Russia
The Region Russia
Geography
The Russian Federation is the largest of the 21 republics that make up the Commonwealth of Independent States. It occupies most of eastern Europe and north Asia, stretching from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the south. It is bordered by Norway and Finland in the northwest; Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania in the west; Georgia and Azerbaijan in the southwest; and Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and North Korea along the southern border.
Cultural Artifact of Russia
Old Russian traditional dresses identified people living in towns and villages, their income and origin. Festive clothes and everyday traditional clothing, married woman's and young girl's clothes differed by details, decoration, color range. Red fabric cloth was considered to be the nattiest one for sarafan dress. Russian word "beautiful" comes from the word "krasny", the Russian word for "red".
Regional Fun Fact
In the old days Maslenitsa (an ancient Orthodox Christian Holiday) was for remembrance of the dead. So the burning of the figure of Maslenitsa means her funeral, and the blini (pancakes) - coliphia. But with time the Russians longing for fun and entertainment turned the sad holiday into jolly Maslenitsa with blini-round, yellow and hot as the sun, sledding and horse sleigh riding, fistfights and mother-in-law chatting.