Catching up - our last morning in Moscow

On our final morning we headed for the New Tretyakov gallery of modern art. Traffic was rated at 7 on the Moscow 10-point scale – 10 means no traffic is moving in the city. Leaving at 9.30 we began to worry about our 5.15 flight. However, our driver found an alternative route and we worked our way around the worst traffic jams to get to the Gallery only 15 minutes late.

The Gallery has an outstanding collection of early 20th century Russian avant-garde art, when Russian artists like Malevich & Serov were developing new styles. Our art students had time to take photographs and make sketches which they will be able to use in their studies. The rest of us just enjoyed the wonderful collection. Of particular interest to the historians were the socialist realist paintings of the 1930s and 1940s, showing the benefits of the socialist system and some of the penalties of not. A favourite is ‘Another bad mark’ by Fyodor Reshetnikov - look it up!

Outside the museum is a statue park where various communist leaders who have been removed from public places have found a home.: Lenin and Stalin of course, also Felix Dzherzinsky, the first head of the secret police whose headquarters we had passed on the first day, and from where he had been removed when Communism collapsed.

Catching up - our last night in Moscow

On our last evening, we took the Metro from the station near the hotel into the city centre, to walk to Red Square. It was an interesting walk, 20 minutes longer than planned as our leader managed to head the wrong way from the Metro station. We were fortunate to be rescued by a Muscovite who spoke good English and guided us back on to our route. We came through past St Basil’s to Red Square to marvel at the Christmas-like decorations of the GUM shopping centre.

After taking in the sights and having some refreshment we went round to Revolution Square Metro station admiring the statues of Lenin and the ordinary revolutionaries of 1917. Two changes of line brought us round to Komsomolskaya Station with some of the most impressive decorations of the Metro, built to honour the young people of the Komsomol, or Youth organisation of the Communist Party, who had helped build the Metro, along with slave labour from Stalin’s purges. Then it was a quick journey back to the hotel.

Catching up from Moscow - last afternoon

In the afternoon of our last full day, after our lunch in Arbat, Galina took us on a tour of the Metro to show us some of the notable stations in the system that was built under Stalin in the later 1930s. We learnt why the Metro became so famous – for its rapid and efficient service as we moved from line to line, and the remarkable decorations of each station – each individual in its design. We saw how powerfully the revolution was celebrated along with the development of the country in its various regions and economic sectors.

Our journey ended at the pre-Revolutionary English Club, an eighteenth century building that now houses the Contemporary Political History Museum, that begins its story in the late19th century. Using surviving materials it goes through the end of the Tsarist period with its economic successes and political stresses, leading to the two revolutions in 1917.  There was so much to see that we decided to focus on the Stalin period, seeing a variety of propaganda examples and recreations of ordinary life.

We finished with the post-war period, and it was interesting to see how Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods were treated. The Gorbachev section was closed – perhaps for some revision…

Arrived at Heathrow -- ETA Oakham 2140++

We have arrived on time at Heathrow. A good flight after a fantastic time for all in Russia

Update - unfortunately the coach was delayed by an accident on the motorway, so the driver needs to take a 30min break on hte way back. Traffic is heavy so ETA in OAkham is 2140 at the earliest and this may well slip.

War and Peace in Moscow

Our first visit on our second day in Moscow was to Victory Park & Great Patriotic War Museum, on a hill on the outskirts of Moscow of significance as all invaders have approached this spot. Inside the Museum we were shown around by the Museum’s excellent guide Nina, who explained the main areas of the Museum, its Hallo Remembrance and its Glory Hall to the Soviet military effort in the war of 1941-45. She told the stories detailed in dioramas of fighting in Leningrad, Kursk and Berlin. Then we had time to explore this fascinating museum.

Just over the road, past the spot where Napoleon waited in vain for the keys of Moscow to be brought to him, is the Borodino Panorama Museum our next stop. Here we larnt of the struggles between the French and Russian exactly 200 years ago and the final Russian triumph, with Napoleon's retreat.
Particularly fascinating were the English cartoons of the time.

Our morning full and complete we headed for the city and Arbat, the main tourist area for shops and some food.

Night in Soviet Moscow

After our evening meal we set out across the road from our hotel, the Cosmos, to the Soviet Cosmonaut memorial. This spectacular monument reaches 110m high showing a rocket going into space, with a frieze around the base showing the contributionof workers and scientists - inspired by Lenin - in creating the Soviet space programme. We saw large busts of the heroes of the space programme including Yuri Gagarin, the firsyt man in space.

