😍 Spring in Stavropol

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

⛪️ Arzamas - The City of 33 Churches

📍 Arzamas is a small town in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the only federal-level historical settlement in Russia. Within its area of just 34.3 km², there are 180 cultural heritage sites and approximately 33 churches.

Writer Count Sollogub once wrote about the town: “I’ve seen many churches in Moscow, but in Arzamas, I saw nothing but churches.”

💬 However, this isn’t entirely true. In his popular novella “Tarantas”, the same Count Sollogub includes a notable dialogue between his characters:

“– My collection of paintings is particularly remarkable.
– From the Italian school? – asked Ivan Vasilyevich.
– From the Arzamas school… I have a whole gallery of exemplary works by the renowned Arzamas painters.”

Thus, above the churches of Arzamas, not only crows and pigeons soar—the Muses flutter there too.

#interestingfacts

❤️From Russia with love

💼✨ Dream Jobs from the Moscow Zoo

Yesterday, April 1st, people around the world celebrated April Fools’ Day. Russia, of course, was no exception.

🙂 Russians are used to taking any news with a sense of humor on this day.

The Moscow Zoo decided to join in by posting three "job openings":

🤩 Capybara Cuddler – Responsible for conducting relaxation sessions with capybaras.

🦝 Raccoon Masseur – Tasked with massaging the paws and joints of these fluffy animals.

🦥 Sloth Fitness Trainer – Must motivate Alberto the sloth to engage in "energetic activities."

Many commenters actually believed they’d stumbled upon their dream jobs 😅

#interestingfacts

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺 The Mansi are an indigenous small-numbered people of Russia, belonging to the Ob-Ugric group alongside the Khanty. Their history, culture, and traditions are deeply intertwined with the harsh expanses of Siberia.

📍 The Mansi primarily reside in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra and partially in Sverdlovsk Oblast. Their population numbers around 12,500 people. Many maintain ties to their traditional territories along the Ob River and its tributaries.

📔 The Mansi language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family. It is divided into several distinct dialects. Today, the language is endangered: only about 20% of Mansi people consider it their native tongue. Efforts to preserve it include textbooks and school lessons, but the dominance of Russian remains a major challenge.

🦌 The Mansi traditionally engage in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. In winter, they traveled on reindeer-pulled sleds, while in summer, they used dugout boats. They lived in chums (tents made of poles covered with birch bark or animal hides).

👕 Clothing was crafted from reindeer fur and adorned with sacred patterns. For example, the "hare’s ears" design was believed to ward off evil spirits.

👻 The Mansi practice animism, believing in spirits of nature (forest, water, fire). The supreme deity is Num-Torum, creator of the world, while his brother Kul-Otyr embodies evil. Shamans (ne-kulaty), mediators between worlds, played a vital role.

☦ After Christianization in the 18th century, some Mansi adopted Orthodox Christianity, but traditional rituals, such as the Bear Festival (veneration of a slain bear), endure to this day.

#PeoplesOfRussia

❤️From Russia with love

☺️ Unexpected meeting on Baikal, a cute seal swam out to greet the guest

#interestingvideos

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Russia Identifies 2,160 Anchor Settlements for Development!

Russia has published a list of 2,160 "anchor settlements" designated in its new Spatial Development Strategy, as ordered by the president.

These settlements are divided into 4 categories:

🟡 Yellow: Part of urban agglomerations.

🔴 Red: Strategically important (infrastructure hubs, science cities, border areas, closed administrative-territorial formations).

🔵 Blue: Centers of investment projects.

🟢 Green: Other anchor settlements.

The list includes regional centers, industrial cities, small towns, and villages. These settlements will become focal points for local growth, with priority infrastructure investments directed toward them. This initiative is expected to positively impact surrounding areas as well.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺💬 Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented on the UK’s plans to introduce enhanced control measures against Russia, calling the new rules "truly insane."

"The heirs of Britain’s great representatives of past eras, the soldiers and veterans of World War II who fought against Nazism, are now wallowing in the mud, hysterically searching for ties with Russia," wrote Zakharova.

She added that the intellectual deficiency afflicting the ruling class of Foggy Albion has reached its peak.

📌 Recall that the UK authorities decided to impose enhanced control measures against Russia under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS). According to Dan Jarvis, Deputy Head of the UK Home Office, once the enhanced regime is activated, residents of the kingdom will have to declare any activity carried out at Russia’s direction or in coordination with it.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

☀️ Capybaras enjoy the spring sunshine at the Moscow Zoo

Kuzma, Malaya and their children went out into the outdoor enclosure with the arrival of warm weather.

