Another walk in Krasnya Presnya

We explored part of this area last summer following a Phoebe walk. This time she took us to the manufacturing area and one of great historical significance.

At the beginning of the walk was this memorial to the coup of 1993 which brought Yeltsin to power and finally brought down the communists. The hardliners in the Duma had tried to over power Gorbechov and restore the old communist ways. There was a stand off and Yeltsin took the army with him. This memorial is a reminder of what happened as the Duma is nearby - it is not near the Kremlin.

Black and red ribbons in a tree

A replica of the barracade that was built

The back of the barracade

Photos and news reports

Some of those who died

Another memorial

This uncompromising building is a museum dedicated to the failed revolution of 1905, the successful revolution of 1917 and the take over of the country by the Bolsheviks.

In this humble wooden building the revolution of 1917 was planned and co-ordinated. The main museum was built  behind it and dwarves it!!

We were the only people there and being English rather threw them, but a lovely lady did a marvellous job explaining everything - we got so much more information because of her. She felt she had limited English but between us we worked it out.

The rooms used for planning and meetings. The one piece of information I didn't record was the name of the person who lived here and I can't find his name anywhere.

These pictures are from a diorama of the failed revolution of 1905. The Russian use them a lot and they are a very good way of explaining things. What amazed me about this was that there were something like 52 churches in the picture and they were the tallest buildings in Moscow. Not now!!

These postcards are from the beginning of the 20th century. I know the subject matter and the clothing is Russian, but I was surprised how similar they were to the postcards of the time in the UK - the similar cosy style!!

This is typical clothes for the Bolsheviks.

This for the White Russians who wanted democracy

It is still possible to buy footwear made of rushes now - I assume these boots are waterproof and good on the snow.

This dramatic stained glass is at the back of the entrance vestibule to the museum

The whole place was amazing and for anyone in Moscow reading this, I can strongly recommend it!! It was most interesting.

This is the Gorbaty Bridge which was a significan place in all time of revolution. Now the river has been covered in and it is now a memorial. Sad.

I said this is an area of manufacturing and this is the Tekhgornaya Mill. There has been a mill on this site since 1774 (I think) and it is still going strong. There is a fantastic factory shop at the end of the building selling fantastic bedding, curtains, table cloths etc. It seems to be very well known.

These interesting buildings were all very close together. I think I have remembered them all correctly, but I apologise if I have them wrong, but I have lost the paper with the walk.

This was a paupers refuge

A diocesian training college

One of these two buildings was part of the original buildings of the Moscow State University

This was an observatory which was part of the University

These cosmonauts were amazing

This was a very interesting walk with so much history.

Out and about again

Welcome back. I am horrified to see it is over a month since I last posted. Life has generally been very quiet here.i

School has seen lots of changes - mostly in management and planning, but it takes lots of time. A new age group also means more resources so again they take time. Still we are getting there.

Following the confirmation at church last January when the candidates wobbled about on cushions from Father Simon's sofa I decided to buy and make two kneelers to use for confirmations and weddings. I presented them to the church last Sunday. Before I handed them over I took these pictures together with the finished cushion cover I made before.

The top design

Writing on the edges 

My cushion

This weekend I had the chance to go out with a group from school to the Romanov Boyars' House museum in  the centre. This is the same family which gave rise to the last Tsarist dynasty. A boyar was a rich nobleman who was also involved in trade.

All that remains of a complex is the main house. The bottom two floors were built with brick and the top floor with wood. This is the same pattern all over Russia. Goods were kept safe in the solid bottom and the family lived in the wooden top.

Our guide and Masha, the secretary from School 2 who translated

Brick at the bottom and wood at the top

The Romanov's founded the monastery behind the house

This is the cellar used for food storage and cooking in the winter. In Summer food was cooked outside away from the main building

The family treasure stored in chests. In addition to coins, fine fabrics including silk from the east, guns from Holland and Great Britain, weapons and armour were all part of the family treasures.

The Master of the House's study. The walls are covered in leather imported from Holland. All the rooms are vaulted and small with tiny doorways, all to help keep the heat in. Each room had a tiles stove which acted like a radiator.

The main dining room was the most important room in the house. In the corner opposite the door is the icon corner. Only the master and his lady would have proper chairs, the rest of the family and guests sat on benches. Again only the master and  lady had individual plates to eat from, everyone else ate from shared plates and shared cups known as 'brothers'.

The ladies rooms. The house was divided into two parts for the men and women. Again only the master and his wife had a bedroom. The rest of the household slept on benches in their own quarters. Note the wooden walls as this room is at the top of the house. Here the children lived with the women - the boys moved to the men's quarters when they were about seven. In the chest at the front is a girl's dowry. As soon as she could embroider she would begin work, adding each completed item to her trunk.

