Where to see Russia in miniature? We put together all the installations in one post!

1. Miniature Golden Ring model, Yaroslavl

You can visit all the ancient cities of Russia in just one hour in Yaroslavl. In the center of the city there is a show model of the Golden Ring, where not just the main sights and ancient temples are presented, but the life and atmosphere of the cities have been recreated.  

The main cities of the Golden Ring are also represented in miniature: Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Uglich, Ivanovo, Rostov the Great, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Sergiev Posad, Vladimir and Suzdal. In Ivanovo, dubbed the "city of brides", they make fun of stereotypes - you can see brides in white dresses, while tours are being held in the Rostov Veliky Kremlin.

Night falls every 10 minutes. The street lamps in the cities turn on and the windows of the residential houses light up.

2. Miniature Moscow model, VDNKh, Moscow

At the VDNKh exhibition center in Moscow, there is a whole pavilion dedicated to a miniature version of Moscow, in which more than 23 000 buildings and constructions of the capital have been recreated on a scale of 1:400.

Monasteries, train stations, bridges, palaces, skyscrapers are represented in detail. Interestingly, the chimes of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower chime at the exact time. The lighting system imitates not only day and night, but also natural phenomena. In addition, the layout accurately depicts all the hills and valleys of Moscow. You can explore the city endlessly!

3. ‘Tsar's layout’ of Russia, Moscow

Travel by train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, climb Mount Elbrus by funicular and get stuck in traffic near Moscow City. All in one day. In the Moscow diorama museum ‘Tsar-Maket’ ('Tsar-layout'), you can see the whole of Russia on a 1:87 scale model and meet its tiny inhabitants.

The main idea of the model was to depict how trains and roads connect different regions. As on a real railroad, in addition to the trains themselves, there is a repair bureau, where diesel locomotives are repaired and several tracks between which the switches are switched and people who have mixed up their trains.

In mini-St. Petersburg, it rains all "night", Moscow greets you with a giant traffic jam near the skyscrapers and, in Rostov-on-Don, there is a soccer match being held in a huge stadium. Soviet cartoon characters - ‘Cheburashka’, ‘Crocodile Gena’ and ‘Shapoklyak’ - ride on the carriage of one of the trains in Pskov. And there are a huge number of such "Easter eggs" in the layout!

4. ‘Grand Maket Russia’, St. Petersburg

Everyday life of Russia, from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad, can be found in miniature on the ‘Grand Maket’ ("Grand Model") in St. Petersburg. In Siberia, they play dominoes, in the Urals, a TV crew films a report about mysterious crop circles, while in Kamchatka, a volcano wakes up at night. The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution is also depicted by the creators on a movie set.

Along the entire model field, there are buttons that activate interactive scenarios: extinguishing a forest fire, ash ejection on the Kamchatka hills, operating a sawmill and much more.

5. ‘Petrovsky Aquatorium’, St. Petersburg

You can see 18th century St. Petersburg in this model museum. The main part of the layout shows the space in the waters of the Neva River and the Gulf of Finland, and the water is real! 

You can see interesting scenes of city life of that time: elephants walking along Nevsky Prospekt (they were once sent as a gift to Emperor Peter the Great), a fight between Lomonosov and sailors, Maslenitsa festivities, duels, balls and haymaking.

6. Exhibition Complex of Russian Railways, Moscow

At the Rizhsky train terminal, there is another model of Russia, the central idea of which is railways. On it, you can see all modern types of trains that travel around the country, the historical steam locomotive depot, railroad bridges and, of course, a model of the Riga station itself. All train lovers will find it very interesting!