russia: krasnodar

 

Krasnodar was once known as Yekaterinodar. It is now a modern city of nearly a million residents, almost 1400 kilometers straight south from Moscow. Google says the drive time should be around 16 hours, though I imagine it would take longer in reality.

Krasnodar started out as a fortress/military camp built by the Cossacks; they were determined to protect the borders of Russia, and claim Circassia, though Ottoman Turkey didn't agree with that claim. The official year of founding was late in the 18^th century, in 1793.

City status was granted nearly 3/4 of a century later, in 1867.

Wikipedia tells me Yekaterinodar quickly became a trading and transport center of southern Russia, with around 45,000 residents by the end of the 19^th century.

The name Yekaterinodar comes from Catherine the Great, who granted the land in this region to the Cossacks. The other Catherine involved in the name was Saint Catherine of Alexander, who is the patron of the city.

The name Yekaterinodar means Catherine's gift. After the name changed to Krasnodar in 1920, the name means 'gift of the Reds.'

Yekaterinodar saw a lot of fighting during the Russian Civil War, which took place from 1917-1922. (Imagine dealing with a civil war AND a world war at the same time!) During the Civil War the city changed hands several times between the Red Army and the White Army. During my visit I saw quite a few war memorials, some big some smaller.

When WW2 (the Great Patriotic War) rolled around, Krasnodar was again the sight of lots of fighting. The Germans controlled the city for around six months, starting in August of 1942. During the war years most of the city was destroyed, like other Russian cities where fighting took place. Though Germany didn't have any camps in Russia, some of the Gestapo and SS killed thousands of Jews, Communists, and partisans; these unfortunate souls were shot, burned alive, and even sometimes gassed to death in specially built vans.

Before the war was even over the government started trials, even of their own citizens, for collusion with the Nazis and other war crimes. The Wikipedia summary says the tribunal handed down eight death sentences, which were carried out in a city square with an audience of 30,000 people.

Modern Krasnodar has many industries. These include agriculture and food, fuel, forestry, and machine construction. Tourism is said to be a big part of the economy, and those numbers continue to grow.

(Though maybe not so much in the summer of 2020.)

Despite my misadventures in catching the train from Voronezh, I arrived in Krasnodar early in the morning. Since it was mid-August, it was hot and sunny, despite being early in the morning. The train station in Krasnodar is quite big, with the name of the city on both sides. The main level was full of people when I walked in, but I found a waiting room upstairs that was completely empty. Woo hoo!! Despite being an upper level room, it wasn't nearly as hot as I would've been expected.

I wanted to check into my hostel as soon as I could, but I wasn't expecting anyone to be awake when my train arrived around six in the morning.

I loved the train station for another reason as well: I found the first of seven Lenin statues in Krasnodar inside the station!! It was a full size statue, much to my surprise. I've seen mosaics of the man in train and bus stations, or even a bust, but this was the first time I saw a full size statue. I was a bit nervous about setting up my tripod to take a photo inside the station (sometimes security officers don't like seeing me get out the tripod,) but it went off without a hitch.

After waiting around a bit, I walked to my hostel, and was able to check in straightaway. It was a cheap hostel, so the bunks wobbled a bit, and there was no airconditioning. I think the family that ran the place lived on the first floor, with the second floor having the dorm rooms. Some of the girls in my room appeared to actually live in the hostel, they weren't just traveling through.

After relaxing for far too long, I finally walked back out the door, heading toward Lenin number two for the day. It was a long hot walk, but easy enough.

From there I passed a quirky monument: a horse made of holiday ornaments. Unique, to say the least.

To get to my next sight I decided to use public transport. I was able to take a bus directly to Krasnodar City Park, which is relatively new. I'm not sure if this area was always a city park, but what is there now was renovated and opened in 2017. It's a big park, with a lot of landscaping, and lots of cute little areas.

I walked all over, finding heaps of spots to take Instagrammy photos, and I definitely wasn't the only one doing so.

I decided to walk from the park back into the city center, to get to a tower designed and built by a Russian engineer called Shukov. I didn't get what was worth seeing in this tower, as it was just a bunch of wires, but he is well enough known that there are several of these towers around the country.

