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• sexual relations between a man and his daughter-in-law were fairly common in pre-revolutionary rural Russia?
• several months after Vasili III of Russia divorced his wife, Solomonia Saburova, on account of her barrenness, she is believed to have given birth to a son, who became the Cossack robber Kudeyar?
• the Armenian oil magnate Alexander Mantashev (pictured) handpicked 50 talented young Armenians and sent them to study at the best universities of continental Europe and Russia?
• the British Parliament first guaranteed diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors in 1709, after Count Andrey Matveyev, a Russian resident in London, had been subjected by British bailiffs to verbal and physical abuse?
• the Soviet censors initially discouraged the performance of "The Victory Day", one of the most popular Russian songs to come out of World War II?
• one of the founders of modern Russian psychiatry, Pavel Jacobi, brother of the painter Valery Jacobi, participated in the January Uprising in Poland and volunteered in the Army of the Vosges led by Giuseppe Garibaldi?
• more than 700 of the caricatures on display at Sardi's restaurant in New York City were drawn by a Russian refugee in exchange for meals at the restaurant?
• in 1908 Nikolai Panin became Russia's first Olympic champion by winning the figure skating special figures event, the only year in which it was an Olympic event?
• in 1831, Russian painter Yakov Kolokolnikov-Voronin (pictured) was deemed a "free artist" by the Imperial Academy of Arts?
• in 1952 the Russian mathematician Veniamin Kagan (pictured) resigned from his post at Moscow State University partly as a result of anti-Semitic practices there?
• in his poem Dushenka, the 18th-century Ukrainian-born poet Ippolit Bogdanovich changed the setting of Apuleius's story about Cupid and Psyche to a contemporary Russian village?
• the cornerstone for the first museum of space exploration, the Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, Russia, was laid by Yuri Gagarin?
• the Greek colony of Phanagoria in present-day Russia was the seat of the last Bosporan kings, the capital of Great Bulgaria, and the residence of the exiled Emperor Justinian II?
• the Russian victory at Molodi in 1572 put a stop to the northward expansion of the Ottoman Empire into present-day Russia?
• the Russian Party of Revolutionary Communism was dissolved in 1920 after a decision of the 2nd Comintern congress, which ordered there could only be one communist party in each country?
• the Russian clown Slava Polunin celebrated the 20th anniversary of his theater by organizing its funerals?
• the Russian composers Peter Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Serge Rachmaninoff used Ukrainian folk melodies in their works?
• the Russian frigate Oryol was completed in 1669 as the first Russian naval ship, and flew the earliest recorded white, blue, and red Russian flag?
• the Russian Byzantine historian Alexander Vasiliev was persuaded by Michael Rostovtzeff to defect in 1925?
• the honorary title City of Military Glory has been bestowed on the citizenry of 27 Russian cities for courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War?
• the rauisuchian Tsylmosuchus is known from strata found in Russia that are early Olenekian in age, making it one of the earliest archosaurs?
• the Rus merchants travelling along the Volga trade route (pictured) brought goods from Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia as far as Baghdad?
• the Russian Admiral Samuel Greig died days after his most famous victory—the Battle of Hogland?
• in 1787–1788, Barthélemy de Lesseps traveled overland the full length of Russia to deliver reports from the La Pérouse expedition to the French Ambassador in St. Petersburg and from there continued on to Paris?
• in 1715, Grigory Dmitriyevich Stroganov, the largest Russian landowner after the tsar, owned territories larger than modern Bulgaria or Iceland?
• Sofia Petrovna, a book by Russian writer Lydia Chukovskaya written in 1939-1940, and published in the West in 1960s, was published in the Soviet Union only in 1988?
• A Gift to Young Housewives, a Russian cookbook condemned under communism, contained nearly 4,000 recipes in some editions?
• Sotsialisticheskii vestnik, the organ of the exiled Russian Menshevik Party, was published from New York until 1965?
• Count Nikolay Kamensky, a Russian commander in the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812, died after catching a fever on the battlefield?
• Prince Mikhail Vorontsov fought Napoléon, founded Odessa, and commanded the Russian invasion of the Caucasus in 1844?
• A Driver for Vera, Ukraine's submission for the 77th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was rejected because too much of the production was based in Russia?
