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84 unusual facts about russia


2013 FINA Men's Water Polo World League

The Super Final will be held from 11-16 June 2013 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Abraham of Rostov

Saint Abraham of Rostov was born in the tenth century, to a non-Christian family in Galich, Russia.

Alexander Krivoshein

He was one of several ministers to be dismissed for opposing Nicholas II's decision to take command of the Russian Army.

Andra

Andra, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Antoni Grabowski

After graduation he worked as a practical chemical engineer in Zawiercie and in a few locations which now are part of the Czech Republic, and finally as manager of a textile factory in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, 250 km north-east of Moscow.

Artyomovsk

Artyomovsk Urban Settlement, a municipal formation which the district town of Artyomovsk in Kuraginsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai is incorporated as

Ayon

Ayon, Russia, a rural locality (a selo) in Chaunsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Battle of Vystavka

In early March, after heavy bombardment by Bolsheviks, the Allies fell baback 5 more mi downstream to Kitsa.

Bely

Bely, Russia (Belaya, Beloye), name of several inhabited localities in Russia

Blagoveshchensky

Blagoveshchensky, Russia (Blagoveshchenskaya, Blagoveshchenskoye), name of several rural localities in Russia

Borsky District

Borsky District is the name of several administrative and municipal districts in Russia.

Butka

Butka, Russia, a rural locality (a selo) in Sverdlovsk Oblast; birthplace of Boris Yeltsin

Catharine, Kansas

A group of Volga German immigrants founded and settled Catharine in April 1876, naming it after Katharinestadt, the town they came from in Russia.

Catholic Mariavite Church

This was no doubt in part due to the pressures of Polish nationalism, which was very much caught up in the idea of Roman Catholicism as being an intrinsic part of the Polish national identity and was enjoying a resurgence as Poland had just reemerged as an independent nation-state after over two centuries of distribution among the "great powers" of Prussia, Austria and Russia.

CEES

Common European Economic Space or Common Economic Space (CES), one of four projected spheres of cooperation between the European Union and Russia

Chelski

Chelsea F.C., called Chelski in the British media, a reference to Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

Chernigovsky Skit

The Chernigovsky skete in Sergiev Posad, Russia is a monastery standing unique in central Russia for hand-dug monk cells and prayer caves.

Communist Party of the Russian Federation

It is the second largest political party in the Russian Federation, after United Russia.

In February 2005 the CPRF managed to beat the ruling pro-Kremlin party, United Russia, in elections to the regional legislature of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, obtaining 27% of the popular vote.

But since Roman Grebennikov has switched allegiances to United Russia, angering many communists who accuse him of using the CPRF as a tool to become elected.

Crime in Germany

While a lot of Aussiedlers adapted well and quickly mastered the German language, a lot of families held unto the traditional lifestyle they lived in Russia and surrounding states.

Douglas G. Hurley

More recently he served as the NASA director of operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Dzerzhinsky District

Dzerzhinsky District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Foton-M

It is produced by TsSKB-Progress in Samara.

Freidun Aghalyan

In 1903-1921 he constructed railroad bridges, gymnasium, the Treasury palace and Workers' House in Baku, and the Armenian church of Armavir, Russia.

Gepard-class frigate

The first unit of the class, Yastreb (Hawk), was laid down at the Zelenodol'sk Zavod shipyard at Tatarstan in 1991.

Heinrich Sylvester Theodor Tiling

Tiling became a physician at the "Russian North American Co." in Ayan, Siberia from 1845 through 1851.

Icebreaker

Pilot was used between 1864-1890 for navigation in the Gulf of Finland between Kronstadt and Oranienbaum thus extending the summer navigation season by several weeks.

Kemsky

Kemskoye Urban Settlement, a municipal formation which the town of Kem and three rural localities in Kemsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia are incorporated as

Kharkhul

The string of victories emboldened Khara Khula to take control of the salt mines near the Russian outpost at Tara in 1610 and demand a fee in exchange for the salt from the neighboring Cossacks and Siberian nomads.

Konchalovsky

Konchalovsky is a Russian surname.

