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146-617: The islands are currently uninhabited. The island group is administered by Russia as part of Khabarovsk Krai . The Nivkh people populated the Shantar islands until the 1730s. The first recorded exploration of the Shantar Islands was in April 1640, when Russian explorer Ivan Moskvitin allegedly sailed to the mouth of the Amur River with a group of Cossacks and spotted the Shantar Islands on

292-574: A communist-led revolution in Afghanistan, Soviet forces invaded the country, ultimately starting the Soviet–Afghan War . In May 1988, the Soviets started to withdraw from Afghanistan , due to international opposition, persistent anti-Soviet guerrilla warfare, and a lack of support by Soviet citizens. From 1985 onwards, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev , who sought to enact liberal reforms in

438-626: A troika was designated to take charge. Eventually Joseph Stalin , the General Secretary of the Communist Party , managed to suppress all opposition factions and consolidate power in his hands to become the country's dictator by the 1930s. Leon Trotsky , the main proponent of world revolution , was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became

584-595: A Varangian from the Rus' people , named Rurik , was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev , which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars . Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate, and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia . In

730-501: A crisis. By 1991, economic and political turmoil began to boil over as the Baltic states chose to secede from the Soviet Union. On 17 March, a referendum was held, in which the vast majority of participating citizens voted in favour of changing the Soviet Union into a renewed federation . In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first directly elected President in Russian history when he

876-412: A darker gray to black in color. A mature gray whale can reach 40 t (44 short tons), with a typical range of 15–33 t (17–36 short tons), making them the ninth largest sized species of cetacean. Notable features that distinguish the gray whale from other mysticetes include its baleen that is variously described as cream, off-white, or blond in color and is unusually short. Small depressions on

1022-453: A few mothers linger with their young calves well into May. Whale watching in Baja's lagoons is particularly popular because the whales often come close enough to boats for tourists to pet them. By late March or early April, the returning animals can be seen from Puget Sound to Canada. A population of about 200 gray whales stay along the eastern Pacific coast from Canada to California throughout

1168-639: A global superpower. After World War II, according to the Potsdam Conference , the Red Army occupied parts of Eastern and Central Europe, including East Germany and the eastern regions of Austria . Dependent communist governments were installed in the Eastern Bloc satellite states. After becoming the world's second nuclear power , the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact alliance, and entered into

1314-494: A gray whale 30 miles (48 km) south of Nantucket, Massachusetts . Researchers used a genetic approach to estimate pre-whaling abundance based on samples from 42 gray whales, and reported DNA variability at 10 genetic loci consistent with a population size of 76,000–118,000 individuals, three to five times larger than the average census size as measured through 2007. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has collected surveys of gray whale population since at least

1460-691: A gray whale was sighted off Sunny Isles Beach, Florida . Genetic analysis of fossil and prefossil gray whale remains in the Atlantic Ocean suggests several waves of dispersal from the Pacific to the Atlantic related to successive periods of climactic warming – during the Pleistocene before the last glacial period and the early Holocene immediately following the opening of the Bering Strait . This information and

1606-597: A group of two or three were observed feeding in Izu Ōshima in 1994 for almost a month, two single individuals stayed in Ise Bay for almost two months in the 1980s and in 2012, the first confirmed living individuals in Japanese EEZ in the Sea of Japan and the first of living cow-calf pairs since the end of whaling stayed for about three weeks on the coastline of Teradomari in 2014. One of

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1752-473: A handful of capture records support this idea, although migrations into the sea have been confirmed. Recent studies using genetics and acoustics, suggest that there are several wintering sites for western gray whales such as Mexico and the East China sea. However, their wintering ground habits in the western North Pacific are still poorly understood and additional research is needed. Even though South Korea put

1898-644: A historically unique event. That study suggested that over the past 100,000 years there have been several migrations of gray whales between the Pacific and Atlantic, with the most recent large scale migration of this sort occurring about 5,000 years ago. These migrations corresponded to times of relatively high temperatures in the Arctic Ocean. In 2021, one individual was seen in the port of Rabat , Morocco , followed by sightings in Algeria and Italy . In March 2024, New England Aquarium researchers photographed

2044-778: A large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks . The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe c.  1500  years ago. The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia (approximately between modern Moscow and Saint-Petersburg ) in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov . Prior to Slavic migration, that territory

2190-479: A new genus for it, Eschrichtius . Van Beneden & Gervais 1868 were convinced that the bones described by Lilljeborg could not belong to a living species but that they were similar to fossils that Van Beneden had described from the harbour of Antwerp (most of his named species are now considered nomina dubia ) and therefore named the gray whale Plesiocetus robustus , reducing Lilljeborg's and Gray's names to synonyms. Charles Melville Scammon produced one of

2336-584: A prey of choice, gray whales are opportunistic feeders and can easily switch from feeding planktonically to benthically. When gray whales feed planktonically, they roll onto their right side while their fluke remains above the surface, or they apply the skimming method seen in other baleen whales (skimming the surface with their mouth open). This skimming behavior mainly seems to be used when gray whales are feeding on crab larvae. Other prey items include polychaete worms , herring eggs, various forms of larvae, and small fish. Gray whales feed benthically, by diving to

2482-618: A secret protocol within the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany . The Soviet Union later invaded Finland , and occupied and annexed the Baltic states , as well as parts of Romania . On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front , the largest theater of World War II. Eventually, some 5 million Red Army troops were captured by the Nazis;

2628-508: A struggle for global dominance, known as the Cold War , with the rivalling United States and NATO . After Stalin's death in 1953 and a short period of collective rule , the new leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin and launched the policy of de-Stalinization , releasing many political prisoners from the Gulag labour camps. The general easement of repressive policies became known later as

2774-406: A weight of up to 41 tonnes (90,000 lb) and lives between 55 and 70 years, although one female was estimated to be 75–80 years of age. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their fighting behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius . It

