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All posts for the month June, 2013

The eponymous Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, outside the Tretyakov Gallery

The eponymous Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, outside the Tretyakov Gallery

We’ve been on the road for a month now, and we’ve learned a few things. One, spend more time in places. We’ve spent a lot of time moving from train stations to hotels and back to train stations; I’m looking forward to settling for slightly longer periods in places. And I’m looking forward to shorter train rides; it’ll probably be a while before we do another overnight trip.

One of the surprises is how much I’ve enjoyed some of the museums we’ve toured. Today we spent a couple hours in the Tretyakov Gallery, apparently one of the world’s great repositories of Russian art. We thought we might just spend 45 minutes or so, but found ourselves going from room to room, effectively traveling from the 14th century to the 20th. One of my favorites was this painting of Ivan the Terrible and his son; I was fascinated by the look in Ivan’s eyes.

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581, by Ilya Repin

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581, by Ilya Repin

Ivan, it turns out, actually killed his son, and the artist wanted to draw attention to political violence after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Alexander was actually a reformer who had freed the serfs in 1861. But, in eery parallel to our own history with freeing slaves, he was later assassinated, in his case by left-wing extremists who thought his reforms didn’t go far enough. I’m a big fan of liberals, but really? This is a guy who freed the serfs, promoted Finnish nationalism, helped liberate Bulgaria from the Ottomans, and was proposing an elected parliament for the empire. After the leftists killed him, Alexander III turned back to repression big time. Every so often liberals need to be reminded that it can and does get worse. (Talkin’ to you, all those complaining about the NSA, etc.)

My other favorite was The Unequal Marriage by Vasily Pukirev, which also has political overtones connected to Alexander II. In this case, after he freed the serfs, the artist wanted to draw attention to the unequal position of women, and so drew this apparently unhappy girl being forced to marry a much older man. I wonder why I’m so attracted to political art?

The Unequal Marriage, by Vasili Pukirev

The Unequal Marriage, by Vasili Pukirev

Speaking of politics and art, we can now move to the absurd. Today we also toured Lenin’s mausoleum. After a surprisingly short line and checking any piece of technology that could remotely take a picture there he was, still lying in his embalmed state nearly 90 years after his death. How anyone could tell the difference between that weird body and a Madame Tussaud wax image, though, I don’t know. But there he was. Makes me even more disappointed that we missed the chance to see Mao when we were in Beijing.

Tourists entering Lenin's mausoleum

Tourists entering Lenin’s mausoleum

Finally, even less about art. Back in Beijing, Mark saw a shiny pink car, shiny in a way we’ve never seen shiny cars before. We saw another in Ulan Bator, and now, here in Moscow, a gold shiny car. How soon before they arrive in your home town?

Our third shiny car

Our third shiny car

 

We arrived in Moscow yesterday afternoon — the end of our 5,568-mile train journey from Beijing. We got in a little bit of sightseeing, heading first to Red Square, of course. This is my third time in Moscow, and every time I see Red Square I’m blown away again by the imposing towers of the Kremlin and the dazzling gold-domed churches behind its walls.

Even though summer just officially arrived today looks to be cool and overcast, a good museum day. My parents were just here in Moscow a few days ago and loved the Armoury museum inside the Kremlin, so we are headed there first thing this morning.

First glance at Red Square -- St. Basil's Cathedral toward the left, Lenin's mausoleum in the middle, the Kremlin on the right.

First glance at Red Square — St. Basil’s Cathedral toward the left, Lenin’s mausoleum in the middle, the Kremlin on the right.

The obligatory photo in front of St. Basil's

The obligatory photo in front of St. Basil’s

Lively pedestrian street, with the Kremlin at the end

Lively pedestrian street, with the Kremlin at the end

We’ve now settled in Nizhny Novgorod for a couple days, our first real stop in European Russia. Since entering Russia from Mongolia, we’ve spent 134 hours on the train and crossed 5 time zones to make it to this ancient city, just a few hours east of Moscow.

Jim makes a friend

Jim makes a friend

Nizhny is a beautiful city with a stunning kremlin (a heavily fortified compound, central to many historic Russian cities) overlooking the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers. The city boasts lots of beautiful architecture, a lively pedestrian zone full of restaurants and bars, and some beautiful old monasteries and churches. The space inside the kremlin is like a city unto itself, filled with city administrative buildings, museums, monuments, and peaceful parks.

Last night we found a great cocktail bar called Franky. The bartenders knew all the intricacies of cranking out beautiful classic cocktails, so we couldn’t help but have a couple perfectly crafted Negronis.

Architectural detail, Nizhny Novgorod

Architectural detail, Nizhny Novgorod

Tomorrow we’ll complete the last short leg of our Trans Siberian journey from Beijing to Moscow. After so much travel and so many short stays (two days here, a night on the train, two days there, one day here, another night on the train), we’ll be very glad to settle into the big city for a few days. We’re determined to do less moving around in the future.

After Moscow, we’ll travel on to St. Petersburg, where we will meet up with my parents for a few days — the first time we’ll see people we know since leaving San Francisco five weeks before! They will have spent the previous week traveling by river from Moscow, which we can’t wait to hear about.

Sunset over the Volga

Sunset over the Volga