Russian interest links, with emphasis on alternative and independent travel

THIS PAGE IS BEING REVISED, AND IT IS a good time to send you link request

Uncle Pasha's hand-picked
RUSSIAN LINKS

Other place to look for links:
Travel and accommodation links sorted out geographically are in ..\master_list.htm. Some travel links are also in Backpacker Accommodation. "Russian Mail-Order Brides" links are here.. If all fails use the Search function.

"Russian Soul"

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, Slave Soul of Russia.New York University Press, 1996 [link]
That contorted fellow who wrote of poets and suitcase makers?????
A collection of analytical articles - http://www.raga.org/

Link collections

http://goeasteurope.about.com
A rather perfunctory collection of information of interest to package tour types.
Sher's Russian web - http://www.websher.net
Comprehensive collection of links on subjects such as art, literature, music, religion, universities, geography, travel, newspapers, sports, women, children, history, philosophy, theatre, language etc.

Outstanding travelogues

Random Russian experiences - http://www.wayan.net/exp/rus_exp/index.htm
A wealth of information, from riding public busses to radical groups to electrical adaptors

Backpacking, budget, alternative

www.bootsnall.com - Packed with independent traveller information. Through them I found Moscow's only laundromat (Vavilova 11, Tram #39 from M. Leninsky Prospekt or M. Universitet, open 7am to 10pm Mon. to Sat.)
www.ecotravel.ru - Ecological Travel Center
www.we-friends.com - accommodation world-wide
Travel with a cause - http://www.miramed.com/articles.htm
http://www.thebackpacker.net
Quite a few entries on Russia. An informative site, no-registration BBS..
Svezhy Veter (Fresh Wind) - http://www.sv-agency.udm.ru/svfiles/links/backpack.htm
Izhevsk, Udmurtia, the Urals Range. Teaching opportunities, real-life immersion tourism, informative interactive site, good feedback from my clients in Moscow on their way to and especially from them.

http://www.vagabondo.net/Indexeng.htm?/Eng/Thenet/europe/russia.html

(pages that I really liked and/or that have a link to me)

www.backpackers.com "find businesses around the world catering to backpackers and connect with other backpackers and independent travellers"

Russian search engines

www.rambler.ru | www.yandex.ru | www.list.ru || www.weblist.ru ????? | www.stars.ru | www.ru (in English!) | www.google.ru - Of these, rambler and yandex and biggest and best established while google.ru appears most promising. [checked and edited May 2003]

Cities and regions
(see also my Master List of Apartments, Homestays, Farmstays and Other Accommodation Offers)

Moscow: http://www.babouchka.org/ (site alive and well as of July 21, 2002) [dead May 2003]

Pskov: http://oasis.fortunecity.com/bali/526/pskow/pskcity.htm | http://members.xoom.com/avkl/gallery/pskov/english.html (link dead July 22 2002)

Tver: http://www.tversu.ru/archives/tverarch.html

Novgorod: www.novsu.ac.ru/city/travel/tourism.html (dead July 22, 2002)

Please note: Novgorod, Pskov, Valdai, New Jerusalem, Staritsa, Rzhev, Volokolamsk, Torzhok..
can be made part of your Moscow to St. Petersburg trip. More information on these cities will be posted

Yaroslavl: http://clib-r.yars.free.net/

Suzdal: ftp.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/religion/monasteries/Suzdal.html

Vologda: http://necco.net/category/regional/russia/vologda.htm and http://www.vologda.ru/~avo/Eng/HomeE.htm

Latvia: http://www.nexteurope.com/tourism/

Staritsa: www.unclepasha.com/staritsa_eng.htm (and the Village of Dubrovki)

Trans-Siberian Railroad |

BBS's

www.budgettravel.com/messages/index.htm (has an odd Russia-related message, active an no-hassles to post.
www.russia.com (overdesigned type of site, large useless BBS - move to General Info)
www.we-friends.com (nothing on Russia - Jan. 18, 2003)
http://russia-tourism.com Seems to have been grabbed - see my site-grabbing story.
Francophone site - http://www.moskovia.com (akes forever to load - try later)
An excellent Moscow site - http://www.babouchka.org/ (not terribly much activity - Jan. 2003) (dead? May 2003)
Russian stock market - http://www.bradynet.com/bbs/russia/
Adoptions BBS - http://www.littlemiracles.org/bbs-russia/bbs-russia.html | (Checked Jan.2003 - active)
http://www.studyrussian.com/bbs/ (active, dynamic, relevant, no registration hassled, RECOMMENDED)
http://www.sv-agency.udm.ru/forum - An active discussion board by Svezhy Veter in Izhevsk. And I spoke with their happy volunteer teachers on several occasions too, and thus recommend them if for some reason shoveling dirt and carrying stones in the village of Dubrovki as a working holiday doesn't appeal to you (see www.rural-russia.narod.ru or www.unclepasha.com/horses_e.htm )