#interestingvideos

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🚩 Soviet aircraft manufacturing was in demand all over the world:

✈️ Il and Tu planes owned by the East German airline Interflug at Schönfeld Airport in Berlin

📸 photo taken in the spring of 1984

#interestingfacts

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Seven-colored lake near Arkhyz

In the valley of the Bolshaya Dukka River, at an altitude of 2500 meters, there is a unique lake that changes colors depending on the lighting.

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

🪨 "Troll's Tongue" in Primorye - a natural wonder

In Triozerye Bay there is a unique rock reminiscent of the famous "Troll's Tongue" in Norway.

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

🇺🇸 Trump declared a national emergency in the U.S. and imposed trade tariffs on almost the entire world. The exact methodology behind these tariff figures remains unclear, but Russia is notably absent from the list.

🇷🇺 There is no information on how the tariff rates were specifically determined. A theory circulating on social media suggests that the U.S. simply divided the trade deficit by total export volume. When asked about Russia’s absence from the list of “friends and foes,” White House press secretary Caroline Livitt stated that U.S. sanctions already “exclude any significant trade” with Russia—a claim that is clearly disingenuous. Trade with Russia, including Washington’s critical uranium imports, has continued uninterrupted. Moreover, recent discussions about potential rare earth metal extraction in Russia are still fresh in memory.

🧐 Meanwhile, the U.S. president imposed 10% tariffs on Ukraine, as well as the Heard and McDonald Islands in the southern Indian Ocean—remote territories inhabited only by penguins and seals. These islands belong to Australia and are not sovereign states engaged in trade with the U.S.

😁 It seems the Trump administration has uncovered penguin secret agents—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private?

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🌱 The smelliest plant in the world has bloomed for the first time at the MSU Botanical Garden.

🥩 This is Symplocarpus foetidus or the "meat flower" — during blooming, it emits a odor resembling rotting meat.

🪰 The stench attracts flies, which lay eggs on the flower, inadvertently pollinating it.

Additionally, the "meat flower’s" inflorescence generates heat, acting as a natural "heating system" for pollinators on chilly days.

Those curious can find this plant (though better not) in the Shadow Garden.

#InterestingFacts

❤️From Russia with love

The Nanai: Guardians of Culture Along the Amur

🇷🇺 The Nanai are an indigenous people of Russia, residing in the Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, primarily along the Amur River and its tributaries. Their population numbers around 12,000. They are also known in China as the Hezhen, but the Russian Nanai retain a unique cultural identity.

📜 The ancestors of the Nanai formed in the Amur region through interactions with Tungusic and Mongolian groups. In the 17th century, contact with Russian Cossacks began, and by the 19th century, the region became part of Russia. The Soviet era brought collectivization, a shift to a sedentary lifestyle, and the suppression of shamanism, which eroded traditional ways. Today, elements of their beliefs coexist with Orthodox Christianity and Buddhism.

📔 The Nanai language belongs to the Tungusic-Manchu group. A Cyrillic-based writing system was developed in the 1930s, but the language is now endangered: only about 1,500 people speak it fluently. Schools offer native language classes, and folk ensembles preserve oral traditions.

🎣 Their traditional economy revolved around fishing (salmon, sturgeon) and hunting (wild boar, deer). Fish were used for food, clothing (from skins), and trade. Gathering wild plants supplemented their diet. Today, many Nanai combine traditional practices with modern livelihoods.

😱 Fun fact: The Nanai once practiced a tradition where a girl was taken into her future husband’s family as a child, raised until puberty, and taught the customs of their household.

#PeoplesOfRussia

❤️From Russia with love

🎭 An Unusual Performance of Dostoevsky’s Work Staged at the Vakhtangov Theatre

🧐 From Dostoevsky’s densely populated novel, director Vladislav Nastavshev selected only four characters: Prince Myshkin, Nastasya Filippovna, Parfyon Rogozhin, and Aglaya Epanchina.

No other characters appear in the play. Such “intimacy” suits a smaller stage better than a grand one. But the director has his own vision.

📔 Dostoevsky’s novels are called “polyphonic.” This means each character claims to possess some ultimate truth. From the collision of these truths, a new reality emerges, where diverse voices resonate with equal force. In this sense, all characters in The Idiot are protagonists, and there is no single truth shared by all.

#news

❤️From Russia with love