The Republic of Kareliya

Geographical location
The republic of Karelia is situated in the north-west of the European part of Russia, between the White Sea, the Ladozhskoe and the Onezhskoe lakes. Length of the territory from north to south is 650 km, from west to east - 250 km. Karelia borders on Finland in the west, on Leningrad and Vologda regions in the south, on Arkhangelsk region in the east, on Murmansk region in the north. The republic is washed by the White Sea in the east, by the Ladozhskoe and the Onezhskoe lakes in the south.
Karelia is the region of rivers and lakes. Lakes occupy 18% of the territory of the republic.
The climate has features of continental and sea: mild, long winter and cool summer.
In the republic there are building materials: granite, marble and others. There are reserves of iron ore, magnesite, and mica. Marshes occupy 18% of the republic and contain more than 4 billion tons of peat.
Administrative division
The republic is divided into 15 districts, 7 towns of the republican submission, 6 towns of district submission, 44 town settlements, 99 villages.
Capital of the republic is the town of Petrozavodsk. It was founded in 1703. Distance to Moscow is 925 km.
Economics
Karelia is an industrial and agricultural republic. Timber cutting and wood-working industry give more than 5% of export. Machine-building, metal-working, ship-building, ferrous metallurgy, power engineering and food industry are developed in Karelia. The leading industry is forest.
Branch structure of industry: power engineering (18.3%), ferrous metallurgy (15.6%), nonferrous metallurgy (4.4%), chemical and oil-chemical (0.1%), machine-building and metal-working (8.5%), forest, wood-working, pulp and paper (35.7%), industry of building materials (3.9%), food industry (10.5%).Main branches of agriculture: milk stock-breeding, production of potato and vegetables.
Science and education
Petrozavodsk is a scientific centre of Karelia. In the town there are 3 higher educational establishments - University, Pedagogical University, Conservatoire.
In Petrozavodsk there are 16 secondary educational establishments and 49 secondary schools.
Culture
Petrozavodsk is a cultural centre. In the town there are Russian Dramatic and Musical Theatres, National Theatre of Karelia, Youth Theatre, Puppet Theatre, philarmonia, 5 museums.
There is the resort "Martsialnye Waters" - the first resort in Russia, founded by Peter the First.