2920-635: Is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ; a member state of the G20 , SCO , BRICS , APEC , OSCE , and WTO ; and the leading member state of post-Soviet organisations such as CIS , CSTO , and EAEU/EEU . It possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and has the third-highest military expenditure . Russia is generally considered a great power and is a regional power . Internationally, Russia ranks very low in measurements of democracy , human rights and freedom of

3066-520: Is also a problem as the number of people visiting the islands is increasing in recent years. 55°00′N 137°36′E  /  55.000°N 137.600°E  / 55.000; 137.600 Russia Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia . It is the largest country in the world by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries . It

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3212-626: Is approximately 13  1 ⁄ 2 months, with females giving birth every one to three years. In the latter half of the pregnancy, the fetus experiences a rapid growth in length and mass. Similar to the narrow breeding season, most calves are born within a six-week time period in mid January. The calf is born tail first, and measures about 14–16 ft in length, and a weight of 2,000 lbs. Females lactate for approximately seven months following birth, at which point calves are weaned and maternal care begins to decrease. The shallow lagoon waters in which gray whales reproduce are believed to protect

3358-432: Is believed to be the longest annual migration of any mammal . By mid-December to early January, the majority are usually found between Monterey and San Diego such as at Morro bay , often visible from shore. The whale watching industry provides ecotourists and marine mammal enthusiasts the opportunity to see groups of gray whales as they migrate. By late December to early January, eastern grays begin to arrive in

3504-595: Is only one confirmed record of accidentally killing of the species in Vietnam, at Ngoc Vung Island off Ha Long Bay in 1994 and the skeleton is on exhibition at the Quang Ninh Provincial Historical Museum. Gray whales are known to occur in Taiwan Strait even in recent years. It is also unknown whether any winter breeding grounds ever existed beyond Chinese coasts. For example, it is not known if

3650-588: Is the shallow (5–15 m (16–49 ft) depth) shelf off northeastern Sakhalin Island , particularly off the southern portion of Piltun Lagoon, where the main prey species appear to be amphipods and isopods . In some years, the whales have also used an offshore feeding ground in 30–35 m (98–115 ft) depth southeast of Chayvo Bay, where benthic amphipods and cumaceans are the main prey species. Some gray whales have also been seen off western Kamchatka, but to date all whales photographed there are also known from

3796-483: Is the sole living genus in the family Eschrichtiidae , however some recent studies classify it as a member of the family Balaenopteridae . This mammal is descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared during the Neogene . The gray whale is distributed in a Northeast Pacific (North American), and an endangered Northwest Pacific (Asian), population. North Atlantic populations were extirpated (perhaps by whaling ) on

3942-506: Is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country . Russia is a highly urbanised country including 16 population centres with over a million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Moscow . Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and its cultural capital . The East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus' , arose in

4088-606: The Oxford English Dictionary , the English name Russia first appeared in the 14th century, borrowed from Medieval Latin : Russia , used in the 11th century and frequently in 12th-century British sources, in turn derived from Russi , 'the Russians'; and the suffix -ia . In modern historiography, this state is usually denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city. Another Medieval Latin name for Rus'

4234-543: The Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad , in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941 and 1944 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendered. Soviet forces steamrolled through Eastern and Central Europe in 1944–1945 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945,

4380-539: The Bering and Chukchi seas and ending in the warm-water lagoons of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and the southern Gulf of California , they travel along the west coast of Canada, the United States and Mexico. Traveling night and day, the gray whale averages approximately 120 km (75 mi) per day at an average speed of 8 km/h (5 mph). This round trip of 16,000–22,000 km (9,900–13,700 mi)

4526-731: The Brusilov Offensive of the Imperial Russian Army almost completely destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Army . However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties , and rumors of corruption and treason. All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts. In early 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate ; he and his family were imprisoned and later executed during

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4672-470: The Congress of Vienna , which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe. The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. At the end of the conservative reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe, was disrupted by defeat in

4818-677: The Crimean War . Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) enacted significant changes throughout the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861 . These reforms spurred industrialisation, and modernised the Imperial Russian Army, which liberated much of the Balkans from Ottoman rule in the aftermath of the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War . During most of the 19th and early 20th century, Russia and Britain colluded over Afghanistan and its neighbouring territories in Central and South Asia;

4964-600: The Great Northern War (1700–1721), securing Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. In 1703, on the Baltic Sea, Peter founded Saint Petersburg as Russia's new capital. Throughout his rule, sweeping reforms were made , which brought significant Western European cultural influences to Russia. He was succeeded by Catherine I (1725–1727), followed by Peter II (1727–1730), and Anna . The reign of Peter I's daughter Elizabeth in 1741–1762 saw Russia's participation in

5110-559: The Islas Marías , Bahía de Banderas , and Nayarit / Jalisco , and there were two modern calving grounds in Sonora ( Tojahui or Yavaros ) and Sinaloa ( Bahia Santa Maria , Bahia Navachiste, La Reforma, Bahia Altata) until being abandoned in the 1980s. These first whales to arrive are usually pregnant mothers looking for the protection of the lagoons to bear their calves, along with single females seeking mates. By mid-February to mid-March,

5256-672: The Khrushchev Thaw . At the same time, Cold War tensions reached its peak when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba . In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite , Sputnik 1 , thus starting the Space Age . Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit

5402-681: The Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic . About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia. Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus . Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago. Fossils of Denny , an archaic human hybrid that

5548-556: The Rurik dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north, and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west. By the 12th century, Kiev lost its pre-eminence and Kievan Rus' had fragmented into different principalities. Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev in 1169 and made Vladimir his base, leading to political power being shifted to

5694-786: The Russian Civil War . The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the Provisional Government , and proclaimed the Russian Republic . On 19 January [ O.S. 6 January], 1918, the Russian Constituent Assembly declared Russia a democratic federal republic (thus ratifying the Provisional Government's decision). The next day the Constituent Assembly