After seeing the tower I figured out public transport to get back to the hostel. Even though I hadn't been outside for all that long, I was still zonked, and crashed early. This kind of heat wears me out, fast, no matter how much I drink every day.

The next day I got moving a bit earlier, heading in the same general direction as the day before. I had a big itinerary on my list for the day, including three more Lenin monuments! After quite a long walk, I got to my first monument, this one was a gold covered head on top of a pedestal.

The monument wasn't particularly exciting, but I really enjoyed the building behind the monument, as it was decorated with tiles like those you often see in Portugal. Beautiful.

Lenin number two was a full size statue painted white on a pedestal. Another boring-ish statue, this time without a redeeming building behind the monument. Oh well. Not far down the street from the man I found a church to visit. I realized I had spotted the church the day before, but hadn't gone inside. There are times when I'm so hot that even though something catches my eye, I'm just too tired to walk a little out of the way I originally planned. 

I decided to take public transport to Lenin number three for the day, but go figure, the tram I wanted to take didn't come for quite a while. If I understood some of the muttering I heard from people around me, there was a wreck somewhere on the line, blocking some tracks for a while. Ugh. I could've started walking, but I was hot, and just didn't want to walk.

When the tram finally came I didn't ride it all the way to the man. I hopped off early when it drove past a building with a huge mosaic mural on one end. I wanted to get closer, and did. It turned out to be part of a local science university, absolutely gorgeous. And huge.

Eventually I did get to the last Lenin of the day, which turned out to be the biggest I'd seen yet. Unfortunately the best framing of the photo was totally backlit, which I didn't love. I suppose that helped cover up some of the sweat pouring off me. This statue was another full size one on a bigger pedestal, in the middle of a small park, surrounded by flowers and benches. (No one was sitting on the benches in the sun, but the shady benches were full.)

I kept walking, following a main road back toward the city center. As I walked I realized the city had a decoration scheme all over the city, in the form of sparkly flags along the streets. There were flags with the Russian tricolor, and the city colours.

As I walked I had to stop to take another photo, because I was standing in front of a shop named after me. As I was packing up my tripod a couple of the employees came out to look at me, I'm sure they were wondering why someone was posing in front of their shop. Hee hee.

Next up was another memorial, this one to the Civil War. After that I saw yet another monument, this one to Empress Elizabeth. She is in the middle of a park, and the fences around the area all have scrollwork with the letter E.

Even though I hadn't wanted to walk earlier in the day, I hit my stride later in the day. The monument to Empress Elizabeth sits at the bottom of Red Street, which I then walked almost the entire length of.

This walk showed me a few more sights of the city, including a GIANT flag on a flagpole.

Even though I couldn't feel all that much wind, there was enough to keep this flag going. Better than the flag were all the people (mostly kids) running through the fountain/splash pad just in front of the flag. If I'd brought a change of clothes, I would've joined them in the water.

Near the northern end of the street there is a gate leading to a park. The park was not amazing, but it was a good place to people watch. I'm pretty sure half the city was at the park I saw the day before, another quarter at one fountain or another, and the last quarter parading along the sidewalks through this park.

Eventually I decided I'd had enough, and found a marshrutka that got me pretty close to my hostel.

The next day I took the elektrichka to Novorosiisk, where I stayed for a couple nights. Then I came back to Krasnodar for a day before catching a night flight.

The elektrichka brought me back to Krasnodar just before 11 in the morning. I stored my bag at the train station, then started walking. Even though this post already mentions seeing five monuments to Lenin, I knew there were at least two more I hadn't yet seen!

The first Lenin of this day wasn't that far from the train station. He is just a random monument, nothing unique at all. Thankfully there was a church near this monument, which was much more interesting to see.

I took a tram to get closer to the second Lenin of the day. He turned out to be standing on an almost nonexistant pedestal, at the end of a random shopping street. When I find monuments like this I always wonder how the placement was chosen.

After finishing the tour de Lenin in Krasnodar, I found a bus stop where I was able to catch a bus to the last area of the city I wanted to explore for the day. There is an 'island' in the middle of the river that runs through one side of the city, and the bus took me close enough.

