russia: kurgan

Kurgan is the 53^rd largest city in Russia, just over 2000 kilometers east of Moscow, with a slowly shrinking current population of just under 327,000. It ended up being the warmest place I visited during this mini tour of Siberia, with temperatures only slightly below freezing. Definitely not what I expected anywhere in Siberia.

Kurgan is the modern name of the city, it was founded as Tsaryovo Gorodische in 1659 by a farmer from Tyumen. Like the beginning of many Siberian cities, its early history involves time as a fortress and fortified city.

Kurgan was granted official town status by Catherine the Great (Catherine the 2^nd,) in 1782. This is also when the city took its current name. Wikipedia tells me the name comes from a burial mound, called a kurgan, that was close to the original settlement. The city moved a few times, but only by a few kilometers each time, and always close to the Tobol River.

The city got its first school, hospital, and fire station (with a lookout tower!) in the early 18^th century. During the years when being sent into exile was a thing, Kurgan was one of the cities that regularly hosted exiles.

Several of the so called Decembrists were sent to Kurgan. The Decembrists were a group of military officers and minor nobles that tried to revolt in December 1825. It didn't work, and they were all punished, along with their families by being sent into exile.

Before 1917, most of the houses of Kurgan were made of wood. (Typical in Siberia.) The wooden house tradition slowed down, but continued to hold on until the mid 20^th century, when big (boring and ugly,) concrete apartment complexes were built.

My train from Omsk was a nine hour night train, and arrived exactly on time in Kurgan. I stayed in the train station for a couple hours, for no reason in particular. My walk to my hotel only took 30 minutes, and was one of the more boring city walks I've done in Russia.

Finding my hotel was easy, but I was not able to check in early. Well, I was able to do so, but I didn't want to pay 50% of the nightly fee just to get into the room a couple hours early. Instead, I left my bag at the front desk, and went out to explore.

My hotel was really close to the city center, it only took me ten minutes to walk to Lenin Square. I intended to go there to see and take photos of the statue of Lenin. When I got there I discovered an ice festival, with sculptures placed all over the square, all around the statue. Totally awesome.

Because of the ice festival, the area around Lenin wasn't nearly as empty as I'm used to seeing. Most of the time when I want to take a photo with the man, locals watch me, but there isn't anyone in my frame. 

This time, I had to wait a couple minutes for people to move, then hope they didn't get in my frame while the camera was counting down. Since everyone in the area was taking plenty of photos, no one looked at me at all. Hee hee.

One of the ice sculptures was sortof like a giant wok on a platform. I think it was more a way to play on the ice, as opposed to an actual sculpture. I saw a few parents put their kids in the middle, then watched the kids try to climb out again, sliding all over while doing so. Really cute.

On one side of the square was an ice rink, not yet completely frozen.

From there I ended up walking along random streets, eventually ending up at the local Decembrist museum. It was in a yellow wooden house, one of the ugliest yellows I've seen. Definitely not the colour I would have chosen, but I didn't choose it, soooo... The entrance to the museum was around back, I wonder why.

I was happy to find a museum that did not have a foreigner fee for me. I was not happy when I saw a photo fee listed, argh. Just include a few extra rubles in everyone's entry fee, and stop these silly extra fees. They just make me feel like a human atm. Oddly enough, this was the first city in which I found postcards during this trip, and I found them at this museum. Even though I still had the rest of that day and the next to see the city, I bought the postcards. I also bought a magnet. 

The exhibits of this museum were all on the second floor of the house. The museum displayed furniture, clothing, personal items, and photos of the Decembrists, along with an information page for each room. There wasn't anything unique in this museum, but I was still glad I visited. The ladies who worked there were surprised to see me, as I don't think Kurgan gets many foreign visitors, and those who do come don't come in winter. All that on top of me being by myself, the ladies were fascinated. 

Kurgan doesn't have much to see or do, which is probably the greatest reason the city doesn't get a whole lot of tourists. After I left the museum there was nothing particularly exciting on the map that I wanted to see. I ended up walking the streets in a grid patterns, just to kill time and hope I'd see something worth taking a photo of.

I did find one photo to take, at a fire station of all places. Many Russian cities still have traditional fire stations, which include watchtowers. 

They look very similar to water towers, but have a balcony area at the top, where someone used to stand and watch the city. Before people were connected by phones and electronics, the fastest way for a fire station to learn about a fire was to watch the city.

