1. Russia hosted the Olympic Games twice – in 1980 and 2014.
2. Russian State Library (Moscow) is the largest in Europe and the second in the world after Library of Congress in the U.S.
3. Russian scientists were able to grow a plant from the seeds of 32 thousand years old.
4. The most known computer game, Tetris, was invented in Russia in 1985.
5. Russian women really wear high heel shoes every day – both in summer and winter (on ice). You can often see Russian women abroad walking along a promenade … in heels.
6. Russian women use even a shopping trip as an excuse to dress up.
7. Many urban families in Russia own a country house, which is called “dacha”.
8. In Russian only men shake hands when greeting. Shaking hands is both a greeting and a good-bye.
9. It’s considered bad luck to shake hands through the doorway, and even through an open car door.
10. You can, although it is not very respectful, shake hands by sticking it out of the car window.
11. In Russia it’s not customary to give an even number of flowers, as it’s associated with funerals.
12. It’s not customary for men to give women yellow flowers, because they symbolize a separation.
13. Moscow is the largest city in Europe.
14. The tallest tower of Europe – Ostankino (540 m) is located in Moscow. For more than a decade it was the tallest building in the world.
15. Moscow Kremlin hosts the largest bell in the world – Tsar-Bell. It’s weight is 202 tons, and the height is 6 meters.
16. Moscow Kremlin also hosts the Tsar-Cannon, which has the world’s largest caliber of 890 mm.
17. The Moscow subway is the second largest in the world by number of passengers after Tokyo – more than 8 million people a day.
18. The interval between trains in the Moscow subway during rush hour is 90 seconds.
19. The St. Petersburg subway is the deepest in the world.

To discover Russia with Alexey Gureev