Greetings from Russia!

Hello!

Today, I am going to share the postcards I received from Russia through Postcrossing with you!
I will also introduce some of the stories I explore on the postcards!
Enjoy them:)


[Russia?]

What comes to your mind at the moment when you hear the country "Russia"?
Siberia? Moscow? extremely cold in winter? or plenty of natural gas?

(Sources:Google)

Russia is the largest country in the world, which is gifted with plenty of natural resources such as coal and natural gas.

It has over 144 million people. With such a heavy population, it is easy to guess its postcard-sending ranking in Postcrossing. It ranks second among all the other countries. As a result, I always receive postcards from Russia!

I will briefly divide the types of postcards into three different kinds: postcards from Moscow, postcards from St. Petersburg, and postcards about art.

[Moscow]

Moscow, the largest city on the European continent, is the capital of Russia. Moscow plays a crucial role in the Russian history. It is also the capital of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the main religion in Russia.

These are two of the postcards I received from Moscow. 

It is apparent that most of the churches in Russia share a similarity, that is, the cupola. It is said that the cupola symbolizes the sky.

This is the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. It is now a museum, and it is a very famous landmark in Russia. Tourists will definitely take a photo in front of it!

Perhaps it is a little bit difficult to recognize it from this postcard. It looks like this during daytime.

(sources: Google)

[Saint Petersburg]

St. Petersburg is the second largest city, as well as the cultural capital in Russia. It is built by Peter the Great in 1703, and it has been the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundreds years during the 18 century.

This is a postcard of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. 

The Winter Palace was built by Peter the Great in 1703. It was the residence of the Russian monarchs from the 18 to 20 centuries.

Nowadays, it has become a world known museum (Hermitage Museum) which attracts over 3.5 million people annually.

[Art]

I received several postcards which are about the history and arts in Russia.

Seeing from left to right, the first one is called "Young Lady's Morning," by F. Fan Miris (1635-1681).

In fact, the original postcard didn't have an English translation of the painting. Fortunately, a kind mother wrote the translation under the postcard so that I could understand what the postcard was about!

The second one is called "The Holy Family," by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1645. 

The third one is called "The Lute Player," by Caravaggio in 1596. This version is exhibited in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

I guess this postcard was bought in the same place as the first and the second one since the style and the color of the postcards are almost the same though they were all sent by different people at different times.

Unfortunately, I have no idea about the last one since the person sending the postcard didn't mention anything about it....

Last but not the least, I want to share the beautiful Russian stamps with you. Most of them are alike. I can recognize them immediately when receiving the postcards!

Thank you for spending your precious time reading my blog!

These postcards are just a tip of the iceberg. I hope you enjoy them!

Which one do you like the best?

Do you want to visit the beautiful country, Russia, in the future?

I do, after receiving these fantastic postcards!

How about you?

Feel free to share any of your opinion below :)