To get to the island I got to cross a pretty pedestrian bridge, though the river at that point was quite ugly just then. Not much water, so I could see (and smell) a lot of mud and rubbish. The island itself was better, as it had a park, complete with submarine memorial.

For families there were also a few amusement park style rides, and stalls with amusement park style games.

After leaving the island I made my way to another church. Then back to Red Street to go to a bakery and kill time. Though probably somewhat overpriced, the baked goods were yummy and the chairs were comfortable. When the time came I made my way back to the train station to pick up my bag.

It was easy to catch a bus to the airport, check in, fly, and land back in Moscow. Since my flight landed in the middle of the night I slept/dozed in the airport for a while before catching a train back into Moscow.

russia: voronezh

 

Voronezh is the capital of its own oblast. The city is 515 kilometers almost straight south from Moscow, and has a population of over a million people.

Wikipedia tells me the first written references to the city date back to 1177. Something about the prince of another region (when Russia was made up of various princely states and was not a single country,) fled to the city. Reading this makes one think the city was actually older than this date, but I guess there is no other proof?

The region in which the city is located used to have lots of oak forests, which are typically pretty dark in colour. The first half of the name, voron, often means 'black/dark' in Slavic languages. Wikipedia goes on to say that folk etymology in Russia combined the names for raven (voron,) and hedgehog (ezh) to make the river, and therefore city name.

By the 17^th century the city was of a reasonable size, enough that Peter the Great built a dockyard in the city. It was at this dockyard where a fleet of ships was built to help Russia in its Azov campaigns of the late 17^th century.

(When Russia tried to take over access to the Sea of Azov in Turkey.) It didn't work, but that's another story.

During WW2 Voronezh was the sight of a lot of fighting between Russian and combined Axis troops, in fact Germany used the area as a staging area for the seige of what was then Stalingrad. The industrial factories of the region were altered to help produce military equipment, which was a major help to the war effort for Russia. All the fighting took a toll on Voronezh, as it was more than 90% destroyed by the end of the war.

More reading of the Wikipedia article tells me it took decades to rebuild the city after the Great Patriotic War. Industry continues to play a big part in the city and regional economy and environment, with factories for machine tools, and heavy mechanical pressing. (I have no idea what this is.)

My train to Voronezh arrived on time. The attendant in my train car must've been really concerned that I wouldn't get up and off the train after it pulled into the station. She tapped on my leg twice, and was very insistent that I wake up and get up, even though it was still more than 30 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

I usually get down from my bunk no more than 15 minutes ahead of time, as I have nothing to do except clean up my sheets and put on my shoes.

Anywho. The train station in Voronezh seemed pretty big. Most stations have the city name on the back side/track side of the station, but Voronezh took that to another level. The city name was on the back side twice, as well as on both sides of the station. You'll never end up in Voronezh (by train) and not know where you are.

The inside of the station is nice too, with some stained glass. I was taking a photo of the front of the station (there are some statues on the roof,) when a security officer asked if I was a professional photographer. I'm not sure why he asked, maybe because I was taking a photo with a real camera, not a phone? Who knows. Part of the front of the station was covered with scaffolding, so the photos didn't turn out very well.

It didn't take me long to walk to the hostel I'd booked. I'm pretty sure the hostel wasn't very busy, and I was likely one of few foreigners they had this summer. 

I got the impression that the front desk lady was happy to be able to practice her English, and I didn't mind, knowing that the 'lesson' wasn't going to take very long. I got to have a dorm room all to myself, which was really nice. I ended up staying inside for a few hours, doing nothing in particular.

I finally walked out the door at 11, I didn't want to waste the entire day inside. The first 'sight' I saw was the former 'Officers' House,' which looked more like a theatre to me than a military or government building. Though it was listed as a sight to see, I don't think it was open for visitors to wander around inside.

The Officers' House was on a main street, which I followed for a while. The street was busy, and felt very 'normal.' I don't think Voronezh is high on most people's list of places to visit in Russia, so it doesn't feel at all touristy. I liked seeing a theatre with quirky statues and turrets on top, a building with lovely mosaic tiled decoration, and a government building of some kind.