Krasnooktyabrsky

Krasnooktyabrsky, Russia (Krasnooktyabrskaya, Krasnooktyabrskoye), several inhabited localities in Russia

Kratovo

Kratovo, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia

Kuybyshevsky District

Kuybyshevsky District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Lavrenty Zagoskin

Even though Nikolayevka was not near the ocean, Zagoskin would eventually train for the Russian Navy and served as a naval officer in the Baltic and Caspian seas.

Lori Garver

She worked to secure sponsorship funding as she began the initial medical certification and training in Star City, Russia.

Mikhail Ulyanov

Mikhail Alexandrovich Ulyanov spent his childhood and youth in the town of Tara, Omsk Oblast.

Modest Ivanovitch Bogdanovich

Modest Ivanovitch Bogdanovich (russ. Модест Иванович Богданович; 26 August / 7 September 1805 – 25 July / 6 August 1882, Oranienbaum, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian lieutenant-general and military historian.

Mordehai Dubin

He lived under arrest and exile in Siberia, first in Samara, and later in Tula, where he died in 1956 in a labor camp and is buried.

Moskovsky District

Moskovsky District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Nemansky

Nemanskoye Urban Settlement, a municipal formation, which the town of district significance of Neman in Nemansky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, is incorporated as

Nikolai Blagoveshchensky

Loris-Melikov gave Blagoveshchensky the post of Secretary of the Terek Statistical Committee.

Nikolay Tsukanov

Nikolay Tsukanov was born in 1965 in the village of Lipovo, in the Gusev area of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.

O. F. Snelling

In 1965, Snelling went to Russia to meet Lonsdale again and negotiated the writing and publication of his memoirs, Spy (1965).

Ordzhonikidzevsky District

Ordzhonikidzevsky District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Philip James Woods

Operating out of Kem on the White Sea, he established a Karelian Regiment, supplied and officered by the British.

Proletarsky District

Proletarsky District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Ralph Winston Fox

In the summer following graduation, Fox returned to Soviet Russia, this time as a worker with the Friends Relief Mission in Samara.

Razdolny

Razdolny, Russia (Razdolnaya, Razdolnoye), name of several rural localities in Russia

Resurs-P No.1

The Resurs-P spacecraft was built by the Russian space company TsSKB Progress in Samara, Russia.

Rudnichny

Rudnichny, Russia (Rudnichnaya, Rudnichnoye), name of several inhabited localities in Russia

Russia-Qing Convention

The treaty granted Russia the lease of Port Arthur (Lushun) and permitted its railway to extend to the port (later South Manchurian Railway) from one of the points of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER).

Russia's role in the Syrian Civil War

In addition to reportedly providing the refurbished MI-25 helicopter gunships, Russia has also transferred to Syria the Buk-M2 air defense system, the Bastion coastal defence missile system, and Yak-130 combat jet trainer.

Russian All-Military Union

This organization united all veterans of the Russian White movement, soldiers and officers alike, who were living abroad and desired to stay united for the purpose of purging Russia of the Bolshevik regime.

The OGPU set up a fake anti-communist monarchist organization, the Monarchist Union of Central Russia, which was successfully used to confuse and later demoralize the ROVS.

Sagra

Sagra, Russia, a rural locality (a settlement) in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

Sampur

Sampur, Russia, a rural locality (a selo) in Tambov Oblast, Russia

Sergej Ognew

Sergej Ivanovich Ognew (1886–1951) was a Russian zoologist and naturalist, remembered for his work on mammalogy.

Sfatul Țării

The Congress of the German Colonists in Bessarabia took place on March 7, 1919 in Tarutino.

Siberia

Towns such as Mangazeya, Tara, Yeniseysk and Tobolsk were developed, the last being declared the capital of Siberia.

Slavsky

Slavskoye, Russia, a rural locality (a settlement) in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Snezhny

Snezhny, Russia (Snezhnaya, Snezhnoye), name of several rural localities in Russia

Staritsky

Staritsky, Russia (Staritskaya, Staritskoye), several rural localities in Russia

Sverker Åström

From 1940 to 1943 he served at the Swedish mission to the Soviet Union, first in Moscow and then in Kuybyshev.

