Metro Bombings

I first would like to thank all my friends and family for being so concerned about me on Monday. It really meant a lot knowing so many people were there to support me during such a sad and difficult time. I especially want to thank my parents and brother for reacting so calmly when I woke them up after midnight and for being so comforting in the days since.

Being about as big of a fan of the Moscow Metro as anyone living in and around the Moscow area, waking up to the news of the bombings in the morning was to say the least, extremely saddening. But what really hit close to home was where these suicide attacks toke place and how closely they were to me and my friends. What was most frightening at the time was knowing any friend or teacher who was traveling to or from my university must pass at least one of the two stations. Below is a map of the Moscow Metro system.



Next is a zoomed in portion of the south west portion of the map indicating where the the suicide bombers got on the train, where the attacks occurred, and where my station is. I put arrows and numbers by the most important stations regarding Mondays attack.



So what is very obvious is it was only the red line, also known as the Sokolnicheskaya Line, which was hit. This was the first ever metro line built in Moscow in 1935. The first arrow points to the station in the far south west corner called Юго-Западная (Yugo-Zapadnaya) which appropriately translates as south west. It is at this station where I get off to visit my History professor and my friend Yuri. It is also here that the suicide bombers got on the train. Once they got on here they moved towards downtown, passing the station for the Kremlin and eventually detonating the first bomb at number 2 on the map called Lubyanka. Ironically I always get the creeps in this station. Not because I felt like anything was ever wrong but just knowing the history of the area and what terrible things must have occurred there back in the 40's and 50's. Right above here is where the KGB main building is located. And I don't even want to know what may have occurred in there. It is here that the most people where killed and injured in Monday's attacks. I spent a good portion of last Friday afternoon here at a really cool bookstore called Biblio-Globus. In the picture is the FSB headquarters (formerly the KGB), and the rock is a memorial to the Gulag outside of Moscow.




Number 3 on the map shows where the second bomb at Park Kultury was detonated 30 minutes later. This station isn't symbolic for government purposes but for the famed "Gorky Park" and Modern Tretyakov Gallery which are located near by. This means they were definitely going for civilians in an all civilian area. This is an especially busy and crowded metro since it connects the Red line with the famous Brown line which circles the entire city.

Lastly on the map (number 4) is the metro station "Universitet" which is my station.

So after about 30 minutes after the second bombing occurred I received a text message saying not to use the metro because bombings had occurred. I instantly jumped on to my computer to see what was happening. Once I found out what and where, I immediately called my family at home. Since no one really knew what was happening, I still packed up and walked to class. But since the metro was shut down my teacher was unable to get through to the university. Once class was canceled we decided not to hang out in our rooms all day so we went to a local mall. This involved walking by Metro station Universitet. When we got there we saw many officers with large guns (looked like AK 47's or something of that sort) checking people for their identification and going through any bags. Also, the near by bus stop was packed with people. So many buses and trolleys were deployed to solve the huge traffic mess. Sadly, all this did was clog everything up more. Never have I seen 10 trolley buses in one line not moving at all. Since there was nothing to do and no where to go, we stayed in all day.

Tuesday was officially a day of mourning for the Russian people. That evening my roommate Sasha and I went down to pay our respects at each station. There were a ton of people gathered there laying flowers, praying and crying. This was the most quiet I'd ever seen a metro station.

These are some pictures of the memorial at Park Kultury:




And here are some pictures of the Memorial at Lubyanka:




The sign says: "In this place on March 29th, 2010 a terrorist attack occurred in the wagon of a metro, which resulted in the death of people. In this station memorial plaque will be installed."

All this being said, things are returning to normal extremely fast. I traveled around the ring line just to look at the beautiful stations today. The Moscow Metro is called the "Underground Palace". This was built by the people, for the people in a Soviet society and if anyone has an opportunity to visit Moscow or any Russian subway, I highly recommend that you check out their metro. Moscow's Metro is one of the biggest in the world and carries around 7 million people a day. This is more than both London's Underground and Paris's Metro combined.

Finally, here are some images I took of one the most beautiful metro stations on the ring line called "Komsomol'skaya". If you zoom in on the motifs you can see all the intricate tile work which was done, it's amazing.









