The California secessionist movement has its own foreign embassy, in Russia of all places.

Stalin's secret bunker.

Siberian whale bones stand as cairns marking location of an ancient butcher yard.

The world's tallest statue of a woman wields the world's tallest sword and is at risk of toppling over.

Gigantic natural towers in a Russian plateau.

Stalin's prisoner-built rail line sits in ruin, never having a single car ride its tracks.

Home of the future Emperors of Russia.

Former estate of Lenin, now home to his death mask.

A homemade anatomical collection of medical anomalies and accidental catastrophes.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.

Some Moscow residents once claimed the bizarre, contorted mass of metal on top of the building was used to manipulate minds.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

Replica of mosque destroyed by Russia in the 16th century.

No one knows why ancient labyrinths were built on this tiny northern island.

Specimens collected by the author of "Lolita" and self-taught lepidopterist are exhibited in his childhood home.

Unusual, mushroom-like rock formations caused by weathering and water erosion, set to disappear, according to geologists.

This Russian museum stresses the importance of keeping clean and even holds one of Pavlov's dogs.

Former prison camp dedicated to the victims of political repression.

This nostalgic Russian museum is full of USSR cultural artifacts from the 1970s and 80s.

Dozens of padlock-trees along the Moscow River.

An ever-growing literary collection housed in the apartment where the Russian author penned his final novel.

The USSR’s Conquest of Nature lead to the domestication of many moose—no squirrel.

The world's first museum dedicated to the work of game-changing naturalist Charles Darwin.

Dark, eerie exhibits make for a surreal exploration of the subconscious.