5840-621: The Russian Empire , which remains the third-largest empire in history . However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR —the world's first constitutionally socialist state . Following the Russian Civil War , the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics , within which it was

5986-444: The Sea of Okhotsk , mainly off Piltun Bay region at the northeastern coast of Sakhalin Island (Russian Federation). There are also occasional sightings off the eastern coast of Kamchatka (Russian Federation) and in other coastal waters of the northern Okhotsk Sea. Its migration routes and wintering grounds are poorly known, the only recent information being from occasional records on both

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6132-611: The Seven Years' War (1756–1763). During the conflict, Russian troops overran East Prussia , reaching Berlin. However, upon Elizabeth's death, all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia . Catherine II ("the Great"), who ruled in 1762–1796, presided over the Russian Age of Enlightenment . She extended Russian political control over

6278-1108: The Shakotan Peninsula , and islands in the La Pérouse Strait such as Rebun Island and Rishiri Island . These areas may also have included feeding grounds. There are shallow, muddy areas favorable for feeding whales off Shiretoko , such as at Shibetsu , the Notsuke Peninsula , Cape Ochiishi on Nemuro Peninsula , Mutsu Bay , along the Tottori Sand Dunes , in the Suou-nada Sea , and Ōmura Bay . The historical calving grounds were unknown but might have been along southern Chinese coasts from Zhejiang and Fujian Province to Guangdong , especially south of Hailing Island and to near Hong Kong . Possibilities include Daya Bay , Wailou Harbour on Leizhou Peninsula , and possibly as far south as Hainan Province and Guangxi , particularly around Hainan Island . These areas are at

6424-474: The Siberian River Routes , and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula , along the Amur River , and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov became the first European to navigate through the Bering Strait . Under Peter the Great , Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one of the European great powers. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in

6570-412: The Soviet Union , by joining the Russian SFSR into a single state with the Byelorussian , Transcaucasian , and Ukrainian republics. Eventually internal border changes and annexations during World War II created a union of 15 republics ; the largest in size and population being the Russian SFSR, which dominated the union politically, culturally, and economically. Following Lenin's death in 1924,

6716-534: The flukes . This is known as the dorsal ridge . The tail itself is 3–3.5 m (10–11 ft) across and deeply notched at the center while its edges taper to a point. The two populations of Pacific gray whales (east and west) are morphologically and phylogenically different. Other than DNA structures, differences in proportions of several body parts and body colors including skeletal features, and length ratios of flippers and baleen plates have been confirmed between Eastern and Western populations, and some claims that

6862-494: The 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium , and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code , the Russkaya Pravda . The age of feudalism and decentralisation had come, marked by constant in-fighting between members of

7008-448: The 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains . However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ), the Kingdom of Sweden , and Denmark–Norway for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade. In 1572, an invading army of Crimean Tatars were thoroughly defeated in

7154-418: The 17th century. This population ranged at least from Southampton, New York , to Jupiter Island, Florida , the latest from 1675. In his 1835 history of Nantucket Island , Obed Macy wrote that in the early pre-1672 colony a whale of the kind called "scragg" entered the harbor and was pursued and killed by the settlers. A. B. Van Deinse points out that the "scrag whale", described by P. Dudley in 1725 as one of

7300-466: The 1930s when it was finally realised that the extinct Atlantic population was the same species as the extant Pacific population, and the new combination Eschrichtius gibbosus was proposed. The gray whale has a dark slate-gray color and is covered by characteristic gray-white patterns, which are scars left by parasites that drop off in its cold feeding grounds. Individual whales are typically identified using photographs of their dorsal surface, matching

7446-703: The 1960s. They state that "the most recent population estimate [from 2007] was approximately 19,000 whales, with a high probability (88%) that the population is at 'optimum sustainable population' size, as defined by the Marine Mammal Protection Act ." They speculate that the ocean ecosystem has likely changed since the prewhaling era, making a return to prewhaling numbers infeasible. Factors limiting or threatening current population levels include ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and changes in sea-ice coverage associated with climate change. Several whales seen off Sakhalin and on Kamchatka Peninsula have been confirmed to migrate towards eastern side of Pacific and join

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7592-488: The 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements , including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space . In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the Russian Federation. A new constitution was adopted, which established a federal semi-presidential system . Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin , under whom

7738-400: The 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire . Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated; the Grand Duchy of Moscow led the unification of Russian lands, leading to the proclamation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers , developing into

7884-467: The Atlantic and Pacific populations cannot be proven by anatomical data, its skeleton is distinctive and easy to distinguish from that of all other living whales. Many other names have been ascribed to the gray whale, including desert whale, devilfish, gray back, mussel digger and rip sack. The name Eschrichtius gibbosus is sometimes seen; this is dependent on the acceptance of a 1777 description by Erxleben. A number of 18th century authors described

8030-422: The Atlantic coasts of England and Sweden were used by Gray to make the first scientific description of a species then surviving only in Pacific waters. The living Pacific species was described by Cope as Rhachianectes glaucus in 1869. Skeletal comparisons showed the Pacific species to be identical to the Atlantic remains in the 1930s, and Gray's naming has been generally accepted since. Although identity between

8176-428: The Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms. Vasili III united all of Russia by annexing the last few independent Russian states in the early 16th century. In development of the Third Rome ideas, the grand duke Ivan IV ("the Terrible") was officially crowned the first tsar of Russia in 1547. The tsar promulgated a new code of laws ( Sudebnik of 1550 ), established

8322-402: The DNA analysis of last recorded stranding in China. Differences were also observed between Korean and Chinese specimens. Two Pacific Ocean populations are known to exist: one population that is very low, whose migratory route is presumed to be between the Sea of Okhotsk and southern Korea, and a larger one with a population of about 27,000 individuals in the eastern Pacific traveling between

