Everything you wanted to know about the USSR’s notorious security apparatus. From its inception and until the end of the Soviet Union, the KGB was a prominent force in Soviet politics and society. Its ...

The Russian state received a huge territory stretching to the upper Oka and Dnepr rivers with 19 border towns, including Chernihiv, Gomel, Novgorod-Siversky, and Bryansk. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

Crowns were usually made individually for each emperor and then broken up afterwards. But some pieces of imperial regalia did survive and can now be seen in museums. Before Peter I, the Tsar's most ...

Almost seven days on the train, covering a distance of 9,300 km (5,772 miles) with 145 stops - the longest railway in the world runs literally through the whole of Russia. During the journey, ...

The Alexeyev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital was built to give mentally ill people help, peace and quiet, instead of old and cruel treatment measures. As Moscow grew, the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital (the ...

Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets, Soviet of Federation – the word has been and is still widely used in Russia, but what does it exactly mean? During the Soviet times, the USSR was often called ...

During the 70 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number of constituent parts changed, but most of the time there were 15 of them. Here is the list. In the beginning ...

This famous part of Russia is like a different country with its own rules, mentality and, of course, architecture. Take a look, for example, at the transformation that European Baroque underwent on ...

Adidas sneakers were a mainstay in the Soviet Olympic team. Then, the shoes were sold under a completely different name. Later, however, they were seen being worn by the Spetsnaz in Afghanistan.

Yulia Mulino Making bliny or crepes is not rocket science. This dish is world famous, but have you ever tried to make tiny meat wraps with them? Have a look at how we do it in Russia. Bliny are known ...

The Bolsheviks were in at the beginning of the Communist movement in China. However, it wasn’t the followers of Mao Zedong who became the USSR’s main allies in the country. In 1949, the Communists won ...

This is one of the most terrifying pages in Soviet history, devoted to the forced industrialization and remote lands’ development at the expense of human lives. R504 Kolyma Highway isn’t a popular ...