Unknown Russia
Unknown Russia
Unknown Russia, hosted by award-winning Russian journalist Vadim Kondakov, explores extraordinary places and people in Russia rarely seen on mainstream television. Each episode takes the viewer on a literal journey of discovery. Visit Russia’s westernmost border, in Kaliningrad, where a man has spent years without electricity, water, or family comforts in order to pursue his passion of painstakingly preserving an abandoned 19th-century fortress. Or travel to a virtual ghost town on the remote Kurile Islands in Russia’s Far East, where residents say they have been all but forgotten on the mainland. Learn about the mysterious signal from space recorded at an astrophysical observatory deep in the North Caucasus, or find out whether it’s possible to become a traffic cop when you’re raised in a city of long-haul truckers. Unknown Russia reveals a side of this vast and fascinating country that’s new even to Russians themselves.
Schedule:
Watch the program live online, on satellite, or via our broadcast partners on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Kyiv, Minsk, and Moscow time.
Reruns:
Wednesday at 5:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 5:05 p.m., Kyiv, Minsk, and Moscow time.
Subtitled Episodes
Like seashells on coastal rocks, the houses on the steep slopes of Taganrog Bay are constantly blown by the wind and washed by the Sea of Azov. The structures desperately cling to the earth, as their occupants do to life. This is Bogudonia, the southernmost quarter of Taganrog Bay, just east of the Ukrainian border. Once very beautiful -- with white houses, greenery, and clean beaches -- today this area is more like a city ghetto.
Yakutia's Ice Fighters: Setting Siberian Ships Free (March 6, 2017)
For six months each year, northeast Russia's Lena River -- the largest river in the world that flows through a permafrost zone -- is covered in meter-deep ice. That's a challenge for residents of the Sakha Republic (popularly known as Yakutia), through which the river reaches the Arctic Ocean. There are almost no railroads and very few roads for cars here, so the Lena is the best and most reliable way for inhabitants of this harsh region to get what they need.
About The Host
Series creator Vadim Kondakov is a Russian journalist who has worked for Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station and the TV channels TVS and REN-TV on The Week. A documentary filmmaker, he is a member of the Russian Academy of Television.