Russian cities: fun, strange and odd facts

This muslim stronghold marks the furthest point which the Germans reached in WW2.

In 2024, a resident here was shocked to find a boa constrictor emerging from her toilet. This city was captured by Napoleon in 1812 and found to be deserted and ablaze.

Due to starvation in the 1940s, residents of this metropolis ate all the cats, so it became plagued by rats. Later, cats were brought en masse from Siberia to tackle the infestation.

The football club here, Anzhi, once had the world's highest-paid player.

Previously called Novgorod, and later Gorky, this major city has changed name three times.

This is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle.

One of the Wombles characters takes his name from this male-sounding place in Siberia.

Lying on the river Lena, this Risk territory is the coldest major city in the world.

Russian Tsar Boris Godunov once had the church bell of this town on the Volga removed, whipped in public then exiled to Siberia.

Originally named Holmgård, this medieval powerhouse whose name means "new city" was a hub for fox and squirrel fur trading.

Another major stronghold of the past, this place was once part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The nuclear weapons stored near this large city are blessed by the Russian Orthodox church.

In 2018, a man in this Arctic town stole a tank and used it to ram-raid a shop to steal a bottle of wine.

In 2004, authorities found a young boy from this Altai village who had been abandoned and then raised by wolves.