More features:

• Heroes of Russian Folklore: meet these homegrown favourite lads

  
  Russians love their heroes. Whether they’re looking to name a new restaurant or just a bliny (pancake) such as the Ilya Muromets blini sold at Teremok stalls throughout the country....

• The Russian Kitchen

  
  Food in Russia is a serious business. No jokes please! We’re talking national pride here. Traditional Russian food is rich and stodgy peasant-fare from the village....

• Russian People: Babushkas

  Russian women tend to outlive their male countrymen by quite a few years, which is why you see a lot more babushky (old women) than dedushky (old men) on the streets of St....

• Leningrad Symphony

  
  The performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad symphony on August 9th 1942 in the Grand Philharmonic hall was a definitive turning point for Leningraders during the years of the terrible siege....

• Bridges of St. Petersburg

  
  When Peter the Great, that wonderful builder, founded the city, he envisaged a bridgeless city where everyone maneuvered around on boats in summer and in winter, cruising around on sleds....

• Lenintown

  
  Vladmir Ilyich Ulyanov or Lenin, as he is more commonly known, is everywhere you look in Russia. St Petersburg is no exception, after all the starting point of the revolution itself was named after him for more than 65 years....

• Revolution!

  
  According to the old Russian style calendar, the revolution occurred in October, however with the new calendar, the Revolution date is celebrated on the 7th of November....

• Spooks in the City

  
  Ah the romance of the canals and neo-classic buildings, the world’s best ballet and opera stars and museums filled with priceless works of art....

• Poor, paranoid Paul

  
  Pushkin once called Paul the first, the Romantic Emperor, but readers may know of Paul (Pavel in Russian) as Poor Pavel....

• Peter the Great

  
  Born in 1672, Peter the Great is one of Russia’s most famous tsars. With the help of his half-sister Sophia he ruled for 12 years from 1682 until 1694 when he finally got rid of the pesky whisper in his ear that was his power hungry half-sister, by forcing her into a convent....

• Great Russian Women

  
  You can call them the pillars of Russian society: the Russian women. But most of them don’t stand in the foreground (men always take this place)....

• The secrets of Russian caviar

  
  Female tennis players are Russia’s eye-catchers nowadays. But long before Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and the others started strutting their stuff on the courts, caviar was one of Russia’s most wanted pearls....

• Chizhik & those Sphinxes: Quirky tales behind even quirkier statues

  
  During the last ten or so years, new and intriguing statues have been appearing on the streets of St....

• Volga Dream

  
  A romantic and memorable trip down the Volga river from Moscow to St. Petersburg is the dream of many a foreign visitor to Russia....