Ever wonder why Soviet houses looked so drab, colorless, and interchangeable? It all started with Nikita Khrushchev's battle against architectural excess, and continues to plague Russia to this day.

Sergei Merkurov created some of the Soviet Union’s most iconic sculptures. But he also had a shadow profession: casting death masks of the elite.

Catherine II's desire for legitimacy and her gratitude for the healing of her heir (the future Paul I), led to the founding of Moscow's Pavlov Hospital for the poor.

A look back at the spat between the USSR and China over liberalization and reform, with a poetic interlude offered by Vladimir Vysotsky.

Today I stumbled across an interesting article online. At first I thought it should be filed in the "someone is trying to stir the Cold War pot again" but then I read on...

A look back at the first person ever to perform an aerial loop in an airplane, Pyotr Nesterov.

In October 1867, with the stroke of a pen, Russian America became Alaska. But what happened to the Russian colonists and children of Russian colonists for whom this land was home?

In 2005 Anton Orlov stumbled across a collection of photographs that had barely seen the light of day for 80 years. For the next seven years, he was consumed by a quest to reveal the life story of the man who built the collection.

In 1903, unnoticed by few, a little group of radicals had a meeting in London that was to alter the face of the 20th century.

In July 2003, the Krylya (Wings) Rock Festival was held for the fourth time at the Tushino Airfield outside Moscow.

In the early 1800s, while Napoleon raged in Europe, a German doctor and a local chieftan hatched an audacious plan: claim the Hawaiian islands for Russia.

A look back 100 years ago, at the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Romanov rule. Few would have guessed from these celebrations, that the tsar had just four years to rule.