• Lynn Visson, a United Nations conference interpreter, is also a Russian cuisine cookbook author?
• Voina is a Russian art collective whose provocative works have included public group sex and staged hangings?
• VolgaGES in Russia is the largest hydroelectric station in Europe as it produces 2541 MW?
• Yalchik Lake is the biggest lake in Mari El, Russia?
• Yuri Izrael, Russian vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes the Kyoto Protocol is scientifically unsupported?
• Russian modernist writer Aleksey Remizov (pictured) was also an expert calligrapher who sought to revive this medieval art form in Russia?
• a screening of the documentary film Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case may have led to the St Petersburg branch of the human rights charity Memorial being raided by the Russian authorities?
• at the height of the Cold War, U.S. President Ronald Reagan committed a microphone gaffe when he joked that he had signed legislation to bomb Russia?
• before the 2004 Russia–Belarus gas dispute, Gazprom sold natural gas to Belarus at Russian domestic prices?
• following the war in August, Russia and South Ossetia signed a treaty in September 2008, guaranteeing Russian intervention in the event of an attack on South Ossetia?
• four EU-Russia Common Spaces were articulated during the Moscow EU-Russia summit in May 2005?
• as a teenager, Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhaylovich Reshetnikov (pictured) was convicted of stealing mail and sentenced to three months in a monastery?
• an attempted Russian conquest of Hawaii in 1815–1817 was led by a German physician?
• a significant number of Iraqis have emigrated to Russia as early as the 1990s?
• according to a legend, the Eliseyevs hid their treasures in the walls of Chicherin House before they fled Russia after the October Revolution in 1917, but this treasure was never found?
• after fighting in six wars throughout Europe and Russia, General Hotze (pictured) was killed within 32 km (20 miles) of his birthplace on 25 September 1799 at the Second Battle of Zurich?
• although presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have been requested to give technical advice about software patches in open-source computer operating systems, only the Ukrainian president did so?
• the Russian defense correspondent Ivan Safronov, who was writing about the third consecutive launch failure of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, died in a mysterious fall from his fifth floor apartment?
• the Russian imperial Field Marshal Peter Lacy started his military career at the age of 13, defending Limerick during the Williamite war in Ireland?
• the first Russian parliament of 1906 and the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1918 convened in the Tauride Palace (pictured) of Catherine the Great?
• the film of the book Nochnoy Dozor by Sergey Lukianenko was such a success that ticket sales in Russia were only exceeded by The Lord of the Rings?
  
• the first railway in Estonia, connecting the cities Paldiski, Tallinn and Narva with Gatchina, Russia, opened in 1870?
• the first hull loss of a Tupolev Tu-204 occurred when Aviastar-TU Flight 1906 crashed on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow, Russia, on 22 March 2010?
• the plant genus Regelia is named after the 19th-century Russian botanist Eduard August von Regel and is found only in Australia?
• the fighter pilot Aleksandr Kazakov destroyed 32 German and Austro-Hungarian planes during WWI, while his formal tally of 17 is explained by the fact that only planes crashed in the Russian-held territory were officially counted?
• the famous Russian orientalist of Azeri origin, Muhammad Ali Kazim-bey, was converted to Christianity by Scottish Presbyterian missionaries in 1821?
• the State Historical Museum in Moscow, Russia has 1.7 million coins in its collection?
• the Union of Salvation, a Russian secret society of revolutionary Decembrists, was organized according to a complex Masonic style system of rituals and vows?
• the Villa Medicea di Pratolino (pictured), visited by Michel de Montaigne in 1581, was later owned by the Demidov princely family of Russia and by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia?
• the earliest known patrilineal ancestors of the Romanov Dynasty of Russian tsars were a certain boyar Andrei, nicknamed "The Mare," and his son Fyodor, nicknamed "The Cat"?
• the projected Russian hypersonic aircraft Ayaks was supposed to use novel "magneto-plasmo-chemical engines" capable of working in the mesosphere?
• the real objective of the 1732 Treaty of Three Black Eagles, where Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to support the Portuguese Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém in elections to the Polish throne, was to create a rift between France and Prussia?
• up to 2 million people may be living in Russian closed cities, which are off-limits to foreigners because they have sensitive military and nuclear industry?
