Photographer Svetlana Tarasova takes us to the heart of Russia: Kaluga. Here, along the Oka River,  the Russian space program began. 

The Soviet Union’s first pair of pups launched into space on July 22, 1951, and their suborbital flight was a big pawprint in the Cold War Space Race.​

30 years ago today, the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant had a meltdown: "Flames, sparks, and chunks of burning material went flying... These were red-hot pieces of nuclear fuel and graphite..."

Yury Gagarin’s 108-minute space flight on April 12, 1961, propelled him to a level of celebrity never before known to any Soviet. His smiling face graced postal stamps, Palekh souvenir boxes, and fine porcelain, as he mingled with the beau monde of planet Earth.

Thirty years ago tomorrow, the Mir Space Station was launched. It was a technological wonder of its time.

What do radio, television, the periodic table, and helicopters have in common? Russians were involved in developing all of them – and more!

July 14, 1896, is celebrated as the birthday of the Russian automobile – on this day, the first Russian-built motorcar with an internal combustion engine was introduced to the public at the Arts Exhibition in Nizhni Novgorod. 
 

American bees are dying from mysterious causes, putting our agriculture at risk for lack of pollinators. Russian bees might be part of a solution.

English text of the 1972 Antilballistic Missile Treaty between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Notes on the 1972 ABM Treaty.

A massive landslide destroys the Valley of the Geysers on June 4, 2007.

In the May/June 2007 issue of Russian Life, Mikhail Ivanov's column on the use of "zero," "null," etc. in Russian slang got us wondering: just when and how was the concept and notation of zero introduced into Russian. We could find nothing in our printed references or anywhere online. So we polled some experts. Below we reprint two excellent replies we received.