The Ways of Freedom

The Ways of Freedom is an early album by the Russian jazz musician Sergey Kuryokhin.

Tsentralny District

Tsentralny District, Russia, name of several districts and city districts in Russia

Ugryumov

Ugryumov or Ugryumova (feminine) is Russian surnames.

Ulchsky District

A number of interesting Yuan and Ming Dynasty archaeological monuments have been found on the Tyr Cliff near the village of Tyr in this district.

Umba

Umba, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Murmansk Oblast, Russia

Vargashi

Vargashi (rural locality), a selo in Vargashinsky Selsoviet of Vargashinsky District

Vasili Ivanovich Shemyachich

Vasili Ivanovich Shemyachich was a grandson of the famous knyaz of Galich, Dmitry Yurievich Shemyaka.

Vasilko Konstantinovich

Vasilko Konstantinovich (7 December 1209, Rostov – 4 March 1238, Sherensky forest) was the first Prince of Rostov, Russia.

Viktor Chernov

Following the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, he became a member of an anti-Bolshevik government in Samara, before fleeing to Europe and then the United States.

Vilovo

Vilovo, Russia, a rural locality (a village) in Tver Oblast, Russia

Vissarion

He founded and heads a religious or sect movement known as the Church of the Last Testament with its head church in the Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk Depression east of Abakan, in the southern Siberia Kuraginsk district of Krasnoyarsk territory, in the small settlement of Petropavlovka.

Vladimir Tikhonov

As a leading member of the Communist Party Tikhonov rose to the position of Chairman of the Central Committee, as well as becoming the governor of Ivanovo.

Volodymyr Oskilko

After the February Revolution in 1917 Oskilko was appointed a Governorate Commissar of the Russian Provisional Government in Tula.

Volovsky District

Volovsky District is the name of several administrative and municipal districts in Russia.

Yedynomu

The album was released in 2003 in Ukraine and Russia with 16 tracks with consequent worldwide release.

Yubileyny

Yubileyny, Russia (Yubileynaya, Yubileynoye), name of several inhabited localities in Russia

Yuri Sipko

Sipko was born on 28 February 1952 in the town of Tara in the Omsk Oblast.

Zelman Passov

Zelman Isaevich Passov Зельман Исаевич Пассов (1905, Staraya Russa, Russia - 15 February 1940) headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of the NKVD from June to November 1938, when he was arrested.

ZiU-5

The group of city electric transport enthusiasts from many cities in Russia, with guests from Estonia and United States, hired the Nizhny Novgorod Museum ZiU-5 for their meeting in 2004 (see photo above).

Zvyozdny gorodok

Star City, Russia, a military research and space training facility in that urban-type settlement


2003 Rugby World Cup – Repechage qualification

However, Russia was ejected from the competition for using ineligible South African players and was replaced by Spain.

Alexander Bourganov

His recent works include a monument to Alexander Pushkin located at George Washington University in Washington DC (2000); a statue of John Quincy Adams, the first U.S. Ambassador to Russia and later President of the United States, located in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (2008); and a statue of poet Walt Whitman located on the campus of Moscow State University (2009).

Andrei Nikolishin

His father, Vasyl Nikolishin, was a victim of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, and was exiled from Ukraine to a Gulag forced labor coal mine in Vorkuta, the largest center of the camps in European Russia, for a period of 25 years.

Anita Rani

Another follow up to India on Four Wheels was a two-part documentary entitled "Russia on Four Wheels", which aired on 20 January 2014 and 22 January 2014.

Archi people

The Archi (аршишттиб in Archi, арчинцы in Russian) are an ethnic group who live in eight villages in Southern Dagestan, Russia.

Beloyarsky

Beloyarsky Urban Settlement, a municipal formation in Beloyarsky Municipal District which the town of okrug significance of Beloyarsky in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia is incorporated as

Beriev Be-12

Other examples exist at the Ukraine State Aviation Museum at Kiev, Ukraine and that the Taganrog Air Museum, in southern Russia.