Behind it is the Park of Economic Achievements built in Soviet times, with a huge arch at its entrance and pavilions for each republic of the Soviet Union. Again all the Soviet symbolism we could admire was fascinating.

Our final stop was to the huge Worker and Peasant Woman scuplture, nearly 25 metres high on top of its pedestal, contructed for the Paris exhinition of 1937.

The Kremlin

Refreshed and ready for more we met by the great statue of Marshal Zhukov on his horse as he led the victory parade in 1945.
Past the tomb of the unknown soldier, we went through the gate through one of the towers into the Kremlin itself. First we saw the Armoury, and the Tsar’s Palace, later taken over by the Communist Party leaders as residence and offices and now the offices of President Putin. We walked past this on one side and the smart glass and steel Palace of Congresses, built in the Soviet era, on the other.

Next we came across two symbols of Russia’s power as it established its empire: the Tsar’s gun and the Tsar’s Bell. These huge pieces of cast bronze are each the largest of their kind in the world, and reinforce the sense of great power exhibited by the Kremlin.

The Kremlin is very much at the heart of the Tsarism. We were shown its three cathedrals – all dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries:  the Cathedral of the Dormition, where all the Tsars were crowned. Then its neighbour, the Cathedral of the Assumption, where all the Tsars were baptised and married and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, where all the Tsars before Peter the Great were buried.

After these spectacularly decorated churches we continued our tour to the walls overlooking the Moscow River, and then back to the coach as the afternoon was ending and it was time to get to our Hotel.

Getting to Moscow

After a wait in St.Petersburg Station for our train to be called, we boarded the ‘Megapolis’ sleeper – much excitement as we manoeuvred luggage into the well-designed couchettes and tried out the beds. Surprisingly, once achieved, sleep was good if not long enough. We got into Moscow just after 9.00 am and were met by the local rep and our guide Galina. Soon we were heading into Moscow traffic – could it be worse than St.Petersburg? Much! So we learnt one of the reasons the majority of Moscow’s 8 million inhabitants – plus more who work in Moscow but live outside the city use public transport.

As we went (slowly) Galina pointed out some of the notable landmarks, on our way to our first stop at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. This is one of the features of Moscow, recently rebuilt to replace the one destroyed by Stalin. No expense was spared to finish this impressive building inside with marble and gold. First we took the lift up to the viewing platform, from where, despite grey weather we could see the major buildings of Central Moscow.

Next we headed out to Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills, one of the 7 great decorated buildings Stalin built around Moscow. Here we could see across Moscow, with the Olympic Stadium and Park beneath us. Now we had a good idea of the geography of the city we headed for Red Square,stopping off at the Novodivechny Convent which inspired Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Underneath the towering red Kremlin Walls we took in the famous sights – St.Basil’s with its multi-coloured domes, the GUM Department store, now a huge and very smart shopping complex. Facing it was Lenin’s Mausoleum, unfortunately temporarily closed for renovation, and the huge square itself, across the great May Day parades would process with the Communist leaders on the balcony above his name – a scene familiar to our historians.

It was time for lunch we went out to the new shopping mall built under the square through the arches leading to Red Square and found various eating places – with now a few more trying local fare.

In Moscow

We are in Moscow... more later...
Sorry - internet connection is very slow here!

Crime & Punishment, followed by music and dance

After the aesthetic treats of Pushkin we headed back into the city for lunch, the majority opting for Pizza Hut. Perhaps Russian food will have to wait for Moscow. After lunch we headed across the Neva to the Peter and Paul fortress, a short 1 ½ km hop that took nearly an hour as bridge repairs brought St.

Petersburg traffic to a stop. Once we finally made it into the fortress we made our way into the Cathedral to pay our respects to the Tsars from Peter the Great to Nicholas II, whose remains were moved here from their Siberian burial place 15 years ago.







Then into the heart of the fortress – and it was it in one part of this fortress the Tsars kept some of their most troublesome political prisoners – from the son of Peter the Great who did not agree with his westernisation programme and who was murdered here to the radical opponents of the nineteenth century & 20th century Tsars. We saw the cell where Trotsky was imprisoned for two years following the failed 1905 revolution. Our next stop was only a brief one - at the cruiser Aurora, which took part in the disastrous war with Japan in 1904-5 and whose guns launched the October Revolution.

