Most of Russia's land area is in Asia, known as Siberia. But most of the population is in European Russia.
The alphabet that is used in Russia is the Cyrillic Alphabet. It was originally based on an alphabet created by St. Cyril, who was a missionary from Byzantium. The alphabet was so that people who spoke Slavic languages could read the Bible. Peter the Great, of the Romanov Dynasty which followed the Ruriks, made some of the letters look more like the Latin alphabet. He personally created the letter that looks like a backwards "R".There is an enclave of Russia far to the west of the rest of the country, on the Baltic Sea. This is Kaliningrad. The city began with a medieval fortress built by the Teutonic Knights. Kaliningrad used to be part of East Prussia, when it's German name was Konigsberg. It was repopulated with Russians after the Second World War. The city had been part of Russia before, at the time of the Romanov Dynasty, and had also once been part of Poland.
One thing that the city is known for is a famous puzzle, known as the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. This is a simplified illustration. It is supposedly impossible to walk a route that will cross each bridge once and only once. No swimming, tunneling or flying is allowed. It has to be only walking. It has to be one continuous walk, not two separate walks. This image is from the Wikipedia article "Seven Bridges Of Konigsberg".
THERE ARE FOUR IMAGES WITH EACH STOP. ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW
Anyway, here is Kaliningrad.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.
Far to the east of Moscow is another medieval city on the Volga River, about a thousand years old, Kazan, that is now an important industrial city. The following scenes begin in the center of Kazan.
Well to the west, and not on the Volga River, is another major city that originated in medieval times, Voronezh.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6641768,39.1973719,3a,75y,104.82h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s0CiNWlB5-Geq5cxZeW5WPw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D0CiNWlB5-Geq5cxZeW5WPw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D113.10479%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
Moving on to southern Russia, Rostov-on-Don is on the Don River.
This is Krasnodar.
Back eastward to the Volga River is the city of Saratov. The following scenes begin in the center of Saratov.
Another major city that originated in medieval times but is now an industrial city on the Volga River is Samara. I can remember that, when I was a youth, this city was called Kuibyshev.
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.189431,50.1006053,3a,75y,140h,100t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sr-sr-ZPox-CPGx0c-373EQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dr-sr-ZPox-CPGx0c-373EQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D140%26pitch%3D-10%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
Finally, on the Volga River, we come to the city that is named for the river, Volgograd.
Of course, Volgograd is the city that was formerly known as Stalingrad. The greatest battle that the world has ever seen took place here, in 1942-43. It was given to the world as a glimpse of apocalypse.
But that is not what our view of Volgograd is going to focus on. In another way of looking at things, it is not fair that this quiet and peaceful city be defined solely by the battle that took place there. There was an equally horrific battle at St. Petersburg, then Leningrad, a siege that went on for nearly three years. But St. Petersburg is a larger city that has plenty of other things to distinguish it. For Volgograd, in contrast, the battle that took place there is the only thing that comes to mind.
The vast majority of people that were involved in the Battle of Stalingrad had never been to the city otherwise.
Here is what the world does not see very often, quiet scenes of everyday life in the city that was once known as Stalingrad. But you may notice that there are far fewer older buildings than there are in the other cities of southern Russia.
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