russia: moscow: arbat and dom melnikov

I've been slacking quite a bit on my Tuesday afternoon exploring of Moscow. This Tuesday was no different. I didn't leave school for several hours after class finished, then didn't go very far. 

It gets dark so early that if I don't get moving straightaway then I miss what little light I might have for good photos. 
I walked a couple of the back streets of Arbat, making my way to Dom Melnikov. This was a family home, designed and built by Konstantin Melnikov in the late 1920s.

The house is unique in that it is two cylinders kinda smushed together. I didn't go in, but I've read that there are no straight walls or lines.  The house now belongs to the state, and is open for tours a couple times a week. Obviously, I probably ought to arrange one of those tours one of these days. 

russia: kursk

Kursk is a city people outside of Russia have actually heard of, mostly if they are interested in WW2. The city and surrounding area were the sight of a huge tank battle during the war; its actually the largest tank battle ever to take place. (How that is measured, I'm not sure. Number of tanks? Number of soldiers? Geographic area? How long it lasted?) The entire battle was about six weeks long, with the Germans charging for the first week, and the Soviets charging back the next five weeks.

Kursk is a city of more than 415,000 residents, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. Archaelogists have found evidence that Kursk was first settled as long ago as the 5^th century BCE. The first written record of Kursk dates back to 1032.

Like many other cities in what is now Russia, Kursk was destroyed by the Golden Horde in 1237, but was rebuilt in about 50 years. Kursk officially became part of Russia in the early 16^th century, then a fortress was built by the end of the century. It's a good thing the fortress was built, as the city was attacked by Polish Lithuania, the Crimean Tatars, and the Nogai Horde in 1612, 1616, 1617, and 1634. The fortress of Kursk never fell during any of these battles. (Though I think other parts of the area were under control of some of the attackers for a while?)

As far as I can tell, the Red Army took control of Kursk in 1919, after which the city followed Soviet history for everything. Rebuilding of Kursk started in 1944, not long after the end of the big tank battle.

The current economy of Kursk is based on the iron industry, chemical plants, and food processing.

I'm not sure why I chose the train I did, as it was 12 hours long, which was longer than most of the trains take going from Moscow to Kursk. It took a detour of sorts along the way, I guess most of the trains don't do that. Oh well.

The train station in Kursk was interesting to see. There is one area with a hole in the second floor, so the first floor can see all the way to the ceiling. There are WW2 based decorations in the waiting rooms, which have really high ceilings. There are statues of people on the outside of the station, and the whole exterior is painted red.

The train station of Kursk is not terribly convenient for walking to the city center, but I didn't let that stop me from trying. I walked along until I got to a park with the first Lenin statue I wanted to see. 

This statue had the man in a seated position, it was one of the more awkward Lenin statues I've seen.

After the park I walked further into the city until I got to an area with a bunch of public transport stops, then hopped on a marshrutka that would take me to my accomodation. The lady who checked me into my room was surprised to have a foreigner, which surprised me. Kursk is known because of WW2, I would expect more visitors. But maybe it doesn't get as many because it isn't on the regular Transsiberian rail route. Hmm.

It was not a warm day when I arrived in Kursk, and I was practically frozen by the time I got to my accomodation. I stayed inside for a couple hours to warm up and charge my phone. I really need to stop wasting so much time when I travel, especially at the times of year when daylight isn't nearly long enough.

My first sight was one of many WW2 memorials I would end up seeing over the weekend. This one had a large statue of a woman laying down, presumably she was suffering the loss of someone during the war. There were a number of fresh flowers on the memorial, which was nice to see. It means people remember.

Further along that street I was able to see the circus, a building which seems to exist in many Russian cities. This one looked the same as they all do, like a permanent (concrete) version of a big top tent. They're circular, but otherwise boring on the outside.

The circus was close to the second monument I saw, the one had a solid big red flag with a gold hammer and sickle. The monument sat in a small spot between a park platz and the street, there really wasn't a space for anyone to sit there and appreciate what the monument honoured.

Continuing along I eventually got to the Kursk Cathedral which is painted a dark sea green colour. Unlike many churches, this one did not have an open area around the church. The fence surrounding the whole thing had an open gate, thank goodness, the front door was tucked around to the side.

I really liked the interior of the cathedral, as the whole thing was painted with frescoes, and there was a giant rotunda over the main section. Always look up.

Outside the fenced in area of the church was a bus/trolley/marshrutka stop. It was actually a cul-de-sac, and seemed to be the stop where all the public transport turns around to go back north through the city. 

