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Destinations: Moscow | Saint Petersburg
Russia has plenty of cities and towns. The most populated cities are Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.
Visa Information
Russian visa can be obtained from India. Passports must be valid for at least 6 months from the date of return.
To obtain a visa in your country, you need to submit necessary paperwork to the Russian Consulate. In order to issue the applicant a visa, the Consulate requires a Russian visa invitation that can be issued by a travel agency or another organization authorized by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The type of invitation depends on the type of visa you are applying for. The most popular types of invitation are tourist invitation, business invitation and private invitation.
Overview
Russia has a long history and can claim a long tradition of dividend in many aspects of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture and painting, cinema and animation, which all had considerable influence on world culture.
Bliny
Bliny is a Russian type of pancakes or crepes. They are usually thin and big, they may be served with sour cream, jam, honey, or caviar or smokes salmon. We often eat blinis folded or rolled with all sorts of filling such as mushrooms, cottage cheese, ground meat, cabbage and many others
Sirniki
Sirniki are small blinis made of cottage cheese. This is a typical food for breakfast or branch.
Kasha
Kasha is the most common meal in Russia. It is easy to cook, healthy to eat and everybody can afford it.
Pelmeni
Pelmeni are meat or fish dumplings originally coming from the region of Siberia. They are usually kept frozen and cooked in boiled water right before eating
Varenniki
Varenniki are dumpling similar to pelmeni but they're usually stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, meat, hard-boiled eggs or different fruits (cherry or plump).
Okróshka
Okróshka is a cold soup popular in Russia in summer time. The main ingredients include diced raw vegetables, boiled meat, eggs and potatoes. The soup is served with kvas ( a popular Russian fermented drink made from black rye) and sour cream
Russian Orthodox Christmas
Christmas was banned in Russia after the 1917 Revolution and was only openly observed again in 1992. The Russian Orthodox church â and almost all Russians â celebrate Christmas (the birth of Jesus) on 7 January. Itâs mainly a religious occasion, when families gather together to attend church services on Christmas Eve (6 January) and then go home to feast on a special âholy supperâ, which includes a dish called kutiya, a porridge with raisins. Some people attend all night vigils at church; others just go on Christmas morning.
Tatyana’s Day
Tatyanaâs Day is often called Russian Students Day. When Elisabeth Empress of Russia signed a decree to establish Moscow State University on 25 January 1755 â the saintâs day of 3rd-century Christian martyr St Tatyana â St Tatyana became the patron saint of students. Most university towns have St Tatyana celebrations, holding balls and choosing the best Tatyana from the students.
International Festival of Snow and Ice Sculpture, Krasnoyarsk
The Magic Ice of Siberia is an international competition that takes place on the banks of the Yenisei River in Krasnoyarsk, the third largest city in Siberia. Teams of sculptors, architects and artists from Russia and beyond create massive frozen artworks to compete in two categories: snow and ice.
Maslenitsa Festival
Seven weeks before Easter are the week-long Maslenitsa festivities â Russiaâs pancake week. Each day there are different activities: making Maslenitsa dolls from straw and old clothes, making and eating lots of pancakes (blinis), sledging, playing on seesaws, singing, fist fights, visiting the in-laws, exchanging gifts, feasting and drinking tea or vodka. The Maslenitsa dolls are burned on the final day and people jump over bonfires.
Easter
Celebrations start the night before Easter Sunday. Churches are filled with lights and at dawn the bells ring out to announce that Easter has arrived. Everyone paints boiled eggs in bright colours and has a traditional feast. Typical Easter foods are round sweet bread and Easter cake served with sweetened curds, butter and raisins.
Golden Mask Theatre Festival, Moscow
The Golden Mask Theatre Festival, established in 1993, is an all-Russian theatre festival and competition and covers all genres from drama to modern dance and puppet theatre.
White Nights Festival, St Petersburg
Due to St Petersburgâs northerly location the sun never fully sets in St Petersburg between May and mid-June. You can talk a walk at midnight and still see the sun on the horizon. This provides the romantic backdrop for the annual White Nights Festival, an arts festival with music and dance by Russian and international stars. The Mariinsky Theatre has a programme of more than 175 operas, ballets and classical concerts â and tickets get snapped up fast. There are carnivals, too, the best being in the suburb of Peterhof where actors dress up in historical costume from the time of Peter the Great and re-enact historical events.
