At the beginning of the 17th century, the Poles had a chance to crush their main rival and become the ruler of Eastern Europe.

Muzhiki are the most widespread caste in the Russian penal colony system. Unlike the blatniyeh, these guys are not professional criminals or regular prison guests. Members of this caste end up in ...

Crowns were usually made individually for each emperor and then broken up afterwards. But some pieces of imperial regalia did survive and can now be ...

Everything you wanted to know about the USSR’s notorious security apparatus. From its inception and until the end of the Soviet Union, the KGB was a prominent force in Soviet politics and ...

Many international car companies not only assemble their vehicles in Russia, but also modify them specifically for local drivers.

The Alexeyev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital was built to give mentally ill people help, peace and quiet, instead of old and cruel treatment measures.

Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets, Soviet of Federation – the word has been and is still widely used in Russia, but what does it exactly mean?

During the 70 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number of constituent parts changed, but most of the time there were 15 of them. Here is the list.

Nazi Germany and its allies sought to destroy the Soviet population on a monstrous scale. Thousands of towns and villages in the USSR were completely ...

The contents of the tomb were embedded in ice. As the archaeologists carefully melted the ice, they saw a burial of some very important person – six horses in full harnesses were sacrificed and ...

The most famous military photoreporter of the USSR, Yevgeny Khaldei (1917-1997), photographed pilots, paratroopers, infantrymen and submariners — he was there by their side throughout WWII. He ...

Russian church architecture is very diverse, and the look of Orthodox churches has changed over the centuries. However, their domes serve as an ...