  
• up to 78 percent of 1,016 leading political figures in post-Soviet Russia have served previously in organizations affiliated with Russian intelligence services like the KGB?
• while serving in the elite Russian Preobrazhensky regiment, Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy served with the future literary critic Faddei Bulgarin?
• with the Minas Gerais (pictured), Brazil became the third country to have a dreadnought under construction, ahead of traditional powers like France and Russia?
• there was a monument to British philanthropist John Howard in a hall of Russia's Kresty Prison?
• there are two types of Russkiy Toy, a Russian breed of dog, which are long haired (pictured) and smooth haired?
• the site of the early Viking hill fort of Alaborg, Russia, was turned into a quarry for construction of a highway during the years of Stalinism?
• the small French Communist Group in Russia was able to play a role in fomenting mutinies amongst French interventionist troops during the Russian Civil War?
• the town of Yubileyny in Moscow Oblast, Russia, annexed a small strip of land to avoid being completely surrounded by the city of Korolyov?
• the traditional Russian carnival of Maslenitsa lasts for a week and culminates in the burning of a straw effigy representing winter and all the left-over blintzes?
• the Shtyki Memorial (pictured), which honors the defenders of Russia in the Battle of Moscow, is depicted on the flag and coat of arms of Zelenograd?
• the Samara flag, presented as a gift from Russia to the Bulgarian volunteers in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, is the only flag awarded a Bulgarian Medal for Bravery?
• the Agrarian Socialist League, a Russian revolutionary émigré organization, was founded at the funeral of Pyotr Lavrov in 1900?
• the Alvensleben Convention allowed Russian troops to cross the Prussian border in pursuit of Polish revolutionaries of the 1863 January Uprising?
• the Annenschule (pictured) high school in Saint Petersburg, Russia was transformed into a Soviet work school after the Russian Revolution, but now houses a lyceum?
• the Blue Bridge (pictured), the widest in St. Petersburg, Russia, derives its name from a 19th-century tradition of color-coding the bridges across the Moika River?
• the tornado that struck Moscow on June 29, 1904 was the first ever recorded in Central Russia?
• the American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler married a former professor, who was actually a Russian double agent named Sergei Degaev?
• the Russian musical group Terem Quartet performs classical works on folk instruments in a humorous, virtuosic style?
• the Russian officer Leonid Gobyato is credited with having invented man-portable mine mortars?
• the Russian victory in the Battle of Rakovor in 1268 put an end to the attacks of the Teutonic Knights on Russia for thirty years?
• the Soviet Union provided a site in northern Russia for the secret Nazi German naval base Basis Nord as a part of a broader bilateral relation which included strategic and commercial agreements?
• the coat of arms of Kola, a town in Russia, depicts a whale because whaling was the occupation of many town residents?
• the First Engineer Bridge in St. Petersburg, Russia, named after the nearby Engineer Castle, is one of the most decorative of the city's more than 500 bridges?
• the Singer's Bridge, designed by architect Vasily Stasov, was called the Yellow Bridge and is the third-widest bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia?
• the Ribbon of Saint George is worn in Russia on Victory Day as an act of commemoration of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War?
• the Rothschild Fabergé egg is the most expensive timepiece, Russian object and Fabergé egg ever sold?
• the Russian Spaniel is the youngest breed of Russian gundog and was first standardised in 1951?
• the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace accommodates 332 portraits of Russian generals who took part in the Napoleonic Wars?
• the Mamayev Kurgan complex in Volgograd, Russia is a memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad?
• the origins of chromatography can be traced to the work of Russian botanist Mikhail Tsvet (pictured), but his work saw little use until the 1930s?
• the Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant will be the first Russian nuclear power plant with foreign shareholding?
• the Kamenny Monastery (pictured), the oldest in the north of Russia, was destroyed in 1937 in order to help with the construction of a local palace of culture?
• the volcanic chain (pictured) responsible for creating the island of Hawaii extends all the way to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, at the border of Russia?
• Vera Kholodnaya, the first Russian silent film star, was rumoured to have been poisoned by the French Ambassador with whom she reportedly had an affair and who believed that she was a spy for the Bolsheviks?
• Varzuga, one of the oldest documented permanent Russian settlements on the Kola Peninsula, was first mentioned in 1466?
