Russian Travel Guide

Old towns of the Bryansk oblast

Bryansk Oblast, which shares a border with Ukraine, is a land of rich history. It has long marked some of the Federation’s outer territories, serving as one of the country’s southern borders. Bryansk Oblast is an economically developed and agriculturally thriving area where customs and traditions of the past have been well preserved. It is also home to two world famous sights – the magnificent and impressive memorial to the largest tank defeat in history and the biggest iron ore mine in the world.

Коллекция Russian Travel Guide. Природа. Сестрорецкое болото

Russian Rice

It is a well-known fact that rice has played an important role in people’s diets for thousands of years. This cereal grain was brought to Russia from Persia and was initially called «Saracenic millet». Russia began growing its own rice only in the 16th century. The country’s first attempts at harvesting the grain were carried out in the lower reaches of the Volga River and in the Kuban River wetlands. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Soviet government made the decision to bring rice cultivation to an industrial scale. As a result, in 1931 the Soviet Union’s only Institute for the Scientific Research of Rice was opened near the city of Krasnodar. In order for the institution to conduct its first projects, 2,000 types of grain from all over the world were brought to the institute. Russian scientists gradually developed their own varieties of rice that could adapt to the local s...