In the mid-1950s, rich deposits of diamonds were discovered in Yakutia. The kimberlite pipe “Mir” was discovered in 1955. A new town named after it was founded near the future quarry, located about 1,100 km from Yakutsk.

Today, the town of Mirny with a population of about 34 thousand people has several large quarries and mining and processing plants for diamond mining. It is often called the capital of the diamond region or the diamond capital of Russia. Mirny on Google Maps. Photos by Stepanov Slava.

one of the largest excavated holes in the world

Tags: Sakha Republic · Yakutsk city

Dikson is an urban-type settlement located in the very north of Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, on the northwestern tip of the Taimyr Peninsula, on the coast of the Kara Sea of ​​the Arctic Ocean.

It is divided by a strait into two parts – an island and a mainland. In winter, cars and buses travel along the ice road, in summer, boats operate. In spring and autumn, you can only get from one part of the settlement to the other by helicopter. Dikson on Google Maps. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

frozen settlement at the edge of the earth

Tags: Krasnoyarsk krai

The Pashkov House is one of the most famous neoclassical buildings in Moscow. Today, it belongs to the Russian State Library. The building is located on a hill overlooking the western wall of the Moscow Kremlin, at Vozdvizhenka Street, 3/5, building 1.

This architectural monument, built by order of the captain of Semyonovsky life-guards regiment Peter Pashkov in 1784-1786, was designed presumably by the architect Vasily Bazhenov. The Pashkov House on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir d’Ar.

beautiful building

Tags: Moscow city

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is a city in Russia, the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai. It is located on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the shores of Avacha Bay of the Pacific Ocean. The distance to Moscow in a straight line is almost 6,800 km.

The population of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is about 163 thousand people, slightly more than half of the total population of the region. The elevation difference in the city is 513.6 meters from sea level (Avacha Bay) to the top of Mount Rakova. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

views of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky from above

Tags: Kamchatka krai · Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city

Tobolsk is a city in Russia with a population of about 100 thousand people, located at the confluence of the Tobol and the Irtysh rivers, about 250 km northeast of Tyumen. It was founded as the center of the development of Siberia in 1587, about 17 km from the Tatar settlement of Sibier (also known as Kashlyk, Isker), the capital of the Siberian Khanate (1468-1598).

From the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries, it was the main military, administrative, political, and religious center of Siberia. Today, Tobolsk is the second most populous city in Tyumen Oblast. Photos by: Anton Petrus.

picturesque old Siberian city

Tags: Tobolsk city · Tyumen oblast

Joseph Daziaro (1806-1865) came to the Russian Empire from Italy in the early 1820s. He opened a publishing business and specialized in the sale of lithograph prints. His firm can be called the first private publishing house of printed artistic graphics in Russia.

By the beginning of the 1830s, he had 2 shops in Moscow. In 1849, he became the owner of a shop in St. Petersburg. Let’s look at his lithographs united under the title “Memories of St. Petersburg” (“Souvenir de St. Petersbourge”). They were mostly made from drawings by the Charlemagne brothers: Josif Charlemagne (1824-1870) and Adolf Charlemagne (1826-1901). Source: aldusku.

Dvortsovy (Palace) Bridge.

back to the past

Tags: Russian Empire · Saint Petersburg city

Our site visitors from the YouTube channel Kate Khasham World made an interesting vlog about their recent visit to Cheboksary, the capital of the Republic of Chuvashia.

Tags: Cheboksary city · Chuvashia Republic

Kineshma is a town (since 1777) with a population of about 77 thousand people, located in the northeastern part of Ivanovo Oblast, about 400 km northeast of Moscow. In 2010, it was included in the list of historical settlements of federal significance.

The town stands on the right bank of the Volga stretching along it for more than 11 kilometers. In Kineshma, both ordinary urban buildings of the 19th century and a number of architectural sights of the 19th – early 20th centuries have been preserved.

feel the vibe of the old Russian merchant town

Tags: Ivanovo oblast

Syktyvkar is a city with a population of about 220 thousand people, the capital of the Komi Republic, located in the north-east of the European part of Russia.

The distance from Moscow to Syktyvkar (in a straight line) is about 1,000 km in a northeasterly direction. Its name, translated from the Komi language, means “the city on the Sysola River”. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

fly over Syktyvkar

Tags: Komi Republic · Syktyvkar city

Sviyazhsk is a very picturesque historical town-island located at the confluence of the Sviyaga River into the Volga, about 30 km west of Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. The Sviyazhsk fortress, founded in 1551, became the base of Russian troops during the siege of Kazan in 1552.

Initially, it stood on a hill, which was washed on both sides by the Sviyaga and Shchuka rivers. But in 1957, the Kuibyshev reservoir was built, the water level rose and Sviyazhsk ended up on an island. In 2008, an embankment and a road to Sviyazhsk were built. Sviyazhsk on Google Maps. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

explore a unique town-island

Tags: Kazan city · Tatarstan Republic