August 4—Tour of Moscow

Our tour today started with a bus tour of some of the main sites in central Moscow.  Our first stop was at the top of one of the highest points in Moscow with a wonderful view of the city.  We were right across from the main entrance to the University of Moscow.  We had some good discussion about whether Paul might attend here. 

We took a number of pictures of the skyline, but spent most of the time looking at the myriad of souvenir stands.  Also of interest there was a ski jump at the top of the hill down into the valley.  It took a little while to figure out what they were doing, but it was really interesting to see it being done on a pretty hot day in full jump suits.

Our next stop was at the Novodevichiy Convent.  The Convent was founded in 1524, with most of the buildings built in the late 1600’s.  It is surrounded by a wall that looks something like the Kremlin wall with towers situated periodically along the wall.  Peter the Great’s half-sister was forced to go to the convent after her deposed her in 1689.  According to legend, Napoleon tried to blow up the convent in 1812, but the nuns kept blowing out the fuses.

 
The main cathedral’s interior walls are covered in fresco icons.  The frescos are the originals and were very impressive.  While not as large as some of the other cathedrals we saw, it was amazing to think about all of the years and experiences that have happened in this place, especially since it is largely untouched.

After leaving there, we went to Red Square.  I had some sense of what this looked like from  television, but it was still surreal to be there.  What I didn’t realize is that Red Square is outside the Kremlin Walls, and Lenin’s Tomb is actually backed up on the outside of the wall.  Several other dignitaries are also buried there, but we didn’t have the time or the tickets to actually go into the tomb.  There are a couple other cathedrals on Red Square besides the famous St. Basil’s, but St. Basil certainly dominates in beauty and stature.  We got some pictures of our group, with the adults wearing the ‘Russia 2012’ shirts that Joyce embroidered, in front of St. Basil’s. 

On the side opposite the Kremlin wall is a massive department store, GUM.  We had lunch there and did some window shopping.  Jon and Paul even found a ping-pong table to get in a quick game before our appointed 1:00 time to actually go into the Kremlin.

The Kremlin was the original fortified portion of the city.  In the Soviet era, it was all locked down and only certain officials were allowed in.    It wasn’t until after Stalin’s death in 1953 that limited access to the historical areas of the Kremlin was allowed.

Once inside the Kremlin walls, we stood in front of the State Kremlin Palace, which was the former home of the Communist Party congresses.  Opposite this palace was the building that houses the Presidential Guard, a largely ceremonial detail, but also charged with keeping order in the Kremlin.  The outside of the building was decorated with canons that had been taken from many of the Russian military conquests. There were several buildings in this area that were under construction.  from there we viewed the Tsar Cannon, cast in 1586 and weighing more than 40 tons, and the Tsar Bell, which weighs over 200 tons.  It was never rung, as it was still in its casting pit when the Kremlin caught fire in 1737, and the cold water that was poured over the bell caused a large piece to break off.

We next moved to the plaza that contains 5 cathedrals.  I was amazed that these cathedrals had survived more than 70 years of Communist rule that promoted atheism. We toured three of the cathedrals: The Cathedral of the Archangel, which contains the tomb of Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger son of Ivan the Terrible (who wasn't so terrible, but did have a quick temper, and 'thunderbolt' and 'terrible' sound similar in Russian, apparently); The Cathedral of the Annunciation, which as walls covered in frescoes that were restored after Napoleon used the building as a stable after he invaded in 1812; and the Cathedral of the Assumption, which contains an icon of St. George the Warrior from the 12th Century.

The tour through the State Armoury Museum isn’t exactly what Paul was hoping it would be.  In a sense, this was the Russian equivalent of the Smithsonian American History Museum.  We saw the coronation gowns of the various Tsarinas, the royal robe used in all of the coronations, the crown jewels, fine silver and gold pieces, gifts, 10 Faberge eggs,   and on and on and on (much to Sydney’s displeasure!).  There was a small exhibit of armor and some ceremonial knives, swords, and guns.

Once we left the Kremlin, we went back to the hotel and rested for a while before dinner.  We had dinner in the hotel.  Jon and Alan then convinced the group to walk back to Red Square, even though there was some grumbling that we had just been there.  The walk was pretty quick, less than 30 minutes.  Once there, we found some wonderful gardens, shops, fountains, and lots of people at the west end of Red Square. 

Red Square was much less crowded than when we had been there in the middle of the day, and the light on St. Basil’s made it even more spectacular than earlier.  Tatiana had told me that there was one American buried at the Kremlin Wall, the journalist John Reed, who had chronicled the Revolution in the 1917’s with the book, “10 Days that Shook the World”.  While we still couldn’t see the actual graves there, we now had more time to take in many more aspects of the whole area. 

On the way back, we came across an eternal flame memorial to the Unknown Soldiers of World War II.  The walk back to the hotel seemed even faster than when we came, now that we knew for sure where we were going.