Now on air
02:30
The View From Up On High. The Churches of Veliky Novgorod
It is better to die than to allow one’s gods to be insulted,” the people of Novgorod stated, resisting attempts to convert them from their pagan beliefs to Christianity. In the face of this opposition, Prince Vladimir’s envoys resorted to brute force. With fire and the sword. It was in this way that Novgorod was brought round to the Christian faith in the 10th century. But a new strength was born out of that fire. Christianity united the different tribes and groups. Two centuries later, the majority of the churches in this medieval city were part of a vast monastery. Every community in Novgorod had its own church – the inhabitants of each neighborhood in the city, even streets, merchants working in the different trades, aristocratic families. The church signified heavenly patronage and affirmed the existence of the community within the sacral space of the city. The history and architectu...
The fortress walls of Kaliningrad
For more than seven centuries the city of Königsberg cultivated its defensive power through the construction of bastions, ravelins, towers, fortress gates, defensive barracks and a ring of bastilles. To this day these buildings constitute the core of the city. It was in the 20th century that Königsberg received a new name — Kaliningrad — and the city’s magnificent examples of ancient fortification were transformed into monuments of fortification art and military engineering thought from the second half of the 19th century. Host Nadezhda Lebedeva visited modern-day Kaliningrad to check out these historic constructions for herself in this RTG film.
Now on air
02:15
The fortress walls of Kaliningrad
Spring fishing in the lower reaches of the Volga
Spring is the season when the waters of the Volga River are at their highest. Is this a good time to visit the region to fish? RTG host Stanislav Salnikov heads off to the great river in May and finds that even when the waters are high you can get a good catch. The fishing for Volga predators – pike perch and Volga zander - from a boat, and even perch from the shore is a hit. The main thing is to use the right tackle.
Now on air
02:30