In the United States, dashboard cameras are mostly used by the authorities, and the footage taken by them can mostly be seen in court or on Cops. In Russia, however, almost every car on the road has its own personal dashcam, and the videos from these cameras have become an Internet phenomenon.
In a country that is extremely large and in which law enforcement is oftentimes corrupt, the dashcams protect regular citizens from insurance fraud, in which motorists or pedestrians fake car accidents in order to collect the insurance money.
The Mystery of the Amber Room?
One of the most expensive and exquisite rooms in the world once existed in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near the city of Saint Petersburg. It was dubbed the Amber Room because of the beautiful amber panels on the walls, which were adorned with mirrors and gold leaf.
When the Nazis invaded Russia in World War II, they dismantled the Amber Room and moved the pieces to the German city of Königsberg. Since then, its whereabouts have never been confirmed, and the fate of the priceless artifacts remains a mystery.
Subbotnik
The Trashtag challenge is getting people together to clean things up, and that is something that everyone can get behind. It’s nice to see people looking up from their phones and actually getting something done, but the Russians have been doing the same thing for a little over a century, and they didn’t need a clever hashtag to do it.
One day each year, which is known as Subbotnik, the residents of every city get together and just clean it up as a community. They pick up garbage, fix things that are broken and take care of recycling. The tradition started not long after the Russian Revolution and has been going on ever since
Part of the Family
If you are single while visiting Russia and end up meeting someone, take into account that you are not just gaining a significant other, but a whole new family. Russian families are extremely close and if one of them has chosen you, expect to be welcomed into the fold.
Typically, Russians are very supportive of their loved ones and will do almost anything for them. So when you get ready to meet the parents, don’t be surprised if you are promptly adopted into the family and treated like their own son or daughter.
Russia’s Massive Pipelines
Russia is not only big in size, but it is also rich in natural resources. It has one of the biggest petroleum industries in the world, with the largest reserves. It is also the leading exporter of natural gas and has the world’s second-largest coal reserves.
All those gases need to be transported somehow, and Russia has developed an extensive network of pipelines. There are so many pipelines that if you put them all together, they would make a pipeline that is 259,913 kilometers long. The circumference of the Earth is only 40,075, so traveling through all of Russia’s pipelines is like going around the world six and a half times.