Kitay-Gorod

A few photographs from a walk around Kitay-Gorod on a warmish March day (0c). The Kitay-Gorod area is a short walk from the centre of Moscow and is mostly a business district with some beautiful buildings.

The outside of a beautiful church.

A statue in a little park area in Kitay-Gorod

Some lovely buildings beside the metro.

The yellow building is the Polytechnical Museum.

Another church in Kitay Gorod.

Polytechnical Museum Moscow

Today I visited the Polytechnical Museum, which is a science museum in Moscow that emphasizes the process of Russian and Soviet technology and science, as well as modern inventions and developments. The museum is one of the oldest museums in Moscow and it was quite good, but very little explanation was in English. I particularly enjoyed looking at the advancements in Space development over time. 

Development in transport from steam engines to modern day living.

Shell of a atomic bomb

Shell of a atomic bomb missile

Part of Sanbum Space Aircraft.

Communication advancement from telegrams.

Equipment used during space missions.

Original Soviet Spacesuits.

Part of the Vostok spacecraft - the first human spaceflight  by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

St Patrick's Day - Moscow 2012

St Patrick's Day celebrations take place on Arbat. The celebrations are huge and includes a parade, live music and Irish dancing. The St Patrick's Day parade has taken place now for the past 20 years.

St Patrick's Day - Moscow 2012

St Patrick's Day 2012 -Adam, Carrie and Suzanne.

St Patrick's Day with Adam, Carrie and Rebecca.

 St Patrick's Day at Arbat - Suzanne, Carrie and Rebecca

St Patrick's Day parade.

The dog doesn't look very impressed.

A man playing the Uilleann Pipes (like the bagpipes). Although looks rather more Scottish in a kilt.

Busy Arbat.

More Uilleann pipes.

St Patrick's Day 2012.

St Patrick's Day 2012.

Key ring to celebrate St Patrick's Day in Russia.

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Gulag History Museum

Tucked on a street of posh boutiques, a gloomy archway leads into a courtyard strung with barbed wire and hung with huge portraits of victims of the GULAG, or Soviet labor camp.

Outside the Gulag History Museum

The sign beneath the portraits reads: THESE ARE 12 OF MANY MILLION . . ., referring to the millions of Soviet citizens who passed through labor camps. Most were punished for political crimes, often only imagined by a paranoid Communist leadership. Many were killed or tortured. Those who survived usually faced repression and discrimination for the rest of their lives, as did their families. The Moscow city government runs this museum, one of the city's newest.

Gulag Museum

The former USSR

Stalin times - paintings.

Gulag Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Outside Russia, the legacy of Stalin, who ruled as a dictator from the 1920s until his death in 1953, is pretty clear. Killing millions of his own people landed him in the pantheon of the world's worst dictators, alongside Hitler  His name conjures images of domestic terror, nighttime arrests and prompted fatal campaigns against perceived enemies. However inside Russia, the story is more complicated. He was, according to recent books (printed 2010-2011) and endorsed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a "competent manager" who committed atrocities at home out of necessity. Earlier this year, Stalin nearly won a nationwide call-in poll asking people to vote for the person who best represents Russia. The Gulag Museum tells a different story.The entrance mimics the gates of an average labor camp. Inside, scores of documents detail the Soviet leadership's decision to set up the prison network to purge society of perceived enemies and provide a free workforce for the massive infrastructure projects that would industrialize the nation.

There are boots and chains from Magadan, the site of Russia's most notorious camp. One wall is devoted to the tale of Georgiy Zhzhyonov, a famous Soviet actor imprisoned for speaking to an American on a train. Another is devoted to Bulat Okudzhawa, Russia's Bob Dylan, who lost most of his family to dreaded Gulag system. The museum is devoted to the people who suffered in the camps, for no reason.Gives you a real insight into recent Russian history.

A walk along Arbat, Old Arbat and Smolenskaya

The Old Arbat is a famous pedestrian street in the historical centre of  Moscow. Nearby is New Arbat which also contain many shops and restaurants.  The Old Arbat has many historic buildings and numerous artists who have lived and worked in the street. The Old and New Arbat are both important tourist attractions. The Old Arbat contains a variety of lovely little cafes and some very overpriced souvenir shops.

Smolenskaya Metro Station

A little church at Smolenskaya

New Abrat

Outside Abratskaya Metro.

Beautiful statue on Arbat.

Traditional buildings Old Arbat.

The cow outside the Milkshake cafe.

Statue of Bulat Okudzhava, the Soviet-era singer

Pushkin and his wife, Natalia Goncharova on Arbat.

Beautiful paintings for sale on Old Arbat.

Busy Smolenskaya

The Foreign Defence building.

Inside Smolenskaya Metro Station

A selection of Metro photographs

 Below are just some photographs from some of the beautiful metro stations in Moscow.

Serpukhovskaya Metro Station

Teatralnaya Metro Station

Teatralnaya Metro Station

Tsvetnoy Bul'var

Komsmolskaya Metro

Komsmolskaya Metro

Might be Oktyabrskaya Metro - but I can't remember.

Komsmolskaya Metro