Since we are talking Russia and religion here is an interesting factoid:
The names of the thieves crucified with Christ appear in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the Acts of Pilate.
Book IX:5 reads
5 Then Pilate commanded the veil to be drawn before the judgement-seat whereon he sat, and saith unto Jesus: Thy nation hath convicted thee (accused thee) as being a king: therefore have I decreed that thou shouldest first be scourged according to the law of the pious emperors, and thereafter hanged upon the cross in the garden wherein thou wast taken: and let Dysmas and Gestas the two malefactors be crucified with thee.
They are very well known in the Orthodox tradition, where larger icons of the Crucifixion can show two crosses flanking Christ's. According to tradition, Dismas, on Christ's right, repents and eventually joins Christ in Heaven, while Gestas blasphemes and ends up in Hell. At the moment of Christ's passing, he writhes in agony and his feet jerk, pulling the lowest crossbar askew. On the traditional Russian Orthodox cross, the lowest crossbar is at an angle, with the right side up (Dismas went to Heaven) and the left side down (Gestas went to Hell).
However another most likely explanation is that the crossbar symbolizes the main saint of Russia (the most likely explanation), St. Andrew, who was crucified on a torture rack of diagonally crossed beams
