50 CURIOSITIES OF RUSSIA THAT PERHAPS YOU DID NOT KNOW

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To define Russia as a rather rare country is to fall short. This immense area of land (including its inhabitants and customs, of course) seems to be part of a parallel universe rather than this world. And that is appreciated 🙂 Did you know that there is no other nation bigger than the Russian Federation? And here is one of the most radioactive places in the world? And what were the real winners of the space race? In this post we will tell you 50 curiosities of Russia that maybe you didn't know:

1. Russia is the largest country in the world and in its territory it covers 11 time zones: from UTC + 2 in Moscow to UTC + 11. And you will think that it is the country with the widest range of hourly uses ... NO: it is actually France with its colonies. Curiosity of curiosity: it has been calculated that Russia covers approximately 17 million km2, almost like Pluto!

2. It is so large that it occupies part of Europe (1/4 of its territory) and of Asia (3/4), although the vast majority of the population lives in the European part (especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg). It is also the country with the most borders in the world: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North Korea! So do not expect only blond Russians with blue eyes: the vast majority have features of Central Asia.

3. Did you know that Alaska Was it owned by Russia? It was sold to the United States in 1867 for about 7 million dollars.

4. Russia has the longest railway line in the world. Does the Trans-Siberian sound to you? Indeed, this tour has a total of 9,259km! It is one of the great trips we want to make in the future. Extra curiosity: if you start in Moscow and don't get off until the last stop it would take about 168 hours of travel (7 days!)

5. For many,Putin it's a realnational mythIn fact, there is even a comic where the president is presented as a superhero! In our (not so) brief summary of the history of Russia we tell you more about him, but here we leave you a fact that we found very curious: it was KGB spy! And no, he does not ride grizzlis bears in his spare time (the famous photo is a fake, but there were so many people who believed him that he had to go out and deny it!).

6. The Life expectancy of men it is much lower than that of women: 64 for 76 years, in general it occupies the 110th position in the world ranking (below for example from countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or North Korea). Everything indicates that the big culprit of this low index is the alcohol consumption (especially vodka). In reality it is a terrible problem for society, but someone benefits: the state gets a good money thanks to taxes on the sale of alcohol.

7. This comes from afar, and that is until 2011 the beer It was considered a food and not an alcoholic beverage (that and all drinks up to 10 °!). In that year, former President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a law to change his category and thus try to reduce his consumption (increasing revenues for the state, of course).

8. In fact they say that Russians like drinking so much that even they chose the orthodox christian religion (and not Islamism) to continue taking their shots of vodka. Although there is no historical proof to confirm it.

9. It is already clear to us that the Russians like to steep their elbows, but they have also achieved great feats for humanity. The Russians, for example, were the first to conquer space, specifically thanks to Sputnik-1, the first artificial satellite that orbited around the Earth. It was launched on October 4, 1957. So important was the space race (in the Cold War) that in Moscow there is a great Museum of Cosmonautics.

10. Yuri gagarinIn addition, he was the first human being to visit the space ... Although not the first living being: a dog by name Laika It was sent to space on November 3, 1957. Unfortunately, he did not return alive to earth: apparently he died within hours of being in orbit due to overheating. What you may not know is that 3 years later, two other dogs were sent to space, and this time there was a happy ending as they returned to Earth safe and sound (they were called Belka and Strelka).

11. They say that the St. Basil's Cathedral It was so pleasant to Tsar Ivan the Terrible that he sent the architect to blind so he could not repeat it in a different place (although everything points to it being an urban legend). What is certain is that the cathedral is beautiful, even Stalin respected it when in the 1930s he carried out the plan to destroy thousands of churches throughout Russia.

12. The name already said it: Ivan was terrible... and one of the things for which he earned his nickname was to kill his son (and descendant) of a full-face harassment in the middle of an argument. In the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow, there is a Iliá Repin picture which is called "Ivan the Terrible and his son" who masterfully recounts this historic event (not because of the host of the championship, but because of the future of the country).

13. The Czars reigned over Russia for centuries (specifically from 1547 to 1917). The word "czar“ It comes from the Latin "Caésar" which etymologically means "imperial dignity", and was the name that designated the kings or emperors.

14. Russia is one of the richest countries in terms of energy resources: they have huge gas reserves natural and of Petroleum. In fact, gasoline is super cheap: about € 0.65 / liter.

15. The Red Square does not take its name from the reddish tone of its buildings ... actually the word "krasnyi"Which now translates as" red "in ancient Russian meant"beautiful" Here we tell you everything you can see and do in the Red Square in Moscow.

16. One of the most typical dishes of the country is the Russian salad, only in Russia it is not called that: it is known as Olivier salad and takes the name of the Belgian chef who invented it while working in St. Petersburg.

