The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is one of the most important churches in Moscow. This cathedral has an amazing history. It was constructed to commemorate the victory over Napoleon, blown up by Stalin to make room for the Palace of Soviets, was the site of the world’s largest swimming pool, and was reconstructed again after the fall of the Soviet Union. The cathedral’s official website documents this history with a huge collection of photos, audio and video. The video archive is especially interesting and features video from 1912 to the present.

Link: The Cathedral of Christ the Savior

This winter has been unusually warm in many European countries and Russia is no exception. According to some news articles, this is the warmest Russian winter in over 130 years. On Tuesday, the Russian Orthodox Church announced that they are considering holding special services to pray for snow.

“Winters in Russia are always tough, but rarely like this – so warm that bears aren’t hibernating and so gray that humans are having trouble waking up.” – AP

Link: Warm Spell in Russia Wakes Up the Bears
Link: The Russian Orthodox Church may issue a new service to pray for snow
Photo by: Yuri Timofeyev

A video showing off some crazy boots that help a person run faster – even in snow! According to the person who posted the video, “it was filmed at an aviation university in Russia, in the early 2000′s.”

St. Petersburg, Russia is known for its great architecture and many interesting bridges. Here’s a page that has photos and a short history of all the major bridges in St. Petersburg.

Link: Bridges in St. Petersburg
Photo by: lisso

The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, or Sputnik, on October 4, 1957. On Friday, Russia honored Sputnik’s designer Sergei Korolyov. Here’s a link to CCN’s report on Korolyov and the special ceremonies held in Moscow. More information can be found at Wikipedia about Korolyov’s life and accomplishments.

Link: Russia honors Sputnik designer
Link: Wikipedia – Sergey Korolyov

Here is CBC coverage of Expo 67. It compares the American and Soviet pavilions. This clip is an interesting view of the competition that existed between the Soviet Union and the USA.

Link: Expo 67: pavilions of the superpowers

The Yale University Library has a fascinating collection of coins, medals, and bank notes from Imperial Russia. The collection is organized to show the different coins of each tsar.

Link: Coins & Medals of Imperial Russia

Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space. Here’s a postcard that commemorates this Soviet hero.

Originally posted by Radio Rover

Russian high-school students Polina and Tonya put together an interesting online report about ancient Russia. The site covers many aspects of life in ancient Russia and has nice illustrations.

Link: The World of Ancient Russia

Here’s some footage from the New Year holidays on Red Square. Downtown Moscow was full of Russian tourists over the holidays. You can see the temporary ice skating rink that was built on Red Square (with the orange roof), the Kremlin and other famous sites.

This video thanks to Moskau Blog (German language blog about Moscow)