This weekend is Saint Petersburg!!!
-Justin

Moscow's Kremlin

Good news and bad new. First the good news, I have internet back! Apparently I just had to pay the guy. The bad news is that I'm suddenly sick and don't know why or what. It feels like a mix between the flu and a stomach virus that hit me suddenly this morning. Thus prompting me to leave class early to find a bathroom to vomit in. And I know some people might be thinking that maybe it's a bad hang over or something but drinking excessive amounts of alcohol over here is one of the few Russian traditions I have yet to participate in. Anyways, since I have internet and haven't left my bed in over 4 hours, nor am I able or willing to, I decided to update my blog!



I went into the Kremlin on Sunday and toured around looking at all the Catherdrals and Palaces, but it has come to my attention that many people in the west don't know what a kremlin is, their importance and what actually occurs in the current Moscow Kremlin. At first I was a little surprised, but quickly remember a few short years ago when I thought it was just a wall, St. Basils and nothing else. And for the record Saint Basil's is not within the Kremlin at all. The word kremlin or Кремль (Kreml) in Russian simply means "fortification". And if you look at all the kremlins through out Russia, that is exactly what they are.



The kremlins are important because the served to protect the city from any sort of invasion. If the city was being attacked, all the citizens would be able to run inside and be protected by the walls and military which is also located inside. Kremlins weren't used for just defense purposes but also for social and political reasons as well. Multiple cathedrals are usually inside and it is a great place for leaders to show off their wealth. The Moscow Kremlin itself have been built in many stages, part done to show dominance over the other. For example, after the first Moscow Kremlin was built in 1156 a new leader by the name of Ivan Kalita (Kalita means moneybags in Russian) rebuilt it using a much stronger, more expensive oak wood that the indigenous Moscow wood used in the first one. The Moscow Kremlin went through one more change before arriving at the red version we have today. In 1367 Dmitri Donskoi used his power to rebuilt the Kremlin for the first time using stone (more specifically white lime stone). It wasn't until the late 1400's that Ivan III rebuilt once again using the current red brick and designed by Italian architects.


This is the public entrance to the Kremlin and apparently where the Militsia practice walking.

The Moscow Kremlin hasn't been stagnant though. It wasn't until the 17th c that the well know tented tops were added to the towers. And also most people are very familiar with the Soviet star that tops 4 of the 20 towers weren't added until the 1930's. Also, when the Kremlin was originally built, it was located at the intersection of 2 rivers. If anyone has been to Moscow, they will quickly see that there is only one river that passes by the Kremlin now. The other one was put into two pipes that run beneath the Aleksandrovsky Sad (Alexander's Garden) and still empties into the Moskva River.

After Peter the Great fought off his brother and sister to become the new Tsar (and later the first ever Emperor of Russia) he decided that he hated Moscow. After spending years in Western Europe, he wanted his own European capital (Saint Petersburg) and to stay far away from Moscow. Anyways, after the early 1700's the capital was moved and Moscow was only used by the Tsars for the coronation ceremonies (which occurred in the Kremlin) and other various social or political events. So the Kremlin was suddenly not so important for a little over 300 years as the Romanovs ruled from Saint Petersburg ( this history of this city is also pretty crazy, but that will come in about 2 weeks!). It wasn't until after the Russian Revolution in 1917 did Lenin and the Soviet Union move the capital back to its roots in Moscow and more specifically the Kremlin. This move showed that real Russians (and not the aristocrats) were once again in charge of their own people. So that leads us to where we are with the Kremlin today. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Kremlin was still the capital of the newly formed Russian Federation. It's within these walls that the Senate meets and where President Medvedev lives. Today people are able to walk around certain areas of the Kremlin, specifically through Cathedral Square, which has 5 cathedrals you can enter, and also the State Armory, which houses many of the State artifacts including Tsarist clothing, gifts from foreigners, carriages and the diamond fund.




Me next to the largest bell (Tsar Kolikol) in the world which obviously didn't work too well


Cathedral of the Assumption. Built int the 15th century using the Byzantine inspired "Cross and Dome" style

The sad thing about all the dates and figures I used is that I have it all memorized because our "Symbology of Moscow" professor tests us weekly over it. I figured one day the knowledge might come into use and apparently it was today!

Take care,
Justin

One Day in the Life of Fyodor Mikhaylovich (Dostoevsky)

My illegally ran student internet is failing me! The University has cracked down on people like my guy in room 711 (yes, it is very ironic) and shut down these operations. But I will power though these tough times and use really slow internet from the cafe.