I walked through a garden that had some modern art pieces on display, they were very very colourful. I don't know how to describe them except to say big circles on sticks. I wonder how long they'll stay on display.

I tried to get close to the main Lenin in town, he stands in the middle of Lenin platz, which is in front of the city administration building. Getting to that platz wasn't as easy as I thought it would've been. There are roads on three sides of the platz, but none of them had a crosswalk going to the platz anywhere close to where I was.

From there I had a long-ish walk. I stopped at a WW2 memorial, which included an eternal flame and big Soviet style statues. There was also a separate building to go in, which was really well done. There was basically one big room, with small displays for each official Hero City from WW2. There were photos, as well as dirt from each city, as well as medallions and ribbons and such. There was intense music and fake flowers too.

There was a small chapel next to the memorial, but the doors were locked when I tried to enter.

From there it was another long-ish walk, this time going over a bridge across the river the splits the city in two.

My goal on the other side of the river was to get to a Lenin statue. Crossing the bridge was easy (but windy,) but as I got to the other side I ended up with the same problem I'd already had once, a lack of crosswalks. The 'as the crow flies' distance to this Lenin statue wasn't that far, but to get there I had to add an extra couple blocks of walking distance, in order to avoid cars flying down the street. Argh.

Lenin seemed about life size, on a pedestal not too much taller than me. He was painted silver, nothing special. That being said, this statue felt smaller than most Lenin statues I've seen; he is often portrayed as being larger than life even though he was not a big/tall man. I took my photo and figured out a slightly faster way to get back to the bridge to go back across the river.

Just after crossing the river, I veered off the bridge and onto a road that followed the river. Eventually I got to a platz with another memorial, a boat museum, and a church.

The boat museum was pretty impressive from the outside, though I chose not to visit the museum this time, figuring it might be worth seeing another day. I could tell this summer was different than usual, because this type of platz would probably normally be teeming with people, but there was hardly another soul to be seen.

I walked out another side of the platz, and followed a path that basically took me straight up a steep hill. The path brought me right to a church, which wasn't open when I walked by. From there I followed roads to get to a bridge listed as a 'sight' worth seeing. Hint, it wasn't.

It was just a bridge over another road. I doubt I would've noticed it at all if it hadn't been marked on the map and mentioned online.

I headed back in the very general direction of my hostel, my walk brought me to a series of triangles leading to another platz. I wanted a photo of me standing in the triangle 'tunnel,' but there were just enough people out for a walk to make that photo difficult to take. I decided to come back in the morning, and hope for fewer people to avoid.

The next morning I made sure to get moving earlier in the day, in order to take a couple photos without worrying about other people getting in my frame. The first was near a bar, go figure. Just outside Barack O'Mama was a series of Warhol style portraits, which I thought would make for an interesting photo background.

I was also able to take the photo I'd wanted in the triangle tunnel I'd seen yesterday. Woo hoo.

After the triangle photo I went back to the platz at one end of the triangles. Called Sovietsky platz, there was a fountain in the middle, and a church on one side.

The outside of this church was blue, and the inside was absolutely lovely with frescoes all over.

From there I walked to the 'main' Lenin statue I'd spotted yesterday. Since it was still early, there wasn't much vehicular traffic, so I got to the platz by just crossing the street where it suited me.

Next on my itinerary was a huge monument. It looked like a giant globe, and had the slogan 'proletarians of every country unite.' Very very big, it took up the entire middle of a traffic circle.

Earlier in this post I mentioned a church on a hill, it hadn't been open when I walked by. I went back, just in case it was open this time around, and luck was with me. This was another blue church, also with great frescoes all over the interior.

Not far away was yet another church, this one looked old. At least, most of it looked old. The bell tower was in need of some love, but the inside was almost sterile. There was a small iconostasis, but nothing else, just white walls. I hope there are plans to add more.

I made my way back to the main street on which I'd started my explorations the day before, this time I walked back in the opposite direction. As I passed a fountain I realized I could see a couple having wedding photos taken. I was hot, the bride and groom must've been roasting. Just off this street was Victory platz, which had a couple big monuments, and a great view over the edge of the hill.

On the other side of the main street I could see Annunciation church. (Or is it a cathedral? I've never figured out the difference.)

