An Unforgettable Trip to Russia
By Leo Finnegan
Expect the unexcepted when travelling!! On a visit to Russia in April fifteen members of the Galway Branch had their flight cancelled by a strike at Lufthansa Airlines. However Swiss Airlines came to the rescue with a flight to Zurich where we had a six hour delay. Good humour and pleasant company helped us through this ordeal. After a good nights sleep we were ready for ‘road’ bright and early with our guide Olga who took us on three guided walkabouts, at Red Square, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and at the University. In Red Square, we saw for the first time, St. Basil’s Cathedral with its most distinctive outline and colours, the exclusive Gum Shopping Centre, the tomb of Lenin, the last resting place of other leaders such as Stalin and Andropov and also astronaut Yuri Gagarin and the walls of the Kremlin.
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| St Basil's Cathedral, Red Square |
Religion in Russia
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was most impressive, with all the interior walls decorated with fabulous icons. We clearly saw that religion is huge in Russia, after its being completely banned during the Soviet era, which ended in 1991. The main denomination by far is the Russian Orthodox Church, and we noticed that their beliefs, icons and even services are very similar to those in the Catholic Church. From a nearby bridge, we could see the Kremlin on one side, and on the other, the huge monument to Peter the Great in the Moskva River. When we made our third stop by the university, the views of the city were spectacular, with the Football Stadium (this is also the Olympic Stadium) which hosted the Champions League Final between Chelsea and Manchester United, beside us.
Citizens of Russia
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| Prayed at this icon for all members of RTA Galway |
After our first full day in Russia, we were getting a strong feel of what the country and, indeed, its people were like. In general, we found them to be friendly and helpful, and prepared to go out of their way to assist us. The younger people were happy and smiling, while the older generation, for the most part, maintained a serious demeanour. When we visited the modern shopping malls and food courts, we felt we could be in any western city. The younger locals felt completely at home in this environment, whereas the more mature Russians must have felt the enormous changes of the last twenty years a huge culture shock. It is fair to say that, following our trip, we look on the country and its people in a different light. We were surprised to hear how open our guides were on the general political situation in Russia, and they were quite prepared to compare the present situation to the past. When asked about the situation in Crimea and the Ukraine, they would say that the vast majority of the population supported the approach of President Putin in these matters, but that what all of them wanted was peace. They also told us that there was no credible opposition to the ruling party.
Russian Countryside and Lavra Shrine
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| Lavra shrine |
The following day we had our first experience of the Russian countryside. We visited Sergiev Posad, a shrine city about an hour and a half north-east of Moscow. It is known as the Russian Jerusalem and its shrine is the highest rank of Orthodox monastery, known as a Lavra, this particular one being The Holy Trinity Lavra founded by St. Sergius, and is similar to shrines such as Lourdes or Knock, or even the Vatican. On our way there, we noticed that the quality of the land was very poor, and also that the vast majority of the houses were of poor quality, with, of course, some impressive ones also. We got a detailed tour of the Lavra, with its two Cathedrals, the Dormition (of the Mother of God) Cathedral and the main one, the Trinity Cathedral, where the remains of St. Sergius lie, and several smaller churches, including the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church of the Virgin of Smolensk and the Church of St. Mica, and other structures including the Bell Tower, the Canopy over the Cross and the Chapel over the Well, all fabulous buildings, both exterior and interior.
Metro
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| Group at the Metro |
Later we explored the underground Metro, taking us to some of the more renowned stations which have been decorated in the most ornate, lavish and spectacular way with mosaics, frescoes, stain glass and magnificent chandeliers. Trains packed tight with commuters whiz in and out every three seconds. When we left the Metro, our coach brought us to the War Museum close to Moscow University. There were very impressive monuments to be seen at this Museum. Our next stop was the fashionable shopping area of Arbat which is pedestrianised. Later in the evening members attended the Bolshoi Ballet while others enjoyed a night at the opera - The Enchantress by Tschaikovsky at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Grand Kremlin Palace
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| Churches at the Kremlin |
New Maiden Cemetery
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| Raisa Gorbachev's Grave |
We were brought to the New Maiden Convent and Cemetery, where Olga showed us the graves of a number of well-known people, including Presidents Yeltsin and Khruschev, and Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of Mikhail Gorbachev. We were brought by coach to the Zlatoust Museum, where we viewed the impressive displays on offer, before being treated to a wonderful concert by the Zlatoust Choir, singing a beautiful selection of Russian folk songs and other well-known pieces. Our final full day in Moscow had been most eventful and interesting.
