Views of Sochi, five years after the close of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in that southern city.

Revolutions, including that Great October one, are not a popular topic in Russia today. Nonetheless, we take a photo feature look at how 1917 shaped Russia’s northern capital.

It wasn’t easy being a photojournalist in the Soviet era. Here are five gifted artists you should know, with samples of their work and tales from their lives.

Maria Gruzdeva traveled for several years in Russia’s borderlands, gathering photos and stories. She has now compiled it all in a book, and gives us a taste.

In a small village in northwest Russia, Nadia Sablin spent seven summers capturing evocative photos of her dear Russian aunts. It is a stunning portrait of their generation and the countryside.

Mikhail Mordasov has been traveling all over Crimea since the annexation last spring. He shares this moving photo feature.

Photographer Dmitry Ryzhkov captures extraordinary moments of ordinary Russians on the streets of Moscow. Sometimes it gets him into trouble.

Perched on the rocky cliffs of California's Pacific coast is Fort Ross, a National Park commemorating the southernmost point of Russian colonial settlement in the Americas. Each July, thousands flock to the Fort for an annual celebration.

Photographer Mike Buscher spent two months riding the Trans-Siberian railway and brings us this photo essay.

It takes a trained eye to see the uncommon beauty of common things in any city, particularly one beseiged by tourists and dusty with the detritus of a failed empire. A photo feature with some literary interludes.