Victory Day
Victory Day celebrates the end of World War II and itâs celebrated with parades, spectacular fireworks and displays of military strength. The most impressive event is held in Moscowâs Red Square, where soldiers, tanks, missiles and other military equipment are on display on the ground and military planes fly overhead. Military memorials all over Russia are spruced up, and there are displays in museums.
Moscow International Film Festival
The very first Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) was held in 1935 when the jury was headed up by world-renowned film-maker Sergei Eisenstein (of Battleship Potemkin fame). It became a regular event on the cultural calendar in 1959. More than 200 films from 50 different countries are screened, with the best picture winning the Golden George.
Taste of Moscow
Each year a selection of Moscowâs top restaurants open their doors for three days of master classes and tasting sessions, open to all the family (thereâs usually a special entertainment zone with a childrenâs menu). There are also zones dedicated to different types of food and drink, DJs and music to create a party atmosphere. Around 200 different master classes are on offer, for both Russian and international foods.
Scarlet Sails, St Petersburg
The White Nights Festival culminates with Scarlet Sails, the largest annual pubic gathering in Russia with more than a million people watching a mock pirate battle on the River Neva, a firework show, and a tall ship with sails the colour of blood. The event celebrates the end of the school year.
Wild Mint Folk Festival
This large, open-air world folk music festival takes place in the Ethnomir complex in Moscow every summer. Over several days, Russian and international musicians perform a variety of folk-based genres â afrobeat, ethno-jazz, raga, Russian folk â and there are food stalls, markets, and body and soul workshops.
Ivan Kupalo Day
This is a summer solstice celebration related to John the Baptist (Ivan means âJohnâ and kupala is related to a Slavic word for âbathingâ) as July 6/7 is June 23/24 in the Julian calendar used by the Orthodox church. Girls wear flower or herb wreaths on their heads, and in the evening the wreaths are decorated with burning candles and set afloat; the girl whose wreath travels the farthest will have the happiest year ahead and the candle that burns the longest means a long life. People light bonfires and jump over them for good luck. Some seek a special flowering fern said to direct the finder towards treasure. There are fireworks, of course.
Nashestvie, Moscow
This big, open-air rock festival focuses on Russian rock bands. Nashestvie is organised by Russian rock station Nashe Radio (the station responsible for Russianâs major rock music chart âChart Dozenâ). The festival's name means âinvasionâ in Russian but many people call the festival the âRussian Woodstockâ. Itâs a good place to see both established and up-and-coming musicians from around Russia and neighbouring states.
Afisha Picnic, Moscow
This may just be a one-day event but itâs one of the oldest and best-known music festivals in Russia. Itâs held in the grounds of Kolomenskoye, a former Tsarâs estate on the banks of the Moscow River. It attracts big Russian and international names, like Kaiser Chiefs, Courtney Love, Jamiroquai and Madness.
Russian Winter Festival
All Russian cities have Winter Festivals celebrating the best of Russian culture but the biggest and best is in Moscow. This is a huge annual event with activities all around the city decked with thousands of fairy lights. In Izmailovo Park you can watch performances of folk songs and dances, ice skate, sledge or take a ride in one of the three-horse sleighs called troikas. Gorky Park is famous for its magnificent ice sculptures. In Revolution Square you can buy crafts, eat warm pancakes or bagels spread with jam or honey, listen to a balalaika concert or watch a fashion show.
New Year
As Christmas was banned for many years in Russia, many of the Christmas traditions were diverted to the New Year celebrations on New Yearsâ Eve on 31 December. So people decorate New Year trees instead of Christmas trees and Ded Moroz (Father Frost), accompanied by his grand-daughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), delivers presents instead of Father Christmas. Families enjoy feasts, listen to the Presidentâs New Year Speech and the Kremlin clock strikes midnight. Many Russians also celebrate a second New Year on 13/14 January or Old New Year, a tradition dating back to the old Julian calendar. Concerts, carnivals and street fairs â and a large ice rink in Red Square â are part of the fun.