10 most difficult history of Russia riddles

Coincidentally, the first European who explored California was a Portuguese on Spanish duty - Cabrillo. However, his country never tried to establish colonies there.

Alaska was colonized by Russian fur traders. Rather than hunting by themselves, the Russians forced the Aleuts to do the work for them. Many of Aleuts had been removed from their home islands and sent as far south as California to hunt sea otter.

The word "ruble" comes from the verb meaning "break" and refers to the Middle Ages, when pieces of silver were broken into smaller ones when changing money. The ruble was the world's first decimal currency: it was decimalised in 1704 when the ruble became legally equal to 100 kopeks.

The new ruble, introduced by the monetary reform of Peter the Great in 1704, was the first currency based on the decimal system.

The tank presented in this picture is a KV-85, the last of KV series (from the surname of soviet marshal Kliment Voroshilov). As the name suggests it had a 85 mm gun. Only 148 of them were built.

The first Russian nested doll set was made in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, Russian turning craftsman, wood carver and doll maker. The dolls often follow a theme; the themes may vary, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. Matryoshka dolls are often referred to as "babushka dolls", babushka meaning "grandmother" or "old woman".

The BT tanks (Russian: Bystrochodny tank, lit. "fast moving tank") were a series of Soviet light tanks produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. They were lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for their time, and had the best mobility of all contemporary tanks.

In 1705, Emperor Peter I of Russia instituted a beard tax to modernize the society of Russia following European models. Those who paid the tax were required to carry a "beard token" with them all the time.

The Cyrillic script was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School. Tradition holds that it was formalized by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who brought Christianity to the southern Slavs (and so the name is derived from Saint Cyril).

The Continuation War was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany, as co-belligerents, against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, during World War II. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its overall war efforts on the Eastern Front and provided Finland with critical material support and military assistance.