17. The Baikal Lake It is the oldest, and deepest in the world: its lowest known point is about 1,680 meters and there have always been legends about the type of wildlife that lives in its waters. What is known scientifically is that it contains about 20% of the candy (not frozen) on the planet.

18. Russia also has the most lake contaminated from toooda the Earth: the Karachai Lake, where they say that a single hour of exposure would be enough to cause death. For years it was used as a landfill for radioactive waste and of course, this is what happens. Eye, it is not the lake that has become so fashionable lately among instagrammers. Although it does not have such dangerous levels of radioactivity, we do not believe that visiting it is the most advisable (and all because its waters are very turquoise 0_o!).

19. One of the most exclusive foods, the caviar, is one of the most typical gastronomic souvenirs in Russia. Although not very cheap, everything is said. There are essentially two types of caviar: red, which comes from salmon, and black, the most precious, which comes from sturgeon. Although the most expensive caviar in the world is from Beluga (it can cost € 40,000 per kilo!). Curiosity: the word caviar comes from Persian “khavah"Which means" egg. "

20. The Moscow metro It is one of the most amazing transport systems, thanks to its monumental stations. In fact it is known as "the People's Palace." In this post we tell you what are the most beautiful stations of the Moscow metro (coming soon).

21. Apparently Moscow it is the second city in the world with largest number of millionaires by number of inhabitants (the first is New York).

22. Due to the terrible traffic of its capital, during a time, among these millionaires it became fashionable rent ambulances to be able to move quickly through the city.

23. Much has been said about the figure of Anastasia, one of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II. Legend has it that when the Red Army perpetrated the killing of Yekaterinburg and annihilated the entire royal family by bayonet, Anastasia managed to escape with the help of a servant. There were even several women who said they were her. One in particular, Anna Anderson, swore throughout life to be Princess Anastasia, although it eventually turned out to be another impostor. It seems that this story has no foundation.

24. They say that Stalin He was an absolute fan of western movies, although it is also said that he wanted to make a plan to kill John Wayne, since the actor was a proclaimed anti-communist.

25. Contrary to what you might think, the drink they drink most in Russia is not vodka: it is the tea!

26. Thevideo game Tetris It is the work of a Russian programmer: Alekséi Leonídovich Pázhitnov created it in 1984 (what a good year). You can see that at the beginning of each game the image of the Cathedral of San Basilio appears. For many it is the best video game of all time, although after a vote in 2007, it came in second place ... after Mario Bros! Curiosity of curiosity: the word tetris comes from “tetra”(Four) and it means that all the pieces are formed by 4 pieces.

27. Another Russian invention is due to Dimitri Mendeléyez: we talk about the periodic table of the chemical elements. Thanks to her, the foundations of modern chemistry were laid.

28. One of the curiosities of Russia that freaked us out was that, during the Cold War era, Pepsi he managed to introduce his drink in the Soviet Union. The only problem was that the ruble was not accepted as a currency in the international market ... so they opted to charge in Vodka! Be careful because the thing does not end here: in 1898, with the contract about to expire, the renovation was agreed in exchange for military equipment. Freak out! For a few days Pepsi was the owner of one of the largest fleet of ships in the world (it is said that the deal included about 15 submarines, a cruise ship and a frigate that later, the owner of Pepsi, sold to a Swedish company) .

29. More than curiosity ... we think it's a fun fact: the prefix Russian phone is 007, like Agent Bond, so famous!

30. Although many believe that the word Kremlin It is used as a synonym for Russian parliament, it is not like that: Kremlin historically refers to a fortified city. In fact, in Russia there are about 20 Kremlins, which are not gremlins (there are many more of those): in Moscow there are two, one of which is the famous that everyone knows and contains churches, squares, museums, government buildings and the Parlament.

31. If you enter a Russian house and see a carpet attached to the wall... I did not miss you: in the former USSR the most normal thing in the world was to decorate the walls with carpets and there are those who follow the tradition.

32. The pensions they are usually lowSo, whenever they get old, many Russians and especially Russians have to perform jobs even after retirees to make ends meet. They are usually jobs provided by the Russian government itself, rather poorly paid, but easy to perform. The ones that caught our attention were those on each escalator in the subway, watching that it doesn't break down.

33. The body-building It was forbidden in the entire Soviet Republic: for the leaders of the party, having little muscles and looking in front of the mirror was such a stupidity that they simply forbade it. But of course, many Russians after watching movies like "Hercules" wanted to have the same body as the leading actor. Then they began to train secretly, in the basements, with homemade weights ... Only the veto to bodybuilding was removed with Gorbachev perestroika! More info here.

