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 ...

Crowns were usually made individually for each emperor and then broken up afterwards. But some pieces of imperial regalia did survive and can now be seen in museums. Before Peter I, the Tsar's most ...

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 ...

In old Russia, the steam bath, aka ‘banya’, was a place where people washed themselves, while these days, it’s rather a popular attraction, especially among foreigners. Let’s take a peek at what it ...

Many international car companies not only assemble their vehicles in Russia, but also modify them specifically for local drivers. In Russia, every third resident has their own vehicle. At the ...

Many people dream of making a journey on the world's longest railway, but spending nearly seven days looking out of the train window at the melancholic landscape and endless taiga is not easy. We ...

Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets, Soviet of Federation – the word has been and is still widely used in Russia, but what does it exactly mean? During the Soviet times, the USSR was often called ...

During the 70 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number of constituent parts changed, but most of the time there were 15 of them. Here is the list. In the beginning ...

Every Russian has his own “secret” recipe to make meat tender and juicy. Impress your friends at the next shashlik party! One of the most Russian things in summer is to gather friends and relatives at ...

The Soviet ‘Leniniana’ of 1910s-1980s combines an enormous amount of images of the revolutionary leader. Just the Lenin museum alone contains 470 paintings featuring him. Let’s take a look at how the ...

Some saw him as a charlatan, others a “saint”, who foretold the fall of the Russian Empire shortly before his own death. His descendants had had to live in the shadow of the ‘tsarist monk’ for years ...

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 ...