Russia - Part 1 - Moscow

In the fall of 2017, sister Connie and I began talking about a second Viking river cruise. After Nancy pointed out that we should probably go to Russia while a window was open to visit there, we settled on the Volga River Cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. During the winter and spring of 2018, we spent many hours reading about the history of Russia.  Finally, at the end of September, after months of attempting to get our visas, they were approved just in time for us to fly to Moscow, where we met Connie and her husband Dennis. We were transported to our River Boat, the Rurik, which was tied to a dock on the Moskovy (Moscow) River. Rurik was an ancient Scandinavian Viking prince who controlled Lake Ladoga, the largest European lake. In 862m he was asked by the Rus' (Russians), who were tired of the political strife in their land, to help them form a nation, so he moved with his two brothers to the city of Novgorod on Lake Lagoda where the three set up separate geographical territories to rule. Within a few years, Rurik became the ruler of all 3 territories, and his blood line ruled the Rus' until the Romanov's came to power in the early 1600's. Thus, our boat name represented the early Russian nation. 

 After a long day of travelling through Heathrow and Amsterdam, we are finally arrived at our boat and were ready to rock and roll. Connie and Dennis came all the way from Seattle in shot!

These was our humble room for the next 10 days; we did pay extra for a much appreciated balcony!

Teeny bathroom, behind the mirror door to the left.

My plan in the next 3 postings is for post 1 to show you our 3 days in Moscow, post 2 is the boat trip upstream to St. Petersburg documenting the several villages along the way, and post 3 shows you our 3 days in St. Petersburg.

The cruise itself began in Moscow and ended in St. Petersburg on what is called the Moscow-Volga waterway. You can see (on the map below) that the Volga River does not go through Moscow, but rather begins northwest of Lake Onega and flows south and east to the Caspian Sea. Moscow was connected to the Volga via the Moscow Canal.

After a short bus ride the first morning in Moscow, we began walking to Red Square. We passed a huge glass dome that lets light into the Okhotny Rjad Metro Station below it, which also includes a large underground shopping complex that we avoided 😊.  You can see the Four Seasons Hotel across the street behind the glass dome.

To the right in the previous picture, you can see the State Historical Museum. Russia has innumerable museums (since many of the churches were turned into museums), but this is Russia's main museum. Completed in 1883, the history of Russia is represented from the oldest days to the beginning of the 20th century. Behind the museum and up a small hill is the our access to Red Square below. 

Every town in Russia has a Red Square as the old Russian word for Red means 'beautiful'. The Red Square in Moscow is surrounded by famous structures on all sides. On the north side is the Museum; on the South side is St. Basil's Cathedral, which is really 10 cathedrals built together (but which now is a museum); the high-priced G.U.M. stores lines the east side of Red Square; and the walls of the Kremlin border the west side of the Square. Here we are standing in the middle of Red Square in front of St. Basil's Cathedral.

With a closer view of the cathedral, it becomes more impressive.

Then I walked around to the back. The entrance here was one that the cleaning ladies were using.

Looking up, the 'onion' domes are quite a sight. The shape of the domes for Russian Orthodox Cathedrals has a history. First, they were steeples, then they became cone-shaped dome tops, which were designed to shed water and snow like no other roof. And the church believed that the domes looked like flames, which were important to the church's ideology.

Across the square's parade area was the famous G.U.M. stores. This is a huge shopping center that caters to the tourists and wealthy Russians. Needless to say, we avoided that area, too!

At the end of the G.U.M. stores was the Kazan cathedral. This cathedral was built at the end of the Rurik dynasty in 1636. At that time Polish forces occupied Moscow. The Poles were soon defeated by a new Russian army and left Russia. The Kazan cathedral was built in celebration of this event. In 1936, the 300th anniversary of the cathedral, Stalin destroyed it so the military could use the area for parades. Its subsequent reconstruction was completed in 1993.

The 4th side of Red Square was framed by the wall of the Moscow Kremlin. The word Kremlin means a fortress inside a city, so many other cities in Russia have a kremlin too. Here we look back at the entrance to Red Square that we just crossed to get to this spot. You can see the main gate to the Kremlin from Red Square (which is very seldom used as an entry to the Kremlin for visitors). The Kremlin was constructed in 1491.

The Kremlin itself was our next destination. It is a huge complex, nearly 3 km square. It is the symbol of both Russian and Soviet power and authority and it has served as the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation since 1991. On the outside of the west wall of the Kremlin is Lenin's tomb, which was not open for visiting hours when we were there. Next to it was Stalin's tomb, but after Nikita Khrushchev blew the whistle on Stalin's murderous past, Stalin's tomb was down-sized and buried in the backyard. On the outside of the north wall is Moscow's tomb of the Unknown Soldier, formally guarded, as are comparable tombs around the world.

