Russia has a wealth of sites with historical importance. Most of these popular Russian historical sites fit in one of the following categories:
- World Heritage Sites in Russia
- War & Military History: war memorials, Hero Cities, battlefields
World Heritage Cultural Sites
- Historic Center of St Petersburg & Related Monuments (1990)
- Kizhi Pogost (1990)
- Located on Kizhi Island, one of the many islands in Lake Onega, in Karelia (near city of Petrozavodsk)
- Red Square and Kremlin, Moscow (1990)
- Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands (1992)
- Archipelago comprising of six islands in the western part of the White Sea, Arkhangelsk region
- Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings (1992)
- Not to be mistaken with Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod (renamed Veliky Novgorod in 1999), is located on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St Petersburg (closer to Saint Petersburg).
- White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal (1992)
- Located in Russia’s historic Golden Ring, Vladimir region
- Architecture at Trinity Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad (1993)
- Part of Russia’s historic Golden Ring, Moscow region
- see official website
- Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye (1994)
- One of the first examples of a tent roof on a non-wooden church, the the region of Kolomenskoye is located in Moscow, several miles southeast of city center.
- Curonian Spit (2000)
- An elongated sand dune peninsula that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Located in the Kaliningrad region (as well as Lithuania), the Curonian Spit has been the site of human habitation dating back to prehistoric times.
- Ensemble of the Ferapontov Monastery (2000)
- Located in the Vologda region (north European Russia)
- Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin (2000)
- Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress Buildings of Derbent (2003)
- Located in eastern Caucasus on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, Dagestan region
- Ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent, Moscow (2004)
- Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl (2005)
- Struve Geodetic Arc (2005)
- A chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km (1,752 miles).
- The 1816 to 1855 survey by von Struve sought to establish the exact size and shape of the earth.
- While the survey passed through the Russian Empire, the only two points in modern day Russia are on the island of Gogland in the Gulf of Finland (Leningrad Oblast).
Historical War and Military Sites
- Battle of Borodino: Napoleon’s 1812 Russian Campaign
- Sites of interest: Museum-Panorama “Borodino Battle” in Moscow, and the State Borodino War and History Museum and Reserve (site of the actual battle), located 120km west of Moscow (day trip from the capital)
- Hero Cities: Great Patriotic War (World War II)
- The title of “Hero City” was awarded to a total of 13 Soviet cities, 7 in present day Russia, 4 in Ukraine and 2 in Belarus. For more information about Hero Cities, including cities in Ukraine and Belarus, follow the link.
- Russian cities with the distinction of Hero City include…
- Leningrad (Saint Petersburg): Siege of Leningrad from September 1941 to January 1944
- Stalingrad (Volgograd): Battle of Stalingrad from July 1942 to February 1943
- Moscow: Battle of Moscow, October 1941 to January 1942 defensive and counter-attack
- Novorossiysk: August 1942 to September 1942 defense of the city and it’s port
- Tula: October 1941 to December 1941 defense against Germans trying to advance on Moscow
- Murmansk: 1941 defense against axis forces trying to capture the important northern port
- Smolensk: Battle of Smolensk, July 1941 to September 1941 resistance that considerably slowed the Germans advance towards Moscow
- Vladivostok Fortress
- One of the strongest coastal fortresses of its era, the Vladivostok Fortress is a testament to Russian military engineering of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
- Site of interest: Museum of the Vladivostok Fortress, site of the historic Bezymiannaya Battery on Battery Hill
