Wednesday: St. Basil's Cathedral, Kva Kva Water Park

The banners and stars to commemorate the end of World War II (Victory Day, May 9) were all in place today. Yesterday when we had walked through, they had been in the process of putting the banners and stars up.




























































































We entered Red Square through the Resurrection Gate and walked across the square to St. Basil's Cathedral .































St. Basil's is composed of 9 separate domes, mostly onion shaped, each housing a separate chapel. Ivan the Terrible had it built in the mid 1500s to commemorate his victory over the Tatar Khan. The 9th dome was added in 1581 by his son to house the tomb of St. Basil, the Holy Fool. The original plan was to have 7 onion domes clustered around a central chapel. Each onion dome represented the saint on whose day he had won a battle.
















St. Basil's tomb was in the main chapel, the one used for church services. The chapel was in the process of being restored; many of the original layer could still be seen although the frescoes had been updated many times.
















Each chapel was decorated differently with both different icons and different styles.




































To get upstairs, we climbed a some narrow but steep curved staircase. Apparently at least twice Stalin had considered knocking down St. Basil's. On one occasion the architect told Stalin that he would slit his own throat before he would authorize the tearing down of St. Basil's. He spent five years in jail, but the cathedral wasn't knocked down. This cathedral wasn't as fancy as many of the others; it was cozier and more intimate. It's my favorite.






















In the afternoon, Monica and I helped drive kids to the Kva Kva Water Park to celebrate the birthday of Jessi's friend. The water park was a lot of fun with a wide variety of slides, a wave pool, and a grotto. I wasn't sure that I would like the slides, but they were a lot more fun than I thought they would be. The drive to the park was interesting because May 1 is a national holiday, and many people were leaving the city to go to their dachas, so the roads were horrendously crowded. We got back to the apartment by about 9:30 since the traffic was much better on the way home.

Tuesday: Lenin's Mausoleum, Christ the Savior Church, Metro Museum

While we were walking we saw military jets overhead practicing for the Victory celebration on May 9.

We left early and took the metro to Red Square where we queued up to walk past Lenin's Mausoleum. The security was very tight. First we had to check all electronic devices such as iPods, cell phones, and cameras. Then we walked through a metal detector and had someone search our purses (no bags allowed). The mausoleum is only open 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. One entire corner of Red Square is cordoned off during visiting hours. We queued up outside Red Square and were escorted down a narrow passageway cordoned off by movable gates. A soldier stood at each intersection pointing the way. Once we reached the mausoleum, a soldier stood with another metal detector. Inside was extremely dark especially compared to the bright sunlight we had just left. We had to walk down some stairs with another grim soldier pointing the next direction at each corner. Lenin's body was lying in the middle, and we walked up a ramp and around it. I had read that some people think it looks waxlike, but it looked pretty lifelike but not terribly inspiring. When I stopped to look for more than a second, a guard yelled at me even though only 2 other viewers were in the room. Apparently Stalin's body was placed next to Lenin's until the early 60's in the 'de-Stalinization' period. Now it is buried just behind the mausoleum with the other important leaders of the USSR.

The workers were getting ready for the May 1^st holiday celebrating International Worker’s Day. They were putting banners and large red stars up in front of the major buildings in Red Square. In addition other workers were fixing the paving stones while yet others were setting up bleachers. This is the area where the Soviets used to bring tanks through and even a truck with nuclear weapons, but now that the church (Iveron Chapel, right in front of Resurrection Gate) which was torn down to make an entrance on one side has been rebuilt, this is no longer possible.

Next we spent a little time attending mass at St. Basil’s Church and looking at the icons. After that we walked past the Old English Court (another link) which was closed. This building was given by Ivan the Terrible when trade with England opened up. Ivan had decided that he wanted to marry Queen Elizabeth I, and when she refused, Ivan had the English ambassador imprisoned in this house for 4 months. The museum of the Boyars (Russian aristocrats) was also closed. This whole area which used to be covered with small street stalls was being cleaned up and renovated.

