A guide to Russia and it's regions
Travel in Russia is becoming more popular now that Russia has opened it’s doors to tourists. However few tourists actually find there way off Russia’s major tourist trails. This guide is intended to help you find out more about Russia and its many regions. The Russian federation is broken into 83 regions and this guide is arranged accordingly. We will also include some general information topics about Russian travel.
This guide is still quite new but we intend to keep adding to it regularly. As we visit and research different Russian cities we will continually add more information. If you live in one of these areas in Russia and with to contribute to the Russian guide please contact Admin in the General Administration forum in the forums section of this site.
The Russian Regions
The 83 regions of Russia are classified as follows:
| Federal Cities (города федерального значения) | There are 2 federal cities. Moscow and Saint Petersburg. They function as their own region under direct federal control. |
| Republics (республики) | There are 21 republics in the Russian federation. Republics have some degree of autonomy in government. Each republic has it’s own constitution, president and parliament. International affairs however are still handled by the federal government. |
| Oblasts (области) | There are 46 oblasts in the federation. An oblast is like a province. They have their own local administrative government but have less autonomy than a republic. |
| Krais (края) | There are 9 krais in Russia. A krai is also known as a territory. They have the same legal status as an oblast. The use of the word krai is traditional, it was used mainly to refer to territories located on Russia’s border regions. |
| Autonomous Okrugs (автономные округа) | There are 4 autonomous districts (or okrugs) in Russia. They were setup to provide autonomy to indigenous groups. The level of autonomy fits somewhere between a republic and an oblast. Autonomous Okrugs may have administrative jurisdiction delegated to a nearby oblast. |
| Autonomous Oblast (автономная область) | There is 1 autonomous province in the Russian federation. |
Image Credit - Adapted from this image released under the GPL
Largest Cities in Russia
Here is a list of the largest Russian cities and where they are located.
| City | Region | Population | |
| 1 | Moscow | Moscow | 10,126,424 |
| 2 | Saint Petersburg | Saint Petersburg | 4,661,219 |
| 3 | Novosibirsk | Novosibirsk Oblast | 1,425,508 |
| 4 | Nizhny Novgorod | Nizhny Novgorod Oblast | 1,311,252 |
| 5 | Yekaterinburg | Sverdlovsk Oblast | 1,293,537 |
| 6 | Samara | Samara Oblast | 1,157,880 |
| 7 | Omsk | Omsk Oblast | 1,134,016 |
| 8 | Kazan | Tatarstan | 1,105,289 |
| 9 | Chelyabinsk | Chelyabinsk Oblast | 1,077,174 |
| 10 | Rostov-on-Don | Rostov Oblast | 1,068,267 |
| 11 | Ufa | Bashkortostan | 1,042,437 |
| 12 | Volgograd | Volgograd Oblast | 1,011,417 |
| 13 | Perm | Perm Krai | 1,001,653 |
| 14 | Krasnoyarsk | Krasnoyarsk Krai | 909,341 |
| 15 | Saratov | Saratov Oblast | 873,055 |
| 16 | Voronezh | Voronezh Oblast | 848,752 |
| 17 | Tolyatti | Samara Oblast | 702,879 |
| 18 | Krasnodar | Krasnodar Krai | 646,175 |
| 19 | Ulyanovsk | Ulyanovsk Oblast | 635,947 |
| 20 | Izhevsk | Udmurtia | 632,140 |