8468-406: The Earth, aboard the Vostok 1 crewed spacecraft on 12 April 1961 . Following the ousting of Khrushchev in 1964, another period of collective rule ensued, until Leonid Brezhnev became the leader. The era of the 1970s and the early 1980s was later designated as the Era of Stagnation . The 1965 Kosygin reform aimed for partial decentralisation of the Soviet economy . In 1979, after

8614-449: The European coast before 500 CE , and on the American and African Atlantic coasts around the late 17th to early 18th centuries. However, in the 2010s and 2020s there have been rare sightings of gray whales in the North Atlantic , Mediterranean , and even off South Atlantic coasts. The gray whale is traditionally placed as the only living species in its genus and family, Eschrichtius and Eschrichtiidae , but an extinct species

8760-460: The IUCN downlisted the population's conservation status from critically endangered to endangered . The gray whale became extinct in the North Atlantic in the 18th century. They had been seasonal migrants to coastal waters of both sides of Atlantic, including the Baltic Sea , the Wadden Sea , the Gulf of St. Lawrence , the Bay of Fundy , Pamlico Sound and possibly Hudson Bay . Radiocarbon dating of subfossil or fossil European (Belgium,

8906-400: The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom) coastal remains confirms this, with whaling the possible cause for the population's extinction. Remains dating from the Roman epoch were found in the Mediterranean during excavation of the antique harbor of Lattara near Montpellier , France, in 1997, raising the question of whether Atlantic gray whales migrated up and down the coast of Europe from

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9052-399: The Piltun area. Diagram of the gray whale seafloor feeding strategy Predicted distribution models indicate that overall range in the last glacial period was broader or more southerly distributed, and inhabitations in waters where species presences lack in present situation, such as in southern hemisphere and south Asian waters and northern Indian Ocean were possible due to feasibility of

9198-415: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and annexed most of its territories into Russia , making it the most populous country in Europe. In the south, after the successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire , Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, by dissolving the Crimean Khanate , and annexing Crimea . As a result of victories over Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars , by

9344-692: The Provisional Government and gave full governing power to the soviets, leading to the creation of the world's first socialist state . The Russian Civil War broke out between the anti-communist White movement and the Bolsheviks with its Red Army . In the aftermath of signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that concluded hostilities with the Central Powers of World War I ; Bolshevist Russia surrendered most of its western territories, which hosted 34% of its population, 54% of its industries, 32% of its agricultural land, and roughly 90% of its coal mines. The Allied powers launched an unsuccessful military intervention in support of anti-communist forces. In

9490-406: The Red Army invaded Manchuria and ousted the Japanese from Northeast Asia, contributing to the Allied victory over Japan. The 1941–1945 period of World War II is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War . The Soviet Union, along with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four of Allied powers in World War II, and later became the Four Policemen , which

9636-403: The Russian autocratic state. The destruction of Kievan Rus' saw the eventual rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow , initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal . While still under the domain of the Mongol - Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century, gradually becoming the leading force in the "gathering of the Russian lands". When

9782-476: The Russian parliament culminated in a constitutional crisis which ended violently through military force. During the crisis, Yeltsin was backed by Western governments, and over 100 people were killed. In December, a referendum was held and approved, which introduced a new constitution, giving the president enormous powers. The 1990s were plagued by armed conflicts in the North Caucasus , both local ethnic skirmishes and separatist Islamist insurrections. From

9928-449: The Shantar Islands. Reindeer can be seen as well. Rivers on these islands are populated by sturgeon , salmon , trout , and various other fish. The waters around these coastal islands are frozen for about eight months of the year on average. Pinnipeds (such as harbour seals , bearded seals , common seals , ribbon seals (on sea ice) and Steller sea lions ), sea otters , and cetaceans such as minke whales , killer whales , and

10074-408: The Soviet Union led Russia into a deep and prolonged depression. During and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, wide-ranging reforms including privatisation and market and trade liberalisation were undertaken, including radical changes along the lines of " shock therapy ". The privatisation largely shifted control of enterprises from state agencies to individuals with inside connections in

10220-523: The Soviet Union. The transitional disorganisation of the country's agriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led to the Soviet famine of 1932–1933 ; which killed 5.7 to 8.7 million, 3.3 million of them in the Russian SFSR. The Soviet Union, ultimately, made the costly transformation from a largely agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse within a short span of time. The Soviet Union entered World War II on 17 September 1939 with its invasion of Poland , in accordance with

10366-406: The Soviet system, introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to end the period of economic stagnation and to democratise the government . This, however, led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements across the country. Prior to 1991, the Soviet economy was the world's second-largest, but during its final years, it went into

10512-594: The Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky , offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian tsar, Alexis ; whose acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War . Ultimately, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper , leaving the eastern part, ( Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev ) under Russian rule. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of vast Siberia continued, hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along

10658-801: The Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans . Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and Russia spread Yamnaya ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Eurasia. Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic . Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo , Sintashta , Arkaim , and Pazyryk , which bear

10804-611: The Wadden Sea to calve in the Mediterranean. A 2018 study utilizing ancient DNA barcoding and collagen peptide matrix fingerprinting confirmed that Roman era whale bones east of the Strait of Gibraltar were gray whales (and North Atlantic right whales ), confirming that gray whales once ranged into the Mediterranean. Similarly, radiocarbon dating of American east coastal subfossil remains confirm that gray whales existed there at least through

10950-651: The better documented historical catches show that it was common for whales to stay for months in enclosed waters elsewhere, with known records in the Seto Inland Sea and the Gulf of Tosa. Former feeding areas were once spread over large portions on mid-Honshu to northern Hokkaido, and at least whales were recorded for majority of annual seasons including wintering periods at least along east coasts of Korean Peninsula and Yamaguchi Prefecture . Some recent observations indicate that historic presences of resident whales are possible:

