February 28th, 2007
A somewhat random photo collection of Russian buses.
Bus in Siberia
Trolley bus in Irkutsk
Women on the bus in Khabarovsk
Moscow trolley bus advertising the reality TV show “House 2″
Bus station in Volzhsky
Buses that have been turned into toilets in St. Petersburg
February 27th, 2007
In a small village called Verkhnie Mandrogi, not far from St. Petersburg, you can find the Museum of Russian Vodka. This museum features over 2600 different kinds of Russian vodka. Bottles range from the ordinary to the extraordinary. You can see vodka in bottles shaped like guns, swords, crowns, and even statues. Here are a few pictures of the museum.
Stuffed Russian bear near the entrance to the museum.
Link: Flickr photo set with more pictures of the museum
Link: Village of Verkhnie Mandrogi
February 23rd, 2007
Defender of the Fatherland Day is a holiday observed in Russia and many former Soviet republics. It is celebrated on February 23.
The holiday marks the date in 1918 during the Russian Civil War when the first mass draft into the Red Army occured in Petrograd and Moscow. It was originally known as Red Army Day. In 1949, it was renamed Soviet Army and Navy Day. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name.
As the name suggests, the holiday celebrates the soldiers of the Russian military, but it has also more recently come to include the celebration of men as a whole, and to act as a counterpart of International Women’s Day on March 8. The holiday is celebrated with parades and processions in honor of veterans, and women also give small gifts to the men in their lives, especially a boyfriend or husband.
This text of this post is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Defender of the Fatherland Day“.
February 22nd, 2007
Russia is making a bid to have the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. They have made a whole site dedicated to promoting Sochi as the best place for the Olympics. The site features information about Sochi, photos, maps, virtual tours, live webcams and more.
Link: Sochi 2014
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