Book peddler

After various restrictions put forth by the infamous Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev, the activity of the society dwindled.

Bungee jumping

Several major movies have featured bungee jumps, most famously the opening sequence of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye in which Bond makes a jump over the edge of a dam in Russia (in reality the dam is in Switzerland: Verzasca Dam, and the jump was genuine, not an animated special effect).

Buryat

Republic of Buryatia, also known as the "Buryat Republic", a federal subject of Russia

Chukotsky

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Chukotsky avtonomny okrug), a federal subject of Russia

Coastal Monastery of St. Sergius

Some of the noblest and richest families of Imperial Russia, including the Galitzines, the Stroganovs and the Yusupovs, patronised the monastery and had their burial vaults on the grounds.

Ernesto Cortázar II

Ernesto traveled to more than 25 countries and performed his original compositions for political figures such as President of Argentina Carlos Menem, Nikita Khrushchev leader of the USSR and entertained at various prestigious venues including The Kremlin (Russia) and The Mexican Presidential House.

Fort McMurray Oil Barons

In August 2011, the Oil Barons traveled to Omsk, Russia to play in the World Junior Club Cup tournament hosted by teams of their top tier junior Minor Hockey League.

Gas Exporting Countries Forum

In May 2006 Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev threatened that Russia would create "an alliance of gas suppliers that will be more influential than OPEC" if Russia did not get its way in energy negotiations with Europe.

Gryazovetsky

Gryazovetskoye Urban Settlement, a municipal formation which the town of district significance of Gryazovets and two rural localities in Gryazovetsky District of Vologda Oblast, Russia are incorporated as

House of Soviets

Palace of the Soviets, a project to construct an administrative center and a congress hall in Moscow, Russia, near the Kremlin

Icelandic outvasion

In 2005 a group of Danish journalists found that Thor Björgólfsson, his father Björgólfur Guðmundsson and friend Magnús Þorsteinsson all have background in Russia, where they ran beverage businesses in the 1990s before moving to Iceland.

International Radio of Serbia

In November, 1941, during the occupation of Belgrade in the Second World War, a Free Yugoslavia radio station started its work and it broadcast its program until 1945, from the city of Ufa on the Ural River (Russia).

Intervision Song Contest

In 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed restart of competition but this time between Russia, China and Central Asian countries which are mostly members of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Jan Breydel

Kuzma Minin, the Russian leader of a popular militia that drove the Poles out of Russia at the end of the Time of Troubles in 1612, also happened to be a butcher.

La Belle Alliance

Blücher, the Prussian commander, suggested that the battle should be remembered as la Belle Alliance, to commemorate the European Seventh Coalition of Britain, Russia, Prussia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and a number of German States which had all joined the coalition to defeat the French Emperor.

Lyudmila Narusova

Lyudmila Narusova is the widow of Anatoly Sobchak (1937—2000), who was a prominent Russian politician, mentor and teacher of both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, and the mother of Kseniya Sobchak (born 1981), who is a celebrity widely known in Russia as a presenter on the reality show Dom-2 and other TV-shows.

Malaysia–Russia relations

Since Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, relations between Russia and Malaysia have improved significantly.

Meany Hall for the Performing Arts

Meany himself wanted the building to be named Seward Hall, after William H. Seward, the man who bought Alaska from Russia.

Mieczysław Weinberg

Besides the admiration which Shostakovich frequently expressed for Weinberg's works, they were taken up by some of Russia's foremost performers and conductors, including Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Kirill Kondrashin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kurt Sanderling, and Thomas Sanderling.

Novospassky

Novospassky Bridge, a bridge over the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia

Olga Uvarov

The American Red Cross located the children for him, but such was the cost of getting people out of Russia at that time that he could afford only to pay the costs for one child.

Patricia Harrison

Under Harrison's direction, the State Department initiated the CultureCommect program in which American celebrities such as YoYo Ma, Denyce Graves, Doris Roberts and Frank McCourt acted as "cultural ambassadors" in trips to Pakistan, Russia, Israel and other countries.

