🇷🇺 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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🌟 The Demon Seated is one of the most iconic and enigmatic paintings by Mikhail Vrubel. Although the painting did not enjoy wide international fame during the artist's lifetime, it soon became a programmatic work of Russian Symbolism, and its unique "crystalline" painting manner, as well as the interpretation of the Demon as a sorrowful rather than evil spirit, had an impact on the development of this movement. Vrubel's works were exhibited in Paris, where they attracted the attention of Western critics, who drew parallels with the art of Kramskoi and the European Symbolists, confirming its place in the pan-European artistic context.

🪨 In a later period, Vrubel's image of the Demon continues to inspire artists abroad. Direct evidence of this is the work of the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, Demon, after M. Vrubel (2007). Today the canvas is recognised as an important milestone not only in Russian but also in world art, and its influence is felt in the ongoing interest in the image of the "rebellious spirit" in the contemporary visual culture of various countries.

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🇷🇺A city born from the Olympic Park

In modern Russia there is a city that is simultaneously a Black Sea resort, an «educational capital» and a legal experiment: the federal territory «Sirius», near Sochi.

🏃 «Sirius» grew out of the Olympic infrastructure of the Imeretinskaya Lowland: the Olympic Park, stadiums, the Formula 1 track, hotels and promenades. In 2015, on the president's initiative, the «Sirius» Educational Centre was established here to support talented children from all over the country, and in 2020 the territory received a separate status — that of Russia's first federal territory, with its own budget and governing bodies.

🥼 In effect, it is a new type of urban entity: on a relatively small area (about 1400 hectares) a piece of Sochi, a scientific-educational cluster, residential neighbourhoods, sports facilities and an experimental «smart city» are combined. The population stands at roughly 12–15 thousand people, but a two- to threefold increase is planned through the arrival of students, scientists, families and people working in science, education and IT.

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🛐 New Jerusalem near Moscow is a monastic ensemble conceived by Patriarch Nikon as a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its Resurrection Cathedral with the bell tower impresses with its grandeur, and after the destruction of war, the monastery was carefully restored.

🌞 Today it is not only a historical monument but also a place of pilgrimage, where the Russian names of hills and groves recall the events of the Gospel. People come here for silence and spiritual renewal, as well as to see how the biblical image was embodied in the landscape of the Moscow region.

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🇷🇺 The fishing "ghost" of the Arctic

At the very edge of Chukotka there is a place that now belongs almost entirely to the wind and the sea — the abandoned settlement of Finval.

Finval stands on the coast of Chukotka: a harsh Arctic shore, rocks, tundra, icy sea and very long winters. Once it was a full-fledged settlement, built for the "fishing feat" — fishermen and seafarers were based here, a port operated, fish was processed, northern voyages and shifts took place.

Life here depended entirely on the sea and the economy: while the fisheries worked, the settlement held on, but the severe climate, remoteness from the "mainland" and the decline of the industry gradually made it too expensive and difficult to maintain. People left, apartments emptied, and at some point Finval finally remained with a single inhabitant — the wind.

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