Once a prison, now a spiritual and tourist hub
January 20, 2012 Grigory Kubatian, specially for RIR
Located in the White Sea in northwestern Russia, the Solovetsky Islands once housed one of Russia’s first gulags, but now its centuries-old monastery and the seascape’s stark beauty attracts thousands of tourists and the spiritually inclined.
Unageing monument: Lenin is forever
January 18, 2012 Grigory Kubatian, specially for RIR
Communism is dead, but Vladimir Lenin is alive and kicking in around 6,000 statues and monuments dedicated to him, which are scattered all over Russia. Do not dare to mess with those precious monuments lest you incur the wrath of the revolutionary le
Ringing in an old tradition
December 12, 2011 Grigory Kubatian, specially for RIR
Church bells fell silent during the Soviet era. Now the classic ringing is being brought back to life


















