Showing posts with the label Russia

The Forgotten Soviet-Era Murals

Oct 25, 2017

Telling stories through mosaics and murals is a tradition that goes back to antique times. During the Soviet era, murals were used extensive...

Inside The Strange World of Soviet Sanatoriums

Oct 11, 2017

In Soviet Russia, vacations were as purposeful as work. Many state workers of the era, instead of wasting time in idleness, used the holiday...

Moscow’s Bagel House

Oct 6, 2017

In the early 1970s, Russian architect Evgeny Stamo and engineer Alexander Markelov came up with plans for an unusual house in the capital ci...

The Building That Was Built From Top to Bottom

Sep 16, 2017

At Plaza de Colón in Madrid, Spain, there is a twin building that is known locally as "El Enchufe" or "The Plug" for it ...

The Secret World of Number Stations

Aug 9, 2017

Back in the days of Cold War espionage, foreign intelligence agencies used to communicate with agents on the field via shortwave radio. Radi...

Magnitogorsk: Russia’s Steel Heart

Jul 20, 2017

At the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains in Russia, about 140 km west of the border with Kazakhstan, there are some hills that a...

The Stone Labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island

May 25, 2017

Bolshoi Zayatsky is a small island belonging to the Solovetsky archipelago in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, in Russia. The island is home ...

Saatse Boot: A Russia-Estonia Border Anomaly

May 5, 2017

In southeast Estonia, in the municipality of Värska Parish, lies a peculiar border irregularity. A small piece of Russian land called the “S...

The Deepest Metro Stations in The World

Mar 6, 2017

The average metro train doesn’t go beyond a few stories underground. But sometimes the geology and the geography of the region, such as the ...

The Russian Gangster Cemetery in Yekaterinburg

Feb 14, 2017

The Shirokorechenskoe Cemetery, located on the southwestern outskirts of Yekaterinburg, in Russia, is the final resting place of many famous...

Verkhoyansk: Siberia’s Pole of Cold

Feb 9, 2017

In the remote Yakutia region of Siberia, more than a hundred kilometers inside the Arctic Circle, lies the small town of Verkhoyansk. Winter...

Glass Beach on Ussuri Bay

Feb 2, 2017

Just a 30-minute-drive away from the city of Vladivostok, Russia, lies a stunning bay surrounded by impressive cliffs. Not very long ago, th...

Batagaika Crater, Siberia

Jan 30, 2017

In the heart of Siberia’s boreal forest, a massive crater the locals call the “gateway to the underworld” has been growing for the last fift...

The World's Smallest Monuments

Jan 3, 2017

The Russian city of Tomsk is home to the smallest public monument in the world —a tiny bronze frog, sitting on top of a smooth rock. The scu...

Struve Geodetic Arc: The 2,820 Km Line That Produced The First Accurate Measurement of The Earth’s Size

Oct 21, 2016

From the northern coast of Norway to the southern coast of Ukraine runs a chain of survey triangulation points that together forms the Struv...

The Cannon And The Bell: The Tsars of Moscow Kremlin

Oct 14, 2016

Cannons and bells have always had a special relationship. They are made from the same metals and often in the same factory. Throughout histo...

This Wooden Barrel Was The World’s First Military Submarine

Sep 13, 2016

The possibilities of a submersible boat that could cruise below the water’s surface undetected and ambush enemy ships has fascinated militar...

Mystery of The Lost Amber Room

Aug 31, 2016

In the grand palace of Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great and Empress of Russia, there once existed a magnificent golden room a...

Monument to The Conquerors of Space

Aug 23, 2016

In the early 1960s, the Soviet Union was way ahead of the United States in the space race. They launched the first artificial satellite of e...

The Sand Buried Village of Shoyna

Jul 13, 2016

Shoyna is a small fishing village located on the Kanin Peninsula in Northern Russia. Situated on the edge of the arctic circle, the inhabita...