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The View from Up On High. River Caravans. The Volkhov River
For eight thousand years the Volkhov River has carried its waters from south to north – from Lake Ilmen to Lake Ladoga. The Volkhov was part of the most critical international trade routes for many centuries, and was also the main transportation artery for the swathes of land on either side. Over that span of time, hundreds of thousands of ships of all kinds – dignified merchant vessels, rickety fishing boats, fancy white steamships, working motorboats – sailed along its waters. It has also been the scene of battles for territory and the souls of believers, but at the same time provided an opportunity to maintain commercial ties. The people the river connected learned to solve their problems amicably and be good neighbors. And it was here, on the banks of the Volkhov River, that the Russian state was born.
Extreme helicopter operations
As Russia prepares for the 2014 Winter Olympics, big changes are taking place in the southern city of Sochi as the Olympic village is built from the ground up. Dozens of world-class sport complexes are under construction, along with hundreds of kilometres of new roads, tunnels and bridges. And all of this is being done in the mountainous region of the Caucasus. Mast lighting is being installed on the “Russian hills” where the Olympic ski jump complex is located. It is impossible however, to get heavy ground equipment to such heights, so workers must use helicopters instead. Between the peaks of Mount Aibga the wind is extremely unpredictable and constantly changes direction, which complicates things further. The pilots have to install 50-foot mast lighting in difficult to access areas, but not every helicopter is capable of hovering over an installation point for several minutes. The Kam...
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Extreme helicopter operations
Krasnodar Rice
It is a well-known fact that rice has played an important role in people’s diets for thousands of years. This cereal grain was brought to Russia from Persia and was initially called «Saracenic millet». Russia began growing its own rice only in the 16th century. The country’s first attempts at harvesting the grain were carried out in the lower reaches of the Volga River and in the Kuban River wetlands. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Soviet government made the decision to bring rice cultivation to an industrial scale. As a result, in 1931 the Soviet Union’s only Institute for the Scientific Research of Rice was opened near the city of Krasnodar. In order for the institution to conduct its first projects, 2,000 types of grain from all over the world were brought to the institute. Russian scientists gradually developed their own varieties of rice that could adapt to the local soi...
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