A decade before the fall of tsarism, a little-known auction was held to sell off some of the crown jewels. Was it rigged?

Alexander Podgorchuk takes us to Russia's westernmost city, Kaliningrad.

On February 23, 1917 the Revolution came to Petrograd. The Tsar abdicated and a long year of turmoil and political upheaval lie ahead...

Accomplished photographer Dmitry Markov takes us on a tour of Pskov, "Where Russia Begins."

Teacher Ilona Isayeva shares with us some of the charms of Kandalaksha, a small industrial town on the White Sea.

Journalist Irina Mordasova and photographer Konstantin Chalabov give us a tour of Veliky Novgorod, a history lover's paradise.

In 1865, vodka joined bears and matryoshkas as an eternal symbol of Russia. Here's how it happened, plus nine trivia tidbits on Russia's most beloved, harmful, and historical libation. 

Photographer Anton Karliner explains why trains, a metro bridge, and World War II have a place in Novosibirsk history.

Today marks the 185th birthday of the artist Ivan Shishkin, whose paintings evoke Russia's beauty and vastness. With a nickname like "Forest Tsar," his trees must be good.

We mined our website's log to see which blog posts were most popular with visitors last year. Here's the list.

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

A tour of ten distinctive Moscow monuments that goes a long way to summarizing the state of the art in Russia today.