmland, right? Actually, it's a disaster. Entire cities in the Russian North are built on stilts driven into the frozen ground. As that ground turns into mush, buildings are literally cracking in half.
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The Climate Action Tracker recently rated Russia's climate policies as "Critically Insufficient." There's a weird tension here: the government sees the melting Arctic as a "gold mine" for new shipping routes and oil extraction, while the actual land is sinking underneath the people who live there.
Living in the Shadow of the Bear
Being the 1st largest country in the world comes with a weird demographic reality.
Despite the size, the population is shrinking. As of 2026, there are about 145 million people. That sounds like a lot until you realize it’s less than half of the US population, squeezed (mostly) into the European corner of the country.
- 75% of the population lives in the European part (west of the Ural Mountains).
- The average density in Siberia is about 2 people per square kilometer.
- Moscow and St. Petersburg are hyper-modern, tech-heavy hubs, while villages a few hours away might still rely on wood-burning stoves.
It’s a country of "internal distances." If you live in Magadan, you don't "go to Moscow" for the weekend. You fly for eight hours. It’s an international flight's worth of time just to stay in the same country.
The Economic Squeeze
Economically, being huge is expensive. You have to maintain thousands of miles of roads, pipes, and wires through some of the most brutal terrain on the planet.
In 2026, the Russian economy is in a strange spot. According to the IMF, GDP growth is hovering around 1.0%, largely because the "war-time sugar rush" of the last few years is fading. The government is hiking the VAT to 22% this year to cover costs.
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Resources are the lifeline. Russia holds:
- The world's largest natural gas reserves.
- The second-largest coal reserves.
- Massive amounts of timber and fresh water (Lake Baikal alone holds 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water).
But having resources isn't the same as having a stable economy. The reliance on oil and gas means that when global prices dip—like the projected drop to $60 a barrel this year—the whole country feels the tremors.
What You Should Actually Do
If you’re actually planning to visit or study the 1st largest country in the world, forget the stereotypes about vodka and bears.
First, get a rail pass. The Trans-Siberian is the only way to "feel" the size. You see the birch forests of the west turn into the rocky mountains of the Urals, which then give way to the endless taiga. It’s meditative. It’s boring. It’s essential.
Second, look at the "Small" cities. Everyone goes to Moscow. Go to Kazan instead. It’s where the Slavic and Tatar cultures meet. The food is better, the Kremlin there is white stone and stunning, and it feels more like the "bridge" between Europe and Asia that Russia claims to be.
Third, keep an eye on the Northern Sea Route. By 2026, the ports in Murmansk and Vladivostok are becoming massive hubs. This is the future of global trade, for better or worse.
Russia is too big to be one thing. It’s not just a country; it’s a continent masquerading as a nation-state. Whether it’s the 11 time zones or the melting permafrost, the 1st largest country in the world will always be a place where the geography dictates the destiny, and the people are just along for the very long, very cold ride.
If you're looking to understand the logistics of a trip like this, your next step should be checking the current visa requirements for your specific nationality, as regulations for 2026 have shifted significantly compared to previous years.