russia: petrozavodsk

I'm not sure what made me think about visiting Petrozavodsk. I think I saw it on a destination sign in the train station during one visit to St Petersburg, and I liked the sound of the name. Petrozavodsk (population 260,000+) is the capital of the Republic of Karelia. The city sits on the west side of Lake Onega, one of the biggest lakes in Europe, around 430 kilometers northeast of St Petersburg.

Petrozavodsk continues the theme of Russian cities with multiple names. The city was originally known as Petrovskaya Sloboda, which means Peter's settlement. 

The name was changed 10 years later to Petrovsky zavod, (Peter's factory,) to note the reason the settlement existed in the first place: an iron foundry. For several years during WW2 (1941-1944,) the city was called Äänislinna by Finnish soldiers.

Prince Menshikov founded the settlement in order to build the foundry, which was needed to produce cannons and anchors for the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy during the Great Northern War (1700-1721.) The foundry was first named after the river on which it was located, then the foundry was also named for Peter the Great.

In just 15 years after founding, Petrozavodsk became the largest settlement in the Republic of Karelia, and included a wood fort, a covered market, and mini palaces for the tsar and Prince Menshikov. After Peter died, population numbers went the other way, until Catherine the great founded a new ironworks not too far away. She needed cannons for the Russo-Turkish Wars.

Petrozavodsk was incorporated as a town in 1777, officially becoming Petrozavodsk that year. There isn't much listed for history beyond the 18th century on the Wikipedia article about the city. 

I arrived in Petrozavodsk before sunrise, to a surprisingly grand train station. It didn't look very big from the tracks, but when I went inside I found that there were two levels, only one of which was visible from the backside. Even though the station looked rather grand, and had a lovely main hall, it was also quiet empty, almost sterile.

Since I arrived before daylight I hung out in the waiting room for a few hours, since I didn't want to walk in the dark. Just after walking out of the station I found a bakery, which turned out to be one branch in a chain that had branches all over the city. 

I was very pleased with the options available, as well as the prices.

I walked to the hostel I'd booked, it wasn't a pleasant walk. There was a lot of snow and slush, with some ice as well nearly the entire way. I was really grateful to have waterproof shoes, as I had no choice but to walk through a lot of water and slush while I walked. Apparently Petrozavodsk had had snow recently, and the weather had warmed enough to partially melt everything without completely melting it. Yuck. This on top of a whole lot of wind and a few sprinkles of rain.

By the time I got to my hostel I felt like I was sopping wet, even though I wasn't. Well, not completely. My pack wasn't dry, neither were my pants, argh. Thank goodness I was able to check in immediately, which allowed me to warm up and dry off.

Eventually I went back out, to start exploring the city. The first photo I wanted to take was on what looked to be a frozen sports field, a result of the snow partly melting then freezing then melting, etc... The field was down off a street, I nearly slid down a hill of mud getting there. Then I nearly slid across the entire field while trying to get to the middle of it. Fun, but messy.

Scrambling back up the hill I got back to street level, and walked to my first official sight in the city: Lenin. He sits in the middle of a traffic circle, on Engels street. I don't know why, but I find it ironic that his statue is on Engels street instead of Lenin street, which isn't far away.

Another 'side' of this traffic circle is a park, I think it is named after a tractor plant that used to be here. One end of the park is a war memorial, complete with names on plaques and an eternal flame. It wasn't completely clear of snow/slush, but I could see some of the names. There were also some fake flowers there, but even fake flowers wilt in lousy winter weather. 

I left the park by walking along the pavement on one side of the park, which eventually brought me to Kirov Square. There were a few large holiday decorations set up in a small area, basically so friends and families could take photos. Very cute. None of those made me think of Petrozavodsk, so I kept walking.

Just off one side of the platz was a curious looking monument, kindof like a tree. The 'leaves' of the tree represented the sister cities of Petrozavodsk, which I thought was pretty cool. Definitely a unique monument.

Not too far off another side of the platz was a memorial to Friedrich Engels and his buddy Karl Marx. Since they developed Marxist theory together, the memorial makes sense, but it still isn't something you see very often.

