- Russia hosted the Olympic Games twice – in 1980 and 2014.
- Russian State Library (Moscow) is the largest in Europe and the second in the world after Library of Congress in the U.S.
- Russian scientists were able to grow a plant from the seeds of 32 thousand years old.
- The most known computer game, Tetris, was invented in Russia in 1985.
- 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.
- Russian women use even a shopping trip as an excuse to dress up.
- Many urban families in Russia own a country house, which is called “dacha”.
- In Russian only men shake hands when greeting. Shaking hands is both a greeting and a good-bye.
- It’s considered bad luck to shake hands through the doorway, and even through an open car door.
- You can, although it is not very respectful, shake hands by sticking it out of the car window.
- In Russia it’s not customary to give an even number of flowers, as it’s associated with funerals.
- It’s not customary for men to give women yellow flowers, because they symbolize a separation.
- Moscow is the largest city in Europe.
- 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.
- Moscow Kremlin hosts the largest bell in the world – Tsar-Bell. It’s weight is 202 tons, and the height is 6 meters.
- Moscow Kremlin also hosts the Tsar-Cannon, which has the world’s largest caliber of 890 mm.
- The Moscow subway is the second largest in the world by number of passengers after Tokyo – more than 8 million people a day.
- The interval between trains in the Moscow subway during rush hour is 90 seconds.
- The St. Petersburg subway is the deepest in the world.
To discover Russia with Alexey Gureev