The Russian Civil War opened a window of opportunity for Japan. Its ambitions extended not only to the Russian coast of the Pacific Ocean, but to the whole of vast Siberia, too. The large-scale ...

These so-called vory v zakone - or zakonniki (‘Thieves in Law’) are the kings of the criminal underworld. This group of respected bigshots, who control the majority of the criminal world, both in ...

Victor Pelevin, author of the 1999 novel ‘Generation P’, is often referred to as one of the most important writers in modern Russian literature. But, while his wildly imaginative books are a fusion of ...

Emperor Paul I tried to change Russia in one go and forcibly. Although he only wanted the best for the country, his chaotic actions led to disastrous treason, and Paul was murdered. Here are the main ...

Soviet Union, the Congress of Soviets, Soviet of Federation – the word has been and is still widely used in Russia, but what does it exactly mean? During the Soviet times, the USSR was often called ...

During the 70 years of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the number of constituent parts changed, but most of the time there were 15 of them. Here is the list. In the beginning ...

Abortions were banned and legitimized several times through Russian history – and Russia was the first country in the world to fully legalize them in 1920. “It was 1937, and mom became pregnant [with ...

For better or worse, we have all heard of the strong arm of the law. Funnily enough, there’s another strong arm out there, commonly known as the ‘Russian Arm’. And it changed the movie industry as ...

The Bolsheviks were in at the beginning of the Communist movement in China. However, it wasn’t the followers of Mao Zedong who became the USSR’s main allies in the country. In 1949, the Communists won ...

For Western brands, conquering the newly freed market of Russia was akin to the Gold Rush. Soviet people knew little to nothing about the western lifestyle of the people living in the capitalist block ...

Even Queen Elizabeth II has some old pieces of jewelry that once belonged to the Russian royal family. The diamond, emerald and sapphire tiaras of the Romanov dynasty were remarkable for their beauty ...

Russia sells more wheat than any other country in the world. At the same time, its domestic grain consumption is growing, too. So how did Russia manage to achieve this breakthrough in wheat exports?