Timeline of Russian innovation

• indigenous invention, like airliners, AC transformers, radio receivers, television, MRLs, artificial satellites, ICBMs
• uniquely Russian products, objects and events, like Saint Basil's Cathedral, Matryoshka dolls, Russian vodka
• products and objects with superlative characteristics, like the Tsar Bomba, the AK-47, and the Typhoon-class submarine
• scientific and medical discoveries, like the periodic law, vitamins and stem cells

Kievan Rus'

10th century

11th century

12th century

13th century

Grand duchy of Moscow

14th century

• Lapta is a Russian ball game played with a bat, similar to modern baseball. The game is played outside on a field the size of 20 x 25 sazhens. Points are earned by hitting the ball, served by a player of the opposite team, and sending it as far as possible, then running across the field to the kon line, and if possible running back to the gorod line. The running player should try to avoid being hit with the ball, which is thrown by opposing team members. The most ancient balls and bats for lapta were found in 14th-century layers during excavations in Novgorod.

• A zvonnitsa is a large rectangular structure containing multiple arches or beams that carry bells, where bell ringers stand on its basement level and perform the ringing using long ropes, like playing on a kind of giant musical instrument. It was an alternative to bell tower in the medieval architecture of Russia and some Eastern European countries. Zvonnitsa appeared in Russia in the 14th century and was widely used until the 17th century. Sometimes it was mounted right atop the church building, resulting in the special type of church called pod zvonom or izhe pod kolokoly. The most famous example of this type of a church is the Church of St. Ivan of the Ladder adjacent to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin.

• The sarafan is a long, shapeless pinafore-type jumper dress, a part of the traditional Russian folk costume worn by women and girls. Sarafans could be of single piece construction with thin shoulder straps over which a corset is sometimes worn, giving the shape of the body of a smaller triangle over a larger one. It comes in different styles such as the simpler black, flower- or check-patterned versions formerly used for everyday wear, or elaborate brocade versions formerly reserved for special occasions. Chronicles first mention it in the year 1376, and since that time it was worn well until the 20th century. It is now worn as a folk costume for performing Russian folk songs and folk dancing. Plain sarafans are still designed and worn today as a summer-time light dress.

  15th century

• Kholui miniature

• The bardiche was a long poleaxe, that is a type of weapon combining the features of an axe and a polearm, known primarily in Eastern Europe where it was used instead of halberds. Occasionally such weapons were made in Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, but the regular and widespread usage of bardiches started in early-15th-century Russia. It was probably developed from the Scandinavian broad axe, but in Scandinavia it appeared only in the late 15th century. In the 16th century the bardiche became a weapon associated with the streltsy, Russian guardsmen armed with firearms, who used bardiches to rest handguns upon when firing.

• The boyar hat, also known as gorlatnaya hat, was a fur hat worn by Russian nobility between the 15th and 17th centuries, most notably by boyars, for whom it was a sign of their social status. The higher hat indicated higher status. In average, it was one ell in height, having the form of a cylinder with more broad upper part, velvet or brocade on top and a main body made of fox, marten or sable fur. Today the hat is sometimes used in the Russian fashion.

• The gulyay-gorod was a mobile fortification made from large wall-sized prefabricated shields set on wagons or sleds, a development of the wagon fort concept. The usage of installable shields instead of permanently armoured wagons was cheaper and allowed more possible configurations to be assembled. Such mobile structures were used mostly in the open steppe, where few natural shelters could be found. The wide-scale usage of gulyay-gorod started during the Russo-Kazan Wars, and later it was often used by the Ukrainian Cossacks.

• Ukha is a Russian soup, made with broth and fish like salmon or cod, root vegetables, parsley root, leek, potato, bay leaf, lime, dill, green parsley and spiced with black pepper, cinnamon and cloves. Fish like perch, tenches, sheatfish and burbot were used to add flavour to the soup. Ukha as a name in the Russian cuisine for fish broth was established only in the late 17th to early 18th centuries. In earlier times this name was first given to thick meat broths, and then later chicken. Beginning from the 15th century, fish was used more and more often to prepare ukha, thus creating a dish that had a distinctive taste among soups.

• The Russian oven or Russian stove is a unique type of oven/furnace that first appeared in the early 15th century. The Russian oven is usually placed in the centre of the izba, a traditional Russian dwelling, and plays an immense role in the traditional Russian culture and way of life. It is used both for cooking and domestic heating and is designed to retain heat for long periods of time. This is achieved by channeling the smoke and hot air produced by combustion through a complex labyrinth of passages, warming the bricks from which the oven is constructed. In winter people may sleep on top of the oven to keep warm. As well as warming and cooking, the Russian oven can be used for washing. A grown man can easily fit inside, and during the Great Patriotic War some people escaped the Nazis by hiding in ovens. Porridge or pancakes prepared in such an oven may differ in taste from the same meal prepared on a modern stove or range. The process of cooking in a traditional Russian oven can be called "languor" - holding dishes for a long period of time at a steady temperature. Foods that are believed to acquire a distinctive character from being prepared in a Russian oven include baked milk, pearl barley, mushrooms cooked in sour cream, or even a simple potato.

• Rassolnik is a Russian soup made from pickled cucumbers, pearl barley and pork or beef kidneys, though a vegetarian version also exists. The dish is known from the 15th century, when it was initially called kalya. The key part of rassolnik is rassol, a liquid based on the juice of pickled cucumbers with some additions, famous for its usage in hangover treatment.

• Russian vodka is perhaps the world's most famous national brand of vodka, that is a distilled liquor, composed solely of water and ethanol with possible traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is one of the world's most popular liquors. It is made by fermentation of rye, wheat, potatoes, grapes, or sugar beet molasses. Alcoholic content usually ranges between 35 and 50 percent by volume. The standard Russian vodka is 40 percent alcohol by volume. The exact origins of vodka cannot be traced definitively, but almost certainly vodka as a beverage comes from 14th–15th-century Eastern Europe. Russia is often named the birthplace of vodka. The distillation apparatus was known in Moscow from the late 14th century and was used to produce spirit, the precursor of vodka. According to Russian food historian William Pokhlyobkin, the first original recipe of Russian vodka was produced around 1430 by a monk called Isidore from Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin.