Dargavs is a small village located in the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania, about 36 km southwest of Vladikavkaz. The area where the village is located has been inhabited since the Bronze Age. A large number of archaeological sites have been discovered here.

The village is very rich in various architectural monuments. The main one is the so-called “City of the Dead” – an old necropolis consisting of 97 stone memorials, which from afar resemble a small mountain village. It is the largest surviving burial of this type in Russia. Dargavs on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexey Zhirukhin.

unique necropolis

Tags: North Ossetia Republic · Vladikavkaz city

Jacques Reyne Isidore Acarie-Baron (1798-1874) was a French painter and scientific illustrator and here is one of his works – The Panorama of Moscow from the Ivan the Great Bell Tower dedicated to the Emperor of Russia and created in 1847.

This bell tower with a total height of 81 m is the tallest building of the Moscow Kremlin.

unique views of Moscow

Tags: Moscow city

Smolensk, the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, is one of the oldest cities in Russia. First mentioned in 863, it is located in the west of the country. In the history of Russia, it is known as the “shield city”, which for many centuries served as the defense of Moscow.

Let’s see how Smolensk looked in the last decade of the Russian Empire, in 1912. This is possible thanks to unique color photographs taken by Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944), a pioneer of color photography in the Russian Empire.

unique views of Smolensk

Tags: Smolensk city

Today, Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia (about 1.5 million people), is the largest administrative, cultural, scientific, and educational center of the Urals.

And here is how Yekaterinburg looked a little over a century ago with a population of about 60 thousand people. These unique color photographs were taken by Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944), a pioneer of color photography in the Russian Empire, in 1909.

The general views of the southern part of Yekaterinburg.

unique photos of Yekaterinburg

Tags: Ekaterinburg city · Sverdlovsk oblast

Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the Kulikovo Field, built in 1913-1917, is a monument-church standing on the alleged site of the Battle of Kulikovo (1380) in the southeast of Tula Oblast, about 122 km from Tula.

The architect of the church was Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev. An interesting feature of this church is that one of its towers is crowned by a dome in the shape of a helmet. The Kulikovo Field on Google Maps. Photos by: Vadim Razumov.

very picturesque church

Tags: churches · Tula oblast

The Orthodox Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Basmannaya Sloboda (1705-1728) is one of the few examples of Petrine Baroque in Moscow, inspired by Western European forms and having little in common with Old Russian architectural tradition (Novaya Basmannaya Street, 11).

It is noteworthy that this stone church was built according to the drawing of Peter I. In total, Peter I made eight drawings of churches. Seven of them were built in St. Petersburg, and only one in Moscow.

unique church

Tags: churches · Moscow city

The following filmstrip titled “Shelters, Covers and the Rules for Using Them” was released as a civil defense lessons workbook for pupils of the 5th grade of primary schools (10-11 years old) on request of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) Ministry of Education in 1970. Source: humus. Copyright: Russian State Children’s Library (RGDB).

be ready for a nuclear war

Tags: Soviet past

Veliky Novgorod, one of the oldest cities in Russia, is located in the north-west of the European part of the country. The main attraction of the city is the preserved complex of its medieval fortifications – the Novgorod Kremlin.

Located on the left bank of the Volkhov River, this architectural monument of federal significance as part of the historic center of Veliky Novgorod is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

explore the old Russian fortress

Tags: Novgorod city

The Pskov Krom (Kremlin), the core of the Pskov Fortress, is the historical and architectural center of Pskov – one of the oldest cities in Russia located in the north-west of its European part, just a few dozen kilometers from the border with Estonia.

The height of the walls is up to 6-8 meters, the height of the towers is up to 35 meters, the thickness of the walls of the towers is 2.5-6 meters. The total area is 3 hectares. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

feel the spirit of medieval Russia

Tags: Pskov city

The following photos were taken by an unknown person belonging to the so-called Czechoslovak Legion, which stuck in Russia after the revolutionary events of 1917 and played an important role during the Russian Civil War. Source: humus

1. Small person guiding a blind one

Russians just a hundred years ago

Tags: Russian Empire