- Lenin's Mausoleum (Moscow): The red-and-black granite mausoleum on Red Square is no longer the pilgrimage site it once was, and its future is in question -- which is all the more reason to go see Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body now. A visit allows you access to the graves of all the other Soviet leaders (except Khrushchev) along the Kremlin wall.
- Art MUSEON (Moscow, behind the Central House of Artists; 10 Krymsky Val): A collection of Lenin heads and other Soviet monuments toppled in the early 1990s lay abandoned in Gorky Park until the pieces were unofficially resurrected and lined up in a garden behind Moscow's modern art museum. The place is a fitting commentary on Russia's political tumult of the past 15 years.
- Kunstkamera (St. Petersburg; 3 Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya; tel. 812/328-1412): Peter the Great's museum of 18th-century scientific curiosities is not for viewing after lunch. Among exhibits of the foremost technical developments of his day, the museum boasts pickled animals and human heads.
- Buran space shuttle in Gorky Park (Moscow): The amusement section in Gorky Park is fun for kids but feels generic -- until you bump into the Buran. This space shuttle abandoned during the Soviet Union's waning years has been turned into a ride along the Moscow River, with gyrating chairs meant to make your stomach lurch as in a real rocket blastoff. The effect is mediocre, but the up-close view of the shuttle is worthwhile.
