The Urals as a demarcation between Asia and Europe is outdated and invalid

[Borealis]

Russia is commonly described as a Eurasian nation, as it spans both "Europe"(defined as the land north of the Caucasus, north of the Mediterranean, and west of the Urals) and Asia. The "Asian" part of Russia was historically referred to as Siberia. The Urals are seen as the dividing line between the two continents but I think this is flawed for various reasons.

First of all, ethnic Russians form the vast majority of the population on both sides of the Urals. It has been this way for centuries now and there is really no practical difference between a town in Siberia and one in western Russia other than perhaps the climate. There is also no practical separation between the populations as people move freely between the two regions.

One might argue that the difference is that Siberia was originally inhabited by non-Russian "north Asians" that it is a distinct region from western Russia but this is also mistaken. Many parts of "European" Russia were actually occupied by non-Europeans. For example it was Tatars and other nomads in the southeastern steppes and Nenets in the far north. In fact, Russians living in the greater Arkhangelsk region show a heavy influx of Nenet-like ancestry. Importantly, these groups still exist in the European part of Russia-they did not die off. Udmurts, Mari, Bashkirs, Kalmyks to name a few.

There is also the issue of the Caucasus. The area was not and is not European or Russian ethnically and yet is still deemed part of "European Russia" for some reason. So Chelyabinsk east of the Urals and overwhelmingly Russian is not Europe but Grozny which is Chechen is? Makes perfect sense/s

Overall it seems like the Urals as a demarcation line was flawed to begin with given the character of people living on both sides being exactly the same. In other words, both European Russia and Asiatic Russia have a heavily east European majority with minorities of "Asian" people.

[Peterski]

^^^ So how about extending Europe also into Australia and North America, because Europeans are the majority and have been for a few centuries* ?




*I don't know how many Native Americans were still remaining in what is now the U.S. & Canada in year 1800, but Europeans were almost 6 million.

[sioned]

https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/th...dliest-border/

[Salty Ears]

We have historical territory where russians as ethnic group was formed wich is more than 600 km from europe-asian geographical boarder at north and much further at south. Other territories is the territory of later resettlement, colonisation. So Russia is European, big part is the territory of colonisation smthing like North America, but its difficult to compare because Russia have big nuances, partly it is Eurasian where some eurasian people like Volga Tatars or asian like Kalmyks have influence. I live at Urals. Slavs, turkic, FU people have northern and rough archaic mentality here, if i want to feel something asian it would be not something at the East but I would go to South-West to Ukraine-Moldova because Turkey and China is much further))

[Borealis]

^^^ So how about extending Europe also into Australia and North America, because Europeans are the majority and have been for a few centuries* ?



Discontinuous land and different culture compared to the founding country(England)
*I don't know how many Native Americans were still remaining in what is now the U.S. & Canada in year 1800, but Europeans were almost 6 million.

[Arūnas]

let's create another subcontinent instead - VUR Paradise, from Kirov to Nakhodka

[Borealis]

^^^ So how about extending Europe also into Australia and North America, because Europeans are the majority and have been for a few centuries* ?

*I don't know how many Native Americans were still remaining in what is now the U.S. & Canada in year 1800, but Europeans were almost 6 million.

Discontinuous land and different culture compared to the founding country(England).

Not saying the boundary of Europe should be extended eastward but rather that no boundary exists(except maybe the Caucasus and Bosporus).

[Lemminkäinen]

The Russians are a big minority in many coutries. Largest minorities live in

Ukraine 8,300,000
Kazakhstan 3,512,925
Belarus Belarus 706,992
Uzbekistan 640,000
Latvia Latvia 471,276
Kyrgyzstan 400,000
Estonia Estonia 310,000
Turkmenistan 300,000
......

United States 3,100,000
Germany 1,213,000
Israel 1,000,000
......


Actually these minorities form a bigger migration than the Russians behind the Urals. They form globally 20-25% of the Russian speaking population.