I got to see a couple trolleybuses reattach their 'antennae' to the wires overhead.

Just north of this turn around was the dom Sovietov, one of the main governmental buildings of the city. It looked like so many others I've seen, huge and rather boring. The second Lenin statue of the city was in front of this building, there were a few wreaths and such laid at the bottom of the pedestal on which he stood.

As sunset was already starting, I ended up taking one of those buses up the street, all the way to a mall. 

I paid attention along the way to what the bus was passing, making notes for what to see the next day. In the mall I got dinner from Dodo Pizza, a chain I've found all over the country.

It was only the end of November, but the city had already put up holiday lights. I'm not a huge fan of holiday decorations being up for 25% of the year, but having those lights to see made the walk back to the city center after dinner a lot nicer. In the city center I caught transport back to my room, as I had zero desire to walk the entire way.

The next morning I packed up and checked out, taking my backpack with me. I much prefer to leave my pack where I've stayed, but it wasn't going to be at all convenient to come back and get it, so I took it with me.

I walked back to the second Lenin I'd seen the day before to take a photo with the man, as the sun was in a better position to do so this time around.

I spent the rest of my day walking up Lenin and Marx streets, stopping at various points along the way. It was a gorgous (but still quite cold,) day, with nothing but blue skies as far as I could see.

One of my stops was to walk through Victory Park, which had more memorials for the Great Patriotic War, as well as a section with gravestones. Some of the gravestones were vertical, and had carvings on both the front and back. I don't think I've seen anything like that before. This park had the requisite eternal flame at one of the memorials.

Another stop was to take a closer look at a large mosaic on the side of a building. Very neat. I'll always admire anyone who has the patience to put something like that together. The pieces were a bit over 1cm square, and the whole thing was at least two meters high! 

Based on the style, it was done back in Soviet times.

As I walked past another mall I took a photo with the city sign located on one end. Who doesn't love a city sign? I also stepped into another church. This one was classic blue on the outside, and had enough space for a cemetery, but no open platz within the walled in area. The inside wasn't all that interesting.

I walked all the way to the biggest memorial area, on the northern end of the city. It's a pedestrian area in the middle of a two way street, the memorial area stretches out quite a bit. 

There is a section with helicopters and tanks, each with informational signs in front. I don't know or care enough about particular styles of helicopters or tanks to read the signs, but I did appreciate that they were there.

In the middle of this memorial area is a chapel/church. The outside was off white, with a bell tower over the front entrance. The interior wasn't big, but the ceiling was awesome. Gold, colour, lots of paint. Always look up.

On the other end of the memorial area were a big victory arch, a statue of Zhukov, and a stelae designating Kursk as a city of military glory. 

I wouldn't expect anything less, given the fighting that took place in this area in WW2. The arch is huge, and the view of the church through the arch is neat to see.

After going all the way to the end of the memorial area, I walked back to the mall where I'd eaten pizza the night before, and went back for more. I killed a couple hours there, then caught a tram back to the train station before hopping on the train to go home to Moscow.

I don't think I missed anything major in Kursk, so I don't think I'll be back.

russia: moscow: two monasteries

I used one Tuesday afternoon to visit two monasteries in Moscow, they were quite close to each other.

Thanks to the metro system and my own two feet, it wasn't difficult to get to the first one, Krutitskoya Patriarshe Podvorye.

Wikipedia tells me this is an operating estate of the Russian Orthodox Church, whateva that means. As far as I can tell, it was first establish in the late 13^th century, but the current historically listed buildings are from the 17^th century.

I saw one smaller church, which was directly connected to a wall/gate. The inside of the church was small, but nicely painted.

Everything else seemed to be totally abandoned, though not completely in ruins. Wikipedia also tells me part of the property was used as residential housing for a while during Soviet times.

Fun fact: the official web page of the organization says that Lavrentiy Beria was imprisoned here in 1953. Apparently this isn't at all confirmed by historians, who think his 'detention' and 'trial' were nothing but a coverup, and that he was killed on the day of his arrest.

After walking around this area for a while, I walked about ten minutes to get to my other sight of the day: Novospassky Monastery.

Novospassky Monastery claims history all the way back to the early 14^th century. If I understand correctly, one of its churches was originally in another location in the city, in another monastery.

Some of the Romanov family are buried in this monastery, though they are all from before the family became the ruling family of the Russian Empire.

