In 1466, some 30 years before Columbus arrived in America, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin left his hometown of Tver on a commercial trip to India. Travelling to distant countries in the middle of the XV century was actually even harder than in the "Covid months" of 2020 and it would take Nikitin a staggering three years to reach... Continue Reading →
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, or the Great Patriotic war, as it is known in Russia, with the signing of unconditional surrender of the Nazis (the German Instrument of Surrender ). And, yet, today there will be no public gathering or celebratory parade or march in Russia. This is not... Continue Reading →
Exactly 30 years ago today, on December 3rd 1989, the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the US President George Bush (father) made a truly historic joint news conference on board the Soviet cruise ship Maxim Gorky, during the Malta Summit and officially declared an end to the Cold War. The Malta summit has being... Continue Reading →
Today, December 1st, is the first day of Winter in Russia. The Russian winter is known to be cold, very cold. So much so that the expressions General Winter, General Frost, or General Snow refer to the harsh winter climate as a contributing factor to the military failures of several invasions of Russia. This year, though, it could turn out... Continue Reading →
Today, the 1st of September, is the first day of Autumn in Russia. Contrary to North America and most of Western Europe, where the Fall season begins on the 21st of the month, in line with the with the September equinox (21 to 24 September), in Russia Autumn, like all four seasons, begins with the... Continue Reading →
In many cities with hundred or sometimes thousand years of history, modern skyscrapers have started mushrooming around historical buildings and monuments, often creating interesting and unexpected contrasts. In this case, though, Russia is once again a little "different" as looks can be very deceiving when trying to guess the age of what you are seeing.... Continue Reading →
I don't want to know what you were thinking about, but I am obviously referring to the erection (the action of erecting) of a monument, more specifically the The Alexander Column (Russian: Алекса́ндровская коло́нна) in Saint Petersburg, to erect which vodka played an indispensable role! The Alexsandrovskaya Kolonna (also the "Pillar of Alexandria" , according to Alexander Pushkin’s... Continue Reading →
Just a few hundred meters away from Murmansk's largest monument ( the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War) sits what is probably the city's smallest and undoubtedly the cutest. In 2013 the inhabitants of Murmansk were called to cast their preference for a new monument to be put on the shores... Continue Reading →
Exactly 50 years ago today, at 02:56 UTC July 21, 1969, an American named Neil Armstrong took "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" and set his left boot on the lunar surface. Why was the first man on the moon an American and not a Russian, when the Soviet Union was the... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 