Unfortunately the weather had turned wet which made the decks unsafe. Plan B took us back to Nevsky Prospekt for a warming drink to revive us after a wet afternoon. Resuming our battle with St.Petersburg’s gridlock we headed for the Nikolayevsky Theatre and an evening of Russian folk-dance. This was a stunning show, combining some beautiful male voice singing and folk dancing. The dancers mixed romance, humour and spectacular athletic ability in a show that held us spell-bound. We had a special moment of excitement when our very own Ben Edwards was specially selected by an attractive young dancer to partner her on stage. He impressed the theatre with his confident footwork. We enjoyed some refreshments at half-time and then an equally spectacular second half. All in all it was tremendous show. Now we have returned to the hotel for a meal before leaving for the railway station to catch our overnight train to Moscow.

The weather has not been so good today – cloudy and some drizzle. However, our first visit took us inside Catherine’s Palace, 30km south of St. Petersburg, where Peter the Great built the Tsar’s Village (Tsarskoe Selo), now the town of Pushkin, named after the famous writer who spent most of his life here.

Catherine’s Palace was built by Peter’s daughter Elizabeth and named after her mother. It is a fantastic Baroque palace built to rival Versailles and inside it dazzles with a series of rooms decorated with gold and mirrors. In addition there are spectacular ceramic stoves to combat Russian weather and then a series of rooms showing the finest eighteenth century style and then some historic rooms commemorating the Tsars of the nineteenth century from Alexander I to Nicholas II.

The celebrated highlight is the Amber room – the walls covered in decorated patterns all made from amber, which was stolen by the Nazis in the war as they occupied the area in the siege of Leningrad and took it back to Germany where it disappeared in 1945. The room was recreated from photographs as an exact replica.

The weather hasd improved enough to walk through some of the spectacular park built for Elizabeth, with a beautiful artificial lake and a Turkish bath, summer house, private palace for Elizabeth and her intimate circle, and more.

First morning in Saint Petersburg

Today was our tour of St.Petersburg and we left the hotel in thick mist. Fortunately by the time we got to the city centre, the air had warmed up and the golden spire of the Admiralty which stands at the end of three roads radiating to the south could be seen glittering in the sun. We have enjoyed the sights St Petersburg in superb weather with bright sunshine all day, and our expert and enthusiastic guide Polina has been keen that we enjoy as many treats as possible.

We began at the beautiful St. Nicholas church, which survived as an active church through the Communist period. It has two storeys and there was a service going on on both, with a stunning choir in full voice on the second. From there we crossed one arm of the River Neva to the tip where it divides by the customs house and the huge red pillars of the lighthouses modelled on Alexandria. From this viewpoint we could see the Peter and Paul fortress and the spire of its Cathedral. Across the river we could see the magnificent frontage of the Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum. The stop allowed a couple of the party to prepare for Colder Moscow by purchasing fur hats.

Then after a quick stop for a souvenir shop and ‘comfort stop’ we drove round to St.Isaac’s Cathedral, with it s stunning interior. St.Isaac was the birth saint of Peter the Great and the Cathedral was built in the mid-nineteenth century to be a magnificent ceremonial church to rival St Paul’s in London and St.Peter’s in Rome. The outside with its great golden dome and massive marble pillars impresses, and inside no expense was spared to make those who enter marvel at the greatness of Russia, its state and church.

Our feast of Russian religious architecture was finished with the traditional style ‘Church on the Spilled Blood’, with its colourful tiels and onion shaped towers. It was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. We were ready for lunch and conveniently close to Nevsky Prospekt, St.Petersburg’smain shopping street. MacDonald’s seemed the most popular target but some were prepared to try local alternatives.

First steps in St Petersburg

We have started exploring St.Petersburg…. The flight here lived up to BA’s advertising – smooth, efficient. We were met by the local rep and a short coach trip took us to our hotel just by ‘Victory Square’. The main memorial in the city to the sacrifices of the city in the 900-day siege of WWII. We had time to settle in and then go out and explore the impressive memorial.

A block down Moskovskaya – one of the main avenues built in the Communist redevelopment of the city is the ‘House of the Soviets’, built in the Stalin period for the party and local government headquarters.
A block away was the Chesna Church built in the late 18th Century mixing Orthodox and Baroque styles in its architecture. We squeezed into the tiny church where a service was going on and had our first experience of Orthodox Russia.
Just opposite was the Chesny Palace built by Catherine the Great as a lodge for her to use between the Winter Palace and her country palace.  We learnt some interesting facts about the strange monk Rasputin who was laid out here after his murder.

Heathrow cleared

We are all through check-in and security after a good journey down. The flight is on time.

Countdown to departure

We are off in 36 hours.
What might the weather be like when we arrive in Russia?
Here are some online answers:

St Petersburg:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/498817
http://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/st-petersburg/295212/daily-weather-forecast/295212

Moscow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/524901
http://www.accuweather.com/en/ru/moscow/294021/daily-weather-forecast/294021