In the world of art Russian religious icons represent a unique and extremely valuable phenomenon. Any Russian religious icon is far more than a mere visual image. Icons are objects of veneration treated with profound respect. The Orthodox believe that icons can bring about cures. They confide their innermost thoughts to them and look to them as source of support. We would like to introduce some examples of different types of Russian religious icons. You can see here: hand carved, old Russian religious icons, new hand painted religious icons, contemporary religious icons (not hand painted), etc. In the Soviet Union the Religion was practically forbidden and during the years of Soviet power a lot of valuable religious icons were destroyed. With the coming years the authentic Russian religious icons became more and more rare. Their value is continuously going up and Russian religious icons with unusual subjects became very difficult to obtain.