During Soviet years, the monastery was a prison for a while, then a police drunk tank. (Can you imagine sleeping off a hangover in a monastery???) In the 1970s it was part of an art restoration institute before being given back to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991.

At one time it was a wooden citadel, but now the walls are white stone/brick.

russia: ulyanovsk

Everyone who has been to Russia has heard of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Everyone who traveled to the former Soviet Union has heard of the guy. He is such a part of the history of this country that his body was embalmed and is on display in a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow. (Though I've read that this is exactly what he didn't want.) I've certainly taken pictures of and with statues and busts and profiles of him in many cities.
Since moving to Moscow I figured one of my weekend trips should be to the city in which Lenin grew up, which is now called Ulyanovsk.
He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in 1870, in Simbirsk. (The city was renamed for him after he died in 1924.) 

He was born into a big family, with a bunch of siblings. His social and political activism started early, as his older brother was executed for views the government of the time didn't appreciate.
The train from Moscow to Ulyanovsk covered nearly 900 km and took 14 hours. Ulyanovsk is one time zone to the east, so in a way it took 15 hours. I left Moscow at 1900 local time and arrived at 10 the next morning, local time. The only benefit to such a long train ride is that I didn't have to wake up early.
I arrived in Ulyanovsk (population a little over 600,000,) at Central train station. The station wasn't big, but did have cheap hot chocolate in the little coffee machine I've come to expect in every Russian train station. I'd like to point out that Central train station was on the edge of town, not central in any way. 

Stations 1 and 2 were far more central. Sigh.
As the weather was good (-1C, with a blue sky,) I decided to walk the entire way to the accommodation I'd booked. It was a long walk, but hey, why not.
There was a steam engine on display not far from the station. I don't think it gets many visitors, simply because it is basically in the middle of nowhere.
I found a statue of Lenin's father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov. The statue has a little boy as part of the design. I decided to treat the weekend as a sort of 'meet the family' trip, so I took my photo with the statue.
There was also a church called All Saints Temple, or something along those lines. (Translating church names can be just as difficult as menu translation.) 

Bright blue on the outside, with another shade of blue (and gold,) on the inside.
I also took my photo with the first quirky monument of the weekend: a monument to the ruble, the currency of Russia.
I finally arrived at my accommodation and checked in. After relaxing for a bit, I walked out and started toward the main tourist section of the city.
My first sight was Simbirsk classical gymnasium. It is now a museum, but was one of the schools attended by Lenin back in the day. Entry fee was 100 rubles, and though I didn't have to join a tour I couldn't exactly wander on my own. The lady who took the entry money opened up each room as we walked, then let me look around until I was ready for the next room. 

The first floor was boring, the second floor was much better. The second floor had two big classrooms (with maps of the time,) and a science lab. Some parts of education back then would seem like another world to us now.
After leaving the school museum I noticed the statue of Marx on one side of the school. I don't know how long the statue has been there, but I imagine part of the placement is because the political system Lenin designed was a form of Marxism.
From there I followed my phone map to my second quirky monument of the weekend: a monument to the letter ë. Pronounced 'yo' it was invented in Simbirsk, somehow separate to the rest of the alphabet. I was expecting something small, but it was as tall as I am!

From there I just wandered, as the sun was going down. Late fall and early winter in Russia is tough in terms of length of day. Photos don't look as good when your camera starts showing more of a blue light.
I found the giant statue of Lenin, on one side of a platz with a big government building on the other side. Since he is from the city, I expected something more spectacular.
I found a small park, but the fountain was covered and protected for the winter. Booo. Sometimes I wonder why Russia has fountains at all, since most of them are covered and empty for so much of the year.
Walking in the other direction took me past a few more monuments. The one that sticks with me the most is that of one of the soldiers who died in the siege of the school at Beslan. 

It was dedicated to all who have died in such situations, but had his name in particular.
Next up was the building of the state pedagogical university, which I think was named for Lenin's father. Big building, same pattern of architecture on all four sides.
On the edge of the platz in front of the university was a statue of a guy on a horse. Boghdan Lhitrov was a founding father of the city, I suppose it is fair that he gets a monument.
Not too far from there I saw the Lenin Memorial building. The entire exterior is being renovated, there is scaffolding everywhere. Just seeing all the construction taking place was disappointing. I didn't go in, I put it on the list for the next day. I imagine it'll be several years before the renovation is finished.

