Russia

DVD. ABCD. 50 Minutes The "Golden Ring," that is what the Russian public calls the magical ring of towns stretching northeast from Moscow. Rostov Veliky, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal and Sergiyev Posad are places you'll see in this cultural- historical documentary offering encounters with art relics that were left by ancient artists and handy craftsmen behind the high ramparts and guard towers of orthodox churches and massive walls of fascinating cathedrals. Major trade centers were being raised under the protection of the monasteries, and these were protected by fortification systems of several connected monasteries.In its all-embracing arms, they've enclosed the market as well as craftsmen and residential quarters.The safer the ramparts were, the more significant the center became. The quieter the inner life, the more of an attraction it was for artists residing in endangered parts of the empire. Borodino and Abramtsevo, the introductory and also final chapter of the documentary connects the past to recent history. The rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, well that's the immediate present.

DVD. Global Treasures. 10 Minutes. Located Outside St. Petersburg, Peterhof is the name of the majestic palace that was once the summer residence of the Russian Tsar's. Whether public galleries or private quarters, everywhere there is a superb array of many objets d'art and splendid interior architecture. The central point of the Peterhof's 21 hectare upper park is a replica of Nurnberg`s glorious Neptune Fountain, which is both an architectural and horticultural work of art. Tsar Peter The Great gathered together an army of soldiers, serfs and servants to dig the ditches and canals that would serve the gardens and their gigantic water features. The glittering design of the lower park leaves no doubt that the Peterhof was a powerful symbol of the new sea lords who ruled over Russia.

DVD. Vista Point. 26 Minutes. In 1703, Tsar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg in the swampy delta mouth of the Newa. It became Russia's capital city and remained so until 1918 when Lenin and his revolutionary Bolshevik government moved to Moscow. Today it is a living monument to the lives and times of Russia's Imperial Tsars The Winter Palace contains Russia's largest museum, the Eremitage, which houses more than two and a half million exhibits. Since Peter the Great, Russian rulers purchased many major works of art, but it was Catherine The Great who acquired complete collections from the auction houses of Europe. The Admiralty, with its needle-shaped, gold-plated tower, is one of the city's most famous landmarks, its grand architecture depicting the emergence of Russia as a naval power and the marvellous Isaaks Cathedral has the third largest dome in the world. Twenty four thousand tree stumps were used for its foundations and it can accommodate a congregation of 14,000. The Peter And Paul Cathedral was the burial place of the Tsars and it contains the marble coffin of Peter the Great. The most colourful church in Russia is the Resurrection Of Christ Cathedral which was built on the orders of Tsar Alexander the Third on land where, in 1881, his father, Alexander the Second, had been killed by a bomb planted by a revolutionary group. Russian Baroque and Russian Classicism were established in St. Petersburg - city of monumental events, outstanding architecture and an Imperial metropolis on the grand scale.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places Our tour of Russia starts in St. Petersburg, including churches and palaces, and, above all, the River Neva, on the banks of which Peter the Great's city stands. We visit Tchaikovsky's house at Klin, near Moscow, and travel south to Ukraine to see Sebastopol in the Crimea and Odessa. Finally we return to St. Petersburg, seeing the surrounding countryside, the city by night, the bridges and the people. The Mustic Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky succeeded in uniting strands of Russian musical nationalism with music in the cosmopolitan forms of his training. He spent his childhood and adolescence in St. Petersburg, later moving to Moscow and finally finding some refuge in the country at Klin, where his house is preserved. The music accompanying our tour is Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and his Serenade for Strings.

DVD. Naxos Scenic Musical Journeys. 60 Minutes. The Places Starting in St Petersburg, once the capital of Russia under Peter the Great, our tour takes us to Ukraine and to Uzbekistan before returning first to Moscow and then to St Petersburg and the famous Marïinsky Theatre, where Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker were first performed. The Music The Russian composer Tchaikovsky had a mastery of the smaller forms demanded by ballet, with its series of relatively short scenes. Excerpts from his three famous ballet scores, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Nutcracker, provide the music to accompany a tour of Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

DVD. The World Atlas. 52 Minutes. DeAgostini Editore in cooperation with Rand McNally The Atlas steps into the digital age. A new one-of-a-kind World Atlas covering all parts of the globe with animated maps from Rand McNally and in-depth cultural and historical information. Each episode is dedicated to different countries, containing four distinct features - physical geography, political geography, popular locations, and thematic maps. The new digitally animated one-of-a-kind version of an Atlas of the World like you have never seen before!