Only 20 towers have survived around the Kremlin wall, with four entry gates. Only two of the gates are used at the current time. There was a lot of security to get to the gate into the Kremlin through the Kutafaya Tower (below), where tourists generally enter, guarded by x-ray machines for backpacks and purses, guards and turnstiles.  Behind the wall, the yellow building to the left is the Armory Museum.

Here the guard stands for hours.

When we went through the Tower to the inside, we could see the thickness of the walls, which  ranges from 11 to 21 feet. The guy in the red jacket is Dennis.

As we entered into the Kremlin proper on the other side of the tower, we were at the Napoleon exhibition in front of the Armory Building. Napoleon came to Russia in 1812 with the expectation of 'conquering' Moscow. Napoleon originally headed across Russia to defeat Tsar Alexander I with 685,000 soldiers. There were several disastrous battles on the way to Moscow, one of which killed 72,000 of the troops in one day. When he arrived, however, the city had been evacuated of people and supplies, so there was no one to conquer. Napoleon expected the Tsar to sue for peace, but when he got to Moscow he found that the Russian army had retreated and there were no czarist officials to sue for peace. He stayed on the outskirts overnight, and around midnight fires broke out across the city, apparently set by Russian patriots leaving nothing for the remainder of Napoleon's army (400,000). Because there were no supplies for the coming winter, he left Moscow one week later with less than 400,00 troops, and returned to France, suffering from the 'burned earth' campaign he had initiated on his way into Russia. This campaign was a disaster for Napoleon, leading to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He left 865 cannons, and the some of the barrels are on display in front of the Armory, which was rebuilt in 1816 and dedicated to the victory of Russia over Napoleon.

Closer examination of the barrels reveals that they are all decorated and marked with an N for Napoleon.

Also on display are several of the Russian cannons. They are very articulate and apparently the Russians are very proud of them -- as they should be.

From here we went into the gardens to see green things and flowers.

There were many extensive flower beds outside the Kremlin walls and walkways through the gardens, the Alexander gardens, named after Tsar Alexander, who order the gardens construction after the Napoleonic wars destroyed everything in the areas where the new gardens were planted. 

Sister Connie is at stage right in this photo.

Then we came to Cathedral Square in the Kremlin. This is the Cathedral of the Archangel (completed in 1508), where victories of the Russian Military were celebrated. All Russian tsars and grand princes were buried within this Cathedral until the time of Peter the Great, along with many empresses and princes of the blood line. 

The Assumption Cathedral was built over a medieval burial ground, supporting a hypothesis that a wooden church existed on the site in the 12th century. This structure was replaced by a limestone cathedral in 1326, which was destroyed in an earthquake two years later.  Bad luck. The current structure was built in the 1470's, and was the site of the first Czar's coronation (Ivan the Terrible). From then on, all coronations for czars were held here. It is considered the mother church of Muscovite Russia.

On another side of the Assumption Church are the main doors, which are highly decorated.

The Annunciation Cathedral is attached to the Patriarch's Palace, which can be seen behind it. This cathedral became the burial place for Moscow Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the church from 1547 to 1896. It held the personal chapel for Muscovite czars. Although we got our first peek at Russian Orthodox iconography in this church, we were not allowed to take pictures of them. In Russian churches, the nave is separated from the sanctuary by an iconostasis, or icon screen (a wall of icons with double doors in the centre). Icons are the 'soul of Russia'. They first appeared in 988, when the Rus' converted to Orthodox Christianity. They typically were paint on wood. Icons are considered to be the Gospel in paint and, therefore, careful attention is paid to ensure the Gospel is accurately conveyed.

On the other side of the Annunciation Cathedral is the palace's cathedral complex. Each of the domes here tops a separate church, some only the size of a single room in the palace.  

Nearby is Ivan's Great Bell Tower, completed in 1508. Because of its height, the tower also served as an observation point for warning of fires and the approach of enemies. There is a legend that when Napoleon captured Moscow in 1812, he heard that the cross on the central dome of the Annunciation Cathedral, very near to the Bell Tower, had been cast in solid gold, and immediately gave orders that it should be taken down so he could take it home. But he confused the cathedral with the Bell Tower, which only had a gilded iron cross. This cross resisted all attempts of French equipment and engineers to remove it from the tower. It was only after a Russian peasant volunteered to climb the dome that the now tethered cross was lowered on a rope. When he went up to Napoleon seeking his reward, the latter had him shot as a traitor to his fatherland. Much like politics in the USA. During his retreat from Moscow, Napoleon attempted to blow up the bell tower. The blast destroyed the adjacent building, but the tower itself proved to be extremely stable and suffered only a few cracks in the foundation walls.