11096-570: The breeding season, it is common for females to have several mates. This single ovulation event is believed to coincide with the species' annual migration patterns, when births can occur in warmer waters. Most females show biennial reproduction, although annual births have been reported. Males also show seasonal changes, experiencing an increase in testes mass that correlates with the time females undergo oestrus. Currently there are no accounts of twin births, although an instance of twins in utero has been reported. The gestation period for gray whales

11242-412: The bulk of the population has arrived in the lagoons, filling them with nursing, calving and mating gray whales. Throughout February and March, the first to leave the lagoons are males and females without new calves. Pregnant females and nursing mothers with their newborns are the last to depart, leaving only when their calves are ready for the journey, which is usually from late March to mid-April. Often,

11388-438: The calving lagoons and bays on the west coast of Baja California Sur . The three most popular are San Ignacio , Magdalena Bay to the south, and, to the north, Laguna Ojo de Liebre (formerly known in English as Scammon's Lagoon after whaleman Charles Melville Scammon , who discovered the lagoons in the 1850s and hunted the grays). Gray whales once ranged into Sea of Cortez and Pacific coasts of continental Mexico south to

11534-576: The capital Moscow. In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps, led by merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky . The Romanov dynasty acceded to the throne in 1613 by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis. Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks . In 1654,

11680-530: The control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title "Grand Duke of all Rus'". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire . Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina , the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI , and made

11826-476: The country has experienced democratic backsliding and become an authoritarian dictatorship . Russia has been militarily involved in a number of conflicts in former Soviet states and other countries , including its war with Georgia in 2008 and its war with Ukraine since 2014, which has involved the internationally unrecognised annexations of Ukrainian territory including Crimea in 2014 and four other regions in 2022 during an ongoing invasion . Russia

11972-834: The country was more often referred to by its inhabitants as Rus ' , the Russian land ( Russkaia zemlia ), or the Muscovite state ( Moskovskoe gosudarstvo ), among other variations. In 1721, Peter the Great changed the name of the state from Tsardom of Russia ( Russian : Русское царство , romanized :  Russkoye tsarstvo ) or Tsardom of Muscovy ( Russian : Московское царство , romanized :  Moskovskoye tsarstvo ) to Russian Empire ( Rossiiskaia imperiia ). There are several words in Russian which translate to "Russians" in English. The noun and adjective русский , russkiy refers to ethnic Russians . The adjective российский , rossiiskiy denotes Russian citizens regardless of ethnicity. The same applies to

12118-431: The critically endangered bowhead whales , western gray whales and belugas can be seen off the islands. Although there is little visible evidence of human impact, the Shantar island ecosystem is under threat. One of the most severe threats to the environment of the Shantar Islands is a proposed tidal hydroelectric power station , which is currently on hold for lack of funds. Lack of restrictions on tourism and resorting

12264-446: The crucial Battle of Molodi . The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik dynasty in 1598, and in combination with the disastrous famine of 1601–1603 , led to a civil war, the rule of pretenders, and foreign intervention during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , taking advantage, occupied parts of Russia, extending into

12410-955: The earliest descriptions of living Pacific gray whales, and notwithstanding that he was among the whalers who nearly drove them to extinction in the lagoons of the Baja California Peninsula , they were and still are associated with him and his description of the species. At this time, however, the extinct Atlantic population was considered a separate species ( Eschrischtius robustus ) from the living Pacific population ( Rhachianectes glaucus ). Things got increasingly confused as 19th century scientists introduced new species at an alarming rate (e.g. Eschrichtius pusillus , E. expansus , E. priscus , E. mysticetoides ), often based on fragmentary specimens, and taxonomists started to use several generic and specific names interchangeably and not always correctly (e.g. Agalephus gobbosus , Balaenoptera robustus , Agalephus gibbosus ). Things got even worse in

12556-559: The earliest known traces of horses in warfare . The genetic makeup of speakers of the Uralic language family in northern Europe was shaped by migration from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago. In the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns . Between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, the Bosporan Kingdom , which

12702-481: The eastern and western coasts of Japan and along the Chinese coast. Gray whale had not been observed on Commander Islands until 2016. The northwestern pacific population consists of approximately 300 individuals, based on photo identification collected off of Sakhalin Island and Kamchatka. The Sea of Japan was once thought not to have been a migration route, until several entanglements were recorded. Any records of

12848-657: The eastern population. In mid-1980, there were three gray whale sightings in the eastern Beaufort Sea , placing them 585 kilometers (364 mi) further east than their known range at the time. Recent increases in sightings are confirmed in Arctic areas of the historic range for Atlantic stocks, most notably on several locations in the Laptev Sea including the New Siberian Islands in the East Siberian Sea , and around

12994-526: The end of 2013, the Shantar Islands National Park was created by Russian scientists and conservationists with support from WWF and several international organizations to protect the wildlife of the islands. There is no permanent population on the Shantar Islands, but they are often visited by commercial fishermen who use them as a base. Other economic activities undertaken on these islands are fur hunting and trapping as well as logging, which in

13140-450: The environment on those days. Range expansions due to recoveries and re-colonization in the future is likely to happen and the predicted range covers wider than that of today. The gray whale undergoes the longest migration of any mammal. Each October, as the northern ice pushes southward, small groups of eastern gray whales in the eastern Pacific start a two- to three-month, 8,000–11,000 km (5,000–6,800 mi) trip south. Beginning in

13286-474: The first Europeans to reach and colonise Alaska . In 1803–1806, the first Russian circumnavigation was made. In 1820, a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica . During the Napoleonic Wars , Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but eventually failed as

13432-549: The first Russian feudal representative body (the Zemsky Sobor ), revamped the military, curbed the influence of the clergy, and reorganised local government. During his long reign, Ivan nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga , and the Khanate of Sibir in southwestern Siberia. Ultimately, by the end of