• Russian ski jumper Valery Kobelev's 1999 crash in Planica, Slovenia, has been called one of the worst ski jumping crashes ever?
• Russian singer and actress Alla Pugacheva has had a career lasting over 40 years, remaining one of the most popular musical artists to this day?
• Russian actor Yevgeny Samoylov (pictured), known for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold and Alexander Dovzhenko in the 1930s, celebrated his 90th birthday in 2002 acting on the stage of the Maly Theatre?
• Russian admiral Vasily Zavoyko (pictured) defended against superior British-French forces in the 1854 Siege of Petropavlovsk, and even captured the British banner?
• Russian billionaire, politician and philanthropist Alexander Lebedev started his career as a KGB agent working in London?
• Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko is famous for his anti-Stalinist work?
• Russian poet Dmitri Prigov wrote approximately 36,000 poems with much of his work distributed as samizdat?
• Russian Hussar Alexander Bulatovich (pictured) was a military aide to Ethiopian ruler Menelek II, a hieromonk in Greece, and leader of a banned religious movement?
• Russian pastor Gennadi Kryuchkov led his illegal Baptist organisation for 20 years in the USSR while hiding from the KGB?
• Russian philanthropist and financier Alexander von Stieglitz (pictured) was the first governor of the State Bank of the Russian Empire?
• Russian philologist Mikhail Gasparov was also a poet, but only one of his poems was published during his lifetime?
• Russian composer Ella Adayevskaya took her pseudonym from the notes played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila?
• Russian critics considered Armenian actor and poet Petros Adamian one of the best tragedians of the world for his interpretations of Hamlet and Othello?
• Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova regarded Osip Mandelstam's poem on Russian poetess Mariya Petrovykh as the "best love poem of the twentieth century"?
• Russian television implied that Filipp Kirkorov won the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 with "Kolibelnaya Dlya Vulkana" when he in fact only came 17th?
• Russian writer and activist Zoya Krakhmalnikova's baptism in 1971 resulted in her dismissal from her job and from the USSR Union of Writers, which effectively banned her from publishing?
• Russian-born Israeli mathematician Aryeh Dvoretzky is the first graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to become a full professor there?
• Russian poet and dissident Vadim Delaunay was a descendant of the the last governor of the Bastille, marquis Bernard-René de Launay?
• Russian painter Alexandre Jacovleff (pictured) participated in trans-Saharan and trans-Asian (from Syria to China) expeditions organized by the French car manufacturer Citroën?
• Russian doctor and serial killer Maxim Petrov was caught because he took the names of his twelve victims all from the same list of patients, enabling police to predict whom he would kill next?
• Russian historian and scientist Vladimir N. Beneshevich was arrested on charges of spying for Germany and executed because one of his books was translated into German in 1937?
• Russian military man Boris Shaposhnikov successfully transitioned from the armed forces of czarist Russia to those of the USSR?
• Russian native Emilio Kosterlitzky, known as the Mexican Cossack, spoke nine languages, jumped ship in Venezuela, fled to Mexico where he fought in the Apache Wars and in the Mexican Revolution, and eventually became an undercover operative for the U.S. government during World War I?
• Russian courtier Ivan Betskoy (pictured) was rumoured to have been not only Catherine the Great's confidant but also her father?
• Russian composer Boris Sobinov was abducted from the Berlin American Zone by the NKVD and condemned to ten years in prison in the Soviet Union?
• Emperor Paul of Russia ordered the name of his mistress Anna Lopukhina to be given to warships and to be inscribed on the standards of his Leib Guard?
• Count Orlov's Marble Palace, decorated with 32 shades of Russian marbles, currently houses the largest exhibition of Pop Art in Saint Petersburg?
• England brokered the 1617 Treaty of Stolbova between Sweden and Russia?
• eunuch admiral Yishiha is credited with constructing the only two Ming Buddhist temples ever built in modern-day Russia?
• Germany still held 1.2 million Russian prisoners of war in December 1918, nine months after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk obliged it to release them?
• Chinese immigration to the Russian Far East has led to fears of Chinese irredentism in Russia, even though there are less than 35,000 Chinese in all of Russia?
• Chechen military commander Said-Magomed Kakiev has been declared a Hero of the Russian Federation four times, making him one of the most decorated Russian citizens?
