In the late 19th century, Konstantin Makovsky was considered a fashionable and expensive portrait painter and author of historical paintings. He also had a big gold medal of the Paris World's Fair to his name.

Yet, Makovsky often painted touching and sentimental pictures about hard rural life too. His barefoot girl running with her brother from a thunderstorm is a real scene from life observed by the artist during one of his trips to the Russian provinces.

📷 ‘Children Running from the Storm’, 1872, Sputnik

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

On this day in 1864 the legendary Moscow Zoo was opened!

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

“Stalin’s blossoming garden”: rise and demise of the Volga German Soviet Republic

The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became the first national autonomous region in the young socialist state. Vladimir Lenin signed the decree establishing it in 1918.

The history of the USSR itself was reflected in this republic’s tragic fate. Flourishing in the 1920s, it was caught in the avalanche of Stalin’s repressions. With the beginning of the war against Nazi Germany, the inhabitants of the autonomous region were forcefully deported en masse to Kazakhstan and Siberia. The republic itself was liquidated forever.

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

How the Soviet Union prepared for World War II

The USSR had been preparing for a new world war from its very foundation. The country’s leadership was convinced that the capitalist West would sooner or later try to destroy the world’s first “socialist state of workers and peasants”.

By the Summer of 1941, the numerical strength of the Red Army had reached five million, even surpassing the Wehrmacht and its allies in numbers of tanks and aircraft.

The Soviet Armed Forces seemed a formidable fighting force, but they faced all sorts of organizational and technical problems. To solve them, the country’s leadership did everything possible in an attempt to delay the beginning of the war. It didn’t succeed in doing so, however.

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

On this day 150 years ago Feodor Chaliapin was born!

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

5 friends of Russian tsars

There were not many people with whom Russian rulers had friendly relations. The majority of the tsar’s subjects, even the highest officials, were dependent on him and sought his favor only for their own ends. And there were almost no brave people who wished to “speak the truth to tsars with smiles on their faces”.

Only those who were brought together with the rulers by chance became true friends, as it was with Andrey Nartov, the friend of Peter the Great. Sometimes, childhood games of tsareviches, heirs to the throne, and young aristocrats, grew into friendship. But, such friendly ties were not always strong. As opposed to ladies-in-waiting and friends of the empresses – Elizabeth or Catherine – who reached untold heights thanks to such a friendship.

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

Little Misha Lunin from Moscow already loves tearing up concrete - as well as already pulling off pro-like tricks!🔥

Video credit: https://www.instagram.com/@mihonches

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

181 years ago Russian Tsar Nicholas I signed a decree to build the St. Petersburg-Moscow railroad.

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond

⛓️ Check out more of Tim Kirby's adventures across Russia on YouTube!

https://youtube.com/@TimKirbysTravel

Vivid street photography of the Russiаn Empire

Alfred Eberling was a famous artist, but at the same time he is considered to be a pioneer of Russian street photography. He had a Pocket Kodak which was able to do photos with a little exposure, which let the photos to be incredibly vivid.

Check out these city street scenes from St. Petersburg! Elegant women strolling with umbrellas, busy men rushing to work and just random people passing by and riding their carriages and city railroad driven by horses…

🇷🇺 Follow us - @russiabeyond