The Holy Dormition Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery is one of the largest and most famous monasteries in Russia with a long history.

This is one of the most valuable and interesting historical and architectural complexes in the country. It is located on the south-eastern outskirts of the town of Pechora in the Pskov region, near the border with Estonia. Pskov-Caves Monastery on Google Maps. Photos by: Denis Spirin.

explore the fortress-monastery

Tags: Pskov oblast

Of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North, the Nenets are the most numerous. According to the 2010 census, the total number of the Nenets people living in Russia was 44,640, of which 29,772 were living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, part of the Tyumen region.

Let’s look at some scenes from their life in winter, when the temperature ranges from minus 20 to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Photos by: Petr Ushanov.

visit the Nenets

Tags: Tyumen oblast · Yamalo-Nenets okrug

Staritsa, founded in 1297, is a small town with a population of about 8,000 people located in the Tver region, 65 km south-west of Tver. There are several churches and estates in the town and its surroundings.

One of the most interesting churches is the complex of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – unique in its appearance. Staritsa on Google Maps. Photos by: Dmitriy Gazin.

picturesque abandoned church

Tags: churches · Tver oblast

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