🥲 A narrow inlet between cliffs

In the north of the Murmansk Region there is a place where the sea enters the land like a long cold arrow, and rocks and water stand opposite one another like two walls — the Kola Fjord, that is, the Kola Bay.

Kola Bay cuts into the Murmansk coast of the Barents Sea for 57 kilometres, in places narrowing to as little as 200–1,000 metres and in others widening to 7 kilometres. The depth reaches 300 metres: it is a genuine sea corridor along which vessels travel far inland, towards Murmansk and the Kola Bridge.

The shores here are high and rocky, formed of granite and hard rock: cliffs smoothed by the glacier, covered in mosses, lichens and sparse tundra vegetation. The slopes either plunge abruptly straight into the water or form ledges and shelves from which views open onto the bends of the inlet and the long lines of waves stretching away along the coast.

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❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺 Behind the formal and majestic portrait of the emperor there was a man with lively, warm passions. One of his main hobbies was photography: Nicholas II not only enjoyed taking pictures himself, but also gave cameras to all of his children. Together with his family he spent time playing tennis, cycling and canoeing.

📸 The whole family collected these photographs in albums, decorating them with ribbons and watercolours — it was their shared ritual, full of warmth and simple human joy. These pictures have forever preserved for us not only the image of the emperor, but also that of a living man who, despite his status, knew how to cherish simple moments of happiness.

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❤️From Russia with love

🌹 The Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery is one of the oldest monastic houses in Moscow, founded presumably in 1315–1317. Its ancient walls and graceful churches in the Naryshkin Baroque style create a unique architectural ensemble beloved by photographers and lovers of antiquity. Today, divine services are held here, and a Sunday school and an icon-painting workshop are in operation.

➡️ This monastery enjoys stavropegial status — that is, it is under the direct governance of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, an honour not granted to every monastery. Moreover, the oldest bell tower in Moscow has been preserved on its grounds, with a unique set of bells, each bearing its own name and its own unmistakable voice.

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🖼️ Ivan Kramskoi’s painting The Unknown Woman (1883) is one of the most enigmatic works in the history of Russian art: the artist forever encrypted the sitter’s identity.

The canvas depicts a young woman in an open carriage crossing the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. Her sumptuous attire betrayed that she belonged to the “demimondaines” — women with no lawful husband, kept by a wealthy protector, which deprived them of a “pure” reputation. Kramskoi himself left neither diaries nor letters to solve the mystery, and the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, initially refused to buy the painting, fearing it would taint his collection. Today The Unknown Woman is one of the principal masterpieces of the Tretyakov Gallery, a symbol of eternal feminine mystery.

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🇷🇺A Rock Raised from the Depths

On the Black Sea coast lies a rocky promontory that seems almost deliberately designed to stage the most dramatic encounter between sea and stone—Cape Kadosh, near Tuapse.

Cape Kadosh is situated on the northwestern outskirts of Tuapse, where the shoreline abruptly transitions from sandy and pebble beaches to towering, ribbed cliffs. Geologists believe the cape formed about 2 million years ago as a result of tectonic plate collision: seafloor rock strata were thrust upward, giving rise to new land.

Today, the cliff face reaches approximately 100 metres in height, with the promontory looming over the water, creating the impression that the rock is literally "stepping into" the sea. Along the coast stretch sheer and terraced walls, interspersed with small grottoes and ledges, where the waves lap against the base.

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❤️From Russia with love