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

A sculpture park of the tossed aside relics of the USSR, from Stalin to a massive Soviet emblem.

The tallest hotel in Europe.

A dormant lightning machine equal to all the power in Russia.

An unusual abandoned church damaged in World War II sits in a small village outside Moscow.

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

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

Moscow's imposing monument to the Space Age.

Museum celebrating the achievements of the Soviet space program.

Gargantuan home of Russian science.

It took over half a century but a Russian monument to a famous and tragic space pup finally stands in Moscow.

Hidden in a metro shop under a shopping mall, this small museum tells the story of one of the world's largest urban transit systems.

Moscow's most popular cemetery includes the graves of numerous cosmonauts.

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.

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

Former headquarters of the KGB.

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

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

This endearingly discomfited urinating statue commemorates the sneaky pees had by us all.

An alien church provides much needed silence in the midst of a Finland shopping center.

This insurance company building reminds customers that witches, bears, and gnomes are out there, best be insured.

Architecturally stunning library serves as the hub of Finnish scholarly life and culture.

A bus with a butt and biceps to put Olympic athletes to shame.

What looks like a crashed Zeppelin is actually a bright, airy reading room perched atop a modern museum.