The ladies' workroom. Despite being boyars and nobility, all the women were expected to be accomplished at sewing and weaving and a large part of the day was spent in the occupations. The boys had a formal education, learning to read in Greek and Latin as well as Russian.

It was a shame Peter couldn't come but he was supposed to be camping and then all the places were taken up. I will take him as it was so interesting.

Boat trip to Tver

These photos have been sitting on my computer all summer while I was in the UK. So despite being back in Moscow for over a week, here I am catching up on the summer.

The end of term was rather traumatic as Peter had his passport stolen just as I was breaking up. With the help of a 14 year old son of one of his clients he managed to report it to the police, get an incident number and finally apply for a temporary passport. Then he had to get an exit visa and he collected his paperwork on the morning we flew out!! Cutting it a bit fine but we made the flight and got home.

Big changes at school too. Betty has retired so a new head was due. Mark Madeley from school 9 was finally appointed. I am now teaching Year 1 so I had to change classrooms too!!

We broke up Thursday and on Friday evening Peter and I made our way to Rechnoy Voksal to catch the Anatoly Papanov to Tver. It is a traditional, small river cruiser.

Being the only foreigners on board was interesting. We were greeted by the entertainer dressed in traditional costume sharing a brioche type bread with salt.

Break off a piece and dip it in the salt.

To start with we missed the emergency procedures talk - not very clever!! As the evening came on we headed out of Moscow along the canal towards the Volga river. This is a massive water area with resevoirs and gravel pits joined by man made canals.

Leaving the North River Station

Across the basin

Ballast piles

Ballast barge

Nuclear submarine moored in the basin

Another boat following us out to the Volga on a longer cruise

Living on the edge of the river

Little wooden church

Sign for a marina - we first saw this on our train trip to Dmitrov back in May

Sunset

Food was very Russian but quite edible. There was a camera on the front of the boat so we could see where we were going while we ate.

I forgot to take a photo of the cabin which was fine. The double bed was on the minimal side so Peter had that and I managed on the tiny single - probably no more than 2 foot wide which was a bit on the narrow side. I had to wake up to turn over or I would have disappeared under the table. To be honest we spent very little time in there.

While we were in bed we motored through a very long canal with massive locks on. By breakfast time we were turning onto the Volga river. All along the river banks were communities. It was so peaceful.

Soon we were approaching Tver which is a modest town north east of Moscow. The great Volga river rises somewhere near and passes through the town. There is some high rise but not much. What we saw of the town was no more than 5 storeys high.

These next photos are on the approach to Tver.

The Tver river station - similar architecture to Moscow

We finally moored in Tver (Tverskaya is named from this town) after lunch. We didn't realise and no-one told us that we were being driver for an hour out of town by bus to a small museum dedicated to Pushkin in the village of Torzhok. It was very interesting but there were no notes in English and no-one could translate. We just had to hang around as there was no-where for us to go.

Rural clothing from the 19th century

Wood and leather sled

After the museum we were taken to a monastery which is slowly being restored. It was interesting to see a building as it was after the fall of communism. A year ago, when we went to the Golden ring. we saw several monasteries which had been restored, as in Moscow.

When restored the metal dome will be brightly coloured.

Note the new brick work, particularly around the windows.

As we left through the gate we noticed that the ancient gateway had been modified to allow big lorries to go in and out. Often these places were used for storage.

On arriving back in Tver we had about an hour to walk along the water front before we set sail.

This is an unusual monument by the water with a dragon boat growing out of the wall

Pushkin

This is an amazing art nouveau cinema which has survived and is still going strong. I didn't take any photos of the tiles, but they were amazing and I didn't have time to go back to take more.

Leaving Tver

Throught the night we travelled back along the Volga and the interesting countryside we had seen during the day. Sunday saw cruising along the canal back to Moscow. As we went we collected boats at the locks.

Once away from Moscow there are no bridges over the canal but in several places these ferries, but we couldn't see any boats so we're not sure how the cross the water.

The canals are pretty big.

At one end there are often statues. Theses are a bit the worse for wear.

The last two were on the lock close to Dmitrov and Yarkhoma. We saw them from the train when we went to Dmitrov but couldn't photograph them because there was a good train in the way, so it was good to see them from the boat.

When we took the train we saw the gates about 1 1/2 hours from Moscow so I was interested to see how long it would take us to get back to Moscow by water. It took 8 hours. to begin with we couldn't travel so fast and we had to travel much further to go through the resevoirs.

There were also statues along the riverbank.

We docked at about 10.30pm, and just took the metro back to Voykovskaya. After a stressful few days it was lovely to get away, even if we couldn't understand everything. My TA for the last three years comes from Tver and goes back most weekends. I can understand why. I would like to go back one day.

The last week saw me hiding in the flat as it turned