Nastya is a long time pen pal by now, after a year at Postcrossing. She sent me three cards from her hometown this time, Nizhny Tagil, in the Urals (part of Sverdlovsk Oblast | Свердло́вская о́бласть).
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First, this picture of Ekaterinburg (Екатеринбург), city famous for being where the Romanov imperial family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. The star of the image is the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land (Храм-на-Крови́ во и́мя Всех святы́х, в земле́ Росси́йской просия́вших). This church was built on the site the Romanov were killed, and commemorates them.
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She also used great stamps, including always at least a Soviet one. Here, that one shows an Aeroflot plane. And the two current Russian stamps are one from the Brusilov Offensive during the First World War, famous Russian counterattack against Austro-Hungarian Army, on what is now the Ukraine; and one I had to ask about (couldn't make out the Cyrilic lettering): it remembers those murdered at the Sobibór extermination camp, set by the Nazis in Poland during WWII.
Here, a Sochi 2014 postcard dedicated to the Usadba (Усадьба) Coastal Village, one of three Olympic villages built for the occasion.
First stamp, celebrating 50 years of the Pushkin Institute (Государственный Институт русского языка им. А.С. Пушкина), that teaches Russian to foreigners.
Finally, more commemorations of WWI! The Battle of Erzurum (эрзерумская операция) against Ottoman Turkey, and the Ilya Muromets plane.
