84 Weird & Interesting Facts About Russia Few People Know

At a sound check before the address, Ronald Reagan made the following joke to the radio technicians: “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

77. 48 countries including the US and Russia have signed an international treaty that bans the use of weather control in times of war.

78. Harald Hadrada, a Viking who fled from his native Norway to Russia, then went on to become an elite guardsman in Eastern Roman Empire and fought in Iraq. He then went back to Russia to marry a princess and arrived back in Norway as a king, and finally invaded England with his army.

79. Mark Spitz, nine-time Olympic champion, jokingly told the Russian swim team coach in 1972 that his mustache increased his speed in the water, deflecting water away from his mouth. The next year, every Russian swimmer was sporting one.

80. Russians have built an anti-ship cruise missile that is meant to be fired in groups of about 8. On the way to the target, they all fly very low to hide from radar, except one. One will fly higher up, acting as a spotter and guide and use its radar to look for ships and will guide the others. If it is destroyed (because it flying higher and easier to detect) another missile in the group will rise up and take over the role of guide. And if it is destroyed another and so on. The guiding missile will also make an assessment of the targets if it finds multiple ships, prioritizes and then designate the targets for the other missiles. If a ship is destroyed it will reassign targets. They were designed to take out carrier task forces. They’ve been operational since 1985. Basically, the Russians have had suicidal, swarming, co-operating drones for thirty years.

During WWII, the Russians used a biplane (Polikarpov Po - 2) on the Eastern Front that was so slow, German planes couldn’t target it without potentially stalling.

82. If a child is found abandoned on Russian territory and the parents remain unknown for more than 6 months, that child gains Russian citizenship.

83. Norilsk is a city in Russia where the pollution is so severe that mining the topsoil is now economically feasible because it contains so many heavy metals.

84. In 2013, an entire Russian family was nearly killed by the fumes of rotting potatoes in their basement.