Travel notes. www.wayan.net | www.travelhog.net/mytriptorussia/ | www.friends-partners.org/~asebrant/

Health and safety

Petty street crimes, incl. money exchange - http://www.kidalovka.narod.ru/ (in Russian, but a must to read nevertheless; on request I'll happily do a review with my clients..)
My own musings on the safety aspect of Russian travel. [to be added; the main idea is that Russia can be remarkably safe or otherwise, depending on who you are, the objectivist world-view fails utterly here; examples of my own and other's experience]
Emergency health care [include some of my own stories]
http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/scams.html - Tourist scam alerts, mostly apply to western Europe, but it would not hurt knowing them if you are on your way to Russia

Official and semi-official.

US government information for Russia-bound travellers
Official City of Moscow
More platitudes and truisms at http://ru.orientation.com/eg/home.html
www.russiatoday.com/

Maps and pictures

Moscow | More Moscow | Interactive map of Russia | Pictures | The Kremlin (pictures)
AND, OF COURSE, OUR CURRENT PROJECT VIRTUAL WALKS AND DRIVES IN AND AROUND MOSCOW

Language

Pasha,

I like your language link. Nice teaching tool. Here is my favorite Russian alphabet page link. Its a word game and requires a little thinking, but it makes it more fun to learn the alphabet. http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/alphabet.html

The bucknell page also links to signs you would see in Russian. http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/RT/pages/signs/signs.shtml

My favorite big website for Russian is www.masterrussian.com

John

Culture and history

Rural living: www.csica.com/selyanka/ruralvideo.htm
www.alincom.com/russ/
Museums: http://www.museum.ru
http://gromco.com/music/rim_archive/ - Modern music scene, including description of groups and sound files
www.slavophilia.net - culture and music oriented site Down March 10, 2003
http://ingeb.org/catru.html - a huge russian .midi and .wav collection with lyrics
Sher's Russian web - http://www.websher.net
guide to Russian
> literature http://waytorussia.net/WhatIsRussia/Literature.html
http://www.mtu-net.ru/rrr/bill.htm - Genealogy: Researching Russian Roots

Russian prices

Examples of prices for everyday commodities

Colleagues and competitors

Roxana in St. Petersburg
Jack Sheremetoff in Irkutsk (lake Baikal, Trans-Sib)
Translators and interpreters - http://www.angelfire.com/ny/surgut/ |

(see also the Accommodation Master list www.unclepasha.com/master_list.htm and elsewhere, eg. under Business Services www.unclepasha.com/business_services.htm )

Books from Russia
e-shop LIRA Books, audio, video, software and souvenirs for all Russian-speaking population of the world. Delivery in 7-12 days by air around the world. All major credit cards accepted. Contact info@lira.ru or +7(095)280-8624

Tickets and visa support

JetTravel - Inexpensive and hassle-free tickets. (095) 207-9008, 207-1800, fax 207-1876, Jettrav@com2com.ru, www.jettravel.ru, Sretenka 16, office 48, Moscow 103045. [still alive, still well, still selling cheap tickets in a relatively hassle-free manner]
Sharma Travel - In Ottawa I and my friends always bought from Sharma Travel - 36-174 Colonnade Road, Ottawa K2E 7J5, (613) 224-4447. They can get real deals.. [will anybody tell me if they are still alive?? - March 17 comment]

Visa support

Over the years we've been looking at, recommending and testing various visa support agencies, getting client feedback, ourselves acting as shadow clients, and are pleased to announce the winner:

www.visatorussia.com
(send an e-mail to me when writing to them, especially in view of - see the note below)
(mention me - uncle Pasha - and receive a small discount)

Advantages of taking your visa problem to this company:

Acceptable prices. Not the lowest, but quite competitive.

Fast response to e-mails. If you've worked in Russia you'll appreciate the importance of it. If not, take my word that reacting to business communications in timely manner is by no means universal here.

24-hour hotline

A network of agents throughout Europe, Canada, and the States.

Registration on the spot.

