Updated: March 2009
Russia
Overview | World Vision's history in Russia| World Vision in Russia today
OverviewThe Russian Federation is located in Northern Asia and Eastern Europe and is the largest country in area in the world, covering nearly one-eighth of the Earth’s land mass. It is twice the size of the United States and contains Europe’s longest river, the Volga. Russia borders 14 countries and spans 10 time zones. The country’s terrain features coniferous forests, tundra, steppes, and several mountain ranges, including the Urals, which form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia. Due to its size, Russia’s climate varies from humid conditions in the European regions to arctic in Siberia and the northern tundra areas. Natural resources include oil, natural gas, diamonds, coal, timber, and the largest mineral reserves in the world.There are more than 160 indigenous peoples and ethnic groups living throughout the Russian Federation. Nearly 80 percent of the population is Russian, while the Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Chechens, and Armenians encompass 10 percent of inhabitants. Other groups include the Kazakhs, Azerbaijani, Belarusians, Germans, Ingush, Avars, and Ossetians. Russian is the country’s official language, understood by 99 percent of the population. Approximately 5 million people speak Tatar, and 3 million speak German. Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, Russia’s original name, emerged from more than 200 years of Mongol rule and gradually conquered surrounding territories. By the late 1800s, Tsar Alexander II had pushed Russia’s borders to the Pacific Ocean. Repeated defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting and the overthrow of the imperial household in 1917. Vladimir Lenin seized power soon after and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), ushering in nearly 70 years of communist rule. |  |
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| A political difference in ideologies between the U.S.S.R. and the United States, known as the Cold War, would stem from the partitioning of Germany and the ideological annexation of Eastern Eurpoe following World War II and last until the early 1990s. Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, introduced sweeping political and economic reforms and began establishing warmer relations with the West. These steps led to the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. into Russia and 14 other independent republics in December 1991. Russia struggled to build a market economy in the 1990s, but the country weathered a 1998 financial crisis and gradually began to grow the economy. In 1994, Russian troops moved into the breakaway republic of Chechnya, located in the North Caucasus. A peace agreement was signed in 1996, but three years later violence erupted again as Chechen rebels set off a series of explosions in Russia. The North Caucasus suffers from not only the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, but also from the decade-long civil war that has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Poverty is widespread in the region, with more than 75 percent of the population reporting an average daily income of US$1.31. Infant and child mortality rates are significantly high, and few children have access to quality education. The HIV prevalence rate in Russia is only 1.1 percent, but with such a large population, there are more than 940,000 people living with the disease. Many experts believe that, combined with the number of unreported cases, the total could be as high as 1.3 million. The number of secondary AIDS-related diseases increased more than twofold in 2007, leading to a 10 percent jump in the number of deaths. The Russian government is currently spending more than $250 million a year on HIV and AIDS treatment programs, and it will spend $42 million over the next five years to support AIDS research. Back to top World Vision’s history in RussiaWorld Vision’s involvement in Russia began in the 1980s, when it entered the U.S.S.R. to assist children and families following the Chernobyl tragedy. From the late 1980s to mid 1990s, World Vision worked with the Russian Bible Society training leaders of religious charitable organizations and launched New Nurses for Russia, a nursing education reform project.During the first Chechen war in 1995, World Vision responded in the North Caucasus with medical supplies, winter clothing, hospital equipment, books, and other gifts-in-kind. These items provided essential relief to many of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Chechen men, women, and children. In 1999, World Vision opened an office in Nazran, located in Ingushetia—the republic immediately to the west of Chechnya. Since that time, World Vision has provided much-needed humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced Chechen and Ingush people living in tent camps and temporary settlements in the region. World Vision responded immediately to the Beslan school hostage crisis in September 2004, delivering medical supplies and equipment to hospitals treating the wounded. To support the children and adults affected by the crisis, World Vision organized peace-building and conflict resolution training in the region and rehabilitated a public park in the center of Beslan with a children’s playground and outdoor theater. Other recent activities include providing primary health care, medicines, and counseling in Chechnya to displaced and vulnerable people; offering pregnancy-related and laboratory diagnostic services to 30,000 Chechens in Ingushetia; supplying daily hot meals for children in 180 schools to improve nutrition and school attendance; rehabilitating 10 health clinics in two districts of Chechnya; and conducting child protection and safety classes in 10 schools to reduce the danger of exposure to landmines and fires. Back to top World Vision in Russia todayWorld Vision is committed to partnering with the people of the Russian Federation to enhance their lives today and to help enact sustainable solutions for the future of their communities, families, and children. Currently, World Vision does not conduct any child sponsorship programs in the Russian Federation. World Vision operates 15 development projects, five of which are supported by U.S. donors. A highlight of these efforts includes the following:
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