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.