Russian Travel Guide

Gymnast Denis Ablyazin

Denis Ablyazin is the first honoured master of gymnastics in history from his home region of Penza Oblast. At his debut at the Olympic Games in London Denis won two medals — a silver and a bronze for his strongest events — the vault and the floor. Even with such achievements the ambitious and goal-oriented athlete doesn’t plan to quit anytime soon and has his eyes set on a bigger prize — an Olympic gold. A famed athlete and one of the leaders of the Russian national team, Ablyazin has breathed new life into men’s gymnastics in Russia after a long lull, helping to revive the spirit and hopes Russian gymnastics fans have in their representatives returning to the highest pedestal and winning an Olympic gold.

В поисках культурного кода. Переславль-Залесский

The View From Up On High. Legends of the Russian North

The Russian North is a term used to describe the lands in the north of the European part of Russia. It’s a historical and cultural, rather than geographical, designation, however. A cold climate, a territory that’s far from the state centers, a land that avoided the Tartar-Mongol Yoke and serfdom – all of this created a unique community of people, bold and freedom-loving. The nature here is so beautiful that the native inhabitants of these lands believed that everything surrounding them was animated with spirits. The mountains became shrines. The pines were idols. The forests, rivers and waterfalls were homes to mythological creatures. The poetry of this northern region to this day lives on in the ancient Karelian and Finnish runes and in Russian