Well I hope everyone had a great Saint Patrick's Day! We went out to an Irish Pub in downtown to spend some time celebrating. I hadn't seen so many English speaking people in one area in about 2 months! I appropriately sat under the Texas flag all night. But the Irish pub is by far the least exciting thing I have done since my last update.



Like I promised I would 2 weeks ago, I finally got to see Lenin in his Mausoleum. A new girl named Sarah had just arrived the Friday before and said she would love to join Amitesh, Jack and I. Once again, she too is from Texas and recently graduated from UT. Why so many t-sipps in Moscow?! Anyways we woke up real early (like 8) and left by 8:30 to get to the metro by 9 in order to reach Red Square by 9:30 because the Mausoleum opens at 10. And yes, everything here does seem to work on 30 min intervals, its kind of strange. So after we got there we looked for the line, but since it was 9:30 am on a Sunday in -11 degrees C weather, no one was there! This was perfect because I had heard horror stories of waiting in line to see him. And I'm glad I didn't have to, because looking at a preserved corpse for 60 seconds is not worth a potential 3 hour wait in line. So next we had to check in all of our electronics and things capable of taking pictures. Then we just walked in! It was that simple. Interestingly, when you walk in you suddenly feel like your transported back to another era. The lights are dim, hammers and sickles adorn the wall, and the constructivist style of red and white granite plus all the guards standing in every corner makes you feel like you're back in the good old USSR. Seeing his body was probably the least exciting part of the whole trip. There wasn't much to see except for Lenin in a glass box. After we left the Mausoleum, we saw Stalin's grave which was sadly covered in more flowers than I had ever seen on a grave ever.


Stalin's grave with the flowers


Lenin's tomb.

The next exciting thing I did was visit the main Tretyakov Gallery. I finally got to see all the old classic paintings by Repin and many others. I also saw Vrubel's "Demon" and took illegal videos and pictures of it. One day I will get in trouble for doing things like this, but until then I'll just keep doing it. Luckily no one was around when I did it too.


After the Art museum I took the group of Americans to meet up with a friend of mine named Liza from our history class. She is Russian graduate student in linguistics who had worked for 5 years as a reporter covering defense issues! She has a friend who is the deputy director of the Dostoevsky Apartment Museum who offered to give us a private tour. Being a lover a Russian culture, I of course could't say no. So after we arrived at the museum they sat us down and gave us a brief history of his life and upbringing before moving onto the actual rooms. Once we started going through the rooms, Maxim (Liza's friend from the museum) told us to go ahead and sit down on the furniture. Our first reaction was "What!? No way! We can't sit on Dostoevsky's childhood furniture from the early 1800's." But after some pressure we sat down, and Maxim began to bring us some books...really really old books. Books that Dostoevsky had read and been influenced by. These books we were holding were published around 1820. It was absolutely insane. Maxim proceeded to tell us that the couch we were siting on is when Dostoevsky's father used to nap after work and also where the whole family would gather and recite their favorite poetry or literature. After spending about 30 mins reading and going through his library we moved on to a more modern room which just had some displays. Inside the displays were pictures, notes, artifacts, glasses, pens, etc. While we were looking at all of these things and still in awe over what we had just done, Liza and Maxim went to get tea and candy for us. Soon Maxim came back and before I ever realized what was happening, he was opening one of the display cases and pulling out Dostoevsky's reading glasses! Once again we all kind of freaked out as he handed them to us and told us to try them on. So we hesitantly put them on our faces and took a ton of pictures. I must say that Dostoevsky's head must have been fairly small because none of us were actually able to fit them on! I wondered, could this get any crazier? I soon found out yes. As we were drinking out of a 19th century tea set possibly owned by the Dostoevsky family, Maxim pointed out the grand piano (which they had put all the candy on top of) was given to the museum by Sergei Rachmaninoff, yes the Rachmaninoff who is one of the most famous piano composers of all time. He says that if anyone wants to play it to go ahead. I had briefly mentioned a few days before that I enjoyed playing the piano but was no good, plus I haven't played since the day before I left Texas. Well anyways, I was pressured to play and ended up playing a few songs that I had written myself on Rachmaninoff's piano. I don't think this day could have gotten any better, even if Dostoevsky and Rachmaninoff had risen from their graves to join us.



