To begin with, General Wrangel of ill-fame is in no way connected with Wrangel Island, which was named after the Russian explorer Ferdinand Wrangel. Early in the 19th century the Russian government appointed

One evening in June some shepherds in the Kara Kum Desert near the Aral Sea saw a strange sight. Three white sails floated over the sand along the far horizon. The hot, shimmering air of the desert will

I've known the old song about Lake Baikal since I was a child. Our neighbor, Grandpa Yegor, the lame carpenter, sang it in the evenings as he sat on his porch. When he got to the words "the sacred Baikal"

We hovered over the top of a dune, sizing it up, then landed gingerly. The gray sand was blown away in rivulets and the sparse, dry grass bent in the prop wash. The helicopter's wheels settled in the sand.

I was accompanying a mounted border patrol in the foothills of the Kopet Dag Mountains. To the left the cliffs rose high and sheer, to the right lay the vacant, sun-scorched, windswept steppe. "Feel like

Europe and Asia meet on this forest clearing. One fir tree grows in Europe, the other, within sight of it, in Asia. A flock of waxwings rises from an ash-berry tree, circles over the clearing and settles

Few roads do not cross a bridge. Memory will always bring back the creaking of logs, the hollow ringing of metal or the silence of stone. Bridges, of all of man's structures, are the most poetic. I wondered

I was travelling by train and, as usual, got to talking with my travelling companions. "There wasn't a drop of water in Kishinev in 1944. The city changed hands several times during the war. The waterworks

"Do you want to catch up with that kite?" I knew he was joking. But then the helicopter veered and we were flying in the same direction as the bird, both of us low over the woods. I could count the feathers

"One makes note of what one sees, and what one does not see, one does not make note of." This is how some ancient sailing instructions began. Leafing slowly through them is much like travelling. Sailing

The leaves had fallen, but there had as yet been no snow. I was walking through the woods along the Oka. There was not a sound in the oak and aspen groves save the chirping of the titmice and a rustling

For three years I kept transferring the following notation from one notebook to another: "There's a forester in Karobatovo Village, Perm Region, who killed his son, a deserter, during the war. See him."

War broke out on June 22, 1941. In time the details of great events fade into the past, and memory retains only the most dramatic moments. If you mention Napoleon in Russia everyone will recall the Battle

There was a stone windmill in Lithuania, and only the wind knew how old it was. The stones were covered with moss, and burdocks grew among them. For many, many years there was no smell of flour inside

No great battle ever took place here, nor are there any ancient monuments of wood or stone. The meadow looks like a thousand other Russian meadows, and yet, it is an unusual one. A hundred years ago five

When you visit Spasskoye give my regards to my house, theorchard and my favoriteyoung oak. Give my regards tomy homeland...Turgenev      Today's speeds make it possible to watch

The Don River has its source near the city of Tula. I tossed a chip into the water and walked along the bank, having no trouble in keeping up with the current of the small stream as it made its way through

One can find out how great the area of the Earth is in hectares. Of this number four hundred hectares near the city of Tula are of special interest to people everywhere, for Lev Tolstoi lived here. Let

This is but one of the countless villages of Arkhangelsk Region, no better and no worse than any other. But I have not chosen it at random, for Mikhail Vasiliyevich Lomonosov was born here in 1711. Don't

When sending a letter to the large southern city of Rostov one always writes "Rostov-on-Don" on the envelope, knowing that there is another Rostov some-wheres. Indeed, there is. Not everyone is aware that