It is widely believed that Stalin’s Soviet Union was a country almost completely closed to foreigners. However, advertising for “Intourist” (the organization responsible for foreign tourism in the USSR), founded in the 1930s, offers a somewhat different assessment.

The country desperately needed foreign currency for industrialization, so every means possible was used to attract wealthy foreign tourists to the USSR. And this wasn’t limited to the major cities of Moscow and Leningrad.

Welcome to the USSR

Tags: Moscow city · posters · propaganda · Saint Petersburg city · Soviet past

The following project created by Pavel Meleshkin uses digital manipulation to place Western celebrities into authentic photographs of Russian street scenes from the 1990s.

The goal of the project was to create a humorous contrast between global stars and the harsh, everyday reality of post-Soviet Russia. Pavel Meleshkin is known for this and similar art projects where he integrates famous figures into provincial Russian settings.

1. Sylvester Stallone

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The monument to Vladimir Lenin on the grounds of the October Railway depot, known simply as “Lenin on Wheels,” is located near Leningradsky Station in Moscow (Komsomol’skaya Square, 3/36).

Mounted on a railway bogie, it is one of the first monuments to Lenin in Moscow and the only monument to Lenin on wheels in the world. Lenin on Wheels on Google Maps. Photos by: babs71.

very unusual and cool monument

Tags: Moscow city · Soviet past

Ivan Alekseevich Vladimirov (1870-1947) is known as an artist of the realistic school of painting, a battle painter and the author of a series of documentary sketches from 1917-1918.

In 1917-1918, while working in the Petrograd militia (police), he made a series of unique documentary sketches of the events of 1917-1918. After 1917, he was a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. Since 1932, he was a member of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists. He painted pictures on historical-revolutionary and battle themes. Source: humus.

1. 1917. “Removal of the Royal Coats of Arms (An Eagle Down!)” The signs on the building – Pharmacy. February.

turning point in the history of Russia

Tags: Leningrad oblast · Saint Petersburg city · Soviet past

The Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum was opened in Kaliningrad in 1969. The reason for creating a museum of this type in Kaliningrad was the proximity of the largest explored amber deposit, in the village of Yantarny – more than 90% of the world’s reserves.

The museum exposition is located in 28 halls with a total area of ​​over 1,000 square meters. The Amber Museum in Kaliningrad has unique pieces of amber and more than 2,000 artistic items made from it. Here are just several examples. Photos by: Vladimir Lipetskikh.

beautiful pieces of art made of amber

Tags: Kaliningrad city

In 1913, on the wave of the general rise of the Russian economy, the Russian Empire saw a rapid growth of the cinematographic industry. In 1913, according to incomplete data, there were 1,412 cinemas in the country, of which 134 – in St. Petersburg and 67 – in Moscow.

The heyday of Russian artistic cinematography came during the years of World War I. In 1916, no less than 150 million cinema tickets were sold in the Russian Empire. Let’s look at the movie posters of those times. Source: humus.

1. Train of Horrors (1910s).

great vintage movie posters

Tags: posters · Russian Empire

In Russia, work on cutting the largest diamond in the country’s history has been completed. The weight of the unique diamond of rare fancy color Vivid Yellow is more than 100 carats.

The diamond was named “The New Sun” – as a reflection of the history of the super-large diamond weighing more than 200 carats of a rich honey-gold color, which was mined by ALROSA at the Ebelyakh Arctic placer deposit, among the sands of an old river bed in Yakutia.

amazing diamond

Tags: Sakha Republic

Alexander Vasilyevich Viskovatov was a Russian military historian who lived in the first half of the 19th century.

He was the author of a unique multi-volume book “Historical Description of Clothing and Armament of Russian Troops” with detailed descriptions of military and civilian clothing in Russia from 862 AD to the reign of Emperor Nicholas I.

Shirt.

back to the past

Tags: Russian Empire

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) was one of the greatest Russian landscape painters, who created very photorealistic pictures.

In his paintings, he often depicted the nature of the central zone of the East European Plain, also known as the Russian Plain, one of the largest plains in the world.

Rye (1878).

beautiful pictures of Russian nature

Tags: Russian Empire

For a long time, people have admired Russian gold rings for their fine workmanship, historical value, and classic beauty. These jewelry pieces, like the stunning beauty of Russian gold Alexandrite and the classic charm of rings set with amethyst, are the height of wealth and history in the jewelry world. In addition to being beautiful, Russian gold rings have a special draw for investors. You can use them as investments in old jewelry and potentially make money.

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