There were no movies about Stalin’s notorious camps made in Soviet times. The Russian film industry could only turn to this subject matter after the collapse of the USSR. 

Many international car companies not only assemble their vehicles in Russia, but also modify them specifically for local drivers.

What were old models of Moscow trams, buses and trolleybuses like?

On the face of it, the planned Soviet economy did away with choice: people wore the same clothes, apartments sported the same furniture. And yet the country boasted a wide variety of stores, some of them weirder than weird.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s influence is impossible to overstate. He is often referred to as the “most Russian” of all composers and one of the greatest interpreters of classical music tradition. Here are his most quintessential works that are a testament to his creative genius.