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 →
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 →
In my previous post I mentioned how expensive renting or buying a house or an apartment in Moscow can be. Today I want to focus on how rewarding it might be, though. Let's pretend money is not an issue. What is the best of the best of the best you can buy in Moscow, real... Continue Reading →
Deep, deep under the Victory park (Park Pobedy in Russian) on Poklonnaya Hill, lays's Moscow Metro's deepest station. At 84 meters underground, according to the official figures, it is the deepest metro station in Moscow and and the third deepest in the world by mean depth, after Kiev Metro's Arsenalna and Saint Petersburg Metro's Admiralteyskaya, and the very deepest station by... Continue Reading →
In Russia it is often the case that the museums themselves (meaning the buildings where they are housed) are as beautiful and as interesting, if not more, than the artwork they display. One of such examples is, I think, the State Historical Museum of Russia in Moscow. Housed in one of Russia's most recognisable structures, wedged... Continue Reading →
Every year the Russian capital spares no expenses when it come to Christmas lights. This has been particularly true since 2015, with the first Moscow Christmas light festival. That first year the festival comprised 100 km of garlands and 8,000 different decorative elements, along with 20 luminous art objects by famed international artists. The festival has steadily... Continue Reading →
Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov was a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov Gallery. The Moscow merchant acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection, which might later grow into a museum of national art. He started collecting art in the middle of 1850. The founding year of the Tretyakov Gallery is considered to be... Continue Reading →
A well eradicated habit in Russian culture is that of rubbing bronze statues. Those, which are not meant to be rubbed are cordoned-off, but sometimes even that is not enough to deter people from rubbing with their hands the feet of religious statues in churches. Besides a general "good luck" a lot of statues apparently... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 