January | 2009 | English Russia

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Categories Culture, History, Photos, Society

First days of invasion into Russia seemed to be a piece of cake for Nazi German army. According to the plans of the German chief commanders the whole deal with Russia would take just a few months. They were hoping to take over the Moscow until winter of 1941 (the operation has started early summer, 1941). The invitations were sent to the higher officers of the German army for the celebration of the victory on Russian army in the summer, a few month before the planned victory. And so there advancement into the Russian territory was really that easy for the first months. They moved fast, often leaving some pockets of resistance inside the conquered Russian land. Soon they got themselves right near two of Russian main cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Russia there is a popular belief, that Moscow shouldn't be ever surrender to the enemy, because loosing

Moscow can mean loosing of all the country. So the battles were becoming more violent and fierce as the Nazis approached Moscow. And then winter come, that was the well-known old Russian winter, with horrible frosts and lots of snow. Before German army fought in the relatively warm climate of Western Europe and didn't know what Russian Winter really is. It got demoralized them very much and possibly the Russian Winter saved the Russian people from being defeated right in the first year of the war. Then the war lasted for 5 years more, and no holiday took place for which German officers got invitations, and frankly speaking at the end of the war mostly no invitation recipients were left alive. And those are photos of the first days of the invasion, made by German soldiers.

Russian Abandoned Nuclear Polar Lighthouse 1

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Categories History, Photos, Science, Technology

Russian Northern coast is a vast territory lays for a few thousand of miles and all this coastline is inside the Polar Circle. Long polar winters mean no daylight at all, just one day changes another without any sign of the Sun rising above the horizon. There is only polar night for 100 day a year. But across this Northern coast there was always a short way for the cargo boats to travel from Eastern part of Russia to the Western. Now this trip can be made fairly easy with the appearance of all the satellite navigation equipment like GPS and others, but during the Soviet Era they had none of this. So, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to build a chain of lighthouses to guide ships finding their way in the dark polar night across uninhabited shores of the Soviet Russian Empire. So it has been done and a series of such lighthouses has been erected. They had to be fully autonomous, because they were situated hundreds and hundreds miles aways from any populated areas. After reviewing different ideas on how to make them work for a years without service and any external power supply, Soviet engineers decided to implement atomic energy to power up those structures. So, special lightweight small atomic reactors were produced in limited series to be delivered to the Polar Circle lands and to be installed on the lighthouses. Those small

reactors could work in the independent mode for years and didn't require any human interference, so it was very handy in the situation like this. It was a kind of robot-lighthouse which counted itself the time of the year and the length of the daylight, turned on its lights when it was needed and sent radio signals to near by ships to warn them on their journey. It all looks like ran out the sci-fi book pages, but so they were. Then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unattended automatic lighthouses did it job for some time, but after some time they collapsed too. Mostly as a result of the hunt for the metals like copper and other stuff which were performed by the looters. They didn't care or maybe even didn't know the meaning of the "Radioactive Danger" sign and ignored them, breaking in and destroying the equipment. It sounds creepy but they broke into the reactors too causing all the structures to become radioactively polluted. Those photos are from the trip to the one of such structures, the most close to the populated areas of the Russian far east. Now, there are signs "RADIOACTIVITY" written with big white letters on the approaching paths to the structure but they don't stop the abandoned exotics lovers.

Russian puzzle on the house in Ukraine 1

Categories Funny, Photos, Russian Art, Society, Video

People of Lvov city in Ukraine decided to add another attraction for the visitors of their city. According to the artistic project it was decided to place a giant 100 feet (30 meters) tall at the wall of the one of the multi-stored residential houses. There is one interesting detail about the design of the puzzle. It looks like an empty puzzle during the day-light, but at night when special lights are on the words in the puzzle

become visible with a lightly-glowing fluorescent color. The questions for this crossword puzzle are located in different point of interests of the city, like monuments, theaters, fountains etc. So people while walking around the city can try to answer the questions and writing down the answers. When the night comes to the city they can meet at this house and check their degree of intelligence.

Categories Funny, Photos, Society

Russian people are fond of "the banya". This is a usually wooden structure, somewhere in the village like in the picture below. This is a whole ritual to visit banya and it's not only about washing but mainly for fun, especially in winter when it's a must to go bathing in the snow or in the nearest frozen river or lake. Children from early age are getting used to go to the banya and hit each other with special brooms made of leafy branches. Those brooms add more sensory feelings while in the banya process and especially are useful to warm up one quickly after some good snow jumping. Yesterday it was a New Year Eve - the most widely recognized holiday in Russia. Millions of people wait for it and starting getting ready many months before. Christmas trees as a matter of the fact in Russia are called New Year trees just because the Christmas in Russia is almost ignored by people - during the Soviet Era it was a

banned holiday as all other sides of Christian religion so all the holiday trees and decorations were devoted to the secular holiday of New Year Change. So it's also a widely common tradition right before the New Year comes to visit the banya, and then after this procedure sit all together in a big room at the big table with a lot of traditional Russian dishes and wait for 11.55pm with a TV turned on with the First National Channel - the place where at 11.55pm the president begins his New Year Speech, he is speaking untill 11.59 and 30 seconds before the New Year to arrive the main Kremlin chimes start ringing - and everyone stands up with the goblets full of sparkling wine and when the last sound of the Kremlin chimes is being heard the New Year comes to Russian family. But banya is a must. Happy New Year all the readers, thanks for visiting!

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