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Kenozero National Park, a specially protected natural area of 140 000 hectares, is a unique complex of natural, historical and cultural highlights and a distinguished specimen of Northern European cultural landscape. Here lies the borderline between the Baltic Shield and Russian Platform, and the watershed separating the White Sea and the Baltic Sea basins. Forests cover over 106 thousand hectares. The Park is inhabited by 50 mammal, 263 bird, 4 reptile and 5 amphibian species; many of the 600 higher vascular plants discovered here are listed in the Red Book of Russia and International Union for the Protection of Nature. The 300 lakes and rivers (the number per se is uncharacteristic of watershed areas) are inhabited by 28 fish and 2 lamprey species.
Yet, the thing that makes Kenozero National Park singular is its living culture and the epical heritage of Russia. There are about 100 monuments of cultic and civil architecture in Kenozero, big and small villages with friendly people, ancient monasteries located in remote woodlands, numerous holy forests, obey crosses and ‘seid’-stones.
In 2004, Kenozero National Park joined the Global Network of UNESCO Biospheric Nature Reserves. Since Kenozero is important for preservation of bird fauna in Northern Europe, it has also entered the list of “Key Ornithological Areas of International Importance in the European Part of Russia (Important Bird Areas)”.
http://www.kenozero.ru/en
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Just in case you mistakenly heard that it was all ice and snow in Russia, take a peek at the Big Bikini Exposition. This is right on the river Moskva in Moscow!Moscow has been the capital of Russia for almost its entire history. The exception is during the period of the Russian Empire, which lasted from 1721 until the Russian Revolution 1917. For these two centuries the capital was St. Petersburg. The Russian Empire was the second largest contiguous Empire in world memory; only the Mongol Empire had been greater.Check out what's happening north of Mongolia these days, in ChitaAlthough you may not have heard of Sochi, on the Black Sea, they're building up quickly and hope to host the 2014 Olympics.Other periods of Russian history include the Tsardom of Russia, from Ivan IV to Peter the Great, and the Grand Duchy (14th-16th centuries).The earliest period of Russian history was ruled by the Novgorod Republic and Kievan Rus, which was the first Russian state dating back to 800AD in Kiev.Modern Russia remains one of the world's superpowers. They launched the earth's second satellite, called Sputnik 1, and were the first country to put a human being into orbit around earth. (The first one is called the Moon.)After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia became a federal republic of 83 states.Text by Steve Smith.
