Places Pengwn Wants to Go

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

This massive glowering Lenin head gazes out over eastern Siberia.

Thanks to a spelling mistake this bizarre beaver-tiger hybrid became the symbol of a Siberian town.

Some of the world's only freshwater seals live in one very special lake in Russia.

This cuddly rodent has a place of honor at a Russian institute for genetic research.

This nostalgic Russian museum is full of USSR cultural artifacts from the 1970s and 80s.

Replica of mosque destroyed by Russia in the 16th century.

Russia's own leaning tower was built on a tragic historical fable.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

Gigantic natural towers in a Russian plateau.

A stick-sprouting statue watching a duo of disembodied dancing deities.

Menacing or in memoriam, the Silent People and their meaning are left to interpretation.

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

A collection of miniature, symbolic sculptures hides in plain sight across Kyiv.

340-foot statue built to honour the Heroes of the Soviet Union.

The Nazis lost more men trying to take this Russian-held Stalingrad apartment block than they did when taking Paris.

The enormous isokinetic structure hangs within a science center in Estonia.

A monument in the Belarusian city of Polotsk claims to mark the exact midpoint of the European continent.

Iceland's tribute to its thankless civil servants.

A sculpture park of the tossed aside relics of the USSR, from Stalin to a massive Soviet emblem.

One of the world's tallest statues is also one of its most hated.

Gargantuan home of Russian science.

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.

This building holds the embalmed remains of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.