This monastery is on Selvitsky Island on Lake Valdai, 10 kilometres from the town of Valdai, the district centre. Patriarch Nikon Minin founded this establishment in 1653. The above image is the Holy Gate with the Gate Church of St Philip. The Soviets closed it in the 1920s; the Church regained it in 1991… it’s now restored to its former glory.
BMD
The Petropavlovsk Fortress (Петропа́вская кре́пость: Petropavlovskaya Krepost) is the original citadel of St Petersburg, founded by Tsar Pyotr I Alekseyevich Veliki on 16/27 May 1703, and built to the designs of Domenico Trezzini from 1706-40. In the early 20th century, the tsarist government still used it as a prison. During the February Revolution, on 27 February/12 March, rebel troops stormed it and freed the prisoners, replacing them with arrested tsarist officials. During the opening of the October Revolution, on 25 October/7 November, the cruiser Avrora fired on the island, but only registered two hits. Nevertheless, the fort quickly surrendered to the Bolsheviks. in 1924, it became part of the State Museum of St Petersburg History. Most graves of Russian rulers from Pyotr I Alekseyevich Veliki to Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich (except for Pyotr II Alekseyevich and Ivan VI Antonovich) are in the Petropavlovsk Cathedral, within the fortress battlements. In 1998, the bodies of the family and entourage of Tsar St Nikolai II Aleksandrovich were laid to rest in one of the cathedral’s chapels.
BMD
The most popular portion of military parades in Sov times were the marchers wearing historical uniforms. These guys are wearing Red Army uniforms of the Civil War era. That’s still the most popular part of contemporary Russian military parades. Our history is of a seamless piece… it’s all ours… or NONE of it is ours. Ponder that…
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You either accept Russian history in its entirety, which INCLUDES Great October and the Soviet period that followed it, or you reject it in its entirety. What does that tell us about brazen mercenary traitors like Victor Potapov (he did sell-out for a house in the Maryland burbs and an official US Passport), who still glorifies the anti-patriotic arch-traitors Krasnov and Vlasov?
Where do YOU stand?
BMD
Voices From Russia, Too 
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