Russia: Land Of Surprises & Changing Fast

Blog — Russia  June 1-13, 2011 This trip to Russia is including 3 days of touring St Petersburg, followed by 5 days of cruising on the Volga River and finally 3 days of touring in Moscow.   The tours are very informative.  The countryside and the river stops are interesting and the on board Historian gives a delightful history of the Russian people of the Tzarist, Communist and present times and the rocky transitions in between. This is the first day on the river, having left St Petersburg and the hectic touring schedule for the more relaxed cruise to Moscow (which will be hectic once again.)   It’s also the first day the Internet has worked … so I’ll catch up on this blog and post a few photos.

The Tzars had plenty of money. Castles like this were often "gifts" to friends or lovers....

Part of the hectic-ness was produced by having the ships dock 45 minutes to an hour away from City Center.   It seems like such an easy problem to solve and it would take away a lot of traffic, to just dock the ships downtown like they do in the rest of Europe.   I’m sure there are Russian politics at play, that are above our pay grade…. The ship is not up to the Uniworld standards that we’ve become spoiled by, since Russia owns all the ships and only allows leasing by the various cruise companies.

Some passengers are complaining about the service and the boat … but we are here to see Russia, not a doctored up tourist version … so what we are seeing is perfect. After all, these folks have only been experimenting with Free Enterprise for 20 years and since we dont have it perfect yet after 200, we are happy enough to give them some slack and remain curious.    One thing that is noticeable is the desire to provide excellent service by many of the young staff … but you can see that their training and the policies set by their corporate supervisors just cant possibly deliver 5 star service.   The “That’s good enough” attitude seems to have held over from the Communist era. This will no doubt change for the better as competition continues to improve everything. There are two forces that could derail that improvement.   Corruption: both in the government and the Mafia have both hampered the otherwise meteoric progress of this short experiment in Capitalism.   The other unknown is the sizable group who liked it better under Communism.   This was reported by both our tour guides and our Phd Historian.

Our on board Lecturer was a History Professor at a Russian University. She had been in school at the time of the dissolution of the USSR and had witnessed all the changes since then. It was interesting comparing notes with her over lunch. How it is for her as a Phd teaching history ... since our son in law has the same job in America. I think on all counts, Doug has a better deal.

We learned that one of Mr Putin’s last acts as president was to cancel all elections of governors and make all future governors appointees of the president.    He is no longer president, but as Vice President, everyone knows he still wields the power and after sitting out a term or two, will probably be president again.   This centralization of power smells like a resurrection of Totalitarianism.   We’ll have to wait and see. Our Historian as well as some of the museum tours pointed out a tendency to accept and even prefer a King or Tzar, or Powerful Leader that has been part of the Russian psyche for hundreds of years.  First the Tzars, then to the Bolsheviks, then the Communists & KGB, now it seems now to be consolidating once again at the top.   But with the internet and television, it may be too late.   Enough young people may have seen and tasted too much for the genie to be forced back into the bottle … Yes, we’ll have to wait and see.

The Hermitage, Russia's State Museum

The Hermitage is one of the world’s greatest museums.  It would take a week to see it all.   It was the Winter Palace before becoming a museum.   The Yusimov Palace was another museum, a smaller palace of a business family which was said to have amassed even more wealth than the Romanov Tzar dynasty.

Rasputin was poisoned in the Yusimoz palace, shown here. But he didn't die so they shot him. He still didn't die so they drowned him. There was another retired history (Russian) professor on board as a guest. When asked why he had chosen Russian History, he confirmed that it was stuff like this and all the other intrigue that made it such an interesting career.

The "Russian Stove" in the corner of the room is becoming more popular in the West as energy efficiency gets more important. Also known as a Masonry Fireplace or Finnish Stove, the system depends on heating up several tons of masonry with a quick hot fire and then giving off heat slowly for up to 24 hours after a quick, hot fire.