This is the Senate building in the Kremlin, where the Russian Presidential administration is headquartered.  The impressive main entrance is no longer available for viewing. This building used to be where the USSR Presidium met. If Putin is in, this flag flies, as is seen here.

I then walked around a bit, out of sight of the parking lot of security personnel who were waiting for Putin, and found the helicopter land site used for shuffling Putin around. I wasn't spotted and detained. Whew ..😎

As we made our way through the Kremlin, we encountered the Czar Cannon.  It was massive and is a bronze monument of Russian artillery casting. Historically the Cannon was placed at several points around Moscow for show or in case it was needed, but it was never used. Napoleon considered removing it to France as a war trophy, but the wooden carriage that held it at the time burned up in the fire that consumed Moscow in 1812, so there was no way to move it.  The current metal carriage is purely decorative.

And look at the balls associated with the cannon (again, never used). Some engineer must be proud.

Next we have the Czar's Bell. The history of Russian bells goes back to the 10th century, but in the medieval Russian Orthodox Church, bells were not typically rung to indicate church services, but to announce important ceremonies and celebrations, and as an alarm in case of fire or enemy attack. There is a long history of a czar's bell in the Kremlin, but each was damaged in fires. The current bell was commissioned by Empress Anna Ivanovna, niece of Peter the Great. She used material from the previous bells, melted down, to build the biggest and the best. Thus she ordered that the pieces be cast into a new bell with its weight increased by another hundred tons. A momentous task. 

Unfortunately a major fire broke out in the Kremlin just after the bell was completed and set to be hung. Fearing damage to the bell, guards threw cold water on it, causing eleven cracks, and a huge slab broke off.  The Bell remained in its sand pit for almost a century before it was placed in its current position. For a time, the bell served as a chapel, with the broken piece forming the door.  Voltaire once joked that the Kremlin's two greatest items were a bell that was never rung and a cannon that was never fired.

And our day was coming to an end at the Voskresenskiy Fountain. The first fountains in Moscow were built in the 1800's to provide drinking water to Muscovites. This fountain, which sits at the entry to the Alexander Gardens, is just outside the Kremlin walls. It provides geysers of water in the summer that cool off those walking near it and where many kids play. In the winter, it is not so sought after.  

  

Day 2 - We were bussed the next morning to the Trinity Lavra Monastery. Founded by St. Sergius in 1337, it is the holiest place in Russia. It was the seat of the Moscow Patriarchate until 1983, although it was closed during the early communist years (1917 to 1946) and its buildings were all turned into offices and museums. In the foreground is a large statue of St. Sergius. The monastery is built within high walls, and you can see here the two tallest structures in the lavra: its Bell Tower and its Assumption Cathedral.

And the Gateway Church below will be shown again when we entered the walls in the following picture.

The crowded entry for tourists was through the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist also called the Gateway Church.

The bell tower, or Pilgrim Tower, built between 1741 and 1776, once had 42 bells, the largest of which weighed 65 tons. This 5-tier tower took 30 years to build and is even higher than the bell tower in the Kremlin. After the revolution, all of the bells in this tower were destroyed, and pieces of bronze were used for other projects in Russia.  

Holy Trinity Church and the current Seminary. During the time of Stalin, this building was all government offices and was returned much later to the church.

The Trinity Cathedral is the only place in the lavra where, as of 1946, masses were again held.  The green building to the left is the Metropolitan Chambers (including the residence of the Patriarchs). In the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitans are the heads of ecclesiastical provinces, and Patriarchs are leaders of the Orthodox church in a country, sort of like a pope of Russian Orthodoxy. The yellow building to the right is the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy as shown in the previous picture.  At any given time, 300 monks are in residence in the seminary.  

Church of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the last remaining Russian churches with a bell tower. Indeed a workman was in the tower and gained access via a ladder, as there was no access from inside the church.

The tallest church in the Lavra is the Assumption Cathedral. To the right of it is the Smolynsk Chapel and to the right of that is a canopy covering the Holy Water well. This cathedral was built in 1559 by the orders of Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the addition of Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates to Russian lands.  The Assumption Cathedral was where coronations took place. The vault of Boris Gudanov, the only non- royal to be Czar, and his family are buried here, upon his request, since he could not be buried with the Czars in the Moscow Kremlin cathedral. 

Our Lady of Smolensk church was the last major structure to be built in the Lavra. Its purpose was just to house the Smolensk icon. There are many replicas of this icon, but legend has it this one was brought to Russia in the mid-11th century by Princess Anna from Greece, who married a Russian prince. The icon finally found its place here, but now is in a museum elsewhere in Russia, and a copy is in this church.

