The peninsula of Kamchatka is a unique mountainous region in Russia. Ecologically pure wildlife attracts more and more tourists, despite the remoteness and inaccessibility of these places. You can get here only by air or by sea.

About one-third of the Kamchatka territory is occupied by specially protected natural sites (reserves, natural parks and monuments). Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

fly over Kamchatka

Tags: Kamchatka krai

Alexandrovsky Park is a park in the State Museum-Reserve “Tsarskoe Selo” located in the city of Pushkin in St. Petersburg, an architectural monument of the 18th-19th centuries.

One of the attractions of the park is the so-called “White Tower” – a pavilion built in the style of a medieval knight castle. Photos by: Dmitriy Gazin.

miniature castle

Tags: Saint Petersburg city

The second part of unique photos taken by Major Martin Manhoff, who spent more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s as an assistant to the military attache in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

The first part of the photos.

View of the Kremlin from Moskvoretskaya Embankment.

Moscow in the early 1950s

Tags: Moscow city · Soviet past

Soviet propaganda was diverse and influenced the minds of people all the time. Let’s see how the image of a woman was used and gradually changed on Soviet posters. Source: humus

Woman! Learn to read and write!
Oh, mother! If you were literate, you could help me! (1923)

Soviet propaganda posters

Tags: propaganda · Soviet past

Yakutsk is the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the third city of the Far Eastern Federal District in terms of population (after Vladivostok and Khabarovsk) and the largest city in the world located in the permafrost zone.

Because of the severe climate, Yakutsk is often called one of the “coldest” cities on Earth. Photos by: Slava Stepanov.

fly over Yakutsk

Tags: Sakha Republic · Yakutsk city

“Teremok” is a historical and architectural complex located in the former estate of the artist and patron of arts M.K. Tenisheva in the village of Flenovo, about 19 kilometers from Smolensk.

At the end of the 19th century, a center of art and enlightenment was established here. The creator of this center, Princess Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva, managed to realize in her estate the ideas of the revival of Russian national art. Flenovo on Google Maps. Photos by: Sergey Rubtsov.

interesting museum complex

Tags: smolensk oblast

Vyborg is a town with a population of about 79,000 people located in the Leningrad region, on the shore of the Vyborg Gulf, in the north-eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, 120 km from St. Petersburg, and 35 km from the border with Finland.

Since 2010, this town, founded in the Middle Ages by the Swedes, is the only historic settlement on the territory of the Leningrad region. Until 1940, it was the second largest town in Finland. Photos by: Dmitriy Gazin.

walk around the town

Tags: Leningrad oblast

Major Martin Manhoff spent more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s. He worked as an assistant to the military attache in the U.S. Embassy, ​​located near Red Square.

Manhoff, being a gifted photographer, shot hundreds of scenes from everyday Soviet life – both in Moscow and in other regions of the USSR.

Construction of the hotel “Ukraina” from the roof of the U.S. Embassy on Novinsky Boulevard. On the left you can see the Church of the Nine Martyrs of Cyzicus (1954).

Moscow in the early 1950s

Tags: Moscow city · Soviet past

Nikola-Lenivets is a village located in the Dzerzhinsky district of the Kaluga region, on the Ugra River.

Today, on the initiative of the artist Nikolai Polissky, Nikola-Lenivets is known as an art park, where you can find an extensive collection of architectural and artistic objects. The festivals “Arhstoyanie” and “Night of New Media” are held here too. Photos by: Alexandr Lipilin.

very unusual place

Tags: Kaluga oblast

Kolomna is a city with a population of about 143 thousand people located about 113 km southeast of Moscow. This is one of the oldest (the first mention in 1177) and the most beautiful cities of the Moscow region.

One of the main attractions of Kolomna is a partially preserved rare monument of ancient Russian defensive architecture – the grandiose Kolomna Kremlin (1525-1531). Photos by: maximus101.

magnificent fortress

Tags: Moscow city · Moskovskaya oblast