World on my postcards

 The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 (Russian: Парад Победы, tr. Parad Pobedy) was a victory parade held by the Soviet army (with a small squad from the Polish army) after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. This, the longest and largest military parade ever held on Red Square in the Soviet capital of Moscow, involved 40,000 Red Army soldiers and 1,850 military vehicles and other military hardware.

Zayachy Island   is an island in the  Neva River  in  St. Petersburg ,  Russia . It is separated by the Kronverksky Strait from  Petrogradsky Island  to the north, to which it is connected by the Kronverksky and Ioannovsky bridges

 Lomonosov Moscow State University is a coeducational and public research university located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on January 25, 1755 by Mikhail Lomonosov. The total number of students enrolled (including post-graduates and part-time students) is 40 000. The staff includes more than 8 500 professors, associates professors and research associates. Currently the number of foreign students and postgraduates is 5000 from 80 countries.

  Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. It separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod.

  is a 1900 Russian protected cruiser, currently preserved as a museum ship in St. Petersburg. Aurora was one of three Pallada-class cruisers, built in St. Petersburg for service in the Pacific. All three ships of this class served during the Russo-Japanese War. Aurora survived the Battle of Tsushima and was interned under US protection in the Philippines, eventually returned to the Baltic Fleet. The second ship, Pallada, was sunk by the Japanese at Port Arthur in 1904. The third ship, Diana, was interned in Saigon after the Battle of the Yellow Sea. One of the first incidents of the October Revolution in Russia took place on the cruiser Aurora.

Murmansk is the largest city in the world located above the Arctic Circle. Murmansk sea port is one of the largest ice-free ports in Russia. It is the port of registration of the barque “Sedov”, the largest sailing vessel in the world. All Russian nuclear icebreakers are also registered in this sea port. The port is the basis of the economy of Murmansk. The Northern Sea Route starts here.

Although it is only a 20 th  century creation, Palace Bridge is undoubtedly one of the most famous sights of St. Petersburg, and is quite literally unmissable for most visitors to the city.  The history of Palace Bridge dates back to 1901, when a competition for designs for a permanent bridge at the site was announced.  

  The Catherine (until 1910 Great Tsarskoye Selo) Palace is a historical and compositional center of the palace-and-park ensemble. It is a remarkable edifice in the Russian Baroque style, with richly decorated interiors including the world-famous Amber Room, which was restored by the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg in 2003 .

The amazing scenery of the city of Smolensk is spilled over the picturesque hills of the Dnieper Valley . Over the city stands the Assumption Cathedral, surrounding by medieval walls and towers of the Smolensk fortress. Both structures are not only architectural, but also historical monuments-symbols of the heroic 20-month defense of the city in 1609-1611 against the 30 thousand-strong army of the Polish King Sigismund III. This defense played an important role on the future liberation of Moscow from the Polish conquerors in 1612 and in the formation of the Russian state.   Smolensk city wall is the longest fortified structure in Europe. Built in 1596-1602 . Beneath the walls was created a system of galleries which were used as listening outposts to detect attempts of mining and building of underground passages by the enemy. In the modern times, there are 17 towers still standing out of the original 38, and the total length of the city walls ...

  Yakutia is a territory in the extreme North of Asia whose cultural history pushes its boundaries as far West as Central Asia but whose cultural legacy reaches as far East as Greenland. Centered in Yakutsk, three quarters of the population makes its home scattered across Yakutia’s vast, varied, and extreme landscape.