When reading Russian-language texts, it's not unusual to come across various abbreviations, which can be difficult to understand at first glance. To help you improve your Russian, below is a selection of the most frequently used!

There are about 80 historical ‘kalancha’, the watchtowers at fire stations, scattered all over Russia. Today, most of them are no longer in use, but have become a part of the urban landscape and many of them are architectural monuments.

The ideas of production automation inspired all industrialized countries back in the early 20th century and the Soviet Union was no exception. And the first android robot was assembled by a Soviet high school student named Vadim Matskevich from Rostov Region back in 1936!

In 1945, the building of the German parliament had no military or political significance. However, the Soviets saw in it the heart of the Nazi regime they hated.

This famous phraseology in modern language is already considered a little outdated. However, you can often meet it in literature, when someone disapprovingly speaks about those who idle. But, where did the expression come from?