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 →
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 →
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 →
In the last few weeks the world watched in amazement (with a potent mix of fascination and horror) HBO's new series Chernobyl, which tells the story of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion in Pripyat, Ukraine, at the time part of the Soviet Union. The series received almost universal acclaim, both because of the... Continue Reading →
I've got good news and bad news. Bad news first: if you are looking for a post on the delicious beluga caviar, this is not it. The good news, on the other hand are that this is another incredible, but true! story (about Soviet icebreakers and beluga whales) and that if you are still thinking... Continue Reading →
If you haven't already done so, please read Part I and Part II of this incredible, yet absolutely true story before proceeding. No one would have ever thought to look for a deserter in a secret military base. And no one did. Pyotr slept through the day and when the sun set he again got... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 