Everyone knows Moscow and St Petersburg, but how about all those soccer cities you’ve never heard of? 
The Fifa World Cup under way in Russia offers the chance to learn more about the enigmatic nether regions of this host nation.
Everyone knows Moscow and St Petersburg, each soaking in its own charm and character, but what of Kazan or Yekaterinburg? Nizhny Novgorod, anyone?
Of the 11 cities that welcomed thousands of football fans from around the world when the soccer showpiece kicked off last Thursday, we would wager the names of eight, maybe nine, have never crossed the lips of those now visiting.
Here’s a crash course on the Russian host cities you’ve never heard of.1. SAMARA
Where is it? To the south-west, on the banks of the Volga and not far from the Kazakhstan border.
Population: 1.2 million
Of note: Known as Kuybyshev, in honour of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev, from 1935 to 1991.
How to get there: Kurumoch International Airport; rail links to Moscow and other major cities.
“Samara is a very diverse city,” says the official World Cup literature. “It is a merchant town and an important aerospace centre; it is athletic, musical and youthful.”
In 1916, Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist and future Nobel Prize laureate, wrote: “Samara is the best, the most sinful, most elegant and most comfortable part of Moscow, cut out from the city and transplanted on the banks of the Volga.”
Samara is indeed home to Russia’s aerospace centre and is where the rocket that took Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space back in 1961, was built.
There is also a Football Museum; Vladimir Lenin Memorial Home; and a subterranean stronghold made for Joseph Stalin but never used, today known as “Stalin’s Bunker”.2. YEKATERINBURG
Where is it? East of the Urals.
Population: 1.4 million
Of note: The Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land was built on the site of the 1918 executions of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
How to get there: Kolstsovo International Airport is one of the largest in the country.
In contrast to St Petersburg’s “window to Europe”, Yekaterinburg is Russia’s “window to Asia”. Capital of the Urals, the region is of great economic importance and full of natural treasures such as oil, gas, gold and emeralds.
Why not swing by the Boris Yeltsin Museum? The former leader was born nearby.3. ROSTOV-ON-DON
Where is it? Southern Russia, on the banks of the Black Sea.
Population: 1.1 million
Of note: Home of the Don Cossacks.
How to get there: Platov International is the city’s new airport.
“The story of the Don Cossacks, delectable fish and all the traditions of a large trading port: Rostov-on-Don treats visitors to the flavours of the Russian south,” says Russia's World Cup information website. T
he city boasts a number of tourist sites including Russian Orthodox churches, as well as the heritage of renowned authors including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Maxim Gorky and Alexander Pushkin.
The Upside Down House, where, you guessed it, everything is upside down, sounds perfect for travellers with time to kill.4. SOCHI
Where is it? The Russian Riviera – on the Black Sea.
Population: 370,000
Of note: Sochi hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.
How to get there: Adler-Sochi International Airport.
The unofficial summer capital of Russia, where past tsars and Joseph Stalin had country homes or dachas, Sochi boasts a subtropical climate that warms the Russian elite.
But it’s not all glitz and glamour. There’s the Nikolai Ostrovsky Literary Memorial Museum and Sochi’s Museum of Sporting Glory.5. SARANSK
Where is it? Saransk is the capital of the Mordovia region, about 640km east of Moscow.
Population: 297,000
Of note: French actor Gerard Depardieu has been a registered resident here since 2013.
How to get there: There’s a daily direct train from Moscow and a small airport.
“Saransk is a town of myths and legends, with a chequered past and big plans for the future,” says the World Cup literature.
“Remembering his trip to Saransk, Leo Tolstoy wrote in 1906: ‘Old pines with long trunks and short crowns. The soil is black, and a little stony ... Backwoods. The Sura River, and the best sturgeon ever’.”
Do not miss the Museum of Mordovia Folk Culture, or a triumvirate of excellent squares – Millennium Square, Victory Square and Soviet Square.6. KALININGRAD
Where is it? Kaliningrad is Russia’s European enclave, wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast.
Population: 437,456
How to get there: Khrabrovo Airport, train from Moscow, or ferry from several European cities.
During Soviet times Kaliningrad was a closed military zone and after the fall of the USSR it suffered economic collapse. Today it is popular with holidaying Russians, especially its half of the Unesco-protected Curonian Spit beach strip it shares with Lithuania.
Founded by Teutonic Knights in 1255, Kaliningrad was home to the the legendary Baron Munchhausen, philosopher Immanuel Kant and writer and composer Ernst Hoffman.7. VOLGOGRAD
Where is it? On the banks of the Volga, south-west of Moscow.
Population: 1 million
Of note: Volgograd was once known as Stalingrad.
How to get there: Volgograd International Airport connects to other big Russian cities. The city is also connected to Moscow by rail.
The city was made by famous by a devastating Second World War 2 siege.
“Over the last century, the city has changed its name three times: at the beginning of the 20th century it was called Tsaritsyn and it was a backwater place on the banks of the Volga River,” the promo literature notes.
“Then it became Stalingrad – the fortress that played a pivotal role in World War 2, II, and later was renamed Volgograd, having become in the process a sunny and hospitable city whose residents love fishing, football, boat rides and beaches.”
The Motherland Calls, a monument to the Battle of Stalingrad and the tallest statue of a woman in the world, is well worth a visit.8. NIZHNY NOVGOROD
Where is it? About 400km east of Moscow.
Population: 1.3 million
Of note: It was previously known as Gorky, in honour of the Soviet author.
How to get there: Strigino International Airport.
The city was previously closed to foreigners during the Soviet era to protect the security of its military research centre and production factories.
Even street maps were not available for sale until mid-’70s. At the same time, Nizhny Novgorod is an old Russian merchant town with timber planking and carved window frames that survived the onslaught of modern architecture.
The city boasts a Kremlin, “the cradle of Nizhny Novgorod”, built high above the Volga in the 16th century.9. KAZAN
Where is it? Where the Volga meets the Kazanka.
Population: 1.1 million
Of note: The sports capital of Russia hosted the 2014 World Fencing Championships and 2015 World Aquatics Championships.
How to get there: Kazan International Airport or by rail from Moscow.
Kazan, too, has a Kremlin, which in 2015 was visited by 1.5 million people.
“Cold winters and hot summers, Muslim minarets and Orthodox monasteries, the ancient archeological sites and the science city of Innopolis, forest steppes, taiga and the Great Silk Road all mix in the cauldron that is the Tatar capital,” the World Cup organisers say. – The Telegraph