Regions and Travel Destinations in Russia
The nature of Russia is abundant in beautiful scenery — pristine waters, green forests, blue skies. (Photo by Vadim Andrianov, licenced under CC-SA 3.0)
This travel guide includes information for tourists about Russian regions, cities and territories. In addition to basic geographical information, you will also find stories about culture, life, history, sightseengs and things to do in Russian cities. Begin by exploring the major districts of Russia, then browse down to the entities and cities within each district. This guide is being constantly improved with new information about Russian travel destinations.
The Big Picture
Today's Russia consists of seven federal districts. Each district includes several regions, such as oblast, republic, krai, okrug. Click on the name of each federal district below to learn more about its regions, cities, towns
and urban-type settlements.
- Central Russia (Central District)
- Russian South (Southern District)
- North West Russia (Northwestern District)
- Russian Far East (Far Eastern District)
- Siberia (Siberian District)
- Urals (Urals District)
- Volga (Volga District)
Oblasts, Republics, Krais
When exploring Russia, it's a good idea to learn how the whole country is organized into Federal Subjects (a.k.a. constituent units of Russia). There are 83 subjects in total, including 21 republics, 46 oblasts, 9 krais, 1 autonomous oblast, 4 autonomous okrugs and 2 federal cities. Each of these federal subjects provides two political delegates and has equal political representation in the Federation Council.
The Biggest Russian Cities
Besides the obvious Moscow, which is the capital of Russia with over 10 million population, there are several very large cities with population over 1 million and myriads of big cities with population over 500,000 people. Here's a quick snapshot of the most inhabited Russian cities according to 2002 census.
Rank | City in English | Russian name | Population |
1. | Moscow | Москва [mɐˈskva] | 10,382,754 |
2. | Saint Petersburg | Санкт-Петербург | 4,661,219 |
3. | Novosibirsk | Новосибирск | 1,425,508 |
4. | Nizhny Novgorod | Нижний Новгород | 1,311,252 |
5. | Yekaterinburg | Екатеринбург | 1,293,537 |
6. | Samara | Самара | 1,157,880 |
7. | Omsk | Омск | 1,134,016 |
8. | Kazan | Казань | 1,105,289 |
9. | Chelyabinsk | Челябинск | 1,077,174 |
10. | Rostov-on-Don (Rostov-na-Donu) | Ростов-на-Дону | 1,068,267 |
11. | Ufa | Уфа | 1,042,437 |
12. | Volgograd | Волгоград | 1,011,417 |
13. | Perm | Пермь | 1,001,653 |
14. | Krasnoyarsk | Красноярск | 909,341 |
15. | Saratov | Саратов | 873,055 |
16. | Voronezh | Воронеж | 848,752 |
17. | Tolyatti | Тольятти | 702,879 |
18. | Krasnodar | Краснодар | 646,175 |
19. | Ulyanovsk | Ульяновск | 635,947 |
20. | Izhevsk | Ижевск | 632,140 |
21. | Yaroslavl | Ярославль | 613,088 |
22. | Barnaul | Барнаул | 600,749 |
23. | Vladivostok | Владивосток | 594,701 |
24. | Irkutsk | Иркутск | 593,604 |
25. | Khabarovsk | Хабаровск | 583,072 |
26. | Novokuznetsk | Новокузнецк | 549,870 |
27. | Orenburg | Оренбург | 549,361 |
28. | Ryazan | Рязань | 521,560 |
29. | Penza | Пенза | 518,025 |
30. | Tyumen | Тюмень | 510,719 |
31. | Naberezhnye Chelny | Набережные Челны | 509,870 |
32. | Lipetsk | Липецк | 506,114 |
33. | Astrakhan | Астрахань | 504,501 |
The total population of Russia is 145,166,731.