The trade with Novgorod and later on also with Riga came to be a vital element in the activities of German merchants, and the Hanseatic League’s counting-house in Novgorod was an important rallying-point. In early medieval trade it was fur and wax products that were the chief exports from the Russian market.

Russian main exports are energy (oil and petroleum products, gas, coal), rolled steel, ferrous and nonferrous metals and minerals. The greater part of Russian exports belongs to oil and petroleum products. Other leading exports are natural gas, timber, fertilizers, machinery and equipment, armaments.

Veliky Novgorod (commonly shortened to Novgorod) is one of the oldest Russian cities, first mentioned in chronicles of 859. In 882 Oleg, prince of Novgorod, captured Kiev and moved his capital there. In 989, under Vladimir, Novgorod’s inhabitants were forcibly baptized.

Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, Russia imported 1.5 million rubles worth of wine, sugar, silk and woolen goods, and dyestuffs, and exported hemp, flax, sailcloth, linen, leather, tallow, and pig iron valuing over 2.5 million rubles.

His poor handling of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, subsequent 1905 uprising of Russian Workers—known as Bloody Sunday—and Russia’s involvement in World War I hastened the fall of the Russian Empire.

Dece

The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government that had replaced Tsar Nicholas II. However, it only officially consolidated as the new government of Russia after the defeat of the White Army during the Russian Civil War in 1922.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The Soviet Union’s ideological commitment to achieving communism included the development of socialism in one country and peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries while engaging in anti-imperialism to defend the international proletariat, combat capitalism and promote the goals of communism.

The Communist regime targeted religions based on State interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.

Stalin called for an “atheist five year plan” from 1932–1937, led by the LMG, in order to completely eliminate all religious expression in the USSR. It was declared that the concept of God would disappear from the Soviet Union.

Slavic paganism or Slavic religion describes the religious beliefs, myths and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century.

The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातनधर्म:, lit. ”the Eternal way”), which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts.

According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera’s review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world’s population), with China having the most atheists in the world (200 million convinced atheists).