European Russia (also Western Russia or Central Russia) refers to the Western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres (1,528,560 mi²), larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its Eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the South it is defined by the border with Kazakhstan. This area includes Moscow and St. Petersburg, the two largest cities of Russia.
Roughly 78% of the entire Russian population (about 110,000,000 people out of an approximate total Russian population of 141,000,000) lives in Western Russia, at an average of 27 persons per km² (69.9 per mi²). Even though 75% of Russia's territory lies within Asia, the Asian part of Russia accommodates only 22% of its population at 2.5 persons per km² (6.5 per mi²).
The term "European Russia" was used in the Russian Empire to refer to traditional East Slavic territories under Russian control, including what is now Belarus and most of Ukraine (Dnieper Ukraine).
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or russia:
“Unsophisticated and confiding, they are easily led into every vice, and humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted upon them by their European civilizers.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“In Russia there is an emigration of intelligence: émigrés cross the frontier in order to read and to write good books. But in doing so they contribute to making their fatherland, abandoned by spirit, into the gaping jaws of Asia that would like to swallow our little Europe.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)