In case the Russians decide to remake these Hollywood favorites (Lord have mercy!), we know just the locations to use without paying extra for filming abroad. You can visit some of them today.

Scattered around the world, Russian Orthodox churches are not just places for prayer, but also a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with Russian culture and history.

American historian and photographer William Brumfield keeps discovering remote sides of Russia for you. This time he visits the magnificent, sacred Russian North and compares early 20th centuries photos by Prokudin-Gorsky with his own photos taken a century later.

What was it that a tsar’s wife couldn’t do? It turns out, quite a lot. Walking in the fields or picking flowers, going out to the country, visiting her relatives at their home – all of this was forbidden for a tsarina. The Tsardom of Russia was really afraid of black magic – so the largest part of a tsarina’s life went by inside her chambers.