I left Kirov Square and headed toward the lake and the boardwalk along the lake. The boardwalk has been developed relatively recently, so the whole thing is still in really good shape. I started my walk with the statue of Peter the Great, with his arm allegedly pointing at the exact spot where the city was founded.

All along the boardwalk are modern sculptures, some of them more interesting than others. I liked the one of a couple throwing out a fishing net, I wasn't such a huge fan of the cannon pointing out toward the middle of the lake. Listed on the map was a pyramid, so I walked to it, only to discover a very small pyramid. The top point didn't even go up to my waist, it was really small in terms of what you think of when you hear the word pyramid.

At that point I could already feel the lack of light, telling me sunset would be starting soon. Argh.

I walked back to my hostel, stopping at a supermarket to pick up dinner supplies (ramen noodles,) and another branch of the bakery I'd visited in the morning. Yay for yummy treats in miserable weather.

The next morning I eventually packed up and checked out, leaving my backpack behind the front desk of the hostel for the day. When I walked outside I discovered a day that seemed to have much better weather than the day before.

It was just after sunrise, so while it was still fairly dark, I was also able to see the colours of sunrise when I looked east along a street. 

It felt like the first colour I'd seen since arriving in Petrozavodsk, because of the lousy weather. I kept going along the street, which brought me to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral pretty quickly.

The church is in the middle of a small park, and to me looked different from other Nevsky cathedrals. This one wasn't brick. It was painted yellow, with columns on the front 'porch.' I liked it immediately, and liked it even more when I went inside. The interior was painted sea green, and there were no frescoes. The iconostasis up front was gold, with very little other colour. 

I usually prefer the inside of an Othodox church to be painted with frescoes, but for some reason I liked this one quite a bit without the frescoes.

From the church I walked toward the next sight on my list for the day: a Lenin statue. On the way t the statue a snowstorm blew in, lasting about ten minutes. During that ten minutes visibility went from a long way to not far at all. Big fat heavy flakes being blown into my face and covering everything in sight, then it stopped just as suddenly as it started.

Sadly, Lenin was next to a building that was behind a fence topped with barbed wire. There was a gate, but the gate had a security booth, so I didn't even try to go in and get closer. Darnit.

I kept going, heading in the general direction of another sight on my list: a bust of Yuri Andropov. I've heard that he was from Petrozavodsk, but Wikipedia tells me he was born elsewhere. The reason the bust is in Petrozavodsk is because he was leader of the local Komsomol (Communist Youth Party,) in the city.

From there I walked back to the lakes hore, to see how different it looked from what I'd seen the day before. With the way the weather kept changing (clear skies, snow storm, rolling gray clouds, etc...) I knew the water would change the way it looked every few minutes. I also took the chance to stop in the bakery again for more snacks. There are never enough bakery snacks. Ever.

After staring at the water for a while, I walked to the regional history museum. The museum is on another side of the traffic circle with Lenin.

When I walked in there were a whole lot of people hanging out waiting for I don't know what. I assume they were part of a planned tour, but I just found them annoying. Thankfully, I had an easy time buying a ticket (and a city magnet and postcards,) then going through the museum on my own.

I didn't think the museum would be very big, but it was quite a bit larger than I expected. The exhibits started with the geology of the area, then moved on to the history of civilization in the area, moving chronologically. I enjoyed seeing how different eras were classified, and what was shown in the exhibits for different eras.

I'm always a sucker for group photos from past decades and centuries. There is just something about being able to see how people dressed and looked back in the day. (Plus I really like being able to see how photography styles have changed over time.) There were some large dioramas with rooms in a house, and there were plenty of military medals. All in all, a very well done museum.

After leaving the museum I walked back to the lake yet again. By this point it was completely dark, so I got the chance to see how the boardwalk was lit up, and how the water reflected the lights. Very pretty, but also pretty cold and windy.

On the way from the lake back to the hostel, I stopped at the bakery again, then the supermarket. When I got back to the hostel I cooked myself dinner, and charged my phone for a while. Even though it was in the dark, the walk back to the train station from the hostel was a lot better than the walk when I'd first arrived in town.

I'd like to go back to Petrozavodsk, at a time of year when there is more daylight, and more heat.