Russia

Rating: ★★★★★ (4.8 / 5)

Russia is the largest country on earth, a vast Eurasian nation that stretches across eleven time zones and encompasses an extraordinary range of landscapes, cultures, and civilisations. Moscow, its capital, is a city of dramatic contrasts, where the onion domes and medieval towers of the Kremlin stand alongside Stalinist skyscrapers and a thriving contemporary arts scene, while St Petersburg, built by Peter the Great as Russia's window to Europe, is widely considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The country's cultural contributions to literature, music, and the visual arts, from Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to Tchaikovsky and Kandinsky, are among the greatest in human history, and its imperial palaces, Orthodox cathedrals, and the remarkable collections of the Hermitage speak to a civilisation of immense depth and complexity.