The “Battle on the Ice” where Alexander Nevsky, a Russian prince, defeated the knights of the Livonian Order, is considered a milestone in Russian history. We explain this, and other important facts ...

The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was the trusty rearguard of the USSR both in peacetime and in war. It was here that the country's industrial potential was cultivated, nuclear weapons were tested, ...

These so-called vory v zakone - or zakonniki (‘Thieves in Law’) are the kings of the criminal underworld. This group of respected bigshots, who control the majority of the criminal world, both in ...

The Russian royal family had numerous palaces, mansions and dachas (summer houses) throughout Russia (and what is now, in some cases, abroad) and many of them are veritable architectural masterpieces.

Everything you wanted to know about the USSR’s notorious security apparatus. From its inception and until the end of the Soviet Union, the KGB was a prominent force in Soviet politics and society. Its ...

The Alexeyev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital was built to give mentally ill people help, peace and quiet, instead of old and cruel treatment measures. As Moscow grew, the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital (the ...

Some movies are like vintage Polaroid images. They perfectly capture the fleeting moment while it’s there. We’ve picked up several Soviet masterpieces that were filmed in the late 1980s and captured ...

Conflict, comedy, drama, engaging characters, fatherless children and ideal love — some Soviet movies depicted the relations between men, women, parents and other family members better than a thousand ...

Why is its color red? What does the ‘hammer and sickle’ emblem represent? And what about the five-pointed star? Red flags and banners have been used by rioters, protesters and insurgents since ancient ...

Green eyes, a large nose and big tufted ears - social media users have used a photo of a cat named ‘Big Floppa’ to create memes, doctored images, T-shirts, statuettes and even mobile phone apps. In ...

Abortions were banned and legitimized several times through Russian history – and Russia was the first country in the world to fully legalize them in 1920. “It was 1937, and mom became pregnant [with ...

There is no shortage of sporting greats in the Soviet and Russian pantheon, but one world record-breaking finswimmer literally earned his hero’s badge by risking his life twice to save more than 20 ...