Our next stop was Christ the Savior Cathedral, (another interesting website and the official website--**find on different computer). Christ the Savior has a fascinating history. Alexander I commissioned the idea in 1812 as a thanksgiving to God for rescuing the Russians from Napoleon. The first attempt, a neoclassical design far from the center of Moscow, was interrupted by the sudden dea th **of Alexander I. The new tzar, Nicolas I, had concerns about both the ideology of the project and the actual construction. He wanted to focus on Russia rather than use architecture and symbols which were more global. He was also concerned about the site chosen, the immensity of the project, and corruption occurring. Konstantin Thon, the new architect, wanted to move the site to the center of the city signifying the link with the state and with the historical past. He proposed moving the oldest monastery in the city, the Convent of St. Alexiius the Man of God, built in 1360. Legend has it that the senior nun when forced to move pronounced a curse that nothing would stay firmly at this location. Construction on the new cathedral began in 1838 and wasn't completed until 1882 and consecrated in 1883, 45 years later. The new cathedral, much larger than other cathedrals and buildings around it, d0minated** the landscape and served as a monument to the autocracy of Nicolas I. The sculpture of the main Western facade depicted Russian troops under the protection of national forces. The Southern facade, facing the places where decisive battles had been fought, showed events of direct relevance to that war. The Eastern facade which faced the Kremlin depicted Russian national saints who were protecting the country. Finally the Northern facade had statues of saints who spread Christianity. This mix of secular and sacred shows how closely the church and state were tied together.

In 1931, for reasons very similar to the reason the monastery from the 1300s was removed, the cathedral was pulled down to make way for a new cathedral, a monument to the triumph of the Soviets. Construction on the Palace of the Soviets was begun in 1937. It was to be the tallest building in the world with a 6 ton 100 meter tall statue on Lenin on top. When the Na zis **invaded Russia in 1941, construction stopped, and the steel was donated to the war effort. After the war it became clear that communism was not spreading the way they had expected, and the project was abandoned. In 1960 the pit was turned into an enormous swimming pool which operated for about 30 years. We met a person who remembers swimming there. When the communist government fell in 1991, rebuilding the cathedral became one of the first projects. While the original cathedral took 45 years to complete, the replacement supposedly only took 2 years. The official story is that it was completed with private funds, but I came across other sites which suggested that the state contributed large amounts in secrecy. Either way, the new cathedral is very impressive. Except for its electronic message system in the iconostasis and the elevator to the tower rather than stairs, it looked like the other updated churches we had seen seen. The basement contained a museum commemorating the victory over Napoleon and also showing the history of the church: the original building, the demolition, the proposed Palace of the Soviets, the swimming pool, and the rebuilding. On the tower we had a great view of the city and could see the various places we had visited: the Kremlin with towers from Red Square (especially St. Basil's) poking up behind, the House on the Embankment just across the river, and various buildings we had just walked past.

Walking back to the metro, we took the red line to the Sportivnaya station to see the metro museum. Someone had told us that it was in the metro behind the green door, but it wasn't obvious. Since we had our passports with all the required paperwork and the guard didn't look too unfriendly, we asked him where it was. It turns out that the museum was in the back behind the guard's office and the detention center (where we saw some kids being questioned and another being held) and then up a couple of flights of stairs. Although it was entirely in Russian, we were able to figure out the different exhibits on how the stations were made, the different types of trains used over the years, controls for the trains, and then an interesting exhibit of different areas. Since we were almost home, we took the metro the rest of the way back.

Monday: Cold War Tunnel Tour

Stalin's cold war bunker almost 200 feet underground was sold by the government in 2006 to a private group which is in the process of turning it into a cold war museum . This entrance is entirely new; the original house gave no signs that it was anything beyond an ordinary house. The main reason the government divulged the secret and sold the tunnel is that while it would probably have worked for the early nuclear bomb, and thankfully they didn't have to find out whether it would work or not, it was not strong enough to counter the new underground nuclear weapons.





















