MENSBY
4.8
Sometimes it is interesting to look at the facts about Russia through the eyes of foreigners. It allows you to experience life from a different perspective and helps you look at some ordinary things with a smile. Daily British newspaper "Daily Telegraph" about Russia.
1. Hitler planned to give a gala dinner on the occasion of the capture of Leningrad at the Astoria Hotel.
2. Russia's greatest museum, the Hermitage, is home to over 70 cats that guard its treasures from rodents. The tradition goes back to the decree of Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, issued in 1745. The total length of the museum's marble corridors is almost 14 miles (about 22 kilometers).
3. Subbotnik is a day when residents of Russian cities voluntarily take to the streets to sweep and put them in order. Subbotniks appeared after the revolution, but continue to this day.
4. The name Red Square has nothing to do with communism. It comes from the word "red", which once meant "beautiful".
5. Icicles hanging from rooftops in Moscow in winter are so big they can kill you if they fall on your head. Therefore, sidewalks in front of buildings are fenced off.
6. At the metro station Revolution Square there is a bronze dog with a shining nose. The nose shines, as it is believed that touching it brings good luck.
7. And this is not the only statue of a dog in Russia - there is also a monument to Laika, who went into space in 1957.
8. Chicken paw soup (jelly) is considered a delicacy.
9. They love dressing rooms. As soon as you enter a restaurant, museum, bar or gallery, you will be asked to hand over your outerwear and bag to the dressing room. The best dressing rooms are efficiently managed by teams of grandmothers.
10. Giving flowers to local residents is governed by subtle rules of etiquette. You need to make sure you give an odd number of flowers. An even number of flowers should be brought to the funeral.
11. Under the bridge leading to the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, a statuette of a hare is installed. It was erected in memory of the numerous hares that lived on the island and fought against the constant misfortune in the form of floods. Throwing a coin at a figurine is considered to bring good luck.
12. As you move away from the capital, the number of cars in Russia is sharply reduced, and the hairstyle becomes more and more strange.
13. They rank fourth in the world for drunkenness, behind Belarus, Moldova and Lithuania, according to WHO. The UK is ranked 25th.
14. The word "vodka" comes from the word "water".
15. Male life expectancy is 63 years, lower than in North Korea or Iraq. The life expectancy of women is 75 years.
16. On the island of Itigran is the so-called "Whale Skeleton Alley" (Whale Alley), where the remains of marine mammals are neatly arranged like this.
17. The Moscow subway is probably the most beautiful in the world.
18. According to the generally accepted opinion, there is another, secret subway "Metro-2", connecting military bunkers.
19. They pickle everything - cucumbers, beets and former leaders.
20. In Moscow, you can find trees hung with castles. Locks are hung by couples as proof of their love.
21. In the crypt-museum under the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, only one sound is played - the sound of a metronome. During the siege, the local radio broadcast the beat of a metronome to let the residents know that the city was still alive.
22. It is believed that only a weakling lowers his ears with earflaps if the temperature does not fall below -20 degrees Celsius.
23. Traffic in Moscow is so bad that rich Russians hire fake ambulances to get through traffic.
24. Moscow's Park of Downed Monuments (Park of Arts) exhibits many unwanted Soviet-era sculptures, as well as examples of contemporary art.
25. There are about 11 million more women in Russia than men.
26. It is estimated that 50% of police officers take bribes.
27. There is a restaurant in Moscow, the entire staff of which are twins.
28. There is not only tundra and taiga, you can also walk along volcanoes.
29. Many tourist sites charge higher entrance fees for foreigners. It's not fair, but there's nothing you can do about it, and it's pointless to complain. It's better to just laugh, imagining how Roman Abramovich pays five times less than you, using a discount for Russian citizens.
30. Postnik Yakovlev is famous, first of all, as the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral. Legend has it that Tsar Ivan the Terrible then blinded him so that Yakovlev could no longer build anything similar.
31. Russia has more time zones (11) than any other country.
32. While things have gotten better, Russian cops are still notorious for shaking foreigners for "paperwork violations." Always carry all your documents with you.
33. One of the biggest mysteries of the Second World War is the fate of the Amber Room, a chamber decorated with amber plates with gold leaf and mirrors. She was once in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. The Nazis stole it and transported it to Koenigsberg for restoration. The further fate of the Amber Room is unknown.
