Three routes
across the union.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, built between 1891 and 1916 by the Russian Empire and substantially expanded and double-tracked by the Soviet state, is the longest continuous railway in the world. The full Moscow-Vladivostok journey takes seven days on the standard Rossiya train. Most travellers break the journey at three or four stops to see particular cities. The route below is the standard four-stop itinerary plus terminus visits.

Days 1–3 — Moscow. The capital, as the travel guide describes.

Day 4 — Train Moscow → Yekaterinburg. 27 hours; you cross the Volga at Kazan; you cross the Urals overnight.

Days 5–6 — Yekaterinburg. The Church on the Blood (built 2003 on the site of the Ipatiev House where the Romanov family was executed in July 1918); the Constructivist heritage of 1920s Sverdlovsk; the geographic Europe-Asia border monument 17 km west of the city.

Day 7 — Train to Novosibirsk. 23 hours.

Days 8–9 — Novosibirsk and Akademgorodok. Soviet-era Siberian capital; the State Opera and Ballet Theatre (built 1931–1945, the largest theatre in Russia); the science city.

Day 10 — Train to Irkutsk. 32 hours; the train follows the Ob and then the Yenisei river systems.

Days 11–13 — Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. The historic Decembrist Houses (1825 exiles); the Listvyanka and Olkhon Island excursions on the lake.

Day 14 — Train to Ulan-Ude. Eight hours.

Day 15 — Ulan-Ude. Capital of Buryatia, Buddhist heritage, the world's largest Lenin head sculpture in the central square.

Days 16–17 — Train to Vladivostok. 78 hours; the longest continuous segment.

Days 18–21 — Vladivostok. The Soviet Pacific Fleet base (the S-56 submarine museum is on the central waterfront); the Russian Bridge (built 2012 for the APEC summit); the Eagle's Nest hill viewpoint.

A driving loop through the three independent South Caucasus republics (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), which became fully independent at the 1991 dissolution. The Armenia-Azerbaijan border is closed; the Georgia-Azerbaijan border is open. The route below uses Georgia as the connecting transit.

Days 1–3 — Tbilisi. Recover from international travel; visit the Soviet Occupation Museum at the Georgian National Museum; walk the Stalin-era avenues.

Day 4 — Gori. Day trip from Tbilisi to Stalin's birthplace and the Stalin Museum.

Day 5 — Drive Tbilisi → Yerevan via Sevan. About 280 km over the Lori plateau; the medieval monastery of Haghpat is a stop on the way.

Days 6–7 — Yerevan. Republic Square; Matenadaran; the Genocide Memorial.

Day 8 — Drive back to Tbilisi via Dilijan and the Lori monasteries.

Day 9 — Drive Tbilisi → Sheki (Azerbaijan). The Sheki Khan's Palace (eighteenth century, partly preserved through the Soviet period as a museum).

Days 10–12 — Baku. The Soviet-era oil town; the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center; the Carpet Museum; the old walled city. Fly home from Baku.

A combination of Soviet-era infrastructure (railways, Soviet planned cities), pre-Soviet Islamic architecture (Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva), and the visible environmental disaster of the Aral Sea. Internal flights from Nukus to Almaty close the loop without backtracking.

Days 1–2 — Tashkent. The post-1966 Soviet capital, the Metro.

Days 3–4 — Samarkand. Pre-Soviet (Timurid), but the Soviet urban planning around the Registan is itself a useful subject.

Days 5–6 — Bukhara. Pre-Soviet medieval; the Ark and the Kalyan minaret.

Days 7–8 — Khiva. Eighteenth-century Islamic city walls.

Day 9 — Drive Khiva → Nukus. Capital of Karakalpakstan.

Day 10 — Nukus. The Savitsky Museum (one of the great repositories of forbidden Soviet avant-garde art; Igor Savitsky collected and concealed works of the 1920s-1930s here from the 1950s onward, with the museum opening in 1966).

Days 11–12 — Moynaq. The Aral Sea graveyard; the abandoned fishing port.

Days 13–14 — Almaty (Kazakhstan). The former Soviet Kazakhstan capital; the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen; the Ascension Cathedral; the Medeu skating rink and Chimbulak above the city. Fly home from Almaty.