Rurik’s Seed: Maps of Russia

Last updated: 2018

I was once conversing with a demographics student at the Higher School of Economics who wants to work at Russian state statistics service Rosstat after graduation. One of the things we discussed stuck in my mind: “Wouldn’t it be great if there was an Albion’s Seed for Russia?” That is, an exhaustive ethnographic survey of All The Russias in the spirit of Hackett Fischer’s classic.

Maybe one day… but at this point in time, I have neither the time, nor frankly the expertise, to embark on such a project. As I recall, Fischer spent 14 years on his magnum opus, and anyone attempting something similar for Russia must possess a similarly encyclopedic grasp of its folkways to do it justice; moreover, since we are now well into the 21st century, it would behove any chronicler to also master population genetics. I am not at that point yet, and I won’t be for another 2-3 decades – if ever.

But in the here and now, I do at least have a surfeit of cartographic material lying in my hard drive – and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely the K-selected maps I have assembled here can attain an even better ratio. (I only included high quality and/or unusual and counterintuitive maps; no fluff to the extent possible). So consider this a preliminary depository of what the visual materials for such a book might consist of.

And who knows, perhaps it could even inspire somebody to write Rurik’s Seed. If so, all power to them! (maybe you?)

In the meantime, you may follow the tag “Rurik’s Seed” at the Unz Review to keep up to date on articles I might write on this theme.

Resources

Bloggers:

Collections:

sevabashirov (2018): Лучшие карты 2018 года

Population

Source: Ivan Vladimirov
Ethnographic map of Russia & former USSR (2010 Census).

Source: N. Avdeev
Percentage Russians (2010 Census).

: Ukrainians in Russia (2010) by Avdeev

: Belorussians in Russia (2010) by Avdeev

: Cossacks in Russia [2002 Census] by Kireev

: Tatars in Russia (2010) by Avdeev

: Germans in Russia (2010) by Avdeev

: Kazakhs in Russia (2010) by Avdeev

: Russians in Russia (1989) by ?

: Chechens in Russia (1989) by ?

Source: Various
Maps of ethnic groups in Russia.

Source: mikhed.ru
Population density: Map of Russia adjusted for population.

Modern Demographics

Source: pollotencheg
Natural Population Growth in Russia & former USSR (2012).

Source: Toval
Russia Population Growth 1989-2010.

Source: Toval
Russia Population Growth 1970-2010.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of parents with three or more children.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of rural parents with three or more children.

Migration

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russians born outside Russia (2010 Census)

Source: Alexander Kireev
Net immigration balance (/1,000) in Russia regions.

Historical Demographics

Source: ?
Subdivisions of the Russian Empire by largest ethnolinguistic group (1897 Census).

: Russian language in the Russian Empire (1897)

: Ukrainian Language in the Russian Empire (1897)

: Uralic Languages in the Russian Empire (1897)

: Kazakh Language in the Russian Empire (1897)

: Polish Language in the Russian Empire (1897)

: Jewish Language in the Russian Empire (1897)

: German Language in the Russian Empire (1897)

Source: ?
Prevalence of languages in the Russian Empire (1897 Census).

: Share of Ukrainians in RSFSR [1926 Census]

Source: Various
Historical maps of ethnic groups in Russian Empire and USSR.

Population Genetics

South/Central Russians

North Russians

: Belorussians

: Ukrainians

: Slovaks

: Poles

: Komi (Izhem)

: Komi (Priluzhsk)

: Karelians, Veps, & Izhors

: Tatars (Kazan)

: Latvians

: Estonians

: Czechs

: Finns

Source: генофонд.рф
Map of genetic distances from various Eastern European groups (based on Y-chromosome haplogroups).

Source: Balanovsky, Oleg et. al – Two Sources of the Russian Patrilineal Heritage in Their Eurasian Context (2006)
MDS Plot of the Y Chromosomal Variation, Grouping Regional Subpopulations and Averaged Ethnical Populations of Europe

Source: John Novembre
Genetic distances map in Europe.

Geopolitics

Source: Richard Edes Harrison (1943)
Europe as viewed from the USSR: This is the map to understand Russian geopolitical imperatives. – AK

: Russian Perspective (2008) by Stratfor

: Ephemeral States of the Russian Civil War by PisseGuri82

: Russian Military-Industrial Complex by ?

Source: Strelka Mag
Dynamic Map of Russia’s Borders 1462-2018 [intro]

Politics

Source: Konstantin Sugonyaev & Anatoly Karlin
Share of each region’s population that took an online IQ test run by the Russian Ministry of Defense during the 2012-2017 period could perhaps be considered as a proxy for “patriotism”.

Elections in Modern Russia

There is such a huge collection of Russian/ex-USSR electoral maps at the website Электоральная география 2.0 (mostly run by Alexander Kireev and Alexey Sidorenko) that there is no point replicating it.

Instead, this section will merely highlight the most representative and interesting – from my perspective – such maps.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russian Duma elections of 2016, relative performance of: Red = KPRF (communists) vs. Blue = LDPR (nationalists).

Source: Alexander Kireev
“The Red Belt” survives: Russian Presidential elections of 2012, relative performance of: Red = Zyuganov (communists) vs. Blue = Prokhorov (liberals).

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russian Duma elections of 2011, estimate of ruling party United Russia’s “real” result.

Source: Alexander Kireev
“The Red Belt”: Russian Presidential elections of 1996, First round: Blue = Yeltsin; Red = Zyuganov (communists).