34. Olkhon Island, the largest in Lake Baikal, is the center of shamanism. On its southern shore stands Shamanka Rock.
35. Western leaders are not welcome in at least one airport duty-free shop.
36. In the White dining room in the Hermitage, there is a clock on the mantelpiece. They stopped at 2:10 am on October 25, 1917, when the Bolsheviks arrested the Provisional Government of Kerensky, which had been in power after the February Revolution. At this point, Russia rolled into communism.
37. Mikhail Gorbachev recorded an album of romantic ballads. Vladimir Putin has a judo DVD.
38. For a short period in the 1990s, Pepsi owned a large number of submarines (one of the largest submarine fleets in the world) thanks to Russia.
39. Without applying for a visa, you can visit Helsinki by ferry on a short cruise (from St. Petersburg).
40. Russia has one of the creepiest bridges in the world - the 439-meter Sky Bridge.
41. There is a beach in St. Petersburg - next to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The so-called "walruses", who believe that swimming in the icy water has a healing effect, gather there to swim in the winter.
42. Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg has a rather odd collection of sights, including a pair of 15th-century Egyptian sphinxes on the waterfront and a museum of biological curiosities housing the skeleton and heart of a giant, personal servant of Peter the Great.
43. 1800 skiers and snowboarders in bikinis gathered on the slopes of Sheregesh this year to get into the Guinness Book of Records.
44. There is an ambitious plan to build a 20,000-kilometer highway between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
45. In Russia, there is the longest river in Europe - the Volga, its length is 3690 kilometers. More than 200 tributaries flow into it, and their total length, together with the Volga, is 357 thousand kilometers.
46. Russian hard labor camps, known as gulags, may soon become "tourist bases." A controversial plan to attract tourists last year was announced by the regional tourism department of the Republic of Sakha in Eastern Siberia.
47. About 10,000 British tourists visit the country every year. Most of them go only to Moscow and/or St. Petersburg.
48. In Uglich, about 200 kilometers from Moscow, a red-and-white church over the Volga marks the spot where, in 1591, the eight-year-old Tsarevich Dmitry, son of Ivan the Terrible and the last of the Rurik dynasty, was killed. Presumably, he was killed on the orders of Boris Godunov. To calm the unrest, Moscow sent investigators, and they found that the prince accidentally fell on a knife and stabbed himself (“And so seven times,” the locals added with irony).
49. Russia has the coldest inhabited place in the world - Oymyakon. On February 6, 1933, a temperature of -67.7 degrees Celsius was recorded there.
50. The Russians once built a round warship. Here is his model.
51. In 1908, the Russian Olympic team arrived at the Olympics in London 12 days later, since the Julian calendar was still used in the country.
52. The Terek-Sami language on the Kola Peninsula is on the verge of extinction. It is spoken by only two people.
53. Old stamps you can buy in a small tobacco shop on the street.
54. According to the biography of Peter the Great, written by Henri Troyat, the tsar loved his toy soldiers so much that he executed by hanging a rat that bit off the head of one of them. He also imposed a tax on beards.
55. There is a network of Russian cafes where everything is free, but you pay for the time spent in them. A branch of this network appeared in London a few years ago.
56. Lake Karachay, a nuclear waste dump, is so radioactive that you will surely die if you spend even an hour near it.
57. One museum in St. Petersburg claims that among its exhibits is Rasputin's severed penis, placed in a glass jar. Experts doubt its authenticity.
58. They love DVRs.
59. And, apparently, they are building a military-themed ski resort.
We offer a fascinating selection of historical facts about Russia and Russian people. Informative and interesting:
The origin of the name of our country is unknown
Since ancient times, our country has been called Rus, but it is not known for certain where this name came from. But it is known how "Rus" turned into "Russia" - this happened thanks to the Byzantines, who pronounced the word "Rus" in their own way.
After the collapse of Rus', its individual regions began to be called Little Rus', White Rus' and Great Rus', or Little Russia, Belarus and Great Russia. It was believed that only all these parts together make up Russia. But after the revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, Little Russia began to be called Ukraine, and Great Russia - Russia.
In Rus', grasshoppers were called dragonflies.
A long time ago, in the time of Rus', grasshoppers were indeed called dragonflies, but this name does not in any way directly refer to the flying insect dragonfly, the grasshopper got the name "dragonfly" because of the sounds it made, which sounded like a chirp or click.
