The Kremlin wasn’t always the red-brick giant we know today. First, it was just a wooden fortress on the hill, guarding Moscow between the rivers. After the wooden walls, the Moscow Kremlin was rebuilt in white limestone (sometimes called “white stone”), which gave Moscow its old name “Belokamennsya”- “the White-Stone city.” That’s why in medieval chronicles Moscow was often called Moscow the White-Stone.

Already back then, there was a “Red Square.” But it wasn’t about the color. In Old Russian, krasna didn’t mean “red, it meant “beautiful.” Only later did the word shift to its modern sense. So the famous square is actually the Beautiful Square.

The version that survived, the one we walk past now, was the work of Italians. Invited by Ivan III in the late 1400s, they brought with them Renaissance know-how and even the memory of Milan’s Castello Sforzesco. Look at the walls and towers that’s Italian engineering fused with Russian grit.

Ivan III didn’t just hire Italians to design pretty facades, but also to bring in their engineering. And they gave Moscow something almost no other fortress in Europe had back then: a water supply system.

Inside the Vodovzvodnaya Tower literally “Water-Lifting Tower” (1488) a mechanism pumped water straight to the Moscow River up into reservoirs within the fortress. From there, pipes carried it into palace kitchens, courtyards… and even for firefighting. In a city where fires were constant and devastating, the Kremlin had its own built-in fire defense system.

Think about it: fifteenth-century Moscow had a water supply system hidden inside its walls. While most of Europe’s cities still hauled buckets, the Kremlin had plumbing running through a fortress tower.

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Rina Lu🇷🇺

@rinalu_

Aug 29

Sakhalin: An Untamed Russian Gem and a Hidden Winter Playground

If you’ve never heard of Sakhalin, you’re not alone. It’s a long island way out in Russia’s Far East, just above Japan. Most people think it’s only about oil and gas but honestly, it’s one of the most beautiful, underrated places you can visit.

Picture mountains rolling right into the Pacific, quiet forests, hot springs in the middle of nowhere. It feels like Alaska, but with a touch of Japan.

The ski scene is taking off. The resorts in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk have gondola lifts, night skiing, and fresh powder with way fewer crowds than Europe. People are starting to call it Russia’s Hokkaido.

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Rina Lu🇷🇺

@rinalu_

Aug 29

When most people in the West think of divided Germany, they immediately picture the Berlin Wall – a symbol of Cold War brutality. The common narrative says: Stalin divided Germany, and the West defended freedom. But what if the reality was almost the opposite?

🧵👇

in 1952, Stalin offered the Western powers a plan to reunite Germany. His famous “Stalin Note” of March 10th proposed free elections under international supervision, withdrawal of occupation forces, and the creation of a neutral, united Germany – not aligned with either NATO or the Soviet bloc. It was not a vague propaganda trick, but a concrete diplomatic offer. Germany could have avoided decades of division, occupation, and the Wall.

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Rina Lu🇷🇺

@rinalu_

Aug 27

The Holodomor is a very popular myth among Ukrainian propagandists. But like all propaganda, it’s aimed at the masses who are incapable of thinking on their own and in this case unfamiliar with history. There is plenty of evidence available in open sources to prove that Holdohoax is a silly lie. For example, photos used to “prove” the Holodomor actually come from World War I or the famine of the 1920s (the Holodomor was in 1932–33).

Soviet documents, available in large numbers, confirm that food was imported into Ukraine as aid, not exported out, which doesn’t fit the narrative of deliberately starving poor Ukrainians. Moreover, there was a state-level policy of Ukrainization, meaning the government invested huge resources in developing Ukrainian culture, opening Ukrainian-language schools, and even forcing people to speak Ukrainian instead of Russian (look up korenizacia). That too doesn’t align with the myth of exterminating Ukrainians.

It's also worth mentioning that the famine happened not only in Ukraine, but in Kazakhstan and the Volga region, which was RSFSR (Russia), meaning it affected not only Ukrainians.

But today, I want to tell you about other facts, things that almost nobody else will tell you. 🧵👇

Keep in mind we're discussing the years 1931 to 1933. During this period, when Western companies were expelled from the USSR, the U.S. and Britain imposed restrictions on Soviet gold imports, raised tariffs on Soviet timber and grain, and gradually transitioned toward trade bans. In today's terms, the West essentially imposed sanctions. Consequently, the USSR was forced to purchase industrial equipment necessary for its industrialization by trading grain, directly contributing to the 1930s famine. The USSR needed to buy equipment, but the West wouldn't accept gold or money, they demanded grain.

Without Monsanto, DuPont, or GMOs capable of growing food in challenging conditions (though these aren't particularly good for us anyway), back then any climate issues spelled trouble for harvests. And trouble certainly occurred.

Americans will recognize this as the Dust Bowl, spanning from 1930 to 1936, a period marked by unusually dry years in the region. Many people died from malnutrition. I place "malnutrition" in quotesfor you to notice how the same events described differently: malnutrition - hunger. It's noteworthy that no one in the U.S. actually counted how many people died during that time.

Now only in the US, but Western Ukraine suffered famine and many deaths. The problem is that during that time, that part of Ukraine was a part of independent Poland. So, Stalin had nothing to do with it even if he wanted.

No Stalin, no Bolsheviks, and yet people still died from hunger. But none of this is brought to your attention for obvious reasons.

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Rina Lu🇷🇺

@rinalu_

Aug 24

Why Did Britain Abandon Poland?

Picture this: London, August 25, 1939. Britain and Poland finally sign a mutual assistance pact. On paper it’s beautiful: if Germany attacks Poland, Britain promises to step in. To the Poles, it felt as if the British lion was now on their side.

Now here’s the cinematic twist. That very morning, Hitler had already signed the order to invade Poland on August 26. By evening, he hears about the treaty and cancels everything. A full-scale invasion literally scrapped hours before it was supposed to kick off. But… just one week later, on September 1, the Wehrmacht rolled in anyway.

And here’s the detective question: why did he still go for it?

The Road to War

Then came Munich, 1938. Chamberlain came home waving that piece of paper: “Peace in our time!” In reality, Hitler with Poland’s complicity carved up Czechoslovakia, the arms-production hub of Central Europe at the time. And more importantly, he learned something: London and Paris talk big, but they won’t shoot.

By March 1939, he seized Prague. Even London realized that Hitler wasn’t just uniting Germans he wanted to dominate Europe. That’s when Britain began giving guarantees to Poland.

Since 1933, Hitler had been dismantling the Versailles system step by step: rebuilding the army, marching into the Rhineland, walking out of the League of Nations. The West just kept looking the other way.

Why Britain Didn’t Save Poland

Yes, on September 3 Britain and France declared war on Germany. Sounds epic. But in reality?

1. Tiny army. Britain’s ground forces were small, barely ready to set foot on the continent. France had numbers, but clung to its defensive Maginot Line strategy.

2. The “Phoney War.” When Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, they didn’t send troops to fight for Poland. Instead, their main strategy was an economic blockade, the same tool Britain had used against Germany in World War I. But Hitler wasn’t planning a long, slow war. He launched blitzkrieg - fast, overwhelming invasions that gave him quick victories before a blockade could bite.

3. Mindset. British society had just been through years of appeasement. They weren’t psychologically ready for an all-out fight. Or maybe…they just did not want to.

The Anglo-Polish pact gave London a legal reason to declare war, but not the teeth to protect Warsaw. Hitler knew that the West would bark but not bite.

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