34. One of Russia's most popular instruments is the Balalaika, which consists of a triangular lute with 3 metallic strings.

35. It is well known that the Russian people do not overflow sympathy in abundance. For them, smiling is a gesture so intimate and personal that they don't distribute it like that. There is the curious concept of “american smile”, Which would be like the fake smile. So if they don't smile at you, don't take it personally.

36. The harsh russian weather allowed the country to take a few memorable victories (Napoleon, Nazis ...). The bad thing is that, when there are no battles to win, the cold is a great inconvenience: that's why you drink so much and eat very fatty foods :-p coldest point on earth It's right here: it's Oymyakon that on February 6, 1933 reached a temperature of -67.8 ° C.

37. One of the most important czars was Peter the Great, who had a story life: he was the first to realize that if Russia wanted to win a frontline position on the international scene, it should follow the European current. He traveled the Old Continent for 2 years, learned 14 different trades (from carpenter to dentist) and when he returned he founded a splendid city, which bore his name: St. Petersburg.

38. After his death we had to wait a few years to find another super charismatic figure: Catherine the Great. There are thousands of curiosities and cartoons about her, many of them with somewhat dyes. Everything indicates that her husband loved her madly, but it seems that she did not share that feeling ... moreover, there were even those who thought that the death of the Tsar was not accidental and that Catalina poisoned him. It was said that he had hundreds of lovers and even a room full of sex toys. It was the Christian Gray of Russia!

39. We do not know if this is still the case today, but we read that during the Soviet Union, when sex was a taboo subject, people who went to the pharmacy to buy condoms I used a little trick: I asked for any random medication and winked to the pharmacist ... who quickly understood that the subject was going 😉

40. The darumas, wooden dolls typical of Japan, inspired Mamontov to create the most typical Russian souvenir: matrioskas. These dolls symbolize the maternal figure (the biggest doll is called mother and the smallest of all seeds).

41. The Russians are very superstitious: For example, you should never give an even number of flowers (this is reserved for funerals), or say hello to someone at the door of the houses: you have to enter or something unpleasant could happen.

42. Not only are there people protecting the Hermitage Museum: next to the workers there are a lot of kittens responsible for keeping mice away from works of art (although they are in the basement, we were attentive but we did not see them, of course). It is said, it is said and rumored that they do not have a payroll, but a roof, water and food.

43. Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, alias Lenin, is one of the most important characters in the history of Russia. His life is dotted with curiosities, but the one we like the most is this: St. Petersburg, from Lenin's death until the fall of the USSR in 1991, was called Leningrad in his honor.

44. Much has been written about all the evil that the communism (especially under the dictatorship of Stalin, with the great purge, the gulags ...), but it is also true that the ideology had very good things: in the Soviet Union the education and the health They were free, the workday it was 7 hours and the state paid 2 weeks of holidays To all workers. Where were they going? To Sochi, a very famous seaside resort still today.

45. They say that when it was learned that the Stalin's firstborn son He attempted suicide with a shot, the father exclaimed "it is so useless that he doesn't even know how to shoot himself."

46. Beijing? New Delhi? DO NOT! The most polluted city in the world It is in Russia! Is about Norilsk, in the middle of Sibera, which is also the city with more than 100,000 inhabitants further north of the planet. The reason for its high pollution is the mining industries that, with their factories barely controlled, generate an acid rain that causes that there is not a living tree in 48 km around.

47. The word “comrade", So common among the members of the USSR, has its origin in the word"camera”Which was used as a synonym for those who shared a room.

48. When on January 20, 1991 McDonald's opened its first store in Moscow, more than 30 thousand people They showed up to try their burgers! A whole record and a clear message: the people wanted to see what life was like "beyond the iron curtain."

49. In Imperial Russia there were not only great czars, there was a man of humble origin who came to have almost as much power as the Tsar himself. We talk about Rasputin, the monk-healer who influenced the last czarina and her family so much. If his life was a mystery, his death was even more so: some noblemen under the command of Prince Yusupof organized his murder, first made him drink cyanide ... he survived. Then he was shot repeatedly ... he survived. In the end they threw him tied to the almost icy river and appeared dead. The cause of death was the cold, neither the poison nor the shots!

50. The most famous Cathedral in St. Petersburg is called “Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood”Because it was in that same place where Tsar Alexander II lost his life after an attack on March 13, 1881. If you can visit it inside: it is entirely covered by impressive mosaics. We thought it was a real beauty.

We hope to have surprised you with these russian curiosities, although surely there are a thousand more: few countries produce as many cultural clashes as the Great Mother Russia 🙂 Have you been there? What impressed you the most?