A small garden on the Universitetskaya Embankment can be considered a typical example of St. Petersburg "garden", survived among stone thickets. On the other part, it is spacious enough (if compared with Yekaterina's model "Katkin Sadik" garden and the like), original, time-tested, and located in a place that cannot be passed by.

A garden in front of the Admiralty, right in the heart of the city, looks little resembling to a natural oasis. Alexander Garden is a wide boulevard with very old trees, benches and a fountain in the middle.

If one chooses the next most famous garden after the Summer, it still would not be Mikhailovsky, but younger and more remote Tavrichesky.

Usually when someone hears «gardens of St. Petersburg», the first thing he or she remembers is Summer Garden and suburban parks. However, let's try to take a walk over other, no less significant historical gardens of St. Petersburg, the oasis of aristocratic beauty in the bustling center of northern capital. Mikhailovsky Garden is the nearest neighbor and relative of the Summer Garden.

The Princess of Ukok (aka Siberian Ice Maiden) is an amazing find that archeologists unearthed at the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains and become known all around Russia and the world.

As is well-known, birchbark manuscripts are both material and manuscript historical source at the same time. After all it is not only the place where they were found, but also their contents that matters for the history.

The Russian Coat of Arms is one of the major state symbols of Russia, along with the flag and the anthem. When renamed from the RSFSR into the Russian Federation on December 25, 1991, the country reinstated its old pre-revolutionary coat of arms depicting a two-headed eagle. The roots of this symbol are what we tackle upon in this article.

"We demand peace!" – the sculptural composition by Vera Mukhina – was solemnly unveiled in Moscow’s Muzeon Park. This unique monument from the Soviet era has not been demonstrated to spectators for more than twenty years.

Borodino Battle is known as the largest battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 between the Russian and French armies; the battle that involved 250 thousand people took place on September 7 (August 26) 1812 at the Village of Borodino, 125 km to the west of Moscow.

There are a lot of funny jokes dedicated to Russian people and life in Russia. But only a small number of them can be joined into the whole trend with its own rules and history. "In Soviet Russia" or "The Russian Reversal" is just that unique trend. It was created for describing another, "Red" Russia, but was given a new birth our days.

The season of 2010 became extremely rich for Russian archeologists, who made a great many of surprising and really unique finds. 36 expeditions that worked in Russia and abroad made a number of stunning discoveries, which changed historians’ notions about the past.

Recently Russian government has introduced another official memorable date – the Day of Christening of Russia that is to be marked on July, 28th. The new holiday, however, is not a day off for Russians. So, what is it all about, this date?

Archeology as scientific study of objective historical monuments was well established in Russia not until the 19th century. Describing and collecting archeological monuments, however, started much earlier: relics of religious significance were kept in church vestries, whereas various antique valuables were gathered in tsars’ treasuries.

By the time of adopting Christianity the Old Rus’ was already good at wooden sculpture, moulding, and embossing. As for architecture, it surely existed, but it is hardly possible to say now at what stage of development it was, since not a single monument of the pre-Christian epoch has survived: something did not stand the test of time, while the major part was presumably destroyed by people.

From times immemorial bells were treated in quite a special way in Old Rus. Many tales and legends would tell about bells’ supernatural abilities, such as foretelling and averting danger.

On August 19-22, 1991, a group of high political and military officials from the USSR and the Communist party conservative leaders tried to seize power and stop the reforms. These actions became known as the August coup, the event that led to revolts in Moscow, Leningrad, and some other cities. Aimed at stopping the reforms, the coup only proved that the USSR was definitely heading towards disintegration.

It was inevitable that the confrontation between the Communist regime and the Western democracies would become especially tense when the mutual enemy was destroyed. The situation led towards a long period of ideological antagonism from 1946 till 1991 - the Cold War. The confrontation was headed by two opposing countries – the Soviet Union and the United States. Each Superpower fought for the ideological control over different nations in almost all parts of the world.

The Bolsheviks formed a new government and at last made reality such a long awaited promise as the war end (1918). According to the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Russia lost a range of territories including those in Poland, Finland, Ukraine, and Baltic lands. But there were many more plans to be put into life.

On January 9, 1905, in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg thousands of workers left their factories and headed towards the imperial Winter Palace. These people demanded salary rises and better working conditions. Communism supporters, the Bolsheviks, added to that demonstration several political requirements, among which there were amnesty for political prisoners, transferring land into national property rather than individual one and restriction of the monarch’s power.

The Romanovs, till the 16th century bearing the surname of the Zakharyins-Yurievs, was an old Russian boyar kin that in 1613 turned to be the tzar’s and in 1721 the emperor’s family.