onsidered as part of Russia (= the Russian Federation), while others, including especially such autonomous republics as Ukraine and Georgia, have been considered as separate political entities. The U.S. International Trade Administration, an agency of the Department of Commerce, now considers that Russia contains 6.6 million square miles, or more than three-fourths of the former Soviet Union. Nearly twice the size of the U.S., it is the world's largest country, covering eleven time zones and one-eighth of the world's land surface. Its principal metropolitan cities are Moscow, located inland from the western boundary of the country, and St. Petersburg (Leningrad under U.S.S.R. control), a Baltic Sea port (BISNIS).
About 20% of the land mass of Russia is mountainous. The Urals separate European from Asian Russia, and the Caucasus Mountains divide the Caspian from the Black Sea. Although Russia contains every climate category except tropical, its principal climatic characteristic is the length and severity of its win ters, with the majority of its coastal territory and river water ways, though numerous and extensive, frozen for most of the year (U.S.S.R. 8754). Under the Soviet system until the 1970s, about 40% of the population was engaged in agriculture, which was concentrated in Russia's more temperate European region identi fied with the Russian Steppes (U.S.S.R. 8764). This included So viet Ukraine, which is today an independent state. In post-Soviet Russia, agriculture and the food industry account for 20% of the Russian labor force. However, agriculture accounts for only 13% of Russia's GDP and 1.1% of government revenues (BISNIS). This appears to be due to the combination of the situation of Russia in the north temperate zone, sixteen percent of it above the Arc tic Circle, and the concentration of rainfall in June and July, which is unfavorable for successful agriculture. Winter temper atures can reach -90(F (U.S.S.R. 8756-7).<...