• Abkhaz writer Fazil Iskander publishes articles for the Russian newspaper Kultura?
• aluminium alloys developed by Russian metallurgist Igor Gorynin are claimed to have the highest specific strength of all known weldable metallic materials?
• Armenian composer and musician Ara Gevorgyan composed the music for Russian prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova's "Golden cage" ballet dedicated to the Bolshoi Theater?
• aviation historian Randy Acord was awarded the Alaska–Siberian Lend Lease Award for his role in improving Russian–North American relations during World War II?
• German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia?
• Grandmaster Valentina Golubenko, the first and only World Youth Chess Champion born and raised in Estonia, is a Russian citizen playing under the Croatian flag?
• Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov, who brought the country into World War I, was the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin?
• Russian architect Lev Kekushev built Art Nouveau buildings in Moscow, Russia, in the 1890s and early 1900s, "signed" with a lion (Lev) ornament or sculpture?
• Russian avant-garde poet and singer-songwriter Alexei Khvostenko is often referred to as the "grandfather of Russian rock"?
• Russian cellist Valentin Berlinsky played for the Borodin Quartet for 60 years, the longest-serving member of what was described as "the longest continuously playing" string quartet in the world?
• Russia won the 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, because of its superior technology, despite Persia upscaling its efforts at the end of the war, and declaring it a holy war?
• Irish ballerina Monica Loughman, aged 14, was the first Westerner to dance for the State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Perm, Russia?
• Japan and Poland are the world's largest krill fishing nations since Russia abandoned its operations in 1993?
• literary critic Boris Eikhenbaum considered skaz as a central element of Russian culture and literature?
• Napoléon Bonaparte's defeat in what the Russians call the Patriotic War was the turning point in the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of the end for the Emperor?
• Peter the Great was the principal editor of the Vedomosti, the first newspaper printed in Russia?
• Russian-born Yiddish playwright Peretz Hirshbein tried his hand at farming, both in the Catskills and in Argentina?
• Russian-born Joe Magidsohn was the first Jew to win a varsity "M" at the University of Michigan and the first athlete known to have refused to compete on the High Holy Days?
• Marie Palace (1839-44) was the last Neoclassical imperial palace to be constructed in Saint Petersburg, Russia?
• Marian Massonius (pictured), a Polish university professor, wrote in 1920 about the Bolsheviks' rise to power as a new Russian oligarchy with the aid of Marxist ideology?
• Nağaybäk Tatars of Russia constructed their own Paris, with Eiffel Tower?
• Nadezhda Durova was a woman who became a decorated soldier in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic wars, started as a private in 1807 and retired with the rank of stabs-rotmistr in 1816?
• Oleg Bogayev was honored for his absurdist play about an impoverished Russian pensioner who engages in fanciful correspondence with Queen Elizabeth II, Vladimir Lenin, and Robinson Crusoe?
• Maria Yakunchikova (pictured) was a Russian painter who lived in Paris and was active primarily in western Europe?
• Maria Fyodorovna was the tallest Russian tsarina ever, and experienced difficulties while dancing with her husband, Emperor Paul, as a result?
• Jean Armand de Lestocq, a French physician, wielded immense influence on the foreign policy of Russia during the early reign of Empress Elizabeth?
• Kobyaysky Ulus in the middle of the Sakha Republic of Russia has notable gold and silver reserves?
• Lake Karachay in Russia is the most polluted spot on earth?
• Central Asian Gypsies, often seen around Russian markets and railway stations in the 1990s were previously mistaken as Tajikistani refugees?
• Ostap Veresai, a 19th-century blind Ukrainian kobzar, performed at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia?
• Palace Bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is lifted every night, making communication between the downtown and Vasilievsky Island virtually impossible?
• Shoyna, on a peninsula of Russia's Nenets Autonomous Okrug, is more than half buried by sand dunes caused by permafrost and trawling?
• St. Michael's Castle (pictured) was built like a medieval fortress for the personal protection of the Russian Emperor Paul I, who ironically was assassinated in his bedroom shortly after moving in to his new castle?
• Stone Bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia was so steep, that in the 19th century bus passengers had to disembark in order for the bus to go over it?