Elections in the Russian Empire

Source: @welections
Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917: Brown = Social Revolutionaries; Red = Bolsheviks; Green = Regional SR’s; Yellow = Local parties.

: Social Revolutionaries [37.7%]

: Bolsheviks [22.5%]

: Kadets [4.6%]

: Local Nationalists

: Local Socialists

: TOTAL LEFT

: TOTAL NOT LEFT

Source: parol6342190
Russian Constituent Assembly election, 1917: Bolshevik share of the vote (total: 22.5%).

First Assembly in 1906
Blue – Octobrists; yellow – Kadets & reform party; red – Trudoviks & Soc Dems; gray – no party; orange – national groups

Second Assembly in 1907
Black – right & Octobrists; yellow – Kadets & reform party; Red – Trudoviks, Soc Dems, Soc Revs; gray – no party; orange – national groups

Third Assembly in 1907
Black – right, nationalists; blue – Octobrists; yellow – Kadets, progressives; red – Trudoviks & Soc Dems; orange – national groups

Fourth Assembly in 1912
Black – right, nationalists; blue – Octobrists; yellow – Kadets, progressives; red – Trudoviks & Soc Dems; orange – national groups

Society & Culture

Climate & Agriculture

: Map of USSR Soils by ?

: Map of January Isotherms by Andrey Parshev

: Land Suitable for Horticulture by Andrey Parshev

: Permafrost Depth by Andrey Parshev

Marriage Ways

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of unregistered marriages in Russia as per the 2010 Census.

Source: Klüsener, Sebastian – 2015 – Spatial variation in non-marital fertility across Europe in the 20th-21st centuries
Non-marital fertility ratio in 1910.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russian births to women younger than 18

Source: Alexander Kireev
Percentage of households consisting of more than one family unit.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Percentage of households consisting of one person.

Speech Ways

: Dialects of the Russian language (1915)

: Dialects of the Russian language by Zakharova & Orlova 1965

: Map of Ukrainian dialects @ Wikipedia

: Map of Belorussian dialects @ Wikipedia

Economy Ways

Source: Alexander Kireev
Labor force participation rate of married, working-age women.

Building Ways

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of individual houses in rural areas with a bath/shower (vs. a banya/sauna) as per the 2010 Census.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of individual houses in rural areas with a banya/sauna (vs. a bath/shower) as per the 2010 Census.

: Rural dwellers living in individual private houses

: Material of housing outer walls [red – brick; green – wood; blue – panels]

: Material of private housing outer walls [red – brick; green – wood]

: Average number of rooms in private houses

: Percentage of private houses with one room

: Russians living in houses built before 1945

Religious Ways

Source: realisticidealist
Religious map of Europe, part of a world map.

: The raw stats

: Predominant religious subject [red-Orthodoxy; green-Islam; orange-Buddhism; purple-world cultures; red-secular ethics]

: Share studying Orthodoxy

: Share studying secular ethics

: Share studying world cultures

: Share studying Islam

: Students studying Buddhism

: Students studying Judaism

: Secular ethics [red] vs. religious subjects [red]

: Secular ethics [red] vs. world cultures [green[

Source: gooodvins
Statistics on religious studies in Russian schools.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Most popular form of religious instruction in Russian schools in 2017. [red – Orthodoxy; blue – secular ethics; gray – world cultures; green – Islam; yellow – Buddhism]

Source: Ivan Vladimirov
Share of schoolchildren taking “Fundamentals of Orthodoxy” class; percentage of secular subjects [red] vs. religious ones [green].

Learning Ways & Human Capital

Source: Konstantin Sugonyaev & Anatoly Karlin
Average regional scores in online IQ test run by the Russian Ministry of Defense during the 2012-2017 period.

Source: Anatoly Karlin
PISA-adjusted IQ of Russian regions according to PISA 2009 and PISA 2015 [see alternate version].

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of Russians with knowledge of the English language as per the 2010 Census.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Share of Russians with knowledge of the Chinese language as per the 2010 Census.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Internet penetration in Russia as per the 2010 Census.

Source: ?
Historical map of Russian Empire literacy rates [1897 Census] by Dmitry Richter.

Source: gramoty.ru
Quantity of birchbark documents found in medieval Russian towns.

Source: Baten, Jörg, Mikołaj Szołtysek, and Others. 2014. “A Golden Age before Serfdom? The Human Capital of Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe in the 17th-19th Centuries.” Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

: Share of children going to kindergarten by Kireev

Corruption & Future Orientation

Source: FOM
Percentage of Russians in 2011 saying a government official had requested or expected a bribe from them in the past one or two years.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russian Duma elections of 2011, assessment of degree of electoral fraud.

Source: Alexander Kireev
Russian Presidential elections of 1996, assessment of degree of electoral fraud.

Source: RIA
Percentage of overdue bank loans in Russian regions as of Jan 1, 2017.

Source: markswebb.ru
Percentage of card money withdrawals that accrues to cash withdrawals.

Crime

Source: M. Ukolova
Male life expectancy in Russia in 2011.

Source: N. Avdeev
Murder rate in Russia in 2005-2011.

Source: temur25 (based on Trezvaya Rossiya data)
Index of alcoholization in Russian regions.

Source: Republic.ru (based on the Atlas of Justice)
Most commonly confiscated drugs in 2014: Brown = amphetamines; Light purple = heroin; Purple = desomorphine; Light green = cannabinoids; Light orange = Opium poppies; Orange = opiates; Dark green = synthetic cannabinoids; Light gray = no data; Dark gray = Other.