Foreign invaders only once managed to conquer Russia
Many tried to conquer Russia, and these attempts repeatedly failed. Only the Mongols were able to conquer Rus', and this happened in the 13th century. The reason for this was that Rus' at that time was divided into many principalities, and the Russian princes could not unite and jointly repel the conquerors. Since then and to this day, it is the stupidity and greed of the rulers, internal conflicts that have been and remain the main source of problems for our country.
Corporal punishment in Russia
On August 11, according to the old style (24 according to the new one), 1904, corporal punishment for peasants and underage artisans was abolished in the Russian Empire. This was the last social group for which various types of physical influence were still used. A little earlier, in June of the same year, corporal punishment was abolished in the navy and army.
Corporal punishment fell into three broad categories:
1) mutilating (mutilating) - depriving a person of any part of the body or damaging it (blindness, cutting out the tongue, cutting off an arm, leg or fingers, cutting off ears, nose or lips, castration);
2) painful - causing physical suffering by beating with various tools (whips, whips, batogs (sticks), gauntlets, rods, cats, molts);
3) shameful (disgraceful) - the most important is the disgrace of the punished (for example, putting up at the pillory, branding, imposing shackles, shaving the head).
The upper strata of the population were anxious about the prohibition of corporal punishment. In July 1877, the St. Petersburg mayor Trepov, in violation of the law of 1863, ordered the political prisoner Bogolyubov to be whipped with rods. The educated Bogolyubov went mad and died from such an insult, and the famous Vera Zasulich avenged him by seriously injuring Trepov. The court acquitted Zasulich.
Official Soviet pedagogy since 1917 considered corporal punishment of children unacceptable. They were banned in all types of educational institutions, but in the family they remained a common occurrence. In 1988, the journalist Filippov conducted an anonymous survey of 7,500 children from 9 to 15 years old in 15 cities of the USSR, 60% admitted that their parents used corporal punishment against them.
Cuban Missile Crisis and Black Saturday
What we call the Caribbean Crisis, the Americans call the Cuban Crisis, and the Cubans themselves call the October Crisis. But the whole world calls the most important day in the Caribbean crisis one name - "Black Saturday" (October 27, 1962) - the day when the world was closest to a global nuclear war.
Russia has repeatedly helped the United States in its formation and strengthening
If not for Russia, the United States would not have arisen at all, let alone become a superpower. During the war of independence with England, the English king repeatedly turned to Russia for help in suppressing the uprising. Russia, however, not only did not help, but also founded a league of armed neutrality, which was soon joined by other countries that traded with the United States despite the protests of England. During the American Civil War, Russia actively supported the northerners by sending squadrons to New York and San Francisco, while England and France wanted the US to disintegrate and took the side of the southerners. Finally, Russia ceded to the United States California and the Hawaiian Islands, where it had colonies, and then sold the United States and Alaska for a ridiculous price. However, in the 20th century, the United States, having become a world power, responded to Russia with black ingratitude.
The USSR could have easily won the Cold War
After the end of World War II, there were two superpowers left in the world that clashed in a global confrontation - the USA and the USSR. Despite the worst starting conditions, the USSR in the 60s pulled ahead in many respects, and many believed that it would win in the fight against the capitalists. In the 70s, the capitalist world was struck by a severe crisis provoked by rising oil prices, and the US economy was on the verge of collapse. However, the Soviet leadership not only did not take advantage of the situation, but, on the contrary, actually saved their enemy by signing disarmament agreements and agreeing to sell oil for dollars. The United States, on the contrary, relied on the collapse of the USSR and victory in the Cold War, which, in the end, they were able to achieve 20 years later, with the complicity of traitors among the Soviet leadership.
The first Japanese in Russia
The first Japanese who came to Russia was Denbei, the son of a merchant from Osaka. His ship was nailed to the shores of Kamchatka in 1695. In 1701 he reached Moscow.
In the winter of 1702, after an audience on January 8 with Peter I in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, Denbey received an order to become a translator and teacher of the Japanese language in the Artillery Order. Denbey personally told what he could to Peter I about Japan and thus gave impetus to Russian efforts to explore Kamchatka and the Kuriles and attempts to open trade with Japan.
Since 1707, Denbey lived at the palace of the prince and at one time the governor of the Siberian province, Matvey Gagarin. It is known that at the insistence of an associate of Peter I, Jacob Bruce, Denbey was baptized and took the name Gabriel Bogdanov (which blocked his way back to Japan, where Christianity was forbidden). The school of translators from Japanese founded by him operated in Moscow until 1739, after which it was transferred to Irkutsk, where it existed until 1816.
