More features:

• The Magnificent Mariinsky

  The historical MariinskyBack in the day, meaning the 1840s in this case, the first touring circus arrived in St....

• 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....

• 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....

• 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....

• 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)....

• 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....

• 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....

• Russian People: Horsegirls

  Russia must be one of the few countries in the world today where you can see young girls galloping around on horseback in the city centre....

• 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....

• The Russian Banya

  
  With winter arriving late, the In Your Pocket Editors hunt for indoor winter entertainment and recommend ice-skating and the essential experience of the Russian banya....

• 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....

• Great Russian Beer Test

  
  Even the bears in Russia wander around swigging vodka, right? According to the stereotypes, in Russia it’s vodka straight up and nothing else....

• Russian superstitions

  
  Russians are a very superstitious folk, they do a whole host of strange or unusual things to ward off the bad luck and welcome in a bit of good luck....

• How Russians Say I do

  
  As a tourist in St. Petersburg, it is sometimes difficult to avoid falling over the brides hovering around the city’s tourist sights posing for photos....