What Russia is known for? Putin? Matreshki? Trans-Siberian? Vodka? Yes, it's all these things, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. For decades Russia has been exporting two things: the Crudes and the Cosmos. We mean it in a general sense: the Crudes are the oil and gas and materials, but also the crude attitude. The Cosmos is anything from Sputnik and GLONASS satellite system to the utopian systems that attempt to describe a part of the universe in its totality, like Mendeleev's table of elements, Stanislavsky's method acting system, and Tarkovsky's films.

Our new 780-page full color book about Russia describes the country from this very different perspective. It offers you a different point of view that goes way beyond the media's streotypes into the very core of what Russia is about.

The book has the listings of the best hotels (in terms of price/quality), most interesting places and clubs to see in many Russian cities, a complete Russian visa application guide, trains and Trans-Siberian guides, as well as extended sections on Russian culture, language and food.

The Russia guide book has all the necessary travel information on Russian visa, train travel, Trans-Siberian, Russian culture, Russian language (with a phrasebook and alphabet), and cultural context.

It also has destination guides to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Nobosibirk, Barnaul, Altay Mountains, Ikurtsk, Baikal Lake (including Olkhon island and Buryatia), Ulan-Ude and Vladivostok including recommendations of the best hotels, hostels, clubs, restaurants, sights, and places to go out.

The guide book was written in September 2014, which makes it the most up-to-date travel guide available on the market (the last Lonely Planet was published in 2012, Wallpaper guide – in Spring 2014).

All the addresses are written in both English and Russian, so you can easily show it to a taxi driver or ask for directions.

Many listings have direct links to their websites (a URL or a QR code), which makes it easy to learn more about a place, look it up on the map, or reserve a hotel room from your smartphone.

Many pages have links to other related pages within the book, so you can easily follow the associative flow, finding the information you're really interested in, helping you build your own narratives.