The federal highway R256 “Chuysky Trakt” (968 km), the oldest route from Siberia to Asia, begins in Novosibirsk and ends at the border with Mongolia, passing through the territory of the Novosibirsk region, the Altai krai and the Altai Republic.

In 2014, National Geographic magazine included the Chuya Highway in the list of the 10 most beautiful highways in the world. Photos by: Alexey Zhirukhin.

take a ride

Tags: Altai krai · Altay Republic · Novosibirsk oblast

Kolomna, founded in 1177, is one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the Moscow region located about 100 km south-east of Moscow.

One of the architectural landmarks of Kolomna is the Church of St. John the Apostle built in 1733-1756. In 1826-1846, a new five-tiered bell tower in the Empire style was built. Today, this 67 meters high bell tower still remains one of the tallest buildings in the city. Church of St. John the Apostle on Google Maps. Photos by: Vladimir Dar.

very elegant church

Tags: churches · Moscow city · Moskovskaya oblast

This year, several dozen holiday venues are open in Moscow to celebrate the New Year 2019. Let’s take a look at how the very center of Moscow (Red and Manezhnaya squares) is decorated for the New Year holidays and still relatively free of celebrating people. Photos by: Stanislav Konstantinov.

New Year in Moscow

Tags: Moscow city

The Guinness World Records has been collecting extreme records around the world since its inception in 1955. The following are the records held by Russian people and institutions.

World’s Tallest Photo Model

Ekaterina Lisina, formerly a basketball player, is the tallest photo model in the world. She was inducted into the Guinness World records in September last year. Ekaterina is 2.05 meters tall. Another record held by Lisina is having the longest legs on earth. Her lower body measures a staggering 1.32 meter tall.

Russia – the country of records

Tags: No tags

Tobolsk, the center of the development of Siberia founded in 1587, is a city with a population of about 100 thousand people located in the north of the Tyumen region, at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers.

In the past, it was the capital of the Siberian province – one of the largest in the Russian Empire. Today, Tobolsk is one of the most important centers of educational tourism in Siberia and a major industrial center of Russia in the field of gas chemistry. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

fly over the former capital of Siberia

Tags: Tobolsk city · Tyumen oblast

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

Yekaterinburg (from 1924 to 1991 – Sverdlovsk) is a city with a population of about 1.5 million people, the administrative center of the Ural Federal District and the Sverdlovsk region, the fourth largest city of Russia.

Located on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals, along the banks of the Iset River, it was founded as an ironworks in 1723 and named after Empress Catherine I. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

fly over Yekaterinburg

Tags: Ekaterinburg city · Sverdlovsk oblast

A Storied Start

Russia is a large, ancient, and cultured country that has been a main player in the history of the world for a long time. The Russian Empire did not start as large and powerful as it is today. It all started with the Eastern Slavs, a group of loosely banded together groups. The Eastern Slavs became the first state of its kind in 882. The group grew even larger in 988 when it adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine Empire was a very influential and powerful civilization dating all the way back to 330 A.D. The empire was born when Emperor Constantine, a psychopathic politician, created a “New Rome” on an old Byzantine colony. While Rome itself would collapse before 500 A.D., the eastern half would continue on for another 1,000 years. This is how even ancient Rome influenced the rise of Russia.

Ancient Russians at Dnieper by Nicholas Roerich.

turbulent history of Russia

Tags: No tags

Kolomna is a city with a population of about 140 thousand people located in the south of the Moscow region, about 113 km southeast of the center of Moscow. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the region.

The city has a rare monument of old Russian defensive architecture – the Kolomna Kremlin. Its main attraction is the Assumption Cathedral (1672-1682), the main cathedral of Kolomna. Photos by: Vladimir Dar.

beautiful cathedral

Tags: churches · Moscow city · Moskovskaya oblast

Given there’s such an abundance of things to see and do in Russia, one interesting way to explore this massive country is to add a theme to your visit. For those of us who are passionate about classic literature, this is a land which has inspired some of the greatest classic authors and their works, providing us with an opportunity to visit locations that undoubtedly inspired their writings.

Considered one of the greatest psychologists in world literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky is perhaps best known for his 1866 masterwork, Crime and Punishment, or subsequent novels such as The Idiot published in 1869 and Demons in 1872. Many of his great works offer an unrivaled view of life in Tsarist Russia during the mid-to-late 19th century, shaped by the environment in which he lived and worked, along with the social and political landscape of the era.

In this article, we take a look at key locations in Russia where Dostoevsky is fondly remembered, which inevitably helped formulate the great literary works for which he is renowned.

Image source

one of the greatest Russian writers

Tags: No tags