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.
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