THE KREMLIN

THE KREMLIN, IN MOSCOW MAY 2, 2011

On May 2, we started our last day in Moscow. Riding the same buses we had ridden for the previous three days, we headed to the Kremlin, the site of the heart and soul of the government of the powerful Russian Federation, we passed by the enormous, grayish building where the Russian Federation´s (Duma) congress meets, the Bolshoi´s ballet, and across it the monument to Karl Marx, the main brain of the Communist Ideology. I was glad to see that in behalf of billions of people around the free world, a group of pigeons were sitting on Marx´s head and shoulders, and they were happily depositing their digested food in the right place. By 10:30 A.M, we were making a line to enter into the most famous historical site of Russia, THE KREMLIN.

By 11:00 in the morning, we entered into this vast complex of historical many government buildings, cathedrals, churches, monuments and museums, constituting the entrails of the giant Russian bear.

THE KREMLIN´S BAND, CHANGING

GUARD AT 11:00 ON MAY 2, 2011

As we entered the complex, a large number of Kremlin Guards was leaving the area after completing their time on guard. May 2 was a normal working day in Moscow, after a long three day holiday, so, at the interior of those enormous buildings, the Russian government´s machine must have been busily working in business as usual, while we, a group of 156 tourists coming from the United States of America, were looking at everything with the natural curiosity and amazement of someone who is visiting a very important place for the first time.

THE YELLOW AND WHITE GOVENRNMENT

BUIKLDINGS WITHIN THE KREMLIN

I could not avoid thinking that nothing like this could have occurred only 25 years ago, when most Americans in Russia were seen as CIA spies if they were holding a camera, just as most Russians were seen in America as KGB spies. Well, those were the past days of the cold war, and I was very happy to be living this moment and enjoying every bit of it. After every step we took there seemed to appear a new great scenario for a new photo, and I could not keep pace with my wife and the other members of our group who were walking not very close behind our guides.

Our guide, Alexander, explained to us that the word Kremlin, in the Russian language means “refuge” or “fortress to protect a city from its potential and real enemies”, and that there are many “Kremlins” in Russia, although none of them is as famous and important to Russian History as the Moscow Kremlin. We were explained that Russians, who have been historically a people at war with its neighbors from all sides, used to build these fortresses wherever they felt they were menaced by their enemies and that the Moscow Kremlin, was built in the twelfth century after a hunting feast held atop a hill looking at the Moscow and Neglina Rivers within the dominions of Prince Yuri Dolgoruki, who was fighting the Mongol Empire which dominated vast Russian areas of what is now the immense Russian territory. That day, Yuri and his commanders decided that this was a perfect place to build a Kremlin, and so they did. Within a century, the town had risen to become an independent principality within the Mongol empire, and by the middle of the 14th century; its princes had gained such pre-eminence that Moscow was made the site of the Russian Orthodox Church and the center of the United Russian Empire.

It was under Tsar Ivan the Great, at the end of the 15^th century, that Muscovite rule extended over all of Russia, so ending three hundred years of Mongol dominance, and the Kremlin gained its role as the seat of Russian power, until Peter the Great transferred the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg a city he started from zero in what it was an enormous marshland. For centuries, then, the Kremlin served as the central stage for the magnificent and occasionally horrific history of the Tsars.

When the Bolsheviks chose Moscow as their capital in March 1918, the Moscow Kremlin returned it to preeminence, and during Soviet rule the Kremlin experienced its second life as a great center of power. Although the Soviet state certainly left its mark on the Kremlin, the centuries-old citadel very much retains the aura of early Tsarist Russia, especially in Cathedral (Red) Square, where the spirits of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, and the early Romanovs loom much larger than those of Stalin or even Lenin himself.

THE ASSUMPTION CATHEDRAL, WHERE THE

CORONATION OF THE TZARS USED TO TAKE PLACE

The magnificent Assumption Cathedral within the Kremlin walls, which was, for centuries, the site of the coronation of Russian Tsars is one of the most important icons of the Russian history. It was, just as most buildings within the Kremlin, completely destroyed by the French forces under Napoleon, before they left Moscow in full retreat, pursued by the Russian Army under the command of Marshall Mikhail Kutuzov in October of 1812.

