russia: ivanovo

 

I don't really why I decided to visit Ivanovo, or how it ended up on my list of places to go in Russia. I'm sure that at least part of it is because I was able to do it as a day trip from Moscow. Since hotels and cafes still weren't open properly, nor are many stores and such, I wouldn't have been able to stay overnight even if I had wanted to, so I had to choose a close town or city to visit.

Ivanovo is about 250 kilometers/160 miles from Moscow, with a population of a little over 400,000. The population is slowly shrinking, this started at the beginning of the century. It was first known as Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the latter part of the name was dropped in 1932.

Ivanovo is almost 500 years old, it was first mentioned in historical documents in 1561. The modern city boundaries were created when the flax processing village of Ivanovo merged with Voznesensy Posad in 1871. This merger mixed an agricultural village with an industrial town, which became the textile capital of Russia. In fact, Ivanovo competed with Lodz to be the textile manufacturing capital of Europe for quite a while. Traditionally, it is still the textile capital of Russia, though the actual industry has mostly left the city. 

Ivanovo has interesting WW2 history, as the city played host to a group of French pilots; the training they had created the so-called Normandy-Niemen legendary air squadron. Wikipedia tells me they were given decent housing (whateva that means,) and training on Yak 1 fighter planes.

Getting to Ivanovo was easy, though it wasn't fast. I rode the 'fast' elektrichka, called a lastochka. Even so, it was still nearly four hours. It was the first time I've worn a mask for that long, not particularly fun. That being said, if wearing a mask when I'm indoors is the price to pay for being able to travel a little right now, I'm all for it.

Upon arrival I discovered the entire train station was under renovation, I wasn't able to go inside at all. It looked as if the city had moved the ticket desk into a side building for the time being, I wonder how long it will take before the train station is open again.

As I exited into the platz/parkplatz in front of the station I noticed that the apartment buildings on either side of the station had something in common: they both had mosaic murals covering the entire side. Awesome.

On the other side of the platz was a monument, it looked like a giant female head with wings, if that makes sense. From what I can find online, the monument was put up to honour the 70^th anniversary of the October Revolution.

I started my exploration of the city by heading for the first of three Lenin statues I hoped to see during the day. I was surprised when I found him, as the statue was clearly old, and had seen little to no maintenance in quite a while. 

Paint layers cracking and chipping off, wildgrass growing really tall around the whole thing. Usually Lenin statues are given at least basic care and cleaning.

I'd hoped to see a monastery next, but when I got to the gates I found a sign saying it was closed for quarantine. I imagine monasteries around the country will keep their gates closed a bit longer while they can, to help protect their typically more elderly populations.

Not too far from this monastery was a former cinema, abandoned as far as I could tell. It had a "Soviet" look about it, I love this kind of stuff. Weeks later while looking at something online I found out the cinema closed about 10 years ago, and has just been sitting there.

I kept going down the street and found a war memorial, complete with wreaths, an eternal flame, plaques with names, and a statue on top of a really big pedestal. This one was specifically dedicated to the heroes of the front.

After seeing the monument I headed toward the next spot I'd marked on my map, an apartment building. I know that sounds rather lame, but it was designed in the shape of a half circle, so I was keen to see what that looked like from the 'inside' of the circle. Interesting, but not photogenic.

Next up was the 'main' Lenin of the city. This time he was located in the middle of Leninplatz, and there were actually other people around the statue. I'm used to seeing Lenins in mostly empty areas. This time I watched kids taking a break from practicing tricks on their scooters.

The next 'sight' I saw wasn't mentioned anywhere, I just found it eye catching. It looked like a watchtower on top of an office building? It looked abandoned, so who knows what it used to be.

Before arriving in town I'd searched my name on Yandex maps, and found a place named after me in Ivanovo. Eva shaping class, whateva that is. After seeing 'my' class, I wanted to visit three different museums, but they didn't look open to me. They might've been, but if so, it wasn't obvious. 

The descriptions of the museums were interesting, so maybe I'll go back to Ivanovo at another time, when things are a bit more 'normal.'

Not too far from the museums was the third Lenin of the city. As I got closer to the statue I could see that he was behind a barrier, which was guarded by a soldier. It looked as if the building behind the statue was a military/official building. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand right next to the statue, but I took the chance to ask the soldier if I could take a picture of just Lenin. He said yes, so I made the photo and moved on. This is Russia, anything military makes me a bit nervous.

Since the museums weren't open, I went to a park. It was nice to be in the shade for a while, as the heat was getting to me by that point. At one end of the park was a ferris wheel, though it wasn't running. In the middle of the park was a monument to Frunze, and near the other side of the park was a 'tunnel' of hearts with letters spelling out LOVE at one end.

Not too far from this park I found the 0km marker that exists in a surprising number of Russian cities. They're not always marked on maps, so you don't always see them, but they do exist. This one was in front of the main post office of Ivanovo.

From there I stopped at a supermarket on my way to Revolution Square, which had another large, Soviet realism styled monument. Nothing unique. I turned a corner and headed toward one of the last sights I wanted to see. A church, one that was actually open, yay!

It was surrounded by white walls, and the onion domes were painted blue. Simple decoration outside, plenty of good frescoes on the walls and ceiling inside. The iconostasis up front was gold, there were a few people praying to the various icons around the 'sanctuary.'

My last sight in Ivanovo was another park, called art square. It was pretty small, and had no shade. I was interested because there were a few sculptures to see; a dog, a musician, and a really big guitar which was covered in flowers.

As soon as I'd made all the photos I wanted to, I walked back to the train station, an easy walk. My timing worked out really well, I didn't have to wait long for my train back to Moscow.

I'd definitely return to Ivanovo, probably at another time of year. I'd like to see the museums, and I wonder what the city looks like under a cover of snow.