Very big, painted white outside with green domes on top, and very eye catching. The inside was stunning, even with part of it under renovation. Brightly painted frescoes all over, a huge iconostasis with bright icons up in front.

After leaving the church, I found a street that headed slightly downhill, hoping to see another couple of churches. Go figure, one of them was another blue church. Too bad, this one was closed. I got down the street to the second church (actually, it was a monastery,) but the outer gates were closed and locked.

Since other churches had been closed at various times, I had no idea whether these churches were closed because of Covid, or if there was another reason.

To get back to my hostel I walked along the path given to me by Yandex maps. I giggled to myself when I realized one of the streets I was following was called Sakko and Vanzetti (sp?) street. Rather odd to find a street named after Italian anarchists, given the political systems and history in Russia. 

When I got back to the hostel I had enough time to charge my phone, and relax a bit, then walk to the train station. Unfortunately, I hadn't looked very carefully at my train ticket, because I was at the wrong train station! The one I needed was on the other side of town!! I tried to get there by taxi, but ended up missing my train by just two or three minutes. Argh.

Fortunately I was able to buy a ticket for the next train going to my next destination, which left just an hour later. While waiting, I walked back to a big memorial of a plane to take a couple photos. There were kids playing on the plane, trying to climb up the 'spine' but not making it very far.

I made sure to be at the train station in plenty of time for my train, hee hee. I shared a coupe with a couple police officers for a couple stops, then they got off and I had it all to myself. Woo hoo!!

russia: komsomolsk on Amur

My next stop on the Baikal on Amur Mainline was a city called Komsomolsk on Amur. I'd be willing to be that most locals call the city simply Komsomolsk, or perhaps something even shorter. (Obviously, I don't really know.) I'm going to call it just Komsomolsk most of the time in this post, so my fingers don't go crazy typing the name. Why don't the powers that be think about such things when naming people or places?

Komsomolsk is in Khabarovsk Krai (I have yet to understand the difference between a krai, an oblast, and a republic, as I see them all as equivalent to a US state, with varying differences in how autonomous they are from Moscow.) Google Maps tells me the drive from Moscow would be at least 114 hours, or 8600 kilometers. I doubt many people make the drive, as there is a train station and an airport. There are nearly 265,000 residents, the city is slowly shrinking.

The region in which Komsomolsk is now located was conquered by Mongols back in the 13^th century, then became part of the Manchu dynasty until the mid 18^th century, when the area was ceded to Russia. The Russian city came into being in the 1930, when the Soviet Union decided to build a port. The name of the city comes from this time, as some of the labour used to build the city came from youths who were members of the Komsomol (the Communist Youth.)

Some of the other labour used to build the city came from prisoners in the Gulag system. I guess the 'on Amur' part of the name was added to define it geographically and from other Komsomols in the country.

Komsomolsk was granted official town status in 1933. The shipyards and other facilities for heavy industry were finished a decade later, so the city became a center for 'exciting' industries like aircraft manufacturing, metallurgy, machinery, oil refining, and shipbuilding.

Wikipedia lists 'famous' people from Komsomolsk on Amur, the list includes a sprint canoer, the first footballer to score for Russia in the 2018 World Cup, and Miss Russia 2005.

As usual, my train arrived on time in Komsomolsk. This turned out to be one of the few train stations I've seen in Russia where the city name is on both the front and back of the train station.

Most train stations I've seen only have the name on the track side of the station, with the front side usually saying just 'train station.'

I arrived on a day with gray skies, wind, and some rain. Yuck. Since this was August, I was expecting a bit more heat, but that definitely wasn't happening. I walked to the hostel I'd booked, and was able to check in early.

They seemed surprised to have a foreigner, though I don't know if that was because it was Covid summer, or just in general. I spent a bit longer than expected downloading podcasts, as the wifi was quite slow.

During the walk to the hostel I took a few photos, one of which was of a giant mosaic on the side of the local science/technical university. I love mosaics like these.

I also passed a statue of Lenin, but waited to take photos after checking in.

After checking in, and heading back out to explore, I started by walking down a main street called Prospekt Mira. Not long after I started walking I found another mural, this one on the side of a random apartment building. This one was of half a Greek temple, which struck me as an interesting choice.

