Weightlifter Denis Vovk successfully pulled a 32-ton Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger plane 10 meters in 42 seconds at Sochi Int’l Airport, setting a new record!

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What happened to the author of one of the most famous World War 2 photos of all time?

Evgeny Khaldei took arguably the most famous WW2 photograph of all time, but a mere year later, his own country made every effort to disown him, calling him a “mediocre” photographer.

A locksmith by trade, the self-taught photographer spent 1,418 days in the war, becoming the only Soviet photographer to have gone through it all, and filmed the action since the first to the very last day, including the Potsdam Conference, the German capitulation, the Nuremberg trials and so on.

At first, no one doubted Khaldei’s achievements. He was awarded numerous honors for his work. However, a year later, the mood toward Jews in government structures had begun to grow sour fast. And even the Soviet news agency, TASS, where Khaldei worked, followed suit. “A mediocre correspondent that barely managed to do his part” was how he was characterized during his firing.

The photographer had fallen into disfavor with authorities and practically abandoned for years. At one point, he even feared for his safety, and destroyed all the negatives containing images of people who faced Stalin’s infamous purges. He did odd jobs until his retirement in 1976.

Khaldei would only be remembered abroad, on the anniversary of the Great Victory, 50 years later. At the special invitation of the President of France, in 1995, he was welcomed at the international photography festival in Perpignan, where he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters for his achievements. Half a year before his death in 1997, he was honored in Europe with a film about his life, and a book, in the US.

📷 Archive photo; Public Domain

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How the English once planned to seize the Russian North

At the beginning of the 17th century, when the Tsardom of Muscovy was enduring interventions by Poland and Sweden, the English, who had made themselves at home in the Russian North, intended to establish their own protectorate in these territories.

They didn’t manage to implement the plan in time and, for three hundred years, it was kept secret from people in Russia.

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Magic bird’s eye view of Iturup Island’s majestic cliffs!

Video by: @fr1amon_

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The Russian movie ‘The Challenge’ is the first ever fiction movie filmed in space.

Today, when anything can be drawn on a computer, the world’s cinema, oddly enough, is returning to man-made effects. The most striking example is Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film ‘Oppenheimer’, where even a nuclear explosion is simulated without the aid of graphics.
‘The Challenge’ fits into this trend – the authentic texture in the frame is much more effective than the computer-generated one.

No other space movie has ever provided us with such an effect of presence.

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Lenin was a typical Taurus!

April 22 is the birthday of the leader of the global proletariat. This obviously means Vladimir Lenin is a Taurus. The memoirs of his contemporaries contain numerous descriptions of his personality, so we decided to figure out if the descriptions match what we know about the zodiac sign!

Tauruses are perceived as stubborn, materialistic and with a penchant for luxury. Still, astrologists claim they’re also very patient, reliable, loyal and resolute.

French writer Romain Rolland, who visited the USSR, wrote: “Never since the days of Napoleon has European history witnessed such a steel will. Never in their heroic histories have European religions known apostles of such unshakeable faith.”

Lenin’s comrade in exile, Alexander Shapovaolov, pointed to his patience and determination: “He was methodical in work, the way a German might be… It can be said of every genius that they are composed of three-tenths natural ability, and seven-tenths determination and perseverance. This methodicalness, coupled with immense willpower and massive abilities helped him carry out the titanic work we witnessed.”

The similarities end there, however – as there’s really no evidence of Lenin’s predisposition to luxury: everyone, including his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, attested to Lenin’s extremely modest lifestyle. Krupskaya, by the way, was a Pisces – they’re considered very compatible with Tauruses!

📷 Sputnik; Akindo/Getty Images

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Here's a conspiracy meme for you all 😅

📸 Sputnik; NASA

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Take a quick tour around authentic Moscow as seen by its citizens!

Video by: instagram.com/po.moskve

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The serenity & tranquility of meditation in the Ural Mountains!

Video by: @russian_vavi

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Along Lake Baikal by rail – this is the most beautiful tourist route in the WORLD!

The Circum-Baikal railway was built in 1904 to connect the western and the eastern parts of the Trans-Siberian Railway. For that, it earned a beautiful epithet – “the golden buckle of the steel belt of Russia”.

The railway circumvents the southern part of the lake, running through hundreds of viaducts and dozens of tunnels cut into the rocks. The windows reveal the picturesque views of Lake Baikal. The train moves leisurely at just 20 km/h – as safety regulations require.

Nonetheless, due to frequent avalanches, the railroad was closed in the 1950s and the train tracks were relocated further away from Baikal. In the 2000s, the railroad was restored and a tourist retro train and a suburban electric train were launched.

The trip starts from the Slyudyanka I station and ends at the Baikal station. It takes five hours. Check out some of the wonderful things you’ll see along the way!

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What was Stalin’s wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva like?

Stalin remarried at the age of forty to a seventeen-year-old high school student named Nadezhda Alliluyeva. And after finishing gymnasium and, later, the industrial academy, Nadezhda proved herself to be a diligent, purposeful and modest woman at party work. She tried to instill the same qualities in her children – perhaps that is why her daughter, Svetlana, later wrote that her mother seemed very strict to her, while her father was kind and affectionate.

The external idyll of family life was actually overshadowed by Nadezhda’s jealousy and Stalin’s rudeness. And, on November 8, 1932, Nadezhda shot herself in mysterious circumstances.

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