Informative and easy-to-navigate website

(SORRY TO SAY I'VE BEEN HEARING COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE VISATORUSSIA GUYS, ESPECAILLY ABOUT THEIR ATLANTA OFFICE. DESPITE THAT THEY STILL REMAIN THE SIMPLEST WAY TO GO ABOUT GETTNG YOUR VISA)

Other good alternatives:

The Asia Hotel

Travellers Guest House [look up new e-mail]

Accommodation (on the cheaper side) [update, insert links to new accommodation pages]

Travellers Guest House: tgh@glasnet.ru, www.iro.iu
Ismailovo Hotel: (095) 737-7000, livable rooms from $25/night
In St.Peters contact Roxana: www.roxana.spb.ru
Travel2000 - http://www.travel2002.supereva.it/russia.htm (nothing as of Jan. 2003)

The Asia Hotel [$16/night]

Homestay accommodation, mostly in St. Petersburg: http://www.homestay.ru/

Adoption

www.russiatravel.org (Also missions to help orphanages)

Mail order brides

www.womenrussia.com

Concerned about scam? You may want to read www.russia-scam.org
Leaving Katya by Paul Greenberg. A must to read for anyone contemplating a Russian-American love affair.
Information, hints, discussion: www.global7network.com
A discussion of Russian women on Way_to_Russia: http://waytorussia.net/WhatIsRussia/Women.html

Publications

The Russia Journal www.trj.ru

Adventure travel

http://www.geographicbureau.com/

Questions and general information: www.allexperts.com | http://www.russia2you.org

Want to add your resource?
Review the selection
criteria ==>>
and sent your URL with
a brief yet informative description. Commercial sites are expected to provide a clear statement of their competitive advantage ("We are best at .... becaue ....").

related to Russia

non-trivial (no enumerations of tourist attractions and Golden Ring invitations please)

high information density and low download time
(500KB pictures of St.Basil's Cathedral are definitely out)

value-for-money, flexibility, and personality/personability for service providers

in English or at least with English summaries

If you are offering accommodation and related services, review www.unclepasha.com/master_list.htm Your offer needs to be specific and special. "Affordable quality accommodation" just doesn't sound interesting enough..

New not sorted out: (in the process)

AaOr Search Engine-Russia http://unclesam.hypermart.net/
Akabita Search Engine-Russia http://akavita.by/
All Search Engine-Russia http://www.all.by/
All Stars (Russian Search Index) http://rank.stars.ru/
Alta Vista Russia http://www.comptek.ru/alta.html replaced by yandex.ru
Aport (Russian) http://www.aport.ru/ - One of the most powerful English and Russian search engines.
Armenian Search Engine http://www.hyeguide.com/
Armenian Web Directory http://128.121.115.138/links/index.html
Armenian Yellow Pages-Europe http://www.armenian.com/
Aviso Online Classifieds-Russia http://www.aviso.kiev.ua/aviso/eng/
AY Search Engine-Russia http://www.au.ru/
Azerbaijan Search Engine-Russia http://www.search.az:8101/
BR Search Engine-Russia http://www.br.by/
Brama Web Directory-Ukraine http://www.brama.com/index.html
BrightonBeachAve Search Eng-Russia http://www.brightonbeachave.com/
CIS Enterprises Directory Russia http://www.trifle.net/cis/e_index.html irrelevant
Fair Index-Russia http://www.fair.ru/site/ dead
FarEastern Russian Index http://www.fareast.ru/ irrelevant, kill
Hayastan Search Engine-Russia http://www.hayastan.com/ - Armenian portal, English
Holms Search Directory-Russia http://www.holms.ru/ irrelevant, kill
Ivan Susanin Search Engine-Russia http://www.susanin.net/ empty, delete
Job Online BBS-Russia http://www.yourbbs.com/v2/?bbs=3836 dead
Kharkov Search Engine-Ukraine http://search.kharkov.ua/ dead. delete
Kopilka Search Engine-Russia http://chirinsky.virtualave.net/ delete, irrelevan

