The weather in Russia this week was chilly with a hint of thaw, at least regarding science and political relations.

Time got a little bit wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey as Russia traveled to the future, to the past, and back to the present (and all in one week)!

The Tretyakov Gallery has completed restoration of a defining artwork of the Russian avant-garde: the ornithopter, or flying machine, created by Vladimir Tatlin in 1932.

A round-up of some of the latest news from Russia.

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. 
 

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