April 20, the air base “Chernigovka” located in Primorye was the place of the first demonstration flights of combat helicopters Ka-52 “Alligator” and Mi-8AMTSh.

The audience could see well-coordinated training flights, preflight briefings, organization of the control tower, and preflight preparations of the helicopters. Photos by Smit_Smitty.

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Tags: Primorye krai

Bachatskiy coal open-cast mine, located in Belovo city (Kemerovo oblast) is one of the largest mines of the Kuzbass (total area is about 20 square kilometers, depth – 300 meters). Annual production amounts to more than 8 million 700 thousand tons.

The mine produces fuel for energy and metallurgical industries of Russia and other countries around the world.

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Tags: Kemerovo oblast

Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov, NASA Flight Engineer Dan Burbank and Russian Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin launched on the Russian Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft on November 14, 2011, (November 13 in the United States) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station.

Interesting video about the launch and the last preparations.

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On the territory of Torzhok (small town in Tver oblast) the 344th Training Center of Army Aviation Pilots is located. The center includes the 696th instructors’ helicopters testing regiment. The regiment conducts the testing of all current models and modifications of Russian military helicopters.

Since 1989 there is a helicopter museum on the territory of the center. The unique collection of the museum has 14 machines representing the history of the helicopters in the USSR. Photos by Denis Mokrushin.

Mi-1. The first Soviet helicopter constructed in 1948. It was used for training in flight schools until the mid-1970s.

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Tags: museum · Soviet past · Tver oblast

Wonderful highlights of the Alfa Show 4D, the largest video mapping projection attempted in history presented on Moscow City Day on September 4, 2011 at Vorob’yovy Gory (Sparrow Hills) on the main building of Moscow State University. More than 800,000 people attended the event.

Tags: Moscow city

Welcome to Batkovsko-Olkhovsky peat extraction site located in Yaroslavl oblast of Russia. In 2010 the significant part of the area was flooded. Today it is the cemetery of abandoned peat extraction machinery.

The place has become popular among local fishermen. They are calmly catching the fish living among the drowned tractors and harvesters. It could be a great place to shoot some kind of post apocalyptic movie. Photos by borh_84.

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Tags: Abandoned · Yaroslavl oblast

RadioAstron (Spektr R) is a Russian orbital radio telescope.

It is funded by the Russian Astro Space Center, and was launched into Earth orbit on 18 July 2011, with a perigee of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) and an apogee of 390,000 kilometers (240,000 mi).

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Currently the icebreaker “50 let Pobedy” (“50 years of Victory”) is the largest nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world. Its construction was carried out at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad (later St. Petersburg). The construction began on October 4, 1989.

In 1993, further construction was suspended due to lack of funds. In 2003, the construction was resumed, and, February 1, 2007, the icebreaker went on sea trials, which lasted two weeks. The flag was raised March 23, 2007 and April 11 the icebreaker came to its home port in Murmansk. The estimated maximum thickness of ice that the icebreaker can go through is 2.8 m.

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Tags: Murmansk city

Our first post about Soviet space propaganda received a lot of attention so we decided to make the second part. All the posters are available in high quality (clickable).

Glory to the Fatherland of Heroes!

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Tags: posters · propaganda · Soviet past

Norilsk is a city located in northern part of Krasnoyarsk krai, about 90 km east of the Yenisei River. It is one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Environmental hazard for the population of the city and its surrounding areas is caused by the work of one of the world’s largest mining and, simultaneously, metal making plants.

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Tags: Abandoned · Krasnoyarsk krai · Norilsk city