I went to the other end of this apartment building, but it didn't have the other half of the temple. I wonder where it is, if it exists at all.

Further down the street I found more mosaics. These were on a couple sides of a government building. Since the building itself was boring dark gray, the mosaics made it look much nicer :)

I started walking along a different street, eventually getting to a park. Slightly inside the park was the drama theatre, which was as grand as I've come to expect in every single Russian city I visit. There were faces on the front side, with different 'moods.'

Just in front of the theatre was a city sign, which made me aware of just how long the city name is: Komsomolsk on Amur. The name covered the entire checkmark in the sign!

(And when I saw it written around a couple globes in the city, it covered half the globe!)

I headed out the other side of the park, which felt quite wild. Longer grass and trees, definitely not as landscaped as I'm used to seeing.

I passed a memorial from WW1, though I don't think this region was much involved in that war.

It was big, (aren't they all?) and had a guy carrying a torch while moving along on skis.

Not too far away was another memorial, this one for WW2. This one had an eternal flame, carved faces, a stela, and more. I don't know if it was part of the same memorial or just a different memorial in the same area, but I also walked down an 'aisle' of busts of military heroes. This memorial was memorable because it included a bust of Stalin, which isn't terribly common anymore in Russia.

I kept moving toward the river, eventually coming to a platz that overlooked the water. There was yet another memorial monument, this one involving several people standing on a pedestal. This one is dedicated to the First Builders, I assume it means the first builders of the city.

I figured out how to get to the river station, I couldn't tell if it was still used or not. Since it was August, and nothing was happening, I would assume not.

The building looked slightly abandoned/derelict, but there were people around, so I don't know. The stairs had cracks and grass growing through, and there was a bit of graffiti. That being said, I still found the place rather photogenic.

From there I kind of circled around, and started heading back up the street. Heading this way I found the monument/memorial dedicated to Japanese POWs from WW2.

It was quite small, on one side of another part. Komsomolsk is not a terribly exciting town, there isn't much to see.

By that point it was almost dinner time, so I went to a supermarket to grab a can of beans and a can of tuna. Exciting, I know.

The next morning I was basically told to get out of the entire hostel building at check out time.

This is the first time I've ever not been allowed to stay an extra few hours in the common room. When I asked to leave my bag for the day while I went out walking they looked at me as if I was an alien, and asked why. Ummm, because I don't want to carry it around all day? Very strange people running this hostel.

My first sight of the day was the stone denoting the exact spot and date the city was founded. Obviously, I took a photo with the rock.

My next stop was a bit of a walk, I went to a beauty salon named after me :) I set up my tripod to take the photo, and the owner came out to ask why I was taking the photo. She didn't seem to understand why I would want to take a photo of a place with my name.

Then she wanted to practice speaking English with me, and didn't seem to understand why I wanted to keep walking. I'm not a social traveler, I'm rarely keen to talk to locals, get to know them. After saying no a bunch of times, I just walked away quickly.

Walking on this new street took me past a series of three buildings with more mosaics. These mosaics were all science/space related, which was neat to see.

More walking brought me to the entry gates to a park. I'm pretty sure the last time they were painted was decades ago, as there were spiderwebs and peeling paint, and general disrepair. I still thought the gates were photogenic, though the locals walking past me gave me looks while I was taking photos.

My next sight was a small church. Not very exciting, or eye catching, but this city doesn't seem to have many churches, so I took a look.

This church had a red brick outside, a blue bell tower spire, and gold onion domes. The inside was not memorable, at all. After seeing as many Orthodox churches as I have seen, I guess I expect lots of colour, lots of frescoes.

My last official sight was a monument, dedicated to the friendship between the Soviet Union and China. (I think.)

From there I wandered back through the city to get to Dodo Pizza, where I picked up a pizza to take with me on the train. I carried it back to the hostel, where I picked up my bag and was able to say a final goodbye to the weirdest hostel staff ever. From there I walked to the train station, stopping only for a hot chocolate along the way.

I don't feel the need to come back to Komsomolsk on Amur, as I think I only missed an art museum, and it would take quite a bit of time to get back here.