Blagoveshchenye is a small village located near Sergiev Posad in the Moscow region. It is famous for its wooden church that gave its name to the village.

Church of the Annunciation was built in the center of the village at the end of the 17th century. This church is an interesting example of Russian wooden architecture, an important monument of culture and history. It is the oldest monument of wooden architecture of the 17th century in the region. Photos by: Alexander Maretsky.

frosty autumn

Tags: churches · Moskovskaya oblast · Sergiev Posad city

The building of the Admiralty is a complex of buildings located on the 2nd Admiralty Island in St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Neva River. It is an important architectural monument, built in the Empire style.

Originally built as a shipyard, it was reconstructed in the 18th-19th centuries. Since 2012, it houses the High Command of the Russian Navy. Photos by: Yuri Yuhanson.

one of the symbols of St. Petersburg

Tags: Saint Petersburg city

Nizhny Novgorod (often called simply Nizhny) is a city with a population of more than 1 million people located 400 km east of Moscow, the administrative center of the Volga Federal District and Nizhny Novgorod region.

The city, founded in 1221, is located in the center of the East European Plain, at the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers. It is one of the largest centers of river tourism in Russia. The historical part of Nizhny Novgorod is rich in tourist attractions, it is an important tourist center. Photos by: Stepanov Slava.

explore the city

Tags: Nizhny Novgorod city

Kronstadt Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Saint Petersburg was built on the project of the outstanding Russian architect V.A. Kosyakov as the main church of the Russian Navy in 1903-1913. On the memorial plaques installed inside the church, you can see the names of sailors who died in the line of duty.

Originally, the cathedral had richly decorated exterior and interior. In Soviet times, it was closed (1929) and was used as a movie theater, and later – as a club. Unfortunately, almost all historical decoration was lost.

beautiful historic interior

Tags: churches · Saint Petersburg city

St. Petersburg is a city with a population of over 5 million people located in the northwest of Russia, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, at the mouth of the Neva River.

The city was founded by the first Russian emperor Peter I in 1703. From 1712 to 1918, it was the capital of the Russian Empire. Let’s see how St. Petersburg looked like during the time of its greatest prosperity – in the late 19th century. Photos source: humus.

The Alexander Column and the Winter Palace.

back to the past

Tags: Saint Petersburg city

Murmansk is a city with a population of about 300 thousand people located in the northwest of Russia, the administrative center of Murmansk oblast.

Murmansk is the world’s largest city located north of the Arctic Circle. The city stretches more than 20 km along the rocky eastern coast of the Kola Bay, 50 km from the open sea (the Barents Sea).

Murmansk from above

Tags: Murmansk city

Kalacheevskaya Cave, a unique structure built in the chalk hill, is located on the right bank of the Tolucheevka River (the left tributary of the Don River), in the town of Kalach, Voronezh oblast.

It is the longest cave in the region. The total length of the cave is about 1 km. The cave was probably created in the 18th-19th centuries, it was used as an underground monastery. Photos by: vmulder.

let’s go underground

Tags: Voronezh oblast

November 18, 2014, one of the mines of “Uralkali” company, located near the town of Solikamsk in the Perm region, was flooded, all workers were evacuated. A little bit later, a huge sinkhole was found on the territory, occupied by garden plots of local residents. At that time, the hole in the ground had a diameter of 30 meters.

Over the past nine months, the sinkhole greatly expanded and its current size is 120×125 meters. The following photos were taken in August 2015. Solikamsk sinkhole from space.

the sinkhole becomes bigger and bigger

Tags: Perm krai

Karabash is a small town with a population of about 12 thousand people located in the southern Urals, in the Chelyabinsk region, about 90 km from Chelyabinsk. This town is one of the largest copper smelting centers in Russia, known for its severe environmental situation.

Large quantities of pollutants, mainly gases, are generated during the production of copper from copper ore. All these gases were being released into the atmosphere without cleaning for decades.

the place of ecological disaster

Tags: Chelyabinsk oblast

Mutnovsky volcano is an active volcano (2322 meters) located in the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, 80 km south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The area around the volcano is one of the toughest in Kamchatka. Most of the year powerful cyclones are raging here, bringing huge amounts of snow. Snow depth sometimes reaches 15 meters, and summer lasts for less than 2 months.

take a walk on the volcano

Tags: Kamchatka krai · landscapes