The population of the Russian Empire for a period of two centuries of its existence was multinational. In 1917, the country had more than 100 nations, not counting the small ethnic groups.

The Slavic peoples (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Bulgarians and others) accounted for about 75% of the population. In 1913, the total population of the country was about 174 million people; 24.5 million lived in the cities.

more historical photos

Tags: Russian Empire

Earlier this year, Russia’s largest airline “Aeroflot” announced a contest “Paint the plane of Aeroflot.” The contest was announced in honor of the 90th anniversary of the company and it was open to everybody.

The winner of the contest was the project of Alexander Sosnovsky, who suggested to paint the plane in the style of Russian folk painting Khokhloma. You can see his design on the picture below.

first photos of repainted aircraft

Tags: No tags

Forests in Moscow region hide a lot of various abandoned buildings and structures. Some buildings are in ruins, but others are hardly affected by time.

Most often you can find abandoned military facilities, academic institutions, and summer camps. In the latter, usually, you can’t see anything unusual, but not in this case. On the territory of one summer camp the following collection of retro cars has been found. Photos by saoirse_2010

explore the abandoned camp

Tags: Abandoned · Moskovskaya oblast

These days are particularly hot in Russia. The temperature in many cities has risen above plus 30 degrees Celsius. It’s a good time to enjoy picturesque scenery of cold Russian winter like the following photos taken in Ugra at the temperature of minus 20 degrees C.

Ugra is the territory in the Northern Urals, between the Pechora River and the Ural mountains. These wooden cabins-yurts belong to the indigenous people of this land – Khanty. Photos by Sergey Anashkevitch

enjoy the snowy winter

Tags: Ural

The Russky (Russian) Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge located in Vladivostok. The bridge connects Nazimov Peninsula and Novosilsky Cape on the Russky Island.

Construction of the bridge started September 3, 2008 as part of the city’s preparations for the APEC summit in 2012. The bridge has the world’s largest span among cable-stayed bridges (1104 meters), and the highest pylons – 324 meters.

Climb to the top of the Russky Bridge

Tags: Vladivostok city

Surgut GRES-2 is the largest thermoelectric power plant in Russia. The station is located in the city of Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District). As of 2012, it is one of the largest thermoelectric power plants in the world in the annual generation and the largest producer of electricity in Russia.

The installed electric capacity is 5,597.1 MW, installed thermal capacity – 840 Gcal/h. The station is working on associated petroleum gas (70%) and natural gas (30%). The height of the pipes is 273 meters. Photos by Vadim Makhorov

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Tags: Khanty-Mansi okrug · Surgut city

August 19, 1963 – the first cosmonauts of the world: Yuri Gagarin, Alexei Leonov, Boris Volynov, Victor Gorbatko.

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Tags: Soviet past

These photos were taken near Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka krai, in 2012. Last winter was not snowy, and the summer was hot. Therefore huge snow piles that never melt reduced in size greatly. As a result, a passage in the snow was opened leading to the cave underneath.

At the entrance to the cave the ceiling is not thick and sunlight breaking through it gives unique beautiful views. As you go further away from the entrance, the arch of the cave becomes thicker, and less sunlight comes through it, but you can still see various bizarre images, both in form and color.

Photo © Denis Budkov

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Tags: Kamchatka krai

The Soviet Union was spending most of its budget on various military purposes, sometimes creating projects with incredible technical characteristics.

In 1987, ekranoplan (ground effect aircraft) “Lun” was constructed – the first aircraft of the series of military missile-carrying ekranoplans weighing 400 tons.

It was armed with three pairs of cruise missiles. Volley of four such missiles is enough to destroy any ship, including the aircraft carrier.

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Tags: Soviet past

Nowadays, in Russia, bears are not only roaming the streets, but also float on the rivers. And this is not just brown bears, but polar ones! Here’s a picture of today that can be seen in Moscow.

A lone polar bear on a small block of ice was floating on the Moscow River in the morning. Rescue officers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations responded on his desperate plea for help.

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Tags: Moscow city