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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Two people are enjoying a relaxed evening swim in the Black Sea. The setting sun has been warming up the water for the whole day and it is the perfect moment to enjoy it. The year is 2019 and the sea is calm, friendly and easily accessible to all. The situation was very, very different... Continue Reading →
One of the most bizarre and short lived military campaign in the history of Russia was the plan to try to conquer India in 1801. Russia and Britain were allied during the French Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s. In 1799 they even attempted to invade the Netherlands together. When this operation failed, the Russian Emperor Paul I... Continue Reading →
How do you give the example and show the masses that bourgeois tendencies are irreconcilable with Socialism, with a proletarian dictatorship and with Communism? Apparently, you dump the Benz and buy yourself a Rolls Royce. At least, that is what Vladimir Lenin, the father of the Russian Revolution did in 1922. Let's take a step... Continue Reading →
The 9th of May is a very important and heartfelt day in Russia. It's called Victory day and it's the day when the country commemorates the surrender of Nazis in 1945. The signing of the German Instrument of Surrender actually happened in Berlin, late in the evening on 8 May 1945 (thus after midnight, already on 9 May Moscow Time).... Continue Reading →
I've always been fascinated (and a bit shocked, at first) to see how Russian cities still have active power plants right in the middle of the city, often in nice, upscale, residential neighborhoods. This is not a case of a city "growing around" industrial buildings that were, once, in the outskirts or even in the... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 