In One of the Oldest Moscow Houses | Daily News in Russia

There is a nice place in Moscow – a house of the Volkov-Yusupovs. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Moscow, it was built in the XVII century and was painted and decorated in the end of the XIX century in the “Russian style”.
The house of Volkov-Yusupovs appeared in the times of Ivan the Terrible, it used to be surrounded by the forest then and the tsar liked to hunt there and stay in the house.

The house belonged to different people with different fates. Prince Grigory D. Yusupov got the house in 1727 and his family was possessing the house till 1917.

This is the red room of the house.

It’s the throne room.

Since 1929 the house had been occupied by the Presidium of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences named after Lenin. In 1992 a Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences was created there.

By the end of the XX century the architecture monument came to quite a dilapidated state. It needed a serious repair. In the beginning of the century the new owners started restoration of the house.

Procure Firewood In a Creative Way | Daily News in Russia

The winter is coming. And many people have to procure firewood. But citizens of a Russian city Rybinsk decided to do it in a creative way and even break a world record. In Demino vallage they built the largest stack of wood in the world. It is twenty two meters (72.12 ft) high which is two meters (6.56 ft) higher than the previous record.

Sportsmen, students and even designers of aircraft engines took part in the process. More than 800 m3 (2625 ft) of wood was stacked in the circular way.

They used special hydraulic cleavers brought from Germany and applied an old Russian technology: they were filling the middle with neat rows of wood with no fasteners. Despite the fact they were working 24/7 it took three months to finish the work. They have already applied to the Guinness Book of Records and the Russian Book of Records too.