13578-571: The first half of the 19th century, Russia also conquered the Caucasus . Catherine's successor, her son Paul , was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues . Following his short reign, Catherine's strategy was continued with Alexander I's (1801–1825) wresting of Finland from the weakened Sweden in 1809, and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. In North America, the Russians became

13724-485: The government, which led to the rise of Russian oligarchs . Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of the country in an enormous capital flight . The depression of the economy led to the collapse of social services—the birth rate plummeted while the death rate skyrocketed, and millions plunged into poverty; while extreme corruption, as well as criminal gangs and organised crime rose significantly. In late 1993, tensions between Yeltsin and

13870-608: The gray whale as Balaena gibbosa , the "whale with six bosses", apparently based on a brief note by Dudley 1725 : The Scrag Whale is near a kin to the Fin-back, but instead of a Fin upon his Back, the Ridge of the Afterpart of his Back is cragged with half a Dozen Knobs or Nuckles; he is nearest the right Whale in Figure and for Quantity of Oil; his Bone is white, but won't split. The gray whale

14016-402: The gray whale than they are to some other rorquals, such as the minke whales . The American Society of Mammalogists has followed this classification. John Edward Gray placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician and zoologist Daniel Frederik Eschricht . The common name of the whale comes from its coloration. The subfossil remains of now extinct gray whales from

14162-549: The islands to send whaleboats into the bays to the south and west, including Uda , Tugur , and Ulban Bays . They sought shelter under Bolshoy Shantar, Medvezhy, Malyy Shantar, and Feklistova Islands from strong winds and gales as well as to obtain wood and water. At least four ships were wrecked on the islands: one on the Pinnacle Rocks , one on Medvezhy and two on Bolshoy Shantar during gales in October 1858 and August 1907. At

14308-468: The larger eastern population. In January 2011, a gray whale that had been tagged in the western population was tracked as far east as the eastern population range off the coast of British Columbia. Recent findings from either stranded or entangled specimens indicate that the original western population have become functionally extinct, and possibly all the whales that have appeared on Japanese and Chinese coasts in modern times are vagrants or re-colonizers from

14454-570: The largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives , the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s and later played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front . With the onset of the Cold War , it competed with the United States for ideological dominance and international influence . The Soviet era of

14600-525: The latter deliberately starved to death or otherwise killed 3.3 million Soviet POWs , and a vast number of civilians, as the " Hunger Plan " sought to fulfil Generalplan Ost . Although the Wehrmacht had considerable early success, their attack was halted in the Battle of Moscow . Subsequently, the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943, and then in

14746-573: The marine mammal sanctuary of the Franz Josef Land , indicating possible earlier pioneers of re-colonizations. These whales were darker in body color than those whales seen in Sea of Okhotsk. In May 2010, a gray whale was sighted off the Mediterranean shore of Israel. It has been speculated that this whale crossed from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the Northwest Passage , since an alternative route around Cape Horn would not be contiguous to

14892-669: The meantime, both the Bolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns of deportations and executions against each other, known respectively as the Red Terror and White Terror . By the end of the violent civil war, Russia's economy and infrastructure were heavily damaged, and as many as 10 million perished during the war, mostly civilians. Millions became White émigrés , and the Russian famine of 1921–1922 claimed up to five million victims. On 30 December 1922, Lenin and his aides formed

15038-596: The more recently coined noun россиянин , rossiianyn , "Russian" in the sense of citizen of the Russian state. According to the Primary Chronicle , the word Rus' is derived from the Rus' people , who were a Swedish tribe, and where the three original members of the Rurikid dynasty came from. The Finnish word for Swedes, ruotsi , has the same origin. Later archeological studies mostly confirmed this theory. The first human settlement on Russia dates back to

15184-564: The most effort into conservation of the species among the Asian nations, there are no confirmed sightings along the Korean Peninsula or even in the Sea of Japan in recent years. The last confirmed record in Korean waters was the sighting of a pair off Bangeojin , Ulsan in 1977. Prior to this, the last was of catches of 5 animals off Ulsan in 1966. There was a possible sighting of a whale within

15330-471: The newborn from sharks and orcas . On 7 January 2014, a pair of newborn or aborted conjoined twin gray whale calves were found dead in the Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's Lagoon), off the west coast of Mexico. They were joined by their bellies. The whale feeds mainly on benthic crustaceans (such as amphipods and ghost shrimp ), which it eats by turning on its side and scooping up sediments from

15476-625: The north-east. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky , Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle on the Ice in 1242. Kievan Rus' finally fell to the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240, which resulted in the sacking of Kiev and other cities, as well as the death of a major part of the population. The invaders, later known as Tatars , formed

15622-601: The obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which the pan-European Grande Armée faced utter destruction. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly , the Imperial Russian Army ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the War of the Sixth Coalition , ultimately entering Paris. Alexander I controlled Russia's delegation at

15768-520: The ocean floor and rolling on to their side, (like blue whales, gray whales seem to favor rolling onto their right side) and suck up prey from the sea floor. Gray whales seem to favor feeding planktonically in their feeding grounds, but benthically along their migration route in shallower water. Mostly, the animal feeds in the northern waters during the summer; and opportunistically feeds during its migration, depending primarily on its extensive fat reserves. Another reason for this opportunistic feeding may be

15914-643: The official line. The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge . Under Stalin's leadership, the government launched a command economy , industrialisation of the largely rural country , and collectivisation of its agriculture . During this period of rapid economic and social change, millions of people were sent to penal labour camps , including many political convicts for their suspected or real opposition to Stalin's rule; and millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of

