Arkhangelsk in northern Russia

4 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Arkhangelsk © Ларин Андрей/cc-by-sa-2.5

Arkhangelsk © Ларин Андрей/cc-by-sa-2.5

Arkhangelsk, sometimes Archangel, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the north of Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea. The city spreads for over 40 kilometers (25 mi) along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the chief seaport of medieval Russia until 1703. A 1,133-kilometer (704 mi) long railway goes from Arkhangelsk to Moscow via Vologda and Yaroslavl. The city is also served by the Talagi Airport and a smaller Vaskovo Airport. The population is at 349,000.   read more…

Kyzyl, capital of the Tuva Republic

1 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

The Center of Asia monument © Dr.A.Hugentobler/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Center of Asia monument © Dr.A.Hugentobler/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kyzyl is the capital city of the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia. The name of the city means “red” in Tuvan (as well as in many other Turkic languages) with a population of 110,000. The population of Tuva is at 308,000. Forests, mountains, and steppe make up a large part of the geography. Tos-Bulak is the area of open fields and mineral springs which lies immediately south of Kyzyl. It is the location of the Naadam festival (15 August), the Tuvan Republic Day, where various competitions such as horseriding and khuresh (wrestling) are held.   read more…

Theme Week Russia

14 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  583 minutes

Moscow International Business Center © flickr.com - Deensel/cc-by-2.0

Moscow International Business Center © flickr.com – Deensel/cc-by-2.0

Russia is a country in Eastern Europe with a vast expanse of territory that stretches across Northern Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), it is the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, spanning eleven time zones, and bordering 18 sovereign nations. About 146.79 million people live in the country’s 85 federal subjects (including the disputed Crimea and Sevastapol) as of 2019, making Russia the ninth most populous nation in the world and the most populous nation in Europe. Russia’s capital and largest city is Moscow; other major urban areas include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Chelyabinsk.   read more…

Volgograd in southern Russia

13 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© www.volganet.ru/cc-by-sa-3.0

© www.volganet.ru/cc-by-sa-3.0

Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn, 1589–1925, and Stalingrad, 1925–1961, is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast. It is 80 kilometers (50 mi) long, north to south. It is situated on the western bank of the Volga River. The population is 1,021,000.   read more…

Theme Week Russia – Murmansk on the Arctic Circle

16 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

K-322 Cachalot, a Russian Northern Fleet AKULA class nuclear-powered attack submarine underway on the surface © US Navy

K-322 Cachalot, a Russian Northern Fleet AKULA class nuclear-powered attack submarine underway on the surface
© US Navy

Murmansk is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, an inlet of the Barents Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, close to the Russia’s borders with Norway and Finland. Despite its extreme northern location above the Arctic Circle, Murmansk tends to be nearly the same as any other Russian city of its size, featuring highway and railway access to the rest of Europe, a railway station, and the northernmost trolleybus system on Earth.   read more…

Theme Week Moscow – The Seven Sisters

3 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  13 minutes

The Seven Sisters are a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style. The term “Seven Sisters” is neither used nor understood by the local population, Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki, meaning “(Stalin’s) high-rises” (or “Stalinist skyscrapers”). They were built from 1947 to 1953, in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles, and the technology used in building American skyscrapers.

Lomonosov Moscow State University - main building © Georg Dembowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

Lomonosov Moscow State University – main building © Georg Dembowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

  read more…

The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg

3 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Winter Palace at night © Robert Breuer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. Beside the Louvre and the Prado, Hermitage Museum houses one of the most important collections of classical European art.   read more…

Anapa on the Black Sea

31 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Port of Anapa © flickr.com - Alexxx Malev/cc-by-sa-2.0

Port of Anapa © flickr.com – Alexxx Malev/cc-by-sa-2.0

Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai in Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. Population: 59,000, up from 55,000 in 1990. The Town Theater of Anapa is located on Krymskaya Street. It was opened after the reconstruction of the Town Cultural Center. There are twenty nine public libraries including four for children. In 2010 the libraries of Anapa received more than 8,000 books, and magazines and newspapers were ordered costing more than 1,000,000 roubles, in addition, nine hundred CDs were purchased. There is museum of Local History on Protapova Street.   read more…

Krasnoyarsk on Yenisei River

29 October 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Riverport © E.doroganich/cc-by-sa-3.0

Riverport © E.doroganich/cc-by-sa-3.0

Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk and Omsk, with a population of 1,035,000. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia’s largest producers of aluminium. The city is notable for its nature landscapes; author Anton Chekhov judged Krasnoyarsk to be the most beautiful city in Siberia.   read more…

Return to TopReturn to Top