Russia LEVELED BOOK • T

A Reading A–Z Level T Leveled Book

Word Count: 1,065

Connections
Russia
Writing
Write a detailed travel plan for your
pretend trip to Russia. Be sure to
include when and where you will visit,
what you will do in each city, and what
you will need to pack.
Social Studies
Create a map of Russia. Mark the
capital city, four other important cities,
the Ural Mountains, and Lake Baikal.
Label the countries and bodies of water
that border Russia.

Written by Grace de Fonseca

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 Words to Know
Russia Christian
czars
natural resources
revolution
industry settlement
landscapes traditional
Muslim
Front cover: St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

Title page: Kremlin buildings at sunset in the town of Kolomna

Page 3: People hiking in the mountains

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Written by Grace de Fonseca

Russia
www.readinga-z.com Countries Around the World
Level T Leveled Book Correlation
Focus Question © Learning A–Z LEVEL T
Written by Grace de Fonseca
Fountas & Pinnell P

What makes Russia a unique country? All rights reserved. Reading Recovery
DRA
38
38
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 Russia
EUROPE
ASIA
ARCTIC OCEAN

BE
RIN
GS
EA
ESTONIA
LATVIA
H Moscow SEA OF
BELARUS OKHOTSK
RUSSIA
UKRAINE

KAZAKHSTAN
CHINA SEA OF
MONGOLIA JAPAN

Where Is It?
Table of Contents
Russia is a huge country that covers
Where Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
16,377,742 square kilometers (6,323,500 sq . mi .)
People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 of land . It is the largest country in the world,
almost twice the size of the United States .
Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The countries that share a border with Russia
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 include Finland and Ukraine in Europe, and
Mongolia, China, and Japan in Asia . The
Celebrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
United States is a neighbor to Russia as well,
Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 since Russia’s far eastern tip is only 88 .5
kilometers (55 mi .) away from Alaska’s
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
western coast . The Arctic Ocean to the north
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 and three seas to the east also border Russia .

Russia • Level T 3 4
 Moscow is Russia’s capital city, and it is
home to more than twelve million people .
One of the most famous places in Moscow
is the Kremlin . The Kremlin is a group of
buildings including palaces and government
offices where the Russian president lives . Just
outside the Kremlin is a plaza called Red
Square . Together, the Kremlin and Red Square
are famous places to visit .
Near the Kremlin, St. Basil’s
Cathedral is one of the most
famous sights in Russia.
Russia • Level T
People
About 142 million people live in Russia,
making it the tenth largest population in the
world . About three-fourths of the people live
in cities such as Moscow and St . Petersburg .
However, there are many jobs in the country
that are connected to the land’s natural
resources . Russia has large amounts of coal,
oil, and natural gas, so it is a big part of the
energy industry . It produces much of the
world’s oil and natural gas . The fishing
industry is also very important in Russia, and
Russia sells fish to many countries around the
world . Many of the Earth’s forests are located
in Russia as well . Wood from trees is turned
into lumber . Russia is one of the world’s
biggest lumber countries .
The Cyrillic Alphabet
The Cyrillic alphabet has thirty-three
letters, seven more than the alphabet
used in English.
5 6
 Russia’s Landforms
Russian is the main language in Russia .
People use the Cyrillic alphabet to write

BE
A RC T I C O C E A N

RIN
Russian . The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the

GS
Greek alphabet, but there are some differences

EA
St. Petersburg

K a e ni
due to Russian having some sounds that Greek

m c n su
P

ha la
Moscow Oymyakon

tk
does not have .

a
in s
H ta Central SEA OF
Russian un Siberian OKHOTSK

o
West

lM
Russian people have excelled in literature, Plain
Siberian
Plateau

U ra
Plain
the arts, and sports . They are particularly
n LAKE
known for their world-famous Moscow Ballet Kulunda Sayatains BAIKAL
Steppe o un
M
and classical musicians . Russians stand out in SEA OF
JAPAN
all kinds of sports, including ice hockey, soccer,
gymnastics, and figure skating .

Land
The Russian countryside has plains
and mountains . The West Siberian Plain in
central Russia is huge . It covers over 2 .6 million
square kilometers (1 million sq . mi .) . The Ural
Mountains are located in the western part
of the country and there are several other
mountain ranges in the south and east . Lake
Baikal, located near the Mongolian border,
The Moscow Ballet is the oldest and deepest lake in the world .
practices Swan Lake Lake Baikal also holds about 20 percent of
before a performance
in Madrid, Spain. the world’s unfrozen fresh water .

