7. Moscow

  Moscow Moscow Moscow

Menorah gracing the memorial shule and Holocaust centre at Victory Park where other religions are similarly represented.

 

 

MOSCOW We arrive by bullet train from St Petersburg, a comfortable four hour journey. No mucking around we head straight for the Kremlin and queue up to pay our respects to Lenin in his tomb.

The guards look grim, taking their role seriously.

You sense the freedom in Russia from Soviet Rule. The dominant god is now capitalism though Russian Orthodoxy's trying to get its hold on the people.  What hope has Judaism or Atheism got in the face of all these Russian Orthodox golden domed churches, a Mecca and a landmark for everyone in the city?

Russia feels light and the people happy. The Baltic States were darker with people more suppressed, probably still bearing the punishment and shame for their collaboration with the Nazis.

Kremlin and Armory.

Kremlin 1050 was a wood fortress.

There are 19 Towers around the Kremlin. 6 Russian Orthodox churches.  Alexander 1st turned it into a museum. It holds the Senate.

Alexander Gardens has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier honoured with flowers by bridal couples on their wedding day.

          

Red Square used to be a big marketplace with wooden shops that regularly accidentally caught fire. 17th century saw a restoration. Red Square means beautiful square, not as you would assume, communist square. Red is associated with beauty in Russian culture. Soviet times saw parades in Red Square only occurring nowadays in May on Victory Day.

GUM shop promises highly decorated interior.

Saviour Tower flanking Red Square

Gum shopping centre huge! Three times as wide as in this photo!

    Interior of Gum

It's Russian Chadstone!

Moscow population 12 million.

Revolution 1917

Moscow library has 30 million books. Dostoyevsky, out the front, guards them.

Birch, lilac, fir,

linden, cotton trees. White puffs of cotton float everywhere in the air.

       

          Sparrow Hills lookout

           

      18th Century Holy Trinity Church

    

       Stadium in Lujniki ( swamps)

Used to be "Lenin's Stadium in Lujniki"

The Moscow University, one of the buildings in the Seven Sisters group of buildings recognisable by their star-topped spires.

photo by mikhail shlemov

               With Lyn 

   In the Arbat, Russian icons

          Arbat, tourist street

Vodka

Yummy, tastes like hot orange juice but it's yellow and made of orange coloured berries

I go to Gorky Park to the Tretyakov Gallery that houses 20 century Russian avant garde art. To my delight I see the major works of artists I've studied: Kasimir Malevich's stark geometric paintings, revolutionary for their time; Alexander Rodchenko's life size model for a proletarian reading-room and Vladimir Tatlin's Tower. There are several Kandinskis and two beautiful Chagalls.

Tatlin's Tower

Model for a spiral building designed to spin slowly and house the beaurocracy in a hierarchy of importance. To be taller than the Eiffel Tower (competition with the West). Never built, too expensive.

The Tretyakov Gallery building is plain and open - Soviet or Modernist style.

  Avant Garde hammer and sickle

A cute wooden cafe outside, Scandinavian style, and on the grass beanbags to relax in. I partake of both and the outdoor WiFi to catch up with home.

            A few of the art works in the Tretyakov Gallery 20th Century Avant Garde, opposite Gorky Park

          Gogol in wood

        "Jews in the Street"

Typical Soviet imagery on the gates entering Gorky Park

Gorky Park was founded in 1928, no longer the playground of the rich but a new Soviet vision for a communal space for all citizens to relax, play sport and enjoy exhibitions and concerts. In 1932 the finished park known as the People's Park was renamed in honour of Soviet writer Maxim Gorky.

Too late for Metro tour with our guide, I decide to take pot luck and ride the Metro to catch sight of the glamorous decorations the Soviets organised " for the people".

Soviet decoration by Russia's top artists abounds in the Metro. The classiest Metro in the world.

I travel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

at Smolenskaya Metro station, to Kropotkinskaya Metro Station at the Moscow Library whose 30 million books are guarded by Dostoyevsky.

         Concert Poster 

advertising a concert appearance of my late mother's favourite Russian tenor, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who sang a song cycle she adored, called "Where Are My Brothers?"

Gorky Park VIVALDI

           Gates to Gorky

Vivaldi's Four Seasons is played using 

marimba, piano accordion, and strings. Piazzolla's tango and bandelonian pieces follow - a good choice.

We laugh our heads off to see a truck rumble past the stage and roller-bladers.

    We sit on wooden horses in the concert audience

Lyn and Ian

Michael and Ruth 

 Denise 

In Gorky Park where it's so relaxed. Classical, world and pop music are performed from the same stage with roller bladers, skateboarders, cyclists, lovers, singles and younger tourists like us :) hang around and enjoy the ambiance.  Fountains spurt, flowers glow, trees provide screens and shade and Gorky Park goes on and on. Signage is in Russian; it's hard to find the English fine print.

While queuing to buy corn on the cob, we meet a couple with their baby. The young man is surprised that we would want to come to Russia and asks what's here for us. He seems interested in Australia and has friends in Adelaide. He thinks one would want to go to Australia but not to Moscow. He and his partner love nature but it's 100 klms out of reach. Outside of central Moscow living standards are low.

We head back by Metro singing Russian tunes. Our Rabbi sings all the way home. Dancing in the street, we're very buoyant at this late stage of the trip - two days to go; three sleeps.

 Soviet Decoration in the Metro.  All signage in Russian. Not a word in English nor any other language.