Ah, the irony! I stumbled by chance in this (at least to my eyes) very typical Russian scene. On the background you can see a large mural on the side of a house depicting the writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with one of his famous quotes: “Live not by lies!” This is actually the... Continue Reading →
The Russian people have a lot of space. Not just because their country is the largest in the world, with almost 11% of the world's land mass, but also because the population density of 8.4 people per square Km (or 21.8 per square mile) is one of the lowest, by far the lowest of ant... 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 →
Today, June 12, is Russia Day. The day when the nation celebrates its independence, the beginning of a new era after the dissolution of the USSR in 1990. An independence gained without firing a single shot, quite a remarkable achievement. Some shots were fired, but that actually happened a little over a year afterwards, in... Continue Reading →
Like it or not, McDonalds and Russia have a long history. The American fast food chain actually opened its first restaurant in Moscow a couple of years before Russia was even an independent country. Here you can read the full story of McUSSR – The first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union. Nowadays there are about... 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 →
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about the surreal views you can get in Saint Petersburg during the navigation period on the Neva (from April to November), when 22 bridges across the river and main canals are drawn at night to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea and right through... Continue Reading →
The other day I was walking by a recently constructed apartment building. Like most new residential construction, it has a playground for the children who are going to be living in those apartments. What caught my eye is the "decoration" that was chosen for the playground. As you can see in the picture above, there... 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 