Prior to Denbey, only one Japanese is known in Russia. During the reign of Boris Godunov, a Japanese of the Christian faith visited Russia. He was a young Catholic from Manila, who, together with his spiritual mentor Nicholas Melo of the Order of St. Augustine, traveled to Rome along the route Manila - India - Persia - Russia. But the Time of Troubles turned out to be tragic for them: they were captured by foreign Catholics, and Tsar Boris Godunov exiled them to the Solovetsky Monastery. After six years of exile, he was executed as a supporter of False Dmitry I in 1611 in Nizhny Novgorod. In Russia, he was considered an Indian, not a Japanese.
Favorite commander of Catherine II
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was a favorite of Empress Catherine. She celebrated and showered awards on the Russian Macedonian, and he happened to allow himself what was unacceptable to others, knowing in advance that Catherine would always forgive any trick or eccentricities of the great commander. Here are some interesting cases:
Once, at a court ball, Catherine decided to pay attention to Suvorov and asked him:
- What to treat dear guest? - Bless, queen, vodka! “But what will my ladies-in-waiting say when they talk to you?” “They will feel that a soldier is talking to them!”
Once, in a conversation, the empress said that she planned to send Suvorov to serve in Finland in the future. Suvorov bowed to the Empress, kissed her hand and returned home. Then he got into the mail coach and left for Vyborg, from where he sent a message to Catherine: “I am waiting, mother, for your further commands.”
It is known that Suvorov dressed very lightly even in severe frosts. Catherine II gave Suvorov a fur coat and ordered him to wear it. What to do? Suvorov began to carry the donated fur coat with him everywhere, but he kept it on his knees.
After the pacification of the Poles in 1794, Suvorov sent a messenger with a message. The “message” is the following: “Hurrah! Warsaw is ours! Catherine's response: "Hurrah! Field Marshal Suvorov! And this is at the time of lengthy reports about the capture of cities. How did you send an SMS. But, nevertheless, he failed to surpass Field Marshal Saltykov in lapidarity, who, after the battle with the Prussians at Kunersdorf during the Seven Years' War, simply sent the hat of the Prussian king found on the battlefield to St. Petersburg.
Kutuzov is not a pirate, he does not need an eye patch!
In recent years, images of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in 1812, Field Marshal His Serene Highness Prince M.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, with a bandage over his right eye, began to be massively replicated. The "one-eyed" Kutuzov can be seen on the covers of books and magazines, in the paintings of contemporary artists and on various souvenirs, as well as on busts and monuments.
Such images do not correspond to historical accuracy, since Kutuzov never wore eye patches. There is not a single memoir or epistolary evidence of Kutuzov's contemporaries describing a field marshal with a bandage over his right eye. Moreover, Kutuzov did not need to hide his eye under a bandage, since he saw with this eye, although not as well as with his left.
“Fate appoints Kutuzov to something great,” Masso, the chief surgeon of the Russian army, said with amazement, who examined Kutuzov’s “mortal wound” in the head in 1788 near Ochakovo. The bullet passed right through from temple to temple behind both eyes. The verdict of the doctors was unequivocal - death, but Kutuzov not only did not die, but did not even lose his sight, although his right eye was a little skewed. The surprise of doctors and the whole world that Kutuzov remained alive and after 6 months was again in the ranks was boundless, like 14 years before, when he was first "mortally wounded." In 1774, near Alushta, as well as near Ochakov, Kutuzov was wounded in the head, and the bullet passed almost in the same place. Then doctors all over Europe considered Kutuzov's recovery a miracle, and many believed that the news of the general's injury and cure was a fairy tale, because. it was impossible to survive after such a wound.
In fact, at the beginning of the XIX century. it was not customary to wear an eye patch after the wound had healed (even if the eye was completely absent). For the first time, the "one-eyed" Kutuzov appeared in 1944 in the feature film "Kutuzov". Then the bandage on Kutuzov's right eye was put on by the directors of the musical comedy film "Hussar Ballad" (1962) and the performance of the same name (1964) and ballet (1979).
The image of Kutuzov, brilliantly played by Igor Ilyinsky, gave rise to a stable legend that Kutuzov wore a patch on his injured eye. The replication of this legend in recent years has taken on such a massive character that it has begun to lead to a distortion of historical reality.