http://reenic.utexas.edu/reenic/countries - Brief reviews of CIS countries

Krygistan Online-Russia http://www.online.kg/   Live, English,
LinkMaker Directory-Russia http://www.ipclub.ru/linkmaker/ - Irrelevant to Russia but hosts catalogues
List Of Russian Webservers-Russia http://weblist.ru/   Dead May 2003
List.RU-Russia http://www.list.ru/   Live, search engine/directory, Russian
Mafias Top Rated Directory http://www.mafia.ru/top100/   Dead as of May 2003
Meta Ukraine-Ukraine http://meta-ukraine.com/defeng.asp Ukraine, English
Newman Search Engine-Russia http://search.newman.ru/ remove
Ping Search Engine-Ukraine http://www.topping.od.ua/ Ukraine, Russian
Rahoo Search Engine-Russia http://yahoo.kts.ru/ Give a chance to open up (establish category) then remove.
Rambler Search Engine-Russia http://www.rambler.ru/ move to Russian search engines, in Russian
Reenic Directory-Russia http://link.lanic.utexas.edu/reenic/Countries/Kazakhstan/kazakhstan.html Chang eto http://reenic.utexas.edu/reenic/countries/russia.html   University of Texas. Comprehensive.
RegionRU-Russian Directory http://www.region.ru/ remove????
Russia on the Net(Search Engine-Russia Only) http://www.ru/   Move under Russian search engines. English.
Russia Today Classifieds-Russia http://www.russiatoday.com/classifieds.php3 Alive, fairly weak, English
Russia.com Web Guide http://www.russia.com/   Some of the most active Russia-related forums are on this site. You have to register, which is a minor pain, the the board is alive which is the main thing.
Russian Cities On The Web http://www.city.ru/   Alive. Add URL doesn't work
Russian World Directory http://www.serve.com/andrey/russian/business/add.html Dead
RussianLondon BBS(Russian) http://www.russianlondon.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html Irrelevant, remove
RussianStar Search Engine-russia http://www.russianstar.com/index1.htm dead
Russkie Search Engine http://www.russkie.com/ Dead
Search Kit-Russia http://www.alf.ru/search/1.htm   \Dead
Sensa Ukraine Search Engine http://www.uazone.net/sesna/ Ukrainina search engine, English
Susanin Search Engine-Russia http://www.susanin.com/   Russian directory
Tamapcmah Index-Russia http://www.kcn.ru/tatweb/grepsrch/srch.cgi/tatweb/tatweblist Tatarstan, in Russian, run by the Kazan State University, slightly stale as most official projects (move under Regional)
UDM Search Engine-Russia http://search.udm.net/ Search of Udmurtia Region, the Urals, Izhevsk (that's where Sverzhy Veter operates and seems to be doing a good job attracting visitors to Izhevsk)
Ukraine Meta Search Engine http://www.meta.kharkiv.net/ Active, in Russia, based in Kharkov (Kharkiv)
Ukraine.com Web Guide http://www.ukraine.com/ No content, remove
Ukrania Resource Web Guide http://www.ukrania.com/ Alive and IN ENGLISH!!
Ukranian Homepage Directory http://search.uar.net/ Does not exist as of May 2003
Uzonline Search Engine-Russia http://www.angelfire.com/ak/Uzonline/ Does not exist as of May 2003

Wanted.RU Directory-Russia http://www.hochu.ru/ - Mostly Russian (place under Russian search engines, recommended if you are looking for something exotic and very un-turisty, so 98% of you have no business here)

Yahtka Search Engine-Russia http://www.ulitka.ru/ - Mostly Russian, more of a directory than a search engine. Alive May 2003

Yandex Search Engine(Russia) http://www.yandex.ru/   - Mostly Russian language resources, alive May 2003

Zubr Search Engine http://www.zubr.com/eng/    - Alive as of May 2003, specializes in Belarus, in English   (move under search engines)

CIA World Factbook - Russia - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.html
Presents general facts on the country and focuses on its economy, government, people, transportation, communications, and geography. - Too perfunctory, remove. (general info)

Russian News Network - http://www.russiannewsnetwork.com. Statistical and historic briefs on CIS and Baltic states, in English. Don't expect to find "new" news there however.

. - live and active as of May 2003, specializes in news coverage, English.

Little Russian Gate - http://home.earthlink.net/~bikbov/
Collection of Russian web sites, message boards guide.   An informative, cozy and totally non-commercial in feel. Don't be fooled by it, many powerful resources out here lack commercial lustre. (classifications??, mark as my pesonal favourite)

Russian Phone Search - http://russianphonesearch.hypermart.net/
Searching phone numbers by address and addresses by phone number in Russia. - Site alive. Anybody tried that service?

ASMO-Press - Encyclopedia - http://enc.ex.ru/cgi-bin/n1fsrc.pl?lang=2
Information about Russian manufacturers. - Seems rather dead as of May 2003. Check back in a year.

Russian Cities on the Internet - http://mitglied.lycos.de/Cityweb/Worldwide/Europe/Russia/russia.html
Collection of links of Russian localities. - Many links outdated and in Russian only but could be an excellent resource if updated.

WorldSkip Guide to Russia - http://www.worldskip.com/region.asp?RegionID=ru
Links to news, information, products and services from Russia. - does not open, remove

FreeGK.com: Russia - http://atlas.freegk.com/world/europe/russia/russia.php
Including map and overview of history, culture, economy and currency.      - too supeficial and perfunctory, to be removed.

http://www.einnews.com/russia/classifieds.php3 - You can place your classified there. Not much Russian content, mostly spam, but shows up well.

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