The State Historical, Architectural, Art, and Landscape Museum-Reserve “Tsaritsyno” is one of the largest museum and exhibition institutions in Moscow and the largest museum-reserve in the city.

The museum includes Tsaritsyno palace and park ensemble with a complex of palace buildings, Tsaritsyno ponds and a landscape park. Tsaritsyno on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir Dar.

stroll through the museum-reserve

Tags: Moscow city

Izborsk, a village with a population of about 700 people located in the Pechora district of the Pskov region, 30 km west of Pskov, is one of the oldest Russian towns first mentioned in the chronicles in 862.

Today, this historical-cultural and natural-landscape museum-reserve is a popular tourist destination. Photos by: zhzhitel.

walk around Izborsk

Tags: Pskov oblast

Suzdal is a small town with a population of about 10 thousand people located in the Vladimir region. This is one of the oldest towns in Russia, first mentioned in 999.

Let’s see how the town looked like 105 years ago, in 1912, when Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, a Russian chemist and photographer known for his pioneering work in color photography, visited it. Photos by: Open research project “The Legacy of S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky”.

General view of Suzdal.

back to the past

Tags: Vladimir oblast

The Astrakhan Kremlin is a historical and architectural complex, which is an integral ensemble of monuments of defense architecture, cult and civil architecture.

Today, it is not only a monument of Russian architecture. There is an ethnographic museum with a very rich collection of exhibits. Photos by: Dmitry Gazin.

take a stroll in the Astrakhan Kremlin

Tags: Astrakhan city

Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps located in St. Petersburg is one of the largest military museums in Russia. In total, the collection includes over 850 thousand exhibits.

The exposition was started by Peter I, who founded Zeughaus – a place for storing historical, unique and experimental artillery pieces. Today, the exposition covers the time from the 15th century to the present day. Photos by: deletant.

explore the museum

Tags: museum · Saint Petersburg city

The second part of unique photos taken by Major Martin Manhoff, who spent more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s as an assistant to the military attache in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

The first part of the photos.

View of the Kremlin from Moskvoretskaya Embankment.

Moscow in the early 1950s

Tags: Moscow city · Soviet past

Soviet propaganda was diverse and influenced the minds of people all the time. Let’s see how the image of a woman was used and gradually changed on Soviet posters. Source: humus

Woman! Learn to read and write!
Oh, mother! If you were literate, you could help me! (1923)

Soviet propaganda posters

Tags: propaganda · Soviet past

Major Martin Manhoff spent more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s. He worked as an assistant to the military attache in the U.S. Embassy, ​​located near Red Square.

Manhoff, being a gifted photographer, shot hundreds of scenes from everyday Soviet life – both in Moscow and in other regions of the USSR.

Construction of the hotel “Ukraina” from the roof of the U.S. Embassy on Novinsky Boulevard. On the left you can see the Church of the Nine Martyrs of Cyzicus (1954).

Moscow in the early 1950s

Tags: Moscow city · Soviet past

Kolomna is a city with a population of about 143 thousand people located about 113 km southeast of Moscow. This is one of the oldest (the first mention in 1177) and the most beautiful cities of the Moscow region.

One of the main attractions of Kolomna is a partially preserved rare monument of ancient Russian defensive architecture – the grandiose Kolomna Kremlin (1525-1531). Photos by: maximus101.

magnificent fortress

Tags: Moscow city · Moskovskaya oblast

Today, Vytegra is a small town (since 1773) with a population of about 10,000 people standing on the banks of the Vytegra River, 337 km north-west of Vologda, in the Vologda region.

You can see how this place looked like 108 years ago, in 1909. It is possible due to unique color photographs made by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. Source.

General view of Vytegra and the Vytegra River.

back to the past

Tags: Russian Empire · Vologda oblast