Jesters of Empress Anna Ioannovna
The niece of Peter I ruled the Russian Empire for 10 years. The stern disposition of the Russian landowner did not prevent her from having fun.
It is known that Empress Anna Ioannovna was very fond of jesters and dwarfs. There were six of them at her court. Three of them were demoted aristocrats. So, she forced princes Mikhail Golitsyn and Nikita Volkonsky, as well as Count Alexei Apraksin, to play the role of a jester. The illustrious clowns were supposed to grimace in the presence of the empress, sit on top of each other and beat with their fists until they bleed or portray brood hens and cackle. In the last year of her reign, the Empress arranged the wedding of her jesters - the 50-year-old Prince Golitsyn and the ugly Kalmyk Anna Buzheninova, who received her surname in honor of the Empress's favorite dish. Representatives of different nationalities of both sexes were discharged from all over the country to participate in wedding celebrations: Russians, Tatars, Mordvins, Chuvashs, etc. They were supposed to dress up in their national clothes and have musical instruments. It was winter. By order of Anna Ioannovna, an ice House was built on the Neva, in which everything - walls, doors, windows, furniture, utensils - was made of ice. This is where the wedding ceremony took place. Numerous candles were burning in ice candlesticks, and even the marriage bed for the "young" was arranged on an ice bed.
Peter I and guards
In winter, slingshots were placed on the Neva, so that after dark they would not let anyone into or out of the city. Once, Emperor Peter I decided to check the guards himself. He drove up to one of the sentries, pretended to be a spree merchant and asked to be let through, offering money for the pass. The sentry refused to let him through, although Peter had already reached 10 rubles, a very significant amount at that time. The sentry, seeing such stubbornness, threatened that he would be forced to shoot him.
Peter left and went to another sentry. The same one let Peter in for 2 rubles.
The next day, an order was announced for the regiment: hang the corrupt sentry, and drill the rubles he received and hang it around his neck.
Promote a conscientious sentry to corporal and welcome him with ten rubles.
Thai national anthem
The Thai national anthem was written in 1902 by the Russian composer Pyotr Shchurovsky.
Nicholas I gave his officers the choice between a guardhouse and listening to Glinka's operas as punishment.
On November 27, 1842, the first performance of M. I. Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" took place, which brought a number of sensitive sorrows to the author. The public and high society did not like the opera, Emperor Nicholas I defiantly left after Act IV, without waiting for the end. He did not like the music of the opera so much that he ordered the offending officers of the capital to choose between the guardhouse and listening to Glinka's music as a punishment. So the emperor additionally expressed his displeasure with the composer's work. Such were the customs, alas. Thank God that Nikolai himself did not send the composer to the guardhouse.
"Thank God you are Russian"
In 1826, a “Russian contemporary” described the appearance of the sovereign, Emperor Nicholas I: “Tall, lean, had a wide chest ... a quick look, a sonorous voice, suitable for a tenor, but spoke somewhat patteringly ... Some kind of genuine severity was visible in the movements” .
"Genuine severity" ... When he commanded the troops, he never shouted. There was no need for this - the king's voice could be heard a mile away; tall grenadiers looked just like children next to him. Nikolai led an ascetic life, but if we talk about the luxury of the court, magnificent receptions, they stunned everyone, especially foreigners. This was done in order to emphasize the status of Russia, which the sovereign cared about incessantly.
General Pyotr Daragan recalled how, in the presence of Nikolai Pavlovich, he spoke French, grazing. Nikolai, suddenly making an exaggeratedly serious face, began to repeat every word after him, which brought his wife to a fit of laughter. Daragan, crimson with shame, ran out into the waiting room, where Nikolai caught up with him and, kissing him, explained: “Why are you burring? No one will take you for a Frenchman; thank God that you are Russian, and monkeying is no good.”
There was everything in the history of the Russian state: ups and downs, times of stagnation and prosperity, bitter defeats and great victories. I offer you some interesting facts from the history of Russia, which are not known to everyone.
The first capital of the Slavs - the city of Slovensk, was founded in 2409 BC
So it says in the text called "The Legend of Slovena and Rus and the city of Slovensk." In this legend, the ancestors of the Russian people are called the princes Sloven and Rus - the descendants of Prince Skif. According to legend, in 3099 from the creation of the world (2409 BC), Sloven and Rus with their families began to leave in search of new lands from the shores of the Black Sea and after 14 years came to the shores of Lake Moisko (Ilmen), where Sloven was the city of Slovensk (modern Veliky Novgorod) was founded, and the city of Rusa (modern Staraya Russa) was founded by Rus.
