Oh okay, while I'm here

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

Via The Conservative History Journal, here are a series of photographs taken in the old Russian Empire between 1909-1912. Worth having a look at not simply because of the stunningly original, near colour photography (not done via colourisation, a horrible idea only beaten by post-production 3D) but also for the sheer delight in viewing what just might be considered 'a lost world'. The history of Russia between 1912 and the modern day is of vast internal upheaval - under the Stalin leadership unimaginable acts were committed in an effort to modernise and brutally control the various subject peoples of the Soviet Union (entire populations were, not often admittedly but more than once, moved by the central authorities over thousands of miles). In some cases the past is another country on a different continent.