Places ERuler39 Wants to Go

A sober museum housed in the original administrative building of one of Stalin's largest gulags.

One of the most horrible legacies of the Cold War is a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear bombs on civilians.

These ancient pecked images are among the oldest and best-preserved in Mongolia.

History, geography, and shamanism meet in this eye-catching monument to the greatness of three empires.

Thousands of artifacts tell Mongolia's military history, from the Bronze Age to the present.

An exceptional assortment of fossils recovered from private collections.

Mongolian Buddhists believe this monastery in the Gobi desert to be the center of the world's spiritual energy.

The oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia has survived centuries of invasions, political shifts, and religious purges.

A huge communist-era propaganda monument and mural that offers stunning views of the Mongolian capital.

Enormous statue of the Emperor of the Mongols.

This memorial complex contains several mass graves for victims of the Siege of Leningrad.

These limestone cliffs are associated with the Greek myth of Prometheus.

A former special storage facility for documents during the Cold War.

One of the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's many summer retreats.

A collection of iconic Soviet car models on display.

Pictures tacked onto trees remember the more than 40,000 of Stalin's victims buried here in mass graves.

Rare documents, old instruments, and gruesome specimens showcase the history of military medicine.

This burial mound is said to be the final resting place of Russia's first Viking ruler, Oleg of Novogrod.

You'll find rocket launchers, not rollercoasters, at Russia's “military Disneyland.”

One of the most well-preserved mammoth specimens in the world.

A monument to the defenders of the Arctic in Murmansk, Russia.

A former military outpost of Ivan the Terrible, the 16th-century church contains some of the rarest examples of Eastern Orthodox mural paintings.

300-year-old villagers houses and traditional churches preserve a nearly lost piece of Russian history.

This massive monument honors the first human in space.