Pre-revolutionary Russia was the most non-drinking country in Europe
For three centuries from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was one of the most sober countries in Europe. In certain periods of time, alcohol consumption per capita was less than in Russia only in Norway.
September 9, 1941 Hitler was awarded the command of the Soviet Union with the medal "For Courage"
Yes, yes, you heard right. The award was received by the Red Army machine gunner Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler, a Jew by nationality. It was written in the award sheet: “Being a gunner of an easel machine gun, he supported the advance of his platoon with fire. Being surrounded and wounded, Comrade Hitler fired until he used up ammunition, after which, without throwing his weapons, he got out to his own, in total destroying more than a hundred Wehrmacht soldiers.
The most expensive fish in history was caught in Russia
In 1924, a beluga fish was caught in the Silent Pine River, weighing 1227 kilograms. In her belly was 245 kg of black caviar. This case is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the fact of harvesting the most expensive fish in the world. In our time, the cost of this caviar would be 290 thousand dollars.
Peter the Great personally tortured and killed people
The fact that Peter, from early childhood, had, to put it mildly, dislike for archers is known to everyone. It was their bloody riots that sowed confusion in the country for several years. Not surprisingly, having come to power, Peter personally led the massacre of the archers. Helping the famous Moscow executioners Alyoshka and Tereshka, Peter personally tortured the rebels, and even cut off the heads of five with his own hand.
Falcon in Rus' was one of the most valuable gifts
Falconry has been known in Rus' since the 9th century. But its heyday came during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed "The Quietest". However, already in the days of the Golden Horde, falcons often paid tribute to the Tatars. One white gyrfalcon was then equal in value to three thoroughbred horses.
Turkey as a state now could not exist at all
At the very end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union made territorial claims against Turkey, planning to punish this state for cooperation with Nazi Germany. At the same time, the leadership did not even consider the creation of the Turkish Federal Socialist Republic. According to the plan, the occupied lands of Turkey were simply to be divided between the Georgian SSR and the Armenian SSR. But the United States and Great Britain spoke out sharply against such a development of events, and in 1953, immediately after Stalin's death, the leadership of the USSR announced its renunciation of territorial claims.
The letter "Er", the current solid sign is the most expensive letter of the alphabet
Before the reform of 1917–1918, this letter was written at the end of each word after the consonants. At the same time, it was a “silent” letter, that is, it was not readable, and, accordingly, it did not affect either the meaning or the spelling at all. That's just on paper, "er" took up to 8% of the space and time when printing. This letter alone cost the Russian treasury more than 400,000 rubles a year.
Free sale of weapons
Before the 1917 revolution, weapons in the Russian Empire were sold completely freely, without any certificates or licenses. Absolutely anyone could come to a hunting shop and buy a firearm or edged weapon.
Until the 17th century, the Russian state did not have an official flag.
The Russian flag acquired its current form during the reign of Peter the Great. Prior to this, a uniform flag was used, which was installed during the construction of the first Russian warship. What he looked like is still unknown. Even earlier, various military banners and church banners were used as flags.- On the territory of the Russian Federation are the oldest mountains in the world - the Urals. Their age is approximately 4 billion years. Once upon a time, the Urals were incredibly high, but at the moment only the foundations remain of them. The Ural Mountains are also called the Belt Stone or the Siberian Stone.
- Our country is in first place in the list of countries by the size of the territory. The territory of the state exceeds the territory of the United States almost twice. The area of the country is 17,075,400 square kilometers. And this is almost the entire surface area of Pluto.
- For the past seven thousand years, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, an active volcano, has been erupting in Russia. With each eruption, the volcano becomes even higher. At the moment, the height of Klyuchevskaya Sopka is almost 5 kilometers.
- In the "second capital" of our country - in the city of St. Petersburg, the number of conventional and drawbridges is already 3 times higher than the number of bridges in all of Venice. It would be logical to call St. Petersburg "the second Venice".
- On the territory of our country is the longest railway on the planet. Its name is the Trans-Siberian Railway. The TZhM connects Vladivostok and Moscow and thus stretches across almost the entire state. TZhM crosses 86 settlements, 8 time zones and has a total length exceeding 9 thousand kilometers.
