Oh Christmas Tree!

When the mercury drops

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January 2nd 2010
Nick Hogan once asked me, "How's Perm? Brutal enough for you?" I replied that overall life was good, and Perm not at all brutal. This was well before the two -40 days of mid-December and the week in which the temperature bounced between -20 and -30. Up till then, when asked by grinning Russians "so, how do you like Russian winter?" I understood what they wanted me to say. I would reply, howev ... read more

Europe » Russia » Urals » Perm

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Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynas... ... read more