Belkamishka

Can you visit Belkamishka today? Technically, yes. If you drive six hours southeast from Samara, past the oil fields and the abandoned collective farms, you’ll find a place where the road turns to gravel, then to dirt, then to two ruts in the grass. Park your car. Walk.

: The famous Soviet space dogs (though "Belka" here means "Squirrel," it was the dog's name). Misha the Bear : The legendary mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. belkamishka