Russia • Level T 7 8
 There are several very different types of
landscapes in Russia . The northern areas are
large, flat, frozen areas called tundra . South
of the tundra are the taiga, which are green
forests of mainly spruce and pine trees . In the
warmer areas, there are other forests of oak,
maple, and birch trees . Wide grasslands are
located in the southern areas of Russia .
Russia is a cold country . Most of the
country is as far north as Canada . Russia is
home to the coldest settlement in the world,
where it can get as cold as –71˚C (–96˚F) in
winter . Russia has a summer season, but
in some places there are only two months
of warmer weather each year .
At its deepest point, Lake Baikal is 1,620 meters (5,315 ft.) deep.
Russia • Level T
Peter the Great was Catherine the
the czar of Russia Great led Russia
from 1682 to 1725. from 1762 to 1798.
History
Czars, or emperors, ruled Russia for
hundreds of years . Two of the most famous
were Peter the Great and Catherine the
Great—strong leaders who helped Russia
grow to become a modern power . As in many
other Eastern European countries during
this time, many Russian farmers were serfs—
farmers who had to work on land owned by
someone else . They could not move away or get
married without the landowner’s permission,
and they had to give the owner most of their
crops . Even after the serfs were freed by order
of Alexander II, the government treated them
poorly . In the early 1900s, many Russians were
angry about this kind of unfairness, and a
revolution in 1917 ended the rule of the czars .
9 10
 After the revolution, Russia and other
Eastern European countries formed the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922 . The
goal of the USSR was to have the government
help make people more equal and solve the
problems that had led to the revolution . But
the government was too powerful, and economic
and political problems left many people in the
USSR in poverty . It ended on December 31,
1991 . Today, an elected president and other
leaders rule Russia, and many Russians’ lives
have improved .
The flag of the USSR
Poor families wait in line for
loaves of bread in the Soviet
Union in the 1920s.
Russia • Level T 11
Celebrations
Many Russians celebrate Christian holidays,
such as Christmas . However, some Russians
celebrate Christmas Day on January 7 rather
than December 25 . At Easter celebrations in
Russia, people share baked goods and paint
hard-boiled eggs . There are also Muslim
people in Russia, so Ramadan is another
big holiday there . During Ramadan, most
Muslims fast—do not eat or drink anything—
in the hours between sunrise and sunset
every day for a month . Other Russian holidays
include Independence Day on June 12 and
Victory Day on May 9 . Victory Day celebrates
the end of World War II .
A Russian holiday called Maslenitsa
(MOSS-leen-yit-sah) celebrates the end
of winter . To celebrate
Maslenitsa, people eat
pancakes called blinis
(BLEE-nees) with
butter . People also
take sleigh rides and
have snowball fights Children take part in a sack race
as part of the fun . to celebrate the end of winter.
12
Borscht is a popular soup
made from beets that
can be served hot or
cold. Kvass is a drink
that takes about two
to three days to make.

Food
Perhaps one of the most popular foods
in Russia is a soup called borscht . Borscht
is made with beets, cabbage, and other
vegetables such as onions and carrots . The
soup gets its red color from the beets . People
also make a traditional drink called kvass.
Kvass is a sour drink that is made from
stale bread . Some people make a soup called
okroshka with kvass . They add cucumbers,
sausages, salami, and boiled eggs . People eat
okroshka in the summer and serve it cold .
Today, there are many foods from other
countries in Russian cities, but traditional
foods are still popular .
Buildings glow at night in Moscow.
Conclusion
Russia is a vast and beautiful country that
is rich with natural resources . Its huge forests
and fish-filled oceans, in addition to the
resources beneath the earth such as oil and
coal, are a big part of the Russian way of life .
But Russia has much more to offer in addition
to beautiful landscapes and resources . From
ballet to its holiday celebrations to delicious
foods, Russia is a land that is rich in tradition .

Russia • Level T 13 14
 Russia
Glossary
Christian (adj.) of or relating to Christianity, a
religion based on the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ (p . 12)
czars (n.) male Russian rulers before the
Russian Revolution in 1917 (p . 10)
industry (n.) a group of businesses that sell
or create the same product or
Population: 142,423,773 services (p . 6)
Land: 16,377,742 sq km (6,323,500 sq. mi.) landscapes (n.) visible features of areas of land,
seen as a whole (p . 9)
Capital City: Moscow
Muslim (adj.) of or relating to people who
Primary Language: Russian follow the religion of Islam
(p . 12)
Primary Religions: Russian Orthodox
natural things found in nature that are
and Muslim
resources (n.) valuable to humans or can be
Name of Currency: ruble used to make a product, such
as minerals and forests (p . 6)
revolution (n.) he removal of a government
from power by force and its
replacement with another (p . 10)
settlement (n.) a new place where people live;
a place where a community has
been established (p . 9)
traditional (adj.) of or relating to a long-
established custom (p . 13)
Source: CIA World Factbook (2016)

Russia • Level T 15 16