This small intimate church was built in 1734 over the tomb of St. Micah, one of the closest disciples of St. Sergius. It originally was outside the confines of the original monastery, but now is incorporated within its walls. It is attached to the Refectory (which has a beauty of its own). The Refectory building houses the the dining room for pilgrims to the Monastery, as well as the Refectory Church, which takes over masses during the winter months. 

While Nancy went inside the Trinity Cathedral to peek in on a Mass (masses are non-stop in the church), I went wandering off with my camera to look inside other churches. In the Assumption Cathedral, a large 5-tier iconostasis dominates. Icons were used in the Russian Orthodox cathedrals to help churchgoers, who could not read, to learn the Bible. Strict rules developed about which tier of icons held different characters from the Bible. 

Here is a 'buried' saint, which normally would have several people hanging over his coffin and applying many kisses. I waited until it was clear of drooling humanoids to take the picture.

Look at the gold decorations.

Good thing Napoleon did not find this place.

Then I went inside the Church of St. John the Baptist. Here the elderly women were working endlessly.

As we left the Lavra for a catered Russian luncheon at another location in Sergiev Posad, we headed back toward the Gateway Church. The trip was jam-packed with information and beautiful architecture. 

The church again.

Finally were back at the boat to relaxed and review our day on our pleasant balcony on the Rurik.

Our 3rd and final day in Moscow began with another bus ride across town. Not sure which bridge this is, but there are 49 bridges across the Moscova River in Moscow.

One of the first structures we saw was easily recognized as the back of St. Basel's cathedral along the boundary of Red Square.

We continued on the road between the wall of the Kremlin and the Moscow River.

We rode past many towers along the wall.

As well as various gardens.

The tour brought us ultimately to a statue of Peter the Great on a ship, which was positioned out in the Moskova River. Apparently many Muscovites are not fans of Peter because, among other things, he moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg back in 1703. There have been many petitions to remove this statue, one of the 'ugliest in the world', but the cost has made it prohibitive. Vindictive!  

 At a higher power you can better see the Peter part of the memorial.

The main reason for being in this general location was to investigate the rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We stopped here for some time to visit the Cathedral. This was the largest church in the Orthodox Russian Empire. It was built in 1883. During Lenin's time, it was closed and the property confiscated and thousands of clergy shot. Many churches became storage spaces, movie theaters, libraries, etc. Because of its central location, Stalin planned to replace this cathedral with a Soviet Palace, so he blew it up in 1931. His plan came to an end with the German invasion in 1941. After the war, the space was used to build a huge open-air heated swimming pool twice the size of a soccer field. Many older Moscow citizens remember learning to swim in that pool. As Putin searched for a new identity for the USSR, the Russian Orthodox Church was no longer 'an enemy of the State', but rather, experienced a revival.  The ROC now plays a decisive role in the renovation of cathedrals and monasteries throughout Russia. Government funding has been used for many projects, but the reconstruction the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was financed entirely with donations of more than a million citizens of Moscow. It is a perfect replica of the original church built on the original location.

We spent quite some time here and approached it from the front.

And closer still. Note all the bronze decorative art above and adjacent to the doors

Here are two pictures of a couple of the art pieces.

And a second one.

And a close up of the elaborately decorated doors.

After returning to the bus, we saw that one building across the street was described as under construction (and covered with a protective fabric). We were told that this building or one like it housed the many dissidents of Stalin -- before they all 'disappeared'. As I mentioned earlier, it was Khrushchev that blew the whistle on Stalin after his death and explained to the government how many millions of citizens he had disposed of.

Following this adventure, we headed to the subway system. It is located several hundred feet underground and is immaculate. The Moscow metro was built for two purposes: first, for transporting the population more efficiently because the street traffic was becoming almost prohibitive (currently, a daily commute by car takes up to two and a half hours each way across town); and second, because Russia was preparing for a possible war. Officials' offices were planned for the underground space. Throughout this system, the walls are covered with artwork. Every pillar has a picture of life in Russia. The art in each station is dedicated to a different theme of Russian life or history. Here are several examples.

And closer views of other pictures.

And another.

We exited via the Pobedy (Victory) Station. This is the deepest station. Access to all stations is by way of an escalator system. When building of the subway was started, it was discovered that the ground was significantly unstable due to underground rivers, so it was built much lower than most subway systems. This is decorated in noueveau art style and the lowest station, is lowest, and has one of the longest elevators anywhere. 

The theme continues up the escalator system to street level. 

 

and ends at street level.

Finally the old Soviet symbol is at the apex of the ceiling above the escalator entrance.

Thus our days in Moscow were over and we began our journey upstream on the Moscow canal heading to the Volga, visiting Yaroslavl and various small towns on our way to St. Petersburg. This portion of the trip will form the next post entitled Russia-2. Note the small waves to the west created by the ship under power. Usually, the travelling was done at night so that we could be at the next stopping point before dawn.

See you again soon.