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.