Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Many people are curious about Russian trains and about how you can rail travel across Russia, the largest country in the world, for days and days.
On this particular occasion, I decided to jump on a specific train with no purpose other than escaping the frenetic lifestyle of Moscow to find myself in the city of Kirov.
Kirov, a 15-hour train ride east of the Russian capital, is your typical Russian city, without anything remarkable: the majority of the population is Russian, the nature around is bland, no significant historical events. I thought this would be the perfect place for me to show you the life around a place where life hasn't changed much since the early days of the Soviet Union.
I also took the chance to cross one extra Russian federal subject off my list!
In my quest to set foot in every single federal subject in Russia, the oblast' of Kirov was number 32! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram for live updates @davelegenda 📷
Also if you can subscribe and please like this video that would help very much CHEERS THANK YOU :D
Here's where I stand as of now:
Moscow ✔️
Moscow Oblast' ✔️
Saint Petersburg ✔️
Leningradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Vladimirskaya Oblast' ✔️
Yaroslavskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ivanovskaya Oblast' ✔️
Krasnodarskij Kraj ✔️
Tulskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tatarstan Republic ✔️
Tverskaya Oblast' ✔️
Nizhegorodskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kaluzhskaya Oblast' ✔️
Murmanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Smolenskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ryazanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Astrakhanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kalmykia Republic ✔️
Volgogradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Bryanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Udmurtia Rebublic ✔️
Yekaterinburgskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tyumenskaya Oblast' ✔️
Karelia Republic ✔️
North Ossetia-Alania Republic ✔️
Rostov Oblast' ✔️
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug ✔️
Republic of Crimea ✔️
Sevastopol ✔️
Permskij Kraj ✔️
Chelyabinsk Oblast' ✔️
Kirov Oblast' ✔️
Which means I'm at 32/85. Still 53 to go! Hopefully a lifetime will be enough ⚠️
I boarded the Soviet train from the Yaroslavsky rail terminal of Moscow, one of the main ones in town. The train that I boarded was actually one of the legendary transiberian trains crossing Russia all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. On the Pacific Ocean! The absolute dream.
Unfortunately, my train ride would end twelve hours into the journey. After one night and few hours into the day, we arrived in Kirov. I was lucky enough to meet an amazing Russian family on the train who invited me for lunch at a Russian canteen - exactly where you would eat back during the times of the USSR!
So that's where I had some Soviet borscht, some Soviet blinchiki (Soviet pancakes. Have you ever had those?) and some Soviet sour cream (smetana, amazing).
And then I spend the rest of the day roaming around Kirov as if I was a Pokémon trainer looking for the best pocket monsters to catch around the city. The only difference was that I was looking for anything remotely reminiscent of the Soviet Union.
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
📷 INSTA: instagram.com/davelegenda
🟦 FB: facebook.com/LEGENDTRAV/
🎵 Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@davelegenda
I went out looking for Khrushchyovkas (the five-storey buildings commissioned by Khrushchyov to face the boom in population in the USSR following the Second World War), I went out looking for abandoned buildings and I was interested in going on a ride on some of the second-hand buses and trolley-buses in and around Kirov.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Kirov. I was there for no more than 10 hours and my walking-around was cut short due to the inclement weather (It was spitting down with the rain for most of the afternoon), but I had the chance to see a lot of the sights around town and I learnt all sorts of new, interesting things.
At around midnight, I then went to the bus station of Kirov to jump on another Soviet mean of public transport - the marshrutka.
That is because Kirov was only first stop on a week-long journey that would take me to the very north of Russia - to the legendary gulag camps of Vorkuta and the Yamalo-Nenets Republic.
If you watched the video until the very end and read the description far enough to be reading this, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart and I can only hope you've enjoyed this one.
Cheers, thank you and bye!
Many people are curious about Russian trains and about how you can rail travel across Russia, the largest country in the world, for days and days.
On this particular occasion, I decided to jump on a specific train with no purpose other than escaping the frenetic lifestyle of Moscow to find myself in the city of Kirov.
Kirov, a 15-hour train ride east of the Russian capital, is your typical Russian city, without anything remarkable: the majority of the population is Russian, the nature around is bland, no significant historical events. I thought this would be the perfect place for me to show you the life around a place where life hasn't changed much since the early days of the Soviet Union.
I also took the chance to cross one extra Russian federal subject off my list!
In my quest to set foot in every single federal subject in Russia, the oblast' of Kirov was number 32! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram for live updates @davelegenda 📷
Also if you can subscribe and please like this video that would help very much CHEERS THANK YOU :D
Here's where I stand as of now:
Moscow ✔️
Moscow Oblast' ✔️
Saint Petersburg ✔️
Leningradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Vladimirskaya Oblast' ✔️
Yaroslavskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ivanovskaya Oblast' ✔️
Krasnodarskij Kraj ✔️
Tulskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tatarstan Republic ✔️
Tverskaya Oblast' ✔️
Nizhegorodskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kaluzhskaya Oblast' ✔️
Murmanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Smolenskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ryazanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Astrakhanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kalmykia Republic ✔️
Volgogradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Bryanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Udmurtia Rebublic ✔️
Yekaterinburgskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tyumenskaya Oblast' ✔️
Karelia Republic ✔️
North Ossetia-Alania Republic ✔️
Rostov Oblast' ✔️
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug ✔️
Republic of Crimea ✔️
Sevastopol ✔️
Permskij Kraj ✔️
Chelyabinsk Oblast' ✔️
Kirov Oblast' ✔️
Which means I'm at 32/85. Still 53 to go! Hopefully a lifetime will be enough ⚠️
I boarded the Soviet train from the Yaroslavsky rail terminal of Moscow, one of the main ones in town. The train that I boarded was actually one of the legendary transiberian trains crossing Russia all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. On the Pacific Ocean! The absolute dream.
Unfortunately, my train ride would end twelve hours into the journey. After one night and few hours into the day, we arrived in Kirov. I was lucky enough to meet an amazing Russian family on the train who invited me for lunch at a Russian canteen - exactly where you would eat back during the times of the USSR!
So that's where I had some Soviet borscht, some Soviet blinchiki (Soviet pancakes. Have you ever had those?) and some Soviet sour cream (smetana, amazing).
And then I spend the rest of the day roaming around Kirov as if I was a Pokémon trainer looking for the best pocket monsters to catch around the city. The only difference was that I was looking for anything remotely reminiscent of the Soviet Union.
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
📷 INSTA: instagram.com/davelegenda
🟦 FB: facebook.com/LEGENDTRAV/
🎵 Tik Tok: tiktok.com/@davelegenda
I went out looking for Khrushchyovkas (the five-storey buildings commissioned by Khrushchyov to face the boom in population in the USSR following the Second World War), I went out looking for abandoned buildings and I was interested in going on a ride on some of the second-hand buses and trolley-buses in and around Kirov.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Kirov. I was there for no more than 10 hours and my walking-around was cut short due to the inclement weather (It was spitting down with the rain for most of the afternoon), but I had the chance to see a lot of the sights around town and I learnt all sorts of new, interesting things.
At around midnight, I then went to the bus station of Kirov to jump on another Soviet mean of public transport - the marshrutka.
That is because Kirov was only first stop on a week-long journey that would take me to the very north of Russia - to the legendary gulag camps of Vorkuta and the Yamalo-Nenets Republic.
If you watched the video until the very end and read the description far enough to be reading this, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart and I can only hope you've enjoyed this one.
Cheers, thank you and bye!
