It may seem silly, but the answer to “what continent is Russia on?” is much more complicated. Europe or Asia? The answer could be easy or hard, depending on what you mean by “continent” and “people.” Europe is home to a part of Russia. Seventy-five percent of Russians live between the Ural Mountains and the border between Europe and Asia. The other 25% live in the vast area between the Urals and the Pacific Ocean.
So, the most straightforward answer is that Russia is part of Europe and Asia. But many scholars put this part of the world differently and call it one continent, Eurasia, which stretches from Lisbon, Portugal, to Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East.
But the question does not end here. Some scholars also say that Europe’s borders should be set based on the different cultures. According to them, Russia is a strange case: the ethnic Russians would be considered European, but the rest of the people, who comprise a big part of the population, would be considered Asian.
Geography-wise, this would be a strange split because it would mean that all of Russia would be in Europe, except for some areas with different ethnic groups, like Tatarstan.
Russia is a vast country, with an area of 17,098,242 square kilometers. But west of the Urals, only about 4 million square kilometers of Russia are in Europe. Asian Russia has the other 13 million square kilometers. This is where Siberia and the Russian Far East are.
On the other hand, European Russia has many more people than the rest of Russia. About 75% of the people who live in Russia live in European Russia. In European Russia, there are about 27 people per square kilometer. Still, there are only 2.5 people per square kilometer in Asian Russia.
Russia has landed in both Asia and Europe. This gives it an authentic Eurasian feel, which you can also see in the country’s culture and ethnic mix. But, of course, Russia isn’t the only country that has land on two different continents.
Turkey is part of Europe and Asia, and Spain is part of Europe (Iberia) and Africa. So, Russia has a European (Western) and an Asian (Eastern) background. So, Turkey connects Europe and Asia, and Spain connects Europe and Africa. But getting back to Russia, it is true that Russia is both in Europe and Asia.
When it comes to culture and politics, most people think of Europe when they think of Russia. At least, that’s what most people in the US seem to believe. As a result, people usually think of Russia as a significant power in Europe, both in the past and now.
Moscow, the country’s political capital, is in the European part of the country. When we think of Russian culture, we think of the ethnic Russians who live in Eastern Europe, not the many native peoples who live in Siberia. We think of this as the culture of the whole country.
People also disagree about where the part of Russia in Europe ends and the region in Asia begins. Some people say that the Ural Mountains make this line. On the other hand, they say that everything west of the Urals is in Europe. But that brings up another question. Does this mean that Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan are all part of Europe, or are they in Asia?