• Valéry Inkijinoff, a French actor of Russian-Buryat origin, was one of the favorite villains of French cinema from the thirties to the late sixties?
• Sevmash is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia?
• Sarskoye Gorodishche near Rostov, Russia has been interpreted as either a Varangian outpost on the Volga trade route or the capital of the Finnic Merya?
• Prince Dimitri Romanov is the first member of the Romanov dynasty to be married in Russia since its fall in 1917?
• SS Ko?ciuszko, a former Russian passenger ship, mobilized by the Polish navy, was visited by Winston Churchill and King George VI during World War II?
• Sail Rock (pictured) is a federally protected natural monument, located among village health resorts on the eastern shore of the Black Sea in Krasnodar Krai, Russia?
• Saint Olaf's Church in Novgorod was a church especially for Vikings who stayed in Novgorod, Russia?
• Ivan Shuvalov, who was a favourite of Empress Elizabeth, 27 years his senior, used his influence at court to establish the first permanent theatre, university, and academy of arts in Russia?
• Ivan Argunov, one of the founders of the Russian school of portrait painting, spent his entire life as a serf?
• voice artists who made Gavrilov translations of foreign movies in Russia were once thought to have used a noseclip to conceal their identity?
• WW1 stopped production of AJS Model D motorcycles but a 1917 order to supply Russia with 1,100 military motorcycles enabled them to continue development?
• aboriginal whaling rights are granted to native populations in Greenland, Canada, the United States, Russia and several Caribbean island communities?
• Alevtina Kolchina was the first female Nordic skier and first person from the Soviet Union (now Russia) to receive the Holmenkollen medal in 1963?
• U.S. diplomat Norman Armour disguised himself as a Norwegian courier to help a Russian princess—his future wife—escape the country after the collapse of the Russian Empire?
• Ukrainian realist artist Apollon Mokritsky played the significant role of introducing the former serf and talented artist Taras Shevchenko to the Ukrainian and Russian intelligentsia?
• Russian politician Vladimir Nikolayev became mayor of Vladivostok, Russia, after his opponent was killed by a grenade left outside his office?
• Finnish Swede Gustav Orreus was the first Doctor of Medicine ever commissioned in Russia?
• Tsar Alexander II of Russia signed the Ems Ukaz, a decree banning official use of the "non-existent" Ukrainian language, whilst enjoying a spa at Bad Ems, Germany?
• Tsar Alexis of Russia wrote a detailed instruction to his falconers?
• Anna of Kashin, a Russian medieval princess, was twice canonized as a holy protectress of women who suffer the loss of relatives?
• Arcady Boytler was born in Russia but produced some of the most successful films of the Golden age of the cinema of Mexico?
• Hermitage Bridge is the oldest stone bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia?
• Hussein Khan Nakhichevanski was the only Muslim to be appointed General-Adjutant of the Emperor of Russia?
• Igor Spassky, the head of the Russian Rubin Design Bureau, was the chief designer of 187 submarines (91 diesel-electric and 96 nuclear) as well as Halliburton oil platforms and the marine part of the Sea Launch complex?
• India has supported Kazakhstan's bid to create a Caspian Sea naval fleet despite Russia's opposition?
• Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg, opened in 1785, was the largest shopping mall of the 18th-century Russia and remains one of the oldest continuously existing department stores in the world?
• Giuseppe Giulietti, a leader of the Italian seamen's union, once hijacked a ship that was transporting weapons to the White movement in Russia?
• Boris Grekov was a Soviet historian who set out to debunk Mikhail Grushevsky's theory that Kievan Rus was a predecessor state of Ukraine rather than of Russia and Belarus?
• Children and Youth Sports Schools, which originated in the Soviet Union, continue in Russia, and form the basis of the modern system in the People's Republic of China?
• Fir Island (pictured) is the main northwest Washington wintering area of 30,000 to 70,000 snow geese that migrate from Wrangel Island in Russia?
• Fyodor Schechtel, the architect of Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal in Moscow, Russia, was expelled from his classes at Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1878 for "bad attendance"?
• 17th century Russian diplomat Pyotr Ivanovich Potemkin (pictured) is reputed to have insisted on lying in bed during an audience with the King of Denmark, who was himself confined to his bed, to demonstrate equality between Russia and Denmark?

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