Sasha Alexeyenko from Novosibirsk photographed debris of the Meridian military satellite after launch failure.

The Meridian-series communication satellite was launched aboard a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket earlier Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The Soyuz-2 suffered a malfunction during the third stage and the satellite came down in Novosibirsk region in Siberia.

Photos by Maya Shelkovnikova.

About 4000 people attended the rally for fair elections in Novosibirsk despite -15 C. Students, managers, artists, journalists, former officials, retired political consultants and teenage mutant ninja turtles came to the square in front of the public library.

Tens of thousands of Russians across the country protest against elections frauds today.

Photos by Maya Shelkovnikova.

The traditional rally of ghosts, werewolves, witches and vampires called “DEMONstratsiya” (DEMONstration) took place on October 31 in Novosibirsk, Russia.

The event attracted dozens of participants who weren’t frightened by bad weather. However, most of the route they traveled on the subway.

Source: valaamov-osel.

The catalogue and price-list of the Soviet currency stores called Beryozka. This catalogue was published in 1983.

Beryozka was a twin chain of state-run retail stores in the Russian SFSR that sold goods for hard currency. Beryozkas sold goods that were either unavailable or more expensive in regular shops.

One chain that belong to Vneshposyltorg (Foreign Mail Order Trade) was intended for Soviet citizens who received some income in hard currency. They were forced to sell their currency for rouble-denominated Vneshposyltorg checks. The checks were to be used to purchase goods in the Beryozkas.

The other chain sold goods directly for foreign currency and for Vneshtorgbank series D checks. Soviet citizens (except for high-ranking officials) were not allowed to enter these stores as they were legally forbidden to be in possession of hard currency.

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Source: 2photo.ru.

Liquor and tobacco ads from the Soviet Export magazine, 1957-1989.

Previously at metkere.com: Soviet export advertising, Soviet plastic bag from Expo 67, car ads from USSR.

Fabulous ads with the tagline “Orange jersey!” were made for the Russian ISP Electronic City.

Laudable attempt to popularize bukkake in Russia.

Ad agency: Papshev Studio, Novosibirsk.

Photo by AP.

Crowds gather to look on as a frigate with scarlet sails makes its way along the Neva River in St. Petersburg. The ship was part of a light-and-firework show celebrating school graduations.

To commemorate the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight, we created a thematic poster. It called I will survive and demonstrates the fragility of humankind in the Universe.

Alexei Barkhatov made this beautiful illustration and Alexander Alexeyenko designed the poster.

The poster published under CC BY-NC-ND license, so feel free to download and distribute it.

Download the poster in one of the following formats: A4 (19 mb) or A3 (36 mb).

Send us photos of the poster in real life!

A real life superhero who calls himself Avenger (Mstitel) began to defend residents of Chelyabinsk, the Russian industrial city.

In his 3-minute video message Avenger reports that he have already saved two people from bullies. “Some people were afraid of me, and some were laughed”, the hero says.

His message has caused a wave of responses from all over the country: Chernobyl, Ninth Ninja, Partizan and TuttiFrulka declared their support for the Avenger.

Photo: CHRIS MURPHY via The Telegraph.

The world’s smallest aquarium was made by a Russian artist Anatoly Konenko. His tank is just 30x24x14mm and holds a mere 10ml of water.