Karelia Republic is a remarkably beautiful land of white nights, boundless forests, and blue lakes. Karelia is located on the border of Western and Eastern Europe, on the border of cultures and religions.

Severe beauty of Karelia Republic nature, the climate, not too favorable in these latitudes, the coexistence and intermingling of various peoples inhabiting this land for centuries, all that conditioned the character of the people living here: very laconic, self-assured, contemplative, and tolerant people.

Tags: Karelia Republic

Today, after the war, Grozny is once again the administrative center of the Chechnya Republic of Russia. The reconstruction works are in process. In 2005 the railway connection with other parts of Russia was restored and the Grozny city airport, Severny, began to offer flights to Moscow.

Also, after several years of reconstruction, the beautiful Grozny city mosque (the largest in Europe) was opened in 2008. The following beautiful high-res photos of night Grozny were taken by timag82.

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Tags: Grozny city · night

The museum can be found in the exhibition complex “Klinskoe podvorye” in a small town of Klin located near Moscow. The collection mainly includes glass toys produced by local factory “Yolochka”, although there are toys of other factories. I personally still have some toys you can see at the pictures below.

The museum runs a shop where all year round you can buy glass Christmas decorations produced by the same factory. Opening hours of the museum: from 9:30 to 17:00. The last tour begins at 16:00. Day off – Monday. Address: Russia, Moskovskaya oblast, Klin town, Staroyamskaya Str., 4. The site of the museum: http://www.klinvk.ru/. Photos by Yulia Makarkina.

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Tags: Christmas · Klin city · Moskovskaya oblast · toys

December 28, 2011, just before the New Year celebrations, a new metro station “Admiralteyskaya” was opened in Saint Petersburg. The station is located on the 5th purple line between the stations “Sadovaya” and “Sportivnaya”.

For about 15 years it was in fact ghost-station, the trains passed it without stopping. Active work was resumed several years ago – escalators and platform were assembled. Today, after the opening, “Admiralteyskaya ” has become the deepest metro station in Russia – the length of the escalators is 120 meters. Photos by skydrinker.

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Tags: metro · Saint Petersburg city

Pyatigorsk (“the city of five mountains”) is the oldest balneological and mud resort of Russia and the largest cultural and tourist center of eco-resort region Caucasian Mineral Waters.

On January 19, 2010 Pyatigorsk received the status of the center of North Caucasus Federal District. It is the only center of the federal district not being the capital of the subject of the federation. Photos by timag82. Click the photos for high resolution versions.

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Tags: mountains · Pyatigorsk city

Omsk located about 2,600 km to the east of Moscow is the second largest city in Siberia. The city is standing on the banks of Irtysh river at the confluence with Om river.

The rivers connect Omsk with various coal and other mineral mining cities and towns of Kazakhstan and with oil, natural gas and lumber rich regions of Siberia. Video by Vladimir Skorokhod and Sergey Kotov.

Tags: Omsk city · time-lapse

Vologda Kremlin is historical and architectural complex located in the central part of Vologda. It was founded as a fortress in 1567 by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and played the role of defensive fortification in the 16th-17th centuries.

By the 1820s the Kremlin walls and towers were dismantled. Today the territory of the Kremlin is a historical and trade center of Vologda. Several architectural monuments built at the same time as the Kremlin were preserved. They are standing on the Kremlin Square. Photos by Ilya Pokrovsky.

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Tags: churches · Kremlin · Vologda city

There is an abandoned village Ostashevo in Chuhlomskoy district of Kostroma oblast and 100 meters to the east this wooden wonder is standing. The building is an old two-storey house with a tower, full of various carved decoration.

The house was probably built by industrialist Markov at the end of the 19th century. It was his suburban villa (dacha). According to the other version St. Petersburg contractor M.S. Sazonov built this house for his second wife E.A. Dobrovolskaya. Photos by Denis Frantsouzov.

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Tags: Abandoned · house · Kostroma oblast · wooden

Catherine’s Palace is the former imperial palace, one of the largest in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. The palace is located in the town of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), 25 km south of St. Petersburg.

The architectural trends of each era the palace survived, and personal predilections of Russian rulers of the time were reflected in the history and architecture of the palace. The palace was built in 1717 under the direction of German architect Johann Friedrich Braunshtein as the summer residence of Empress Catherine I.

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Tags: Leningrad oblast · palace · Saint Petersburg city

Yuriev-Polskiy is one of the oldest towns in Vladimir oblast. This small town with the population of about 19,000 is the part of the Golden Ring of Russia tourist route. Yuriev-Polskiy is located 68 km northwest of Vladimir and 180 km north-east of Moscow.

The town was founded in 1152 by Yuri Dolgoruky. He also ordered to build almost circular stone fort surrounded by an earthen rampart up to 7 meters height. In 1234 in the center of the fortress St. George’s Cathedral was built. It is one of the main attractions of present Yuriev-Polskiy.

The monuments of the town give its visitors unique chance to get acquainted with the history of Russia. Photos by Alexander Lipilin.

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Tags: Golden Ring · Vladimir oblast · Yuriev-Polskiy