The Hermitage is a park pavilion built in the Baroque style in the Catherine’s Park in Tsarskoye Selo, the former Russian imperial country residence located near St. Petersburg.

The pavilion, constructed in 1744-1754, served for entertainment meetings of the courtiers. The Hermitage combines white columns, pilasters, architraves, pale turquoise walls and a number of gold-plated elements. Sixty-four decorative columns, stucco garlands, masks, lush window frames don’t leave smooth surfaces. Photos by: deletant.

explore this unique place

Tags: Leningrad oblast · Russian Empire · Saint Petersburg city

June 2, 2015, Baikonur Cosmodrome, the cradle of space exploration and the largest Russian spaceport, celebrated its 60th anniversary. Over the years, a lot of different space vehicles were tested on its territory, the apex of which was the system of “Energy-Buran”. But history has chosen its path and the project died in infancy.

More than two decades ago, heavy sliding doors of an assembling and filling complex were closed cutting off two orbiting spacecraft from the sky. How ironic that the birthplace of these spaceships became their burial place.

the remnants of the Soviet shuttles

Tags: Abandoned · Soviet past

The Soviet Union ceased to exist for more than two decades ago, but Vladimir Lenin is still in the mausoleum on the Red Square in Moscow, and a large number of streets in Russia are still called after him. But how many?

Russian streets in numbers

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“Vitoslavlitsy” is an open air museum of folk wooden architecture located near St. George Monastery, about 4 km from Veliky Novgorod, on the southern shore of Lake Myachino.

The museum, opened on May 16, 1967, has about thirty monuments of the ancient Russian wooden architecture of the 16th century, residential and other buildings of the 18th-19th centuries.

explore the museum

Tags: Novgorod oblast

In Soviet times, a very significant part of the budget was spent on various military purposes, including the construction of numerous defensive structures all over the country.

And here is one example. This artillery battery is located somewhere on the coast of the Kola Peninsula, in the northwest of the European part of Russia, in Murmansk region. Photos by: Ralph Mirebs.

get inside the battery

Tags: Abandoned · Murmansk oblast

Veliky Novgorod is a city located in the northwest of Russia, the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is one of the oldest and most famous cities of Russia which celebrated its 1150th anniversary in 2009.

Veliky Novgorod preserved a lot of unique monuments of ancient Russian architecture of the pre-Mongol period. It is the only ancient Russian city that avoided decay in the 11th-12th centuries. Let’s look at some of them. Photo by: deni spiri.

Veliky Novgorod Kremlin

take a walk

Tags: Novgorod city

Tula Kremlin, a stone fortress located in the center of Tula, is a monument of Russian defense architecture of the 16th century.

The fortress was built to protect the southern borders of the Russian state from the raids of Crimean Tatars. The photos were taken by Dimon Porter Gazin.

explore Tula Kremlin

Tags: Tula city

If you ask people in Russia, what is “belyana”, few will be able to answer this question. But only about 100 years ago, these giant ships sailed along the Volga and Vetluga rivers.

Belyana is an unpainted wooden flat-bottomed barge, used for timber floating on the rivers Volga and Kama in the 19th – early 20th centuries. Perhaps, these ships were the most unique river vessels in the world.

unique wooden ships

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Today, Staraya Ladoga (until 1703 – Ladoga) is a small village (population about 2,000) located in the Volkhov municipal district of the Leningrad region of Russia. But prior to 1703, Ladoga had a status of a town.

In 2003, the 1250th anniversary of Staraya Ladoga was celebrated and the village was called “the ancient capital of Northern Russia.”

beautiful historic place

Tags: Leningrad oblast

This morning four tugs have taken the cruiser “Aurora” (a famous museum ship in Saint Petersburg) to Kronstadt for dock repairs.

During the repair, the historical parts of the hull and machinery of the ship will be fully preserved. The cruiser will return to the historic berth in 2016. Photos by Mikhail Roskin published in drugoi

one interesting fact

Tags: Saint Petersburg city