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Capital: Moscow
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Backpacking in Russia was still expensive in 1994 as Intourist had not yet relaxed its monopoly on the tourist business. To get a visa in Montreal, I had to book, and prepay, a week in an Intourist hotel the cheapest of which was the 8000 bed Izmailovo, built for the 1980 Olympics in an eastern suburb, for 43 dollars US a night.
It was nice to see my friend Sasha again after 23 years. She guided me through a grand Moscow tour which I enjoyed thoroughly even though I had been here twice before.
Here of course is the Kremlin as seen across the Moskva river. On the left of the "Secrets Tower" is the 700 room Great Kremlin Palace built in 1848 to be the Tsar's residence and the spires of the Annunciation Cathedral. On the right of the Kremlin wall tower can be seen part of the Archangel Cathedral where many Tsars are buried and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, both built around 1508.
Below on the left is the beautiful 1489 Annunciation Cathedral that served as the royal family's private chapel and on the right, the big 1479 Assumption Cathedral where many Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church are buried.
No photo album of Moscow can be complete without St Basil's Cathedral built by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his taking Kazan from the Tatars in 1552. This unusual view shows the backside of the Cathedral and Spasskaya Gate (Saviour Gate), that gives access to the Kremlin from Red Square.
Below, are two front views of St Basil's cathedral, the one in colour taken in 1971 and the black and white one, showing Spasskaya Gate, in 1965.
On the other side of Red Square is the big 19th century State Department Store GUM that houses about 1000 independent shops.
This fountain in the center of GUM's several inner malls is an excellent meeting place in the center of Moscow. Today's GUM was completely different from what I had seen 23 years previously when there were long queues waiting to get into drab shops that had little to sell.
Now it was a showplace of opulence where all the world-famous name-brands of fine jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, designer clothes and other luxury goods had set-up shops to serve the new Russian capitalist class. All that you can possibly imagine was available but only a few privileged "new rich" could buy anything for galloping inflation had completely destroyed everyone else's purchasing power.
My friend Sasha, who is a professional translator, used to live rather well when I met her in 1971 but now she and her pensioned mother have a hard time making ends meet like everyone else in Russia (except the Mafia of course).
The red brick building at the end of Tverskaya ulitsa (street) is the State History Museum and directly behind it, the vast Red Square.
This lovely, and very Russian, Kazan Cathedral on the corner of Red Square between GUM and the History Museum was rebuilt in 1993 as an exact copy of the 1636 original which was demolished by Stalin in 1936. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1990, there has been a remarkable revival of the Orthodox Church everywhere in Russia. On the other side of the Kremlin from here the State is spending 250 million dollars to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour destroyed by Stalin to make room for a public swimming pool.
As I see it, Russians are just naturally believers. Absolute faith in Christ became the hallmark of the Russian identity during the first few centuries of the nation when Holy Russia was the bulwark of Christendom against the pagan hordes from the eastern steppes. Russian classical literature has constantly eulogised the value of blind faith, so much so that it has become an integral part of the Russian psyche.
Russians remained "Believers" during the 70 year Communist interlude. They just believed in something else and when the Communist experiment proved a failure, they naturally stampeded back to the Orthodox Church and to what they think is capitalism. I write "what they think is capitalism" because the form of capitalism being implemented in Russia is not tempered by the balances of power established through decades of labour struggles, hard nosed bargaining and fine tuning of labor legislations in Europe and America.
My impression is that the country is rushing back into the 19th century caricature of Russian society featuring the rich merchant, the influential but often ignorant priest and masses of dirt poor muzhiks with the difference that the rich are generally involved with the Mafia and that the poor are now highly educated and cultured people... It's a heart breaking perspective!
Old Arbat street used to be Moscow's main westward artery until it was replaced by the wide New Arbat street just north of here. Now it is a pleasant pedestrian mall where tourists and the few Muscovites that have money can go shopping in expensive shops.
Moscow is well provided with dozens of superlative museums and art galleries. The Pushkin Fine Arts Museum shown here, has one of the world's best collections of impressionist art. One could easily spend two weeks doing nothing but visiting great museums to enjoy ancient treasures in the Kremlin Armoury, pre-revolutionary Russian art in the Tretiakov Gallery, ancient icons in the Andrey Rubliev Museum or the interesting collection of the Museum of Oriental Art, to name just a few.
I could not help feeling painful nostalgia for better times when visiting the All Russia Exhibition Center.
This golden fountain at the Center's entrance reflects the pride of the Soviet people when this place was the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements designed to impress visitors with the successes of the Soviet System.
Now, it is a trade fair whose various pavilions sell all kinds of imported goods from cheap Chinese clothing for the poor masses to fancy imported cars for the wealthy Mafia.
What a terrible let-down it must be to face today's economic and social chaos for those who had believed in the material promises of the system that had managed the space realisations illustrated below.
I was pleasantly surprised by the resilience of the Russian people who manage to enjoy themselves in spite of the difficult times they are going through (this scene was taken in the Botanical Gardens not far from the Ostankino TV Tower).
I took this picture from one of the bridges over the Vodootvodny Canal on my way south from the city center towards Gorki Park. I like it for it reflects the quiet sadness that prevailed in Moscow in the summer of 1994.
Even Moscow's Gorki Park had seen happier times when there would have been a lot of people around even on a Wednesday like this.
The place was deserted. Few sights can be as sad as an amusement park with nobody amusing themselves in it...
The place was empty but the setting was lovely so we walked around while Sasha told me about her life in "the good old days" when her salary was paid regularly and when it was sufficient to live decently in spite of the queues and shortages...
Moscow University in the unmistakable Stalinist Style in a southern suburb.
Moscow has great museums, fine churches and several impressive Monasteries like this one, the Novodevichi Convent founded in 1524 to celebrate the taking of Smolensk from Lithuania. Across the street from the entrance is the Novodevichi Cemetery where eminent Russians, (Tsarist and Soviet), lie in peace.
Below on the left, the charming Prokhorov Chapel in front of the impressive Smolensk Cathedral and on the right, a view of the Transfiguration Gate-Church from inside the Convent Walls. Russian Monasteries were built as fortresses and they often had to play the defensive role they had been designed for.
