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

Monastery complex at the location where bodies of the executed Romanov royal family were discovered.

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees in Russia is still a mystery.

Moscow's other, lesser known kremlin is a fairytale-like cultural complex modeled after Old Russia.

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

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

These limestone cliffs are associated with the Greek myth of Prometheus.

One of the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's many summer retreats.

Russian spa's bronze monument to enemas.

For lovers of Soviet cinema, this museum is home to a vast collection of artifacts and costumes.

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

Social outcasts and cannibalism in Stalin's Soviet Union.

A self-taught Siberian craftsman creates a fantastical and personal design for his 19th century village house.

Inside the world's largest seed bank, WWII botanists elected to starve to death rather than compromise their collection.

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

This massive glowering Lenin head gazes out over eastern Siberia.

A uniquely authentic display of traditional Russian culture.

Home of the future Emperors of Russia.

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

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

The coldest city in the world.

This frozen-in-time summer home outside Moscow provides a look at Russian life in the 1950s.

A Marxist summer camp full of fantastical statues lies tucked away and forgotten in the forests of Moscow.

Abandoned castle was once a grand example of Russian privilege, built exclusively to win a frivolous bet between noblemen.