The art pieces and gold  and mirrors were like the Louvre museum and Versatile palaces because they were fashioned after them.   The Russian monarchs did not promote the education of Russian arts or architecture, choosing rather, to import the talent from Western Europe.    Whether this was planned, to keep the serfdom system in place or not, the effect is that there is very little “Russian” art or architecture.   There are great collections of the Dutch and Flemish masters, French, Spanish and Italian artists,  but not much from Russia.    And of course the arts were repressed for 70 years of Communism.   Once again, we’ll have to wait and see as this sleeping giant wakes up.   The highlight of the museums and palaces for me, Dave, were the inlaid parquet floors, truly works of art.

Parquet Floors

We learned that St Petersburg is a city of 5 million built on Islands, where several rivers converge at the Bay of Finland.  So the city has more canals and waterways than Venice and is only exceeded in water transportation by Amsterdam.    Also of note is the fourth largest unsupported domed cathedral, St Isaacs.   1,2 & 3 being Rome, London, & Florence. Swan Lake, the Ballet was interesting,  different to us as we are not ballet or opera fans.

Luelle enjoying "Swan Lake"

Church of the Spilled Blood One of many that commemorated a murder. Assassination has been rampant in Russian history ... Is it continuing? A critical journalist turned up dead on Putin's birthday. A "birthday present?"

The architecture of the ballet house was amazing and the whole ballet thing was unique.   Perhaps we’d better get with the program as grand daughter, Abigail is taking ballet lessons….    Men in tights will take a little getting used to…. Vehicles and Traffic are another subject.   The streets were designed for the fewer cars of the austere Communist regime.   With perestroika came more prosperity, and a lot more cars … and huge traffic jambs.    About the cars, it is rare to see a Russian made car, the “Lada.”   They are stripped down projects from the Communist era that break down a lot and no one wants them, preferring the comfort of Western models,  Ford, VW, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, etc.   Gas prices, after conversion from rubles are about the same as at home, around $4.00 per gallon. One of the best parts of this type of cruise is meeting people from all over the world.   Two of the main places that the 160 people on this cruise come from is Florida and especially Canada.   Tonight I learned about Hockey and Canadian Football … Twelve players and three downs, eh!   Also the Ukranian Orthodox Church.   One man’s father had deserted the Communist army and emigrated to Canada after spending time in the Gulag.   Another’s had been at Normandy where (we learned when we were there) the Canadians had performed so well.   Lot’s of dots of history connect together on  a cruise like this.

The largest canon in the world (diameter) Housed in the Kremlin, It was commissioned by a Czar ... it has never been fired.

This shopping mall in the Kremlin, just off Red Square first opened in 1849. Wow! that's when California was having it's Gold Rush.

The Universal symbol of commerce, The Ice Cream Stand.

This is the Nunnery where one of the Czars exiled his wife so he could marry another. This lake is also the inspiration of the ballet, Swan Lake.

In the town of Uglich, between St Petersburg and Moscow, I walked into the residential neighborhood. Many homes are still log cabins like this one.

There is still no running water to the homes in this neighborhood. So people go to the corner and draw water from the hydrant.

An old cathedral that was inundated by the construction of the Moscow Canal. This canal cost over a million lives as it was built by conscription labor, mainly political prisoners in the Stalin years. Lives were cheap.

The gate is beginning to close on one of the locks on the Moscow Canal

This old wooden church is north of the Arctic Circle. The walls are pine logs and the high pitch content has allowed them to last over 300 years. The shingles are aspen which expands when it gets wet, helping keep the building dry.

Inside one of the many cathedrals. This one was "medium" on the Ornate scale.

This is a lathe that has been used for hundreds of years by Russian Craftsmen to build spindles and the famous Russian nesting dolls.

Traditional hand crafts were demonstrated at several of the stops in the countryside along the river between St Petersburg and Moscow

This iconography is less ornate and typical of the country churches. Icons like this one, painted on a wood panel were used to tell the Bible stories at a time when most people couldn't read.

Looking across the river to our ship, the River Victoria.

Another landmark in the Moscow Canal.

They have these things everywhere. After conversion of Rubles to dollars, things seemed to cost just about the same. This is bad news for the people who earn about 35 to 50% of American workers for equivalent work

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