At that point it was almost dark (the sun officially went down a bit after 1600,) so I found a place to eat dinner, visited a supermarket, and went back to my accommodation.
The next day I finally got myself packed up and checked out about an hour later than originally intended. Oh well.
I went back to the statue of Lenin, and set up my tripod for a photo. I also used the tripod for a photo with a nearby (very faded,) city sign. This city sign had both city names, Simbirsk and Ulyanovsk.
My first museum of the day was a house where Lenin lived with his family for four years. The house was part of a three museum ticket, total price 150 rubles. It was cheap, but each museum also charged 100 rubles to take photos, argh.

The first floor of this house had photos and information about the entire family. I loved it, since you don't normally see this information when when learning about Lenin. The second floor had furniture from the family. There wasn't a lot of privacy, and the beds didn't look very comfortable.
Apparently the family liked to play chess, four people at a time. That was a nifty looking board to see.
Not far from this house was the giant Lenin Memorial. It's a really big building, built around the house in which Lenin was born. That house should've been open, but wasn't because of the massive renovation being done on the memorial building. I have no idea if any renovation is being done to the house, but I hope not.

The memorial was the second part of the three museum ticket. Due to the renovation, it was totally lame. There were a few models of places I've already seen, and a couple big paintings. Then a second floor had a lot of paintings of people important in Russian history and the politics of the area. There were no items really connected to Lenin, nor any photos of him, or more information. I was disappointed to say the least.
I walked out of there, and made my way to a cafe. One omelette and a big tea later, I started walking again. I found another quirky monument, a sofa dedicated to Goncharov. Really close to the sofa monument was a statue of the Goncharov. The statue looked across the street at the art museum named after Goncharov. 

He was a writer in the early 19th century, still revered around the city.
I kept going, it didn't take too long to get to the eternal glory obelisk. Very tall, with a star on top. It turned out to be a part of a big war memorial. There was a monument dedicated to those who fought in WW2, an eternal flame, and another monument to those who fought in Afghanistan.
Really close by was another small museum. This one was dedicated to a secret group of insurgents from the Simbirsky Social Democrats Group, formed in 1904-1906. The museum is actually a small house with secret spaces all over. The house was originally owned by the dad of one of the group members, who deliberately built in the hiding places. It was neat to see, and didn't take long.

From there I headed toward the 3rd museum of the multi museum ticket. On the way I found another Lenin monument in a park. I always wonder how someone decides to put one of these in a particular place.
The next museum was in an older quarter of the city, filled with wooden houses. They are pretty, especially the windows. Nearly all of them could use a good amount of updating.
The third museum was another house in which the Ulyanov family had lived for a few years. The entry was actually through the house next door, with a tunnel built underneath.
The basement and first floor weren't interesting. There were photos and information from Lenin's life, as well as more models of places I've already seen. 
The second floor, which again had furniture and other real life items was interesting. 

Back in those days the family didn't have electricity, and this hasn't changed. I got there at sunset, so it was pretty dark as I walked through the whole thing. There were candles and such, but it was still pretty dark.
After that I was feeling 'done' with the city. I found a place to have dinner, then took public transport back to the train station.
On the way back to Moscow I was again in 3rd class, platzkart. Again my bed was already made up, and had two usb ports :)
I'd love to see the Lenin Memorial when renovation is finished, (when will that be?) But I doubt it's a big enough reason to return to Ulyanovsk.

russia: moscow: touring Tuesday

It seems Moscow has a never ending 'supply' of Lenin statues. I hope to see all of them, but I don't know if such a goal is reachable. I don't even know if they're all marked on the map. On this Tuesday afternoon I decided to knock one of them off the list.

It wasn't exciting, as Lenin statues are almost never 'exciting' but I saw it, and took the photo to prove it. Maybe one day I'll write a blog post with nothing but Lenin photos. 

As I walked back to the metro station I noticed a church, so I ducked inside there to see what the inside looked like, just because I could. Why walk past a church if I don't have to?

Once I got back on the metro, I rode to the station closest to Pokrovsky Monastery. My last visit to the monastery ended up being 'foiled' by long queues of people waiting to go inside the churches, I was hoping this visit would be different.

Unfortunately, it wasn't any different this time. There were more queues, argh. I have no idea why. Is it a Tuesday thing? Or did I just get unlucky and choose two Tuesdays that were holidays/celebrations I didn't know about?

On the way back I noticed a sign on the gates of the retro transportation museum that said the museum was still closed for renovation. I didn't even see a date on the sign, so who knows when that will open again.Mostly a failure day in terms of seeing anything, argh.