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

An unused hyberbolic electricity pylon kept as architectural monument.

A magnificent, Disneyesque chateau built for 150 lucky kindergarteners.

Ukrainian defense contractor's center for studying "pyramid energy."

Social outcasts and cannibalism in Stalin's Soviet Union.

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

Fascinating early attempt at a Jewish autonomous settlement.

A monument to the defenders of the Arctic in Murmansk, Russia.

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

An incredibly random collection of wax figures is displayed in a shopping center walkway.

One of the last examples of Soviet architectural propaganda has a few technological tricks up its sleeve.

A small and surprising passageway in Saint Petersburg devoted to the Beatles.

Russian researchers who have been excavating ancient squirrel burrows may have brought a 32,000-year-old plant back to life.

A surreal pile of colorful junk fills a small yard in an otherwise gray neighborhood.

Site of the world's largest nuclear explosion.

Russia's giant concrete QWERTY keyboard is likely the largest in the world.

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

This 15th-century cave complex is one of the very few monasteries to stay open throughout World War II and the Soviet regime.

Perhaps the tiniest sculpture in Saint Petersburg is a little bronze finch inspired by a song.

This newly renovated Soviet-era outdoor exhibition center is bigger than the principality of Monaco.

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

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

An unusual collection of self-made musical instruments and unique noises.

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