As we extended our visit to this much historical places, I felt that I was going through history myself, at certain moments I felt like I was living the events that had taken place several centuries ago. I was, and I still am, fascinated by what I saw and heard. Entering the Cathedral where the coronation of the powerful Russian Tsars used to take place and looking at the chair where they used to take the oath of office, as it was so close to me, made me think of how ambivalent life can be. One moment, a man can be as powerful as a Russian Tsar, the undisputed master of life and land, and sooner or later that same man can be as insignificant as the ashes of any man in his tomb. I couldn´t help but think that we, all men and women, should act in our lives as if we knew we would be remembered only by those acts in our life which positively affect the lives of those around us, be them family, friends, community, country or the human kind. We all might be better as individuals if we could remember we are mortals and that eventually we will become just ashes in the wind.

THE LARGEST CANNON EVER BUILT

IT NEVER, EVER, SHOT A BULLET

We saw within the Kremlin, and took photos of the largest cannon that were ever built; a cannon that was ordered by Tsarina Catherine I, the daughter of Peter The Great in 1726, and that never ever shut a shot, because it was so big, there was no way to find the power to make it shoot a bullet. We saw within the Kremlin many of the Russian Executive branches of government, all of them painted in light yellow and white

THE LUXURIOUS CARRIAGES OF THE TZARS AS

EXHIBITED IN THE KREMLIN´S MUSEUM

We visited the Armory Chamber which preserves ancient state regalia, ceremonial Tsar’s vestments and Tsarinas´ unparalleled coronation dresses, vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church’s hierarchs, the largest collection of gold and silverware by Russian craftsmen, West European artistic silver, ceremonial weapons and arms, royal carriages and horse ceremonial harnesses.

ONE OF THE DRESSES OF CATHERINE

THE GREAT AS EXHIBITED IN THE KREMLIN

At 2:00 o´clock we completed our visit of the Kremlin; we had been into, and seen it from the inside, the very entrails of the giant bear. I never, ever, not even in my wildest dreams, had thought that I was going to be there. We came out fascinated from all we had seen and as we left the Kremlin from the Southern side, we saw the beautiful Moscow River and dozens of mid size vessels full all tourists navigating the Moskva River and viewing the Kremlin wall from the outside, in this sunny, magic, splendorous Spring day, in which Moscow was saying good bye to us and we were saying good bye to Moscow, as we were heading to the pier in a Moscow suburb where we were to board the Leo Tolstoy, the vessels in which we were set to navigate the Volga River, towards our next destination, the beautiful, the royal, the majestic, the unparalleled St. Petersburg.

In my next posting: NAVIGATING THE VOLGA

THE NEW MAIDEN CONVENT

THE ONION LOOKING GOLDEN DOMES OF

THE NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY AS

SEEN FROM THE DISTANCE

In order to avoid all the noise and streets blockages caused by the numerous parades celebrating Labor Day around the city of Moscow, on May 1^st, the most important Russian Holiday, we took an excursion to the famous Novodevichy Monastery known in English as The New Maiden Convent, situated about one hour away from Moscow. Our trip would include lunch at a typically Russian restaurant located a few blocks from the Monastery that is rightfully said to be one of Russia’s most stunning historical places, very pleasing to the eye, because of its white colored battlement walls and golden domes.

In our way to the Monastery we could see many suburban areas of Moscow, populated mainly by the Stalin–era four story buildings that are known mostly by their obscure and unforgettable past, than for their contributiuon to the well being of the Russians of the 30´s and 40´s. Subsequently remodeled, these buildings still exist as a monument to how a housing project should NOT be made and how people of any country in the world should NOT be treated.

After about forty minutes in the highway toward The New Maiden Convent, we entered an open area of the Russian country side, where immense forests on both sides of the road showed us with their young green leaves, the Russians most expected beginning of spring time.

