Nuclear icebreakers
Arktika, the second nuclear-powered icebreaker made by the Soviet Union, was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
Category: North & Central Asia
Return to the Winter Palace
In 1917 Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Three years later, more than a thousand actors, circus performers, and ballet dancers stormed it again.
Statue graveyards
When politicians’ historical crimes catch up with them, what happens to their statues?
Siberian monstrators
When is a protest not a protest? In Russia, when it’s a performance art parody of a protest. But that still didn’t stop the Russian government from overreacting.
Sheep fruit
Behold the fabulous creatures of myth and legend! The dragon, the phoenix, the basilisk, the roc, the unicorn… and the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?
Largest bell
The Tsar Bell in Moscow is the largest extant bell in the world – but it has never been rung.
The horseback kissing game
The Turkic sport kyz kuu involves a man, a woman, two horses, a kiss, and a whip.
The pictures of Pictures at an Exhibition
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky composed Pictures at an Exhibition based on a journey through his late friend’s art exhibit – but what happened to the pictures?
Shallowest sea
The Sea of Azov, between Ukraine and Russia, is never more than fourteen metres deep. Parts of the sea are shallow enough to wade across.
Flying submarine
In the mid-20th century, several countries had plans to construct a flying submarine.
Sweat genes are made of this
The human gene ABCC11 determines whether your sweat smells bad or not. It also determines whether your earwax is wet or dry.
Blue lava
The sides of Kawa Ijen, a volcano in Indonesia, are wreathed in blue flame.
Rachmaninoff’s All by Myself
The Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff has a songwriter credit for the power ballad “All by Myself.”
Time zone tripoints
At several points around the world, three time zones meet.
Oldest carpet
A prehistoric Scythian tomb in Siberia contained the oldest surviving carpet in the world.
Most consonants, fewest vowels
Ubykh, an extinct language spoken on the shores of the Black Sea, has more consonants and fewer vowels than almost any other language.