16060-540: The only sighting of this species in the Southern Hemisphere. Photographic identification suggests that this is a different individual than the one spotted in the Mediterranean in 2010. As of July 2013, the Namibian whale was still being seen regularly. In March 2021, a gray whale was sighted near Rabat , the capital of Morocco . In April, additional sightings were made off Algeria and Italy . In December 2023,

16206-423: The original eastern and western groups could have been much more distinct than previously thought, enough to be counted as subspecies. Since the original Asian and Atlantic populations have become extinct, it is difficult to determine the unique features among whales in these stocks. However, there have been observations of some whales showing distinctive, blackish body colors in recent years. This corresponds with

16352-409: The pair returned to the same coasts at the same time of the year in 2015 again. Reviewing on other cases on different locations among Japanese coasts and islands observed during 2015 indicate that spatial or seasonal residencies regardless of being temporal or permanental staying once occurred throughout many parts of Japan or on other coastal Asia. The current western gray whale population summers in

16498-560: The past were often done illegally. There are spruce forests on the largest islands. Other trees in the island taiga are the Siberian spruce , the Dahurian larch and the mountain pine . There are many endangered birds on these islands, including the Blakiston's fish owl , osprey , black stork , red-necked grebe , gyrfalcon , solitary snipe , Steller's sea eagle and the Siberian grouse . In

16644-427: The population hit an all-time low in 2010, when no new reproductive females were recorded, resulting in a minimum of 26 reproductive females being observed since 1995. Even a very small number of additional annual female deaths will cause the subpopulation to decline. However, as of 2018, evidence has indicated that the western population is markedly increasing in number, especially off Sakhalin Island . Following this,

16790-661: The port of Samcheok in 2015. There had been 24 records along Chinese coasts including sighting, stranding, intended hunts, and bycatches since 1933. The last report of occurrence of the species in Chinese waters was of a stranded semi adult female in the Bohai Sea in 1996, and the only record in Chinese waters in the 21st century was of a fully-grown female being killed by entanglement in Pingtan , China in November, 2007. DNA studies indicated that this individual might have originated from

16936-407: The press ; the country also has high levels of perceived corruption . As of 2024, Russia has a high-income economy which ranks eleventh in the world by nominal GDP and fourth at purchasing power parity , relying on its vast mineral and energy resources ; the world's second-largest for oil production and natural gas production . Russia is home to 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites . According to

17082-426: The recent sightings of Pacific gray whales in the Atlantic, suggest that another range expansion to the Atlantic may be starting. Breeding behavior is complex and often involves three or more animals. Both male and female whales reach puberty between the ages of 6 and 12 with an average of eight to nine years. Females show highly synchronized reproduction, undergoing oestrus in late November to early December. During

17228-406: The result of population increases, resulting in the whales taking advantage of whatever prey is available, due to increased competition. Feeding areas during migration seem to include the Gulf of California, Monterey Bay and Baja California Sur. Calf gray whales drink 50–80 lb (23–36 kg) of their mothers' 53% fat milk per day. The main feeding habitat of the western Pacific subpopulation

17374-573: The rivalry between the two major European empires came to be known as the Great Game . The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists. The reign of his son Alexander III (1881–1894) was less liberal but more peaceful. Under last Russian emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), the Revolution of 1905

17520-424: The rouble. High budget deficits coupled with increasing capital flight and inability to pay back debts, caused the 1998 Russian financial crisis , which resulted in a further GDP decline. Gray whale The gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ), also known as the grey whale , is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters (49 ft),

17666-419: The scars and patches associated with parasites that have either fallen off or are still attached. They have two blowholes on top of their head, which can create a distinctive heart-shaped blow at the surface in calm wind conditions. Gray whales measure from 4.9 m (16 ft) in length for newborns to 13–15 m (43–49 ft) for adults (females tend to be slightly larger than adult males). Newborns are

17812-499: The sea floor. This unique feeding selection makes gray whales one of the most strongly reliant on coastal waters among baleen whales. It is classified as a baleen whale and has baleen , or whalebone, which acts like a sieve, to capture small sea animals, including amphipods taken in along with sand, water and other material. Off Vancouver Island, gray whales commonly feed on shrimp-like mysids . When mysids are abundant gray whales are present in fairly large numbers. Despite mysids being

17958-845: The seat of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved to Moscow in 1325, its influence increased. Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic , prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League . Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow gradually absorbed its parent duchy and surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod . Ivan III ("the Great") threw off

18104-543: The southwestern end of the known range. It is unknown whether the whales' normal range once reached further south, to the Gulf of Tonkin . In addition, the existence of historical calving ground on Taiwan and Penghu Islands (with some fossil records and captures ), and any presence in other areas outside of the known ranges off Babuyan Islands in Philippines and coastal Vietnamese waters in Gulf of Tonkin are unknown. There

18250-566: The species had not been confirmed since after 1921 on Kyushu . However, there were numerous records of whales along the Genkai Sea off Yamaguchi Prefecture , in Ine Bay in the Gulf of Wakasa , and in Tsushima . Gray whales, along with other species such as right whales and Baird's beaked whales , were common features off the north eastern coast of Hokkaido near Teshio , Ishikari Bay near Otaru ,

18396-640: The species hunted by the early New England whalers, was almost certainly the gray whale. Since the 2010s, there have been occasional sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea , including one off the coast of Israel and one off the coast of Namibia . These were presumably migrants from the North Pacific population through the Arctic Ocean . A 2015 study of DNA from subfossil gray whales indicated that this may not be

18542-413: The spring and summer, a number of seabird species nest on the islands, including black-headed and slaty-backed gull , common and thick-billed murre , horned and tufted puffin , spectacled guillemot , Aleutian tern , long-billed murrelet , and pelagic cormorant . The Kamchatka brown bear ( Ursus arctos beringianus ), sable and marten , caribou , red fox , and river otter are common on