THREE ECUADORIANS IN FRONT OF THE

MAIN CHURCH WITHIN THE MONASTERY

After about one hour on the bus, we arrived to the famous Monastery, and our guide, explained to us how much Russian history has close connections with religion. He explained to us that in the past, the monasteries used to play a very important role in the lives of all segments of the Russian people.

TWO ORTHODOX PRIEST AND ONE STUDENT.

THE LONG BEARD IS SINONIMOUS OF WISDOM

For many generations, monasteries were not only religious centers, but they were also places were history itself took place, not always in a pleasant way. The Novodevichy Monastery or New Maiden Convent is a fine example of this. Our guide explained to us that this monastery is associated with some major Russian historic events. One of them is the rivalry for the throne between Peter the Great and his sister Princess Sophia. After being defeated by her brother, Sophia was sent to this monastery by the new powerful monarch, where she died after many years in her “prison” where she became a nun. The current occupants of the Monastery, Orthodox priests and students they care of this Russian historical treasure of architecture and art.

The Monastery was founded by the Great Tsar, Vasily III, in the 16^th century and initially, was both a religious institution and a fortress at the same time, thus the monastery’s strong walls and 12 battlement towers. This place is probably the best example of architecture of the period between 16th and 19th centuries and occupies the land of a convent that used to be a nunnery for ladies of noble birth and it is occupied these days by a total of 36 orthodox monks and it is also a seminary for the formation of new monks of the orthodox church

OUR GUIDE TRANSLATES WHILE AN

ARMENIAN PRIEST EXPLAINS THE

HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY

Our visit to this monastery was very educational; as we had an Orthodox priest from Armenia, give us some insights of this historic place. The translation into English of this young priest´s brief recounting of the Monastery´s history was made by Alexander, our excellent guide. Afterwards, we were allowed to visit the many historical chapels and churches within this very large compound. Most of the chapels and churches within the monastery are now mostly museums where mastery paintings and sculptures are kept for future generations of Russians. By pure coincidence, however, the Patriarch of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was celebrating mass at the main cathedral of the Monastery, so, many of our tour companions attended at least part of this mass and came out amazed by the beauty of the church, the great art treasures that it guards, and the details of the Orthodox ceremonial mass they has just attended.

Meanwhile, not necessarily oblivious to the mass, but more interested in interconnecting with other visitors and Russian people, a couple of our companions and I, started a very interesting conversation with a group of about five young Russian primary students, who were also visiting the monastery. Surprisingly enough, they spoke good English so we were able to communicate fairly well with them. Dmitry, one of them was particularly interested in knowing who we were and where we came from.

ECUADORIANS POSING WITH RUSSIAN CHILDREN

WHILE TALKING ABOUT OUR COUNTRIES

The more we told them about us, the more questioning he became. He asked me if I could tell him a short story from my country, and, in about three minutes I told him my personal story without telling him it was my own. At the end, I asked him if he liked my story, and he happily answered that he was indeed very happy to have heard it, and that he would tell it to his peers and to his parents. By the way, he said, “I suspect the person whose story you have told us, its you, isn´t it? This was one of the highest points of my visit to Russia. I´ll never forget this young kid´s bewitched happy face.

As the Monastery´s story goes, during the course of time, the Monastery started to be used as a cemetery for Russia's intellectuals and merchants, and, in the 20th century, it became a cemetery for many of the Soviet Union's most well-known citizens. During the Soviet era, after the innicial looting and destruction, as order was restored, many art treasures were saved and the Monastery was converted into a Museum of Russian art.

At about one O´clock in the afternoon, we left the monastery and were taken to a typically Russian restaurant in the surrounding country side where crystal clear water converged from different brooks, while spring was showing its nascent green best in the surrounding hills.