Built from 1952-1956, the tunnels were the top secret command center for Stalin in the event of a nuclear attack. They were hidden inside a 19th century house, and no one except those directly affected knew about them. Workers and supplies were brought in via a metro at night which connected somehow to the tunnels, and garbage was removed by the same train. There were supposedly a total of 3 separate entrances, but we only saw the one by which we entered. The 2000-2500 workers had their backgrounds thoroughly checked; only 1 known spy was found. He claimed that his grandparents were buried in a certain town, but when they questioned him further, he didn't know there were two cemeteries in the town. Anyone who knew about the compound was not allowed to leave the country so that the silence was preserved. Once inside the house at 11 5th Kotelnichesky Pereulok, we went through 2 metal doors which were about 15 inches thick each. They slid closed in opposite directions to deal with nuclear waves in any direction. The door were both manually and electrically operated, but when the tour guide tried to show us how the door opened and closed, it wouldn't work. Those who were on the other side of the door did not complain. After all a door that stuck open might also stick shut. Next was the decontamination room where workers would remove clothes and guns contaminated by nuclear fallout. After that came the stairs. We walked down 19 levels with two sets of 8 stairs for each level (288 steps if our math is correct.) The walls were designed so that the enemy bullets would ricochet off the walls back to the enemy. The staircases were placed so that the next level could not be soon. Generally there is a gap so that people can see down to the bottom, but here that space was deliberately filled in so that enemies would see as little as possible. Originally the bunker was totally finished even to the carpets and parquet floors, but now only the original walls remained. Because they weren't sure how the limestone would react to a nuclear attack, the walls were reinforced with concrete underneath the steel tunnels. Holes were drilled every few inches, and concrete reinforced with a filler so that it could expand was poured in and sealed. There were a total of 4 interconnected 150 meter tunnels. Workers had passes which showed which areas they were allowed to penetrate; the second tunnel was the top secret control center. Up to 3,000 people could survive for a total of 90 days. In the 1980s the government began to renovate the facility but then by the 90s, they started to remove things from the tunnels. When the private company doing the renovation bought it in 2006, the tunnels were full of water seeping in from the Moscow River, and almost nothing remained of the original interiors. We viewed a movie of the cold war era ("Don't worry; it's neutral.") I'm not at all familiar with the cold war era, but it seemed to me that perhaps it wasn't quite a neutral as it claimed: they mentioned 6 or 7 b0mbs that were detonated by the Americans compared to the 1 they mentioned that the Soviets set off. Two American spy planes which had been shot down were mentioned, but no Russian ones. But it was still interesting. We next went into a room with a raised area where the important announcements were made. Up above that was the canteen where we had a military dinner: kasha (buckwheat) with beef (Kristen fed me her beef but enjoyed the kasha), vodka (I skipped that in case you're wondering), brown bread (would have been better with butter), and tea possibly poured from the large samovar sitting on the counter. We ate cafeteria style at the long table in the room. After lunch we toured more of the tunnel. The guide pointed out the tunnel to the metro, but it was closed off. He also said that the tunnel was on the same level as the metro, but it seemed as if the metros were overhead rather than at the same level. The area which will become the cold war museum had a row of equipment which would have been used in the tunnel, things such as radiation detectors and telephones. Another area had doors with different posters on them. We could hear music from inside. It looked as though they rented out rooms to outsiders. The area which was originally the sleeping quarters was still covered with water; obviously they weren't ready to rent those out yet. When we reached the furthest point in the tour, the lights suddenly went off and the air raid siren sounded followed by commands barked in Russian. The guide tried to translate, but it was hard to hear over the commands. We got the picture though. This is what it might feel like to experience a nuclear attack; it wasn't the actual thing. It's good that the rest of the tour figured that out too since the paint on the walls was very fresh, and they would have had interesting designs on the walls if our group had started to panic. Of course, it's a little hard to get nervous when the guide is carefully translating the words belted out in panic over a loudspeaker. On the way back, we were offered a choice between taking the elevator or the stairs. Kristen and I along with 3 other brave souls chose the stairs. One of the doors which had been closed earlier was now open showing some of the electrical equipment which kept this place running. It was a fascinating tour, a grim reminder of the cold war era.