Secret Soviet city once home to Russian cosmonauts and space training facilities.

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

Museum celebrating the achievements of the Soviet space program.

It's hard to believe the dizzying patterns covering this abandoned mine are completely natural.

Dr. Strangelove-esque tours reveal the inside a bunker once reserved for Stalin himself.

This ancient village and its adjoining cemetery have a beautiful history of death and remembrance.

One of the largest collections of socialist realist art shows the surprising depth of the official art of the Soviet Union.

What once claimed to be the world's tallest single-family wooden structure house.

This Russian diner is staffed entirely by twins.

Most polluted lake in the world, used as a radioactive dumping ground for years.

This burial mound is said to be the final resting place of Russia's first Viking ruler, Oleg of Novogrod.

Thousands of biblical and pagan images are carved into this small 12th-century church.

Home of Vissarion, the "Jesus of Siberia."

The Uyghur settlement in the middle of a lake continues to raise questions.

Thanks to this small string of islands World War II still hasn't officially ended between Russia and Japan.

The laboratory where the Soviet secret police invented exotic poisons used to kill dissidents in hideous and (mostly) untraceable ways.

Volcanic irregularity? Odd erosion? Alien eggs? Local legends compete to explain these strange orbs.

A replica of the straw hut where Vladimir Lenin lived in hiding, disguised as a hay farmer, in 1917.

An abandoned 14th-century castle and prison complex on a small island in the Neva River.

The mummified remains of Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, Russia's most important Buddhist.

Site of the world's largest nuclear explosion.

Europe's highest peak is a key pillar of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge.

This massive glowering Lenin head gazes out over eastern Siberia.

Five mile wide circular ring of rock in the Russian Far East is a curious geological oddity.