18688-575: The state of the Golden Horde , which ruled over Russia for the next two centuries. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped foreign occupation after it agreed to pay tribute to the Mongols. Galicia-Volhynia would later be absorbed by Lithuania and Poland , while the Novgorod Republic continued to prosper in the north. In the northeast, the Byzantine-Slavic traditions of Kievan Rus' were adapted to form

18834-500: The summer, not making the farther trip to Alaskan waters. This summer resident group is known as the Pacific Coast feeding group. Any historical or current presence of similar groups of residents among the western population is currently unknown, however, whalers' logbooks and scientific observations indicate that possible year-round occurrences in Chinese waters and Yellow and Bohai basins were likely to be summering grounds. Some of

18980-523: The time Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war was fought between the rebel groups and Russian forces. Terrorist attacks against civilians were carried out by Chechen separatists, claiming the lives of thousands of Russian civilians. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia assumed responsibility for settling the latter's external debts. In 1992, most consumer price controls were eliminated, causing extreme inflation and significantly devaluing

19126-417: The upper jaw each contain a lone stiff hair, but are only visible on close inspection. Its head's ventral surface lacks the numerous prominent furrows of the related rorquals, instead bearing two to five shallow furrows on the throat's underside. The gray whale also lacks a dorsal fin , instead bearing 6 to 12 dorsal crenulations ("knuckles"), which are raised bumps on the midline of its rear quarter, leading to

19272-448: The waters off northernmost Alaska and Baja California Sur . Mothers make this journey accompanied by their calves, usually hugging the shore in shallow kelp beds, and fight viciously to protect their young if they are attacked, earning gray whales the moniker, devil fish. The western population has had a very slow growth rate despite heavy conservation action over the years, likely due to their very slow reproduction rate. The state of

19418-559: The way back. Moskvitin reported his discoveries to Prince Shcherbatov, the Muscovite voivode in Tomsk . Based on Ivan Moskvitin's account, the first Russian map of the Far East was drawn in March 1642. The Shantar Islands were also explored by Russian surveyors between 1711 and 1725. American whaleships cruised for bowhead whales around the Shantar Islands between 1852 and 1907. They anchored among

19564-551: The whale's established territory. There has been gradual melting and recession of Arctic sea ice with extreme loss in 2007 rendering the Northwest Passage "fully navigable". The same whale was sighted again on May 30, 2010, off the coast of Barcelona , Spain. In May 2013, a gray whale was sighted off Walvis Bay , Namibia. Scientists from the Namibian Dolphin Project confirmed the whale's identity and thus provides

19710-637: The whales visited the southern coasts of the Korean Peninsula, adjacent to the Island of Jeju ), Haiyang Island, the Gulf of Shanghai , or the Zhoushan Archipelago . There is no evidence of historical presence in Japan south of Ōsumi Peninsula ; only one skeleton has been discovered in Miyazaki Prefecture . Hideo Omura once considered the Seto Inland Sea to be a historical breeding ground, but only

19856-399: Was Ruthenia . In Russian, the current name of the country, Россия ( Rossiya ), comes from the Byzantine Greek name for Rus', Ρωσία ( Rosía ). A new form of the name Rus ' , Росия ( Rosiya ), was borrowed from the Greek term and first attested in 1387. The name Rossiia appeared in Russian sources in the late 15th century, but until the end of the 17th century

20002-449: Was elected President of the Russian SFSR. In August 1991, a coup d'état attempt by members of Gorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to the end of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On 25 December 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , along with contemporary Russia, fourteen other post-Soviet states emerged. The economic and political collapse of

20148-417: Was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars . The Khazars , who were of Turkic origin , ruled the steppes between the Caucasus in the south, to the east past the Volga river basin, and west as far as Kyiv on the Dnieper river until the 10th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created

20294-445: Was discovered and placed in the genus in 2017, the Akishima whale ( E. akishimaensis ). Some recent studies place gray whales as being outside the rorqual clade , but as the closest relatives to the rorquals. But other recent DNA analyses have suggested that certain rorquals of the family Balaenopteridae , such as the humpback whale , Megaptera novaeangliae , and fin whale , Balaenoptera physalus , are more closely related to

20440-440: Was dissolved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee . An alternative socialist establishment co-existed, the Petrograd Soviet , wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workers and peasants, called soviets . The rule of the new authorities only aggravated the crisis in the country instead of resolving it, and eventually, the October Revolution , led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin , overthrew

20586-411: Was first described as a distinct species by Lilljeborg 1861 based on a subfossil found in the brackish Baltic Sea , apparently a specimen from the now extinct north Atlantic population. Lilljeborg, however, identified it as " Balaenoptera robusta ", a species of rorqual . Gray 1864 realized that the rib and scapula of the specimen was different from those of any known rorquals, and therefore erected

20732-448: Was found at Kostyonki–Borshchyovo , and at Sungir , dating back to 34,600 years ago—both in western Russia . Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya . Ancient North Eurasian populations from Siberia genetically similar to Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Afontova Gora were an important genetic contributor to Ancient Native Americans and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers . The Kurgan hypothesis places

20878-458: Was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave. Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave . The first trace of an early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in Western Siberia . The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans , from at least 40,000 years ago,

21024-412: Was populated by Finno-Ugrian peoples. From the 7th century onwards, the incoming East Slavs slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugrians. The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians , the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the Primary Chronicle ,

21170-401: Was the foundation of the United Nations Security Council . During the war, Soviet civilian and military death were about 26–27 million , accounting for about half of all World War II casualties . The Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation, which caused the Soviet famine of 1946–1947 . However, at the expense of a large sacrifice, the Soviet Union emerged as

21316-569: Was triggered by the humiliating failure of the Russo-Japanese War . The uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms ( Russian Constitution of 1906 ), including granting freedoms of speech and assembly , the legalisation of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the State Duma . In 1914, Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary 's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia , and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies. In 1916,

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