SMALL RUSSIAN MERCHANTS SELLING

THEIR HAND MADE MERCHANDISE IN

THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE MONASTERY

Just as we see in Ecuador and in many other Latin American countries, as we walked to the restaurant, we could see many small merchants showing, on top of their small table-like stands, their merchandize for the tourists, consisting mostly of “matrushkas” and other Russian inexpensive souvenirs with prices in Russian currency (exchange rate about 28 Rubbles for one dollar) fluctuating between five and ten dollars apiece. Many of the people in our tour stopped for five to ten minutes to buy these souvenirs.

A RUSSIAN STYLE STEW ON OUR TABLE

NEAR NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY

The Restaurant was full with the 156 people in our tour, the service was not “great” to say the least, as only two waitresses were minding our whole group, but, at least for our group of Ecuadorians, the food was “ok”. It consisted of a cabbage salad, with the main course being a stew made with small peaces of beef, potato and tomato, tasting very much like a Hungarian Goulash, served in a casserole type of plate. This was the best of the three dishes finally served. The most important thing, it calmed our hungry stomachs. After lunch, and at about three in the afternoon, we were bussed back to Moscow, a trip during which everybody slept. By the time we arrived, all the fuzz from the many parades was gone.

This was going to be our last full day in Moscow, so we, the Ecuadorians decided that we wanted to eat Russian food at a good restaurant. The Café Pushkin, an icon of Moscow, and the place we wanted to go right from the beginning of our trip, unfortunately was out of the question, because it was closed for renovations, so we again requested the hotel´s front desk´s help to find a good place. They recommended a Kazakh restaurant on Tverskaya Ave. about three blocks from Mayakovskaya metro station. After a minor confusion about the address of the restaurant, we found it. We were the only foreigners in the whole palace which was patronized mainly by Russians, Armenians and Kazakhs. There we found a young man (Vassily), about 30, who knew (from the reservation made at the hotel) we were coming. He spoke a perfect English with a New York accent (as a student he had lived in New York City for five years), and introduced us to the rest of the waitresses and waiters in the whole floor. From then on, we were waited on as VIP’s. We ordered wine and every one of us was free to choose from the menu. At the end of dinner, everyone was very happy to have come to this place, where we shot many photos, including some with the personnel in the restaurant.

DINING AT A KAZAKH RESTAURANT IN MOSCOW

That was a nice way to say good bye to Moscow, a city which we had enjoyed from the beginning to the end. The icing on the cake had not been eaten yet, though, as our visit to the inside of the Kremlin was programmed for the following morning, after which we were programmed to get on board of the Leo Tolstoy, a nice looking vessel which had been used by the Kremlin’s big shots in Soviet times, and that had been reconditioned for tourism after the fall of the Soviet regime.

THE BEAUTIFUL AND ENIGMATIC RUSSIA

RAFAEL AND FANNY IN FRONT OF THE KREMLIN'S
MAIN TOWER, IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA,
ON APRIL 30, 2011

It has been about three weeks now since we returned from our trip to Russia, a fascinating experience, not only because of that country’s history, its culture, art, music, geography, science, industry and why not its politics; but mostly because of its people who have made possible all their achievements throughout history, in spite of the fact that they have been at war most of the time since their early history in the 9th century. In the following three or four postings I will try to tell you, my readers, about our experience during the three weeks we spent traveling through the largest country in the world; 6.6 million square miles (17 million square kilometers) or twice the size of the US, and 143 million people or less than one half the population of the US (10 times the population of Ecuador):
In September 2010, Fanny and I invited three couples of Ecuadorian friends to visit Russia and the three Baltic States’ capitals, traveling with Vantage Travel, a reputed travel agency based in Boston. The tour would start at the end of April, 2011, and would last for three weeks. Preparations for our tour started immediately and lasted until the very last minute when our Guayaquil friends Carol and Yolanda Morales, Celso and Silvia Santacruz finally obtained their visas to enter the Baltic States. Fernando and Mercedes Rivera, our Quito friends flew directly from Quito to Moscow via Amsterdam, whereas the rest of us flew from Orlando to Moscow via Washington DC. Moscow is the largest city in Europe and one of the largest in the world, with a population of approximately 14 million people.



