Victory Day, May 9, is widely celebrated in Russia, military parades are held in many cities. The main military parade takes place in Moscow on Red Square involving military units representing various kinds of troops and military equipment , warplanes and helicopters.

This year, several military vehicles had cameras allowing us to see the parade as it is seen by the participants. In the video presented below, you can see the highlights of one of the main rehearsals. Quite interesting high definition shots taken from unusual angles. Unfortunately there is some audio interference in the video, but it is still worth watching.

Tags: Moscow city

Soviet moviegoer in the 1920ies, during the NEP (the New Economic Policy), was able to watch a lot of not only Soviet, but also foreign films. As a rule, it was purely entertaining films, ideological films were not the biggest part of all the films, as it became later.

The movie posters of these years are of great interest. It was a continuous celebration of avant-gardism, endless experiment with colors, shapes, images. This flashy language of bright colors was coming into collision with the black-and-white world of the silver screen. Pictures by visualhistory

The Battleship Potemkin

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Tags: posters · Soviet past

Nizhny Tagil is a very tough city. On the roads along with the usual transport you can find battle tanks. And here are several examples.

Last weekend one driver was nearly run over by the tank that was rushing at high speed across the highway.

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Tags: Nizhny Tagil city · tanks

Yakutsk is surrounded by many hills. In the Soviet era the tunnel in one of them, located near the mountain Chochur Muran, was used as a huge cellar for food storage. In November 2008, tourist center “The Kingdom of Permafrost” was opened here.

At the entrance to the “Kingdom” visitors receive warm coats and boots. It is necessary because in summer the temperature in the tunnel is minus 4 degrees Celsius. But in winter the temperature does not fall below minus 10 degrees C, so after minus 50 degrees C outside it is a good place to get warm. Photos by Alex Cheban

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Tags: Yakutsk city

September 8, residents and guests of Vladivostok could see beautiful light show prepared for the APEC summit. It was the largest light show in Russia this year.

A multimedia show is a light-laser-fireworks performance on the water, fully synchronized with the music. Duration of the show was a little more than 19 minutes. The cost of the fireworks and laser show on the contract is USD 2.5 million. Photos by Petr Ushanov

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Tags: Vladivostok city

Kuban Cossacks (Kuban Cossack Army) is a part of Russian Cossacks of the North Caucasus, living on the territory of present Krasnodar krai, Stavropol krai, as well as the Republic of Adygeya and Karachay-Cherkessia. The military headquarters is located in Krasnodar (former Ekaterinodar).

Historically Kuban Cossacks were free militarized agricultural population. At the head of the Kuban Cossack Army was the chieftain (ataman), who was the military chief of the division and also the governor.

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Tags: Krasnodar city

October 5 Grozny (capital city of Chechen Republic) with characteristic to local authorities fanfare celebrated the Day of the city. Noncircular date (193 years) has not prevented wide celebrations: such stars as Jean-Claude Van Dam, Kevin Costner and Vanessa Mae were invited to take part in the concert.

The concert was organized to celebrate the opening of Chechen financial center “Grozny-City,” but everyone knew perfectly well that in fact it was the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. The concert was broadcasted on second federal TV channel.

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Tags: Chechnya Republic · Grozny city

Seven tanks of water were poured on the track in a clay quarry by the organizers of “Autumn Marathon” – a trophy-sprint held annually in the village Assadulaevo, Astrakhan oblast.

September 17, 2011 the competition was attended by 17 crews from Volgograd and Astrakhan. There were almost no high-speed sections on the track. The key events unfolded in the artificially flooded pits.

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Tags: Astrakhan oblast

Wonderful highlights of the Alfa Show 4D, the largest video mapping projection attempted in history presented on Moscow City Day on September 4, 2011 at Vorob’yovy Gory (Sparrow Hills) on the main building of Moscow State University. More than 800,000 people attended the event.

Tags: Moscow city

The following video was captured in Magadan city of Russia. The people are having fun jumping of the roof into the snow, what a crazy Russians :)

Tags: Magadan city