Why is Russia so big? What reasons exist that let Russia remain a single, yet loosely governed country considering how big it is? How does it remain united?

by DownvoteCommaSplices
jpoma

Something similar came up recently. Here is the link:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/33cd8n/why_has_russia_historically_maintained_roughly/

Here is an added bonus link:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/11gsrj/why_is_russia_so_huge/