SIX ECUADORIAN FRIENDS ARRIVING IN MOSCOW'S DOMODEDOVO AIRPORT IN THE MORNING OF APRIL 29, 2011

On April 29, at mid morning we arrived at the Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, and contrary to what we had expected, based on anticipated weather reports, Moscow received us with clear skies and warm temperatures. Upon arrival, we were taken by a Vantage bus from the airport to the five star Moscow Grand Marriott Hotel (the hotel where President Clinton was housed while in an official visit to Moscow in 1999). The hotel is located in downtown Moscow on Tverskaya Ave., one of the main streets of Moscow, and at a 20 minute walking distance from the Red Square and the Kremlin, the official site of the Russian Government.
After a few hours of resting which allowed us to get over the jet lag, at about 9:30 PM and still with daylight, we ventured ourselves into the streets of Moscow heading on Tverskaya Ave. toward Red Square and the Kremlin. As we walked, we could see that on both sides of this very important avenue, very many western style fashion stores were open and minding their customers’ business just as we could see similar stores in New York, London or Paris. This was a clear indication that Russians are already living a capitalist economy, after only 20 years of having thrown away the sclerotic communist economy which so much damage caused to the Russian people and to the world. For the four men in our group, what impressed us the most, was the number and beauty of young Russian girls walking in the streets, they were all fair skinned, most of them blond or light browned hair, wearing very short miniskirts which allowed us to see their sculptural formed long legs, very high heels and their faces showing a nice and fashionable make up. They all looked to us like modeling girls in a sophisticated fashion parade prepared for us Ecuadorians who love to watch young and good looking blondes.

As we continued to walk, soon we could see at a short distance, the lights of St Basil Cathedral, the most recognizable icon of Moscow and the lights on top of the Kremlin wall as well. It was like a dream come true, as we all had wished at a certain point in our lives, to see these places personally, many times considering it an almost impossible dream.


FOUR ECUADORIAN VISITORS IN MOSCOW'S RED
SQUARE, ST. BASIL CATHEDRAL AND THE KREMLIN


We took many photos. Husbands took photos of their wives, wives took photos of their husbands, and we all took photos of one another, in couples and in groups. Deep in our minds, we felt the magic spell of being in a place most people would like to see and they will never be able to see in their lifetime. Our friend Carol Morales bought a Cossacks’ artificial fur hat which was a perfect fit for his bold head at a time when the temperature had dropped to the low 60’s and he needed to warm it up. Walking along the same avenue as we returned to the hotel at about midnight, we could see that Moscow, just as any big city in the capitalist world, was just beginning its night life and was full of young people preparing themselves to have a fun time with music, dancing and drinking. We felt extremely happy to be there, and to be part of this happy group of people glued to one another by one common feeling: friendship at its best.


FOUR ECUADORIANS INSIDE THE KREMLIN, AT A
SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE MAIN OFFICES OF THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV

By mid morning the following day, Vantage had scheduled a Moscow City Tour for all the 156 people in our tour, which altogether filled four bus loads. Our mini group “the Ecuador group” was assigned to the red banner bus to which a great tour guide was assigned; Alexander Kovalenko, a Languages and History teacher at the School of Tourism of the University of Moscow. By 10:30 AM we were taken inside Red Square and right in front of St Basil Cathedral, the iconic relic of the old Moscow Imperial times which is located at the Southern entrance to the Red Square, proudly showing its Byzantine Orthodox Architecture domes to the whole city of Moscow and to the world. Neither the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, nor its heirs during the following 70 years, had the guts to destroy this icon of the Russian culture, religion and civilization, in spite of their hatred for everything and anything that could remind the Russian people of their religious past and heritage.

Among other interesting things we could see that morning was the Bolshoi Theater (under renovation at the moment of our tour), the place where Russians show to the world their Bolshoi Ballet, the most famous ballet in the world. We visited the house where Alexander Pushkin, the greatest Russian poet of all times lived.