Me by Rachmaninoff's Piano and Dostoevsky's picture.

Me in Dostoevsky's glasses!

So yeah, Saturday was amazing but Sunday was a new day and time for new adventures. After a rough morning with our History professor, we left for the train to travel outside of Moscow (for the first time) and visit a friends dacha! Dacha's are summer homes that almost every Russian owns. They can be anywhere from a small hut no bigger than a fishing shack to a mansion bigger than most people's homes in the US. The dacha we went to was bigger than most homes in the US. It was huge and beautifully built. That was not really a surprise since the women who owns it and designed it is our professor on symbology and architecture. Well we spent the day there playing games, eating food, getting to know the Russians who had joined us and even playing some Risk (in Russian!). We got home pretty late and passes out quickly.



One of the small fishing hut type dachas which are most common.


Risk in Russian!

Well my battery is about to die and I just want to post this before the internet cuts out as well. I'll tell the rest of the stories from this week later!

-Justin

From Houstonite to Muscovite

This week has been quite busy with classes and other activities that I've barely had time to eat! Everyday we have Russian class at 9 am, and it always lasts until 12pm after that we have a break before we proceed with our activity of the day. That could mean anything from shopping at Achaun to taking the metro to Arbat for an awesome baguette.

I feel like I'm finally adjusted to life here. Nothing feels really "new" or "strange" anymore. I feel comfortable walking around the city and using the metro at anytime, I've found friends here both Russian and American. Plus, there rest of my courses have finally begun. So maybe its the fact that I got my permanent housing pass on Friday or I'm actually in some sort of daily routine but no matter what, its still a good feeling.

One of the most exciting things that I've done since I arrived was last Wednesday. We attended a performance by the Cossack's Mens Choir. There were about 25 huge men with deep baritone voices, belting out Russian classics like "Farewell to Slavyanka". If you've ever heard the Russian Red Army Choir, it's very similar to this. I loved watching the band play all the Slavic instruments like the balalaika (the instrument famously used in "Dr Zhivago"). The reason we went to this concert is because our History professor's friend (Olga), who is a professor of Symbology in the Philosophy Faculty, parents got us tickets. Well Olga's mother and father had worked for another big University in Moscow and it was this other University which was hosting the concert. Ironically, we had just started taking Olga's class that very day called "Symbols of Moscow". If you've ever read a Dan Brown book or even seen the Di Vinci Code movie, then you know how fascinating symbols and their history is. That's exactly what this woman specializes in. But instead of Religion like Robert Langdon, she does Stalinist Moscow. It's a fantastic class and its even more amazing to walk around with her in the metro and the city.

Today on the other hand, we spent some time at the Moscow Museum of Architecture, which was doing a display on the statue called "The Worker and the Collectivist". It is one of the most famous Soviet statues and symbols of all time. It was debuted in Paris during the 1937 World Exposition. Countries were asked to make a pavilion to show case their culture. This was the first year that the young Soviet Union had brought home first prize in best pavilion. Even though this is not the original sculpture, I still think it's impressive even if it is extremely idealogical. The last image is of Amitesh and I reenacting the pose.






Also today we visited the Metro Station called Бауманская or Baumanskaya. I consider it the best one because of its awesome name. I was really excited that of all places in the world to celebrate someone with the last name of Bauman, it would be Moscow. Apparently Nikolai Bauman was a revolutionary in the early 20th century and very good friends with V.I. Lenin. Even though he died in 1905, 12 years before the Soviet Union was even created, they still celebrated him with a metro and street.




Lastly I bought 18 movies in Russian for 4 dollars today. I got all 6 Star Wars films and the top 12 Anthony Hopkins films. I'm pretty excited about watching "Silence of the Lambs" in Russian. I think watching films in Russian where I already know the story and plot will really help me understand Russian better.

And the last lesson that I learned this week was to not run on ice. It seems like a no brainer, but in the heat of a snowball fight, you forget basic things like that. Well, while I was turning a corner both legs flew out from under me, thus landing on my left hip. Good thing I'm young because if I were any older it probably would have broke.

I think that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to see Lenin in his Tomb. It'll be creepy to see an 80 year old corpse, yet I still can't wait!

Till next time,

Justin