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

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

A recent photo of Moscow State University. By Sergey.

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“.

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

The TV show Lost is not only a huge success in America, but enjoys pretty good ratings in Russia too. Here are some clips we found on YouTube of Lost actors greeting Russian viewers and promoting the upcoming season.

Hurley Promo

More Promos:
Jack Promo
Kate Promo
Locke Promo
Charlie Promo
Sawyer Promo

The St. Petersburg Zoological Museum is one of the largest zoological museums in the world, with approximately 30,000 exhibits. The museum was opened in July of 1832 and is located in the center of St. Petersburg. The museum is a highly recommended destination for tourists in St. Petersburg. Some of the more modern exhibits include English translations, but most are only in Russian (and Latin). Here’s some pictures from inside the museum posted by Kevin Hamm on Flickr.

Whale skeleton on display.

Polar bear display.

Mummified baby mammoth.

Shark display.

A small part of the massive butterfly and insect exhibits.

Link: Official museum site
Link: More photos of the museum by Kevin Hamm.

A lady walks down a well worn path over the frozen Iset River in Yekaterinburg. The sign reads “Walking across the ice is FORBIDDEN”. Photo via Russia Blog.

This week is Maslenitsa or “Pancake week” in Russia. Maslenitsa is one of the oldest holidays in Russia, dating back to pagan times. It was originally a sun festival, celebrating the imminent end of winter. The holiday survived both the Christianization of Russia as well as the atheist Soviet rule. Maslenitsa is marked with celebrations and lots of Russian bliny (a type of pancake or crepe).

Link: Wikipedia article on Maslenitsa

Here are some pictures of old soviet soda water machines. These machines dispensed water into a glass that you could rinse out before using. I’m told that the water was really quite good. The cost back in soviet times: 1 kopeck for plain soda water and 3 for soda with syrup.

Young people lining up in Moscow for some soda water (1998).

Soviet water dispenser still in use in Lithuania (2005).

In Uzbekistan.

And in The Ukraine

Update: Lyndon over at Scraps of Moscow has posted his collection of soda machine photos. It’s well worth checking out.