Petersburg
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| Petersburg |
For the second part of our trip we took a high-speed Sapsan train, which did the journey to St. Petersburg in four hours and twenty minutes. It was a very relaxing, enjoyable trip through very flat countryside where the land is very poor and where most of the houses are in very poor condition. Our guide in St. Petersburg later told us that the occupants of these houses were all given apartments in the cities where they now live while still retaining the houses, called dachas, in the country. Ana our new guide brought us to The Holiday Inn, in the south of the city beside the impressive structure known as the Moscow/Victory Gate. We could see from an early stage that, much though Moscow had to offer, Petersburg was really special with so many splendid sights, fabulous buildings and historic locations. It lived up in full to its great reputation, and being a comparatively new and planned city of compact size, it was very easy to negotiate compared to the sprawling metropolis that is Moscow. St. Petersburg, which is quite northerly, is built on the Neva river beside the section of the Baltic Sea known as the Gulf of Finland. Several other rivers and canals run through the city also.
Cathedral of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood
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| Splendour of Church art |
Our first stop was at the very impressive Cathedral of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood, quite similar in design to St. Basil’s in Moscow. The reason for its unusual name is because it was built on the spot where Russian Emperor Alexander the 2nd was murdered on March 1, 1881. Our second stop was beside the main bridge over the River Neva with the Chamber of Curiosities, Russia’s first ever museum established by Peter the Great, on one side of the river and the famous Hermitage Museum on the other. Just across from us, on an island in the river estuary, we could see the impressive Peter and Paul Fortress. This place is the symbol of St. Petersburg and was chosen by Peter the Great during the war between Russia and Sweden in 1703. We visited the very impressive Cathedral, also called after Peter and Paul, the original wooden church on the site having been built on the Feast Day of the two saints, June 29, 1703, the Foundation day of the city. Again, beautiful icons and images decorated the interior walls of the Cathedral. Among the other buildings on the Fortress were the Boathouse and the Russian Mint. Then, with superb timing on the part of Ana, we saw and heard the setting off of the ceremonial cannon, which happens at 12 noon every day. After leaving the Fortress, we paid a brief visit to a craft shop nearby, and were then driven past other great landmarks including St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
City of Pushkin and Palace of Catherine the Great
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| Palace of Catherine the Great |
We were given a glimpse of the countryside around St. Petersburg as we set out for the city of Pushkin, about an hour to the south, to see the Palace and Gardens of Catherine the Great. She and Peter the Great are two of the giant figures in Russian history and they were two generations apart, as Catherine was married to Peter’s grandson. Ana brought us on a full tour of the palace and to say it was lavish, opulent and luxurious is putting it very mildly. We were surprised at the unusual shape of the palace, as it was very long but very narrow. This, of course, was for show, as all visitors in the past would have had to walk the entire length of the building before entering, and thus see all the opulence of the exterior. We were also brought through the gardens and by a number of lakes and other buildings including the Bathhouse, all looking very well despite the fact that the growth of spring had not yet arrived.
Later in the evening some members chose to attend a performance of Russian Folk Songs and Dance and a smaller number chose a performance of Mozart’s music.
The Hermitage Museum
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| Hermitage Museum |
A visit to Petersburg would not be complete with out a visit to The Hermitage Museum. This huge building incorporates four palaces, including the famous Winter Palace, and in addition to being lavish and opulent in the extreme, it also houses the most unbelievable collection of art imaginable. Ana really came into her own since her knowledge of all the many masterpieces on display was breathtaking. When counting back the number of out and out masters whose work we had seen, we listed at least eighteen as follows: Canaletto, Caravaggio, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Leonardo da Vinci, Manet, Matisse, Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rousseau, Titian, Van Gogh and Velasquez.
Last Stop - The Palace of Peterof
Our final stop of the tour, the spectacular Peterhof Palace, built on the inlet of the Baltic Sea known as the Gulf of Finland. Just like the palace of Catherine the Great in Pushkin and the Hermitage Palace in St. Petersburg, it was most ornate, lavish and opulent, both the building and the gardens. Its design was based on that of Versailles Palace in Paris and it was just as spectacular.
At this point in time this was an inspiring trip. We accept Russia for what it is – an enormous nation, with little tradition of democracy or capitalism undergoing a shaky peaceful revolution. Anything that threatens the power of the Kremlin, whether it be Pussy Riot, Chechen or Ukrainian rebels must be neutered – this is the Russian way. In some ways Mr Putin continues the tradition of strong-man nationalism that goes back at least to Tsar Nicholas 1. He is a hero in Russia so we can only hope at this time of crisis in Ukraine that diplomacy between the nations will prevail to ensure world peace.