- In Siberia, in the current deep taiga, there is the deepest lake in the whole world, its name is Baikal. In addition to the maximum depth, the lake is considered the largest pantry of fresh water on our entire planet. The most famous and largest rivers of the world flow into this lake.
- The distance that lies between the islands of Ratmanov and Kruzenshtern is 4 kilometers. This is the shortest distance from Russia to the United States of America. It is located in the Bering Strait.
- St. Petersburg is called the cultural capital of the Russian Federation. And they call it that for one reason. The reason for this is that on the territory of St. Petersburg there are 46 art galleries, 63 cinemas, 81 theaters, about 2 thousand libraries and 222 museums.
- For his time, Ivan the Terrible was not at all a tyrant, but on the contrary, he ruled unexpectedly, fairly and gently. According to statistics, for the entire time of his reign, he executed people about a hundred times less than the rulers of Europe at the same time. 3-4 thousand people against 400 thousand people.
- In the Moscow metro, trains pass more often than in any metro in another country. The interval between train departures is ninety seconds. Also, it is worth saying that sometimes in the Moscow metro you can see the so-called "named trains". Like, for example, the watercolor train, is an exhibition of paintings on wheels and contains many outstanding paintings.
And if you are looking for a good supplier of any goods and services in our vast country, you should visit www.doski.ru. You can also place your ad there. The audience of the site is huge - all of our vast homeland and neighboring countries.
Interesting facts about Russia, its history and modernity, nature and people, relationships with the outside world and just funny curiosities. Some of these facts are well known, but it is still a pleasure to remember them once again. And some interesting facts about Russia from this list, many, perhaps, will learn for the first time.
So let's go!!!
Interesting fact about Russia No. 1
Russia is the largest country in the world, its area is 17,075,400 square kilometers. It is 1.8 times larger than the USA. The area of Russia is approximately equal to the surface area of the planet Pluto.
Interesting fact about Russia №2
In Russia, there is the largest active volcano on the Eurasian continent - Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Its height is 4 kilometers 850 meters. It throws columns of ash eight kilometers up. With each eruption, it gets higher and higher. The Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano has been erupting for the past 7 thousand years.
Interesting Fact about Russia #3
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. The Great Siberian Way, connecting Moscow with Vladivostok, is 9288 kilometers long, crosses 8 time zones, passes through 87 cities and towns and crosses 16 rivers, including the Volga.
Interesting Fact about Russia #4
Siberian Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and the largest source of fresh water on the planet. There are 23 cubic kilometers of water in Baikal. All the largest rivers in the world - the Volga, Don, Dnieper, Yenisei, Ural, Ob, Ganges, Orinoco, Amazon, Thames, Seine and Oder - must flow for almost a year to fill a basin equal in volume to Lake Baikal.
Interesting Fact about Russia #5
Russia is the only state whose territory is washed by thirteen seas.
Interesting Fact about Russia #6
Russia is separated from America by 4 kilometers. This is the distance between Ratmanov Island (Russia) and Krusenstern Island (USA) in the Bering Strait.
Interesting Fact about Russia #7
The most famous computer game, Tetris, was created by Russian programmer Alexei Pajitnov in 1985. This game became popular in the Soviet Union, and then, in 1986, in the West.
Interesting Fact about Russia #8
Ivan the Terrible was not a tyrant, he ruled softly, unprecedented for his time. With the same size of Europe and Russia at that time, Grozny executed 100 times fewer people during his reign than his European counterparts over the same period - 3-4 thousand people against 300-400 thousand people.
Interesting Fact about Russia #9
In the Russian city of Oymyakon, the lowest air temperature was recorded. The coldest record was set in 1938 and amounted to -77.8 °C.
Interesting Fact about Russia #10
During World War II, metro stations were used as bomb shelters. During the air raids, 150 people were born in this perfectly safe shelter.
Interesting Fact about Russia #11
The West Siberian Plain is the largest plain on Earth.
Interesting Fact about Russia #12
Half of Chelyabinsk is located in the Urals, half - in Siberia. At the same time, a camel is depicted on the coat of arms of Chelyabinsk. It would seem, why a camel, because there are no camels in Chelyabinsk? Not now, but 200 years ago they were. Chelyabinsk often received trade caravans of loaded camels.