Periclase

In addition to its type locality, it is reported from Predazzo, Tyrol, Austria; Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland; Broadford, Skye and the island of Muck, Scotland; León, Spain; the Bellerberg volcano, Eifel district, Germany; Nordmark and Långban, Varmland, Sweden; and Kopeysk, southern Ural Mountains, Russia.

Pitirim Sorokin

Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (Russian Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин; January 21, 1889, Turja north of Syktyvkar, Yarensk uyezd, Vologda Governorate (now Knyazhpogostsky District, Komi), Russian Empire – February 11, 1968, Winchester, Massachusetts) was a Russian American sociologist born in modern-day Komi (Finno-Ugric region of Russia).

Pro Moves Soccer

Fictional players player for each team (nations range from Argentina to Jamaica and Russia).

Project 119

This marked the first time since the 1936 Summer Olympics that neither the United States, nor the Soviet Union/Russia, had won the most gold medals at a Summer Olympics.

Rise of nationalism in Europe

The Polish attempts to win independence from Russia had previously proved to be unsuccessful, with Poland being the only country in Europe whose autonomy was gradually limited rather than expanded throughout the 19th century, as a punishment for the failed uprisings; in 1831 Poland lost its status as a formally independent state and was merged into Russia as a real union country and in 1867 she became nothing more than just another Russian province.

Samarsky

Samara Oblast (Samarskaya oblast), a federal subject of Russia

Scott Rauland

From 2003 through 2005, he served as Consul General in Yekaterinburg, Russia, before returning to Germany to work in Frankfurt as Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Consulate General.

Shuvalov

Igor Shuvalov (born 1967) - First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia

Skafferhullet

The border crossing site was located on the old road between Elvenes in Sør-Varanger Municipality, Finnmark county, Norway and Borisoglebsky in Murmansk Oblast, Russia.

Skovorodino

Skovorodino railway station, a railway station on the Baikal-Amur Mainline in the town of Skovorodino in Amur Oblast, Russia

Sokuluk

According to historians, Sokuluk started its existence in the early 1880s, as a place of settlement of many of the Dungan people who moved to the Russian Empire from the Kulja (Yining) area between 1881 and 1883, after Russia agreed to withdraw its troops from Kulja pursuant to the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881).

Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia

She was fictionally portrayed in Chinese novelist Jin Yong's novel The Deer and the Cauldron in which the young protagonist Wei Xiaobao went to Russia and helped her lead the coup against her half-brother Peter I.

Stratos Boats

Stratos began building boats in 1984, and sells throughout a network of dealers throughout the United States, Australia, France, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Italy and Venezuela.

Tersk

Tersk Stud, a horse breeding farm in Russia owned and operated by the Russian government

Tolib Shakhidi

The musical pieces of the composer have been performed by such orchestras as Philadelphia & Boston Symphony Orchestra, State Symphonic Orchestra of USSR, Orchestra of Valery Gergiev, Bolshoy Symphonic Orchestra of Russia n.a. Tchaikovsky, Orchestra of Cinematography conducted by Sergei Skripka, Saint Petersburg State Philharmonic Orchestra n.a Dmitri Shostakovich.

Tsaritsyno

Tsaritsyno District, a district in Southern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia

Vasilisa Davankova

At their second event, in Zagreb, Croatia, they took the bronze and qualified for the JGP Final in Sochi, Russia, where they won the silver medal behind Lina Fedorova / Maxim Miroshkin.

Viola von Cramon-Taubadel

From 1992 to 1993 Viola von Cramon was an Erasmus Scholar at Wye College in Kent Country followed by the Language and Study visit to Russia in 1993, traineeship in Voronezh and Belgorod within the World Bank Feasibility study project in 1994 and Study visit to Estonia in 1995.

World Entertainment News Network

It began as the World Rock News Network (WRNN) and the company soon established a niche for itself, providing music news to subscribers including MTV, BBC, ABC and Russia's daily youth newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Yuryuzan

Yuryuzan River, a river in Russia, left tributary of the Ufa River

Zaozerny

Zaozyorny Urban Settlement, a municipal formation which the district town of Zaozyorny in Rybinsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia is incorporated as