THREE ECUADORIAN LADIES IN MOSCOW, WITH THE
STATUE OF THE GREATEST RUSSIAN POET OF ALL TIMES
AND HIS WIFE IN THE BACKGROUND

We also passed by many monuments reminding to Russians and to the world of the heroes of the many wars the Russians had fought over the centuries. We saw the Moscow River (an important tributary of the Great Volga) and we could see the many bridges built to cross it within the city, some of which are true works of art and architecture. A brief but very important part of our Moscow city tour was our riding on the city’s famous subway system, built around the mid 1930’s. The subway runs about 150 feet below the surface as it was built with the idea in mind that it could eventually be utilized as a shelter from wars to come. History tells us that indeed, during WW II, the subway tunnels were a highly secure shelter for the people in Moscow when the city was attacked by the German Army. What makes the Moscow subway system unique in its class is the series of train stations that have been built with the idea of providing the subway users an opportunity to enjoy Russian art, particularly sculpture and painting as they pass by each station. Each station has, therefore, become a kind of an excellent museum of art for Muscovites to enjoy.
Of all the great things we saw and enjoyed during our Moscow city tour, it is relevant to note that most of the monuments, buildings, statues and churches that are at the core of this beautiful city and the tour guides are proud to show and talk about, were built before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and have been either well preserved during the communist regime or have been restored to their original beauty after the fall of the Soviets in 1989.

On the other hand, we were also allowed to see in Moscow, many of the housing projects built during the Stalin era, which have become a monument to the poor judgment and little common sense of the communist government when trying to solve the monumental problem of providing housing to a fast growing population of the Russian capital. They are enormous blocks of four story houses where people were forced to live in almost inhuman conditions; entire groups of six to eight family members had to live in 300 feet (30 square meters) apartments without a kitchen, without a toilet or a laundry room, as these luxuries had to be shared by ten to twelve families in one floor of the building. It wasn’t until the mid fifties, after the Stalin’s death and under Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev that a new massive housing program was initiated which included toilets and kitchens in each apartment, though the size of the apartments remained about the same.
The night of May 30, we decided to have dinner on our own and requested help from the Customer Service desk at the hotel. They sent us to the Kitezh restaurant, housed in the ground floor of an old style building next to the Petrovsky monastery in the heart of Moscow, a well known restaurant featuring Russian and international food, where we had a great dinner, drank wine and vodka and had a real good time, feeling the flavor of Moscow and Russia on our own. In our way back to the hotel we had to take a taxi so as to be on time for the Moscow at Night tour during which we saw almost the same places we had seen in the morning, but this time illuminated by the Moscow lights. The St Basil Cathedral, the Red Square the Kremlin and the largest shopping mall in Russia, right across the Kremlin, were especially illuminated for the celebration of May Day, one of the most important Russian holidays since the Soviet era.
The following day we had chosen to take a tour to visit the famous Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, one of the oldest, biggest and historically most famous Orthodox monasteries in Russia




VIEWS FROM MOSCOW, THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF RUSSIA

Following is a brief description of Moscow as taken from Wikipedia:
Moscow, the capital and the most populous city of Russia is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation center of Russia and the continent. Moscow is one of the most northern cities on Earth , with a population of approximately 14 million, the most populous city of Europe, and the sixth largest city in the world.
Moscow is situated on the banks of the Moskva (Moscow) River in Central European Russia. In the course of its history the city has served as the capital of a progression of states, from the medieval Grand Duchy of Moscow and the subsequent Tsardom of Russia to the Soviet Union. Moscow is the site of the Moscow Kremlin, an ancient fortress that is today the residence of the Russian President and of the executive branch of the Government of Russia. Both chambers of the Russian parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council) also sit in Moscow.
The city is served by an extensive transit network, which includes four international airports, nine railroad terminals, and the Moscow Metro, second only to Tokyo in terms of ridership and recognized as one of the city's landmarks due to the rich and varied architecture of its 182 stations.