This fire station was also painted an ugly yellow colour, so was the watchtower. The watchtower was shaped like a lighthouse, I remember wondering what the heck a lighthouse was doing in the middle of a city when I first saw it.

A review of this fire station on google maps says the fire station was completed in 1882, so it really is old.

I kept walking, coming to the platz in front of the Philharmonic Theatre. A good place to people watch, though not much else. I really wanted to keep walking around the city, but for whateva reason I was running out of energy. I found a nearby supermarket and picked up some snack food for dinner, then walked back to the hotel, where it didn't take long to check in.

I wasted time online for a while, then was able to convince myself to go back out for another hour. I walked back to Lenin Square, and was excited to find that most of the ice sculptures were lit up for the evening. I guess when they were built/carved, light wires were built into them, so the ice appeared to change colour, I loved it!

Obviously, there were plenty of locals out along with me, but at that point I stopped caring. The ice rink was finally completely frozen, and I noticed the 'walls' around the rink were also changing colour. Awesome. 

The whole area was worth standing around for a while to people watch. I did feel sorry for the kids who were dragged from one sculpture to another by adults. The adults took photos, then moved on, but didn't really let the kids play, nor interact all that much other than to take the photos.

I did not sleep particularly well that night, my room was quite warm and stayed that way even though I turned off the heat. I didn't have a window, so I wasn't able to do much. Ugh.

In the morning I did my normal wasting of time by putzing around online, but since I knew Kurgan didn't have a whole lot going on, it didn't really make a difference for the rest of my day. Once I did get going, it didn't take me long to pack up and check out, then leave my pack at the front desk.

When I looked at my phone, Yandex maps listed three statues of Lenin in Kurgan, so I decided I wanted to see the other two on my second day in the city. My walk to the first one was quite long, but since I had the whole day to get through, I didn't care.

Go figure, when I got close to the first statue I wanted to see, I figured out it was in a factory complex of some kind, behind a guarded gate. Argh. So much for seeing all three. If I had more confidence in my Russian abilities, I'd have asked the guard if I could just take a look.

I ended up turning around and walking back in the direction from which I came, thank goodness for clear, wide pavements the whole way. At one point I crossed the street because I saw a building with a large mosaic mural on one side.

It turned out to be a school.

As I got back into the general city center, I passed the suburban train station, which had an old looking city sign in front. Since I love city signs no matter how lame they look, of course I took a photo with the sign.

From there I walked all the way to Lenin number three, with a stop at a supermarket along the way. When I found this Lenin I was surprised to see that he was in front of a school. I've seen a lot of Lenins, and I think this was the first time I found him in front of a school. I don't know why, but that isn't a common place for him to be.

After seeing Lenin, I walked to Park Pobedy, or Victory Park. Getting there took me through some really boring residential areas. Since Kurgan was having such warm weather, the snow was melting a bit and getting to the ugly/dirty stage. I assume most winters are not like this in Kurgan.

Park Pobedy was like most such parks in Russia. I saw a couple fountains, but the water wasn't running. I wonder what they look like in the middle of summer? I also found several large war memorials. 

One of them had an eternal flame, as well as plaques with engraved names. There was no one else around, though that was probably due to the weather more than a lack of remembrance.

At this point I felt as if I'd seen everything I wanted to see, but then I discovered another problem: a lack of cafes listed online. That is, there were cafes on the map, but none of them seemed like places I could go to kill a few hours. Argh. Instead, I made my way back toward Lenin Square, as seeing the ice sculptures again would be fun.

Along the way I saw a church and stepped inside. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral wasn't all that big, but I quite liked the inside. The entire thing was painted with frescoes, they all looked quite old and faded. The iconostasis up front was gold, as was the giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A nice place to stand and send a few prayers up to the Big Man in the sky.

Lenin Square was just as busy as the night before, so I walked around the platz several times, just watching people. 

There were a couple ice slides built on one side, I really wished I had something to use as a sled to go down, as it looked quite fun.

Eventually, I went back to my hotel to pick up my pack, then walked back to the train station. I found a chair relatively near a plug, then sat there for a few hours until boarding my train. I don't think I need to come back to Kurgan, as it was quite boring, and none of the 'views' were particularly scenic.