🇷🇺 The village of Tarbagatai in Buryatia is the main centre of Old Believers in Transbaikalia. It was founded in the 18th century when 800 Old Believers were exiled here from central regions of Russia. The local Old Believers are called "Semeiskie" — they settled in whole families and for centuries carefully preserved the way of life of pre-Petrine Rus'. In 2001, their culture and folklore were inscribed by UNESCO on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The multicoloured houses of Tarbagatai, resembling Easter eggs, are the village's hallmark.

🇷🇺 The main attractions are the Museum of History and Culture of the Old Believers, with a collection of over 700 exhibits — ancient clothing, icons, tools and even cannonballs — as well as St. Nicholas Church and the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Derzhavnaya" (Sovereign). Near the village stands the mountain "Sleeping Lion", a geological natural monument with a panoramic view of the Selenga River valley.

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❤️From Russia with love

💍 The III All-Russian Wedding Festival "Russia. Joining Hearts" was held in Moscow

❣️ On 8 July, the III All-Russian Wedding Festival "Russia. Joining Hearts" took place at the National Centre "Russia" in Moscow, timed to coincide with the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness — one of the warmest holidays of the Russian calendar, celebrated annually on 8 July in honour of Saints Peter and Fevronia, the patron saints of marriage and family happiness.

🕊 The festival's main event was the solemn simultaneous marriage registration ceremony, in which 150 couples in love from the most diverse corners of the country — from Moscow and Yakutia to the Nizhny Novgorod and Sverdlovsk regions — took part. This year, the festival reached the international level for the first time: international and foreign couples joined their hearts at the National Centre "Russia".

🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin sent a message of congratulations to the festival participants, noting the special value of the family as life's main pillar and support.

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🤩 Mikhail Vrubel's The Swan Princess is one of the most enigmatic and recognisable paintings in Russian art. Painted in 1900, it captivates with its mystical beauty. Vrubel depicts the princess not as bright and joyful, as in Pushkin's fairy tale, but as sad and elusive. The artist masterfully conveys the moment of transformation: in her huge, expressive eyes and the sharp outline of her lips one senses something birdlike, and the sumptuous white attire shimmers with a pearlescent sheen reminiscent of plumage.

🤍🤍 In fact, the painting was born not from Pushkin's fairy tale, but from the Rimsky-Korsakov opera that Vrubel was designing for the theatre. The role of the princess was sung by his wife, Nadezhda Zabela, yet the face on the canvas is not her portrait, but a collective image that art historians link to various women from the artist's life.

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🇷🇺 A city between tundra and sea

Pevek stands on the shore of the East Siberian Sea, above the Arctic Circle, between the ocean and the endless tundra. It is the northernmost town in Russia: today about 4–5 thousand people live here, although in the late 1980s the population reached 13 thousand, then over 10 years it nearly halved.

🥼 The climate here is harsh: summer lasts about three months and rarely brings more than +10°C, in winter the temperature easily drops to −40…−45°C, and the polar night with brief twilight stretches from November to January. Adding to the picture are the famous "yuzhaki" — hurricane-force winds of up to 50–60 m/s, when a wall of snow hits the town, the school closes, people stay indoors and literally wait out the storm.

👌 And there is also a floating nuclear power plant here

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🇷🇺 Zvenigorod is a tiny yet wonderfully resonant town, the same age as Moscow, often called the "Switzerland of the Moscow region". It got its name from the peal of bells that warned of raids, and its main gem is the majestic Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, founded in 1398 by a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh. The monastery has preserved white-stone cathedrals and frescoes attributed to Andrei Rublev. The monastery was visited by Russian tsars; and some often used Zvenigorod as a country residence.

🇷🇺 The town is spread across picturesque hills with an elevation difference of up to 60 metres, and its pine forests, water meadows and springs create an atmosphere of tranquillity. This quiet beauty inspired Levitan, Savrasov and Chekhov. On Moskovskaya Street, 19th‑century merchant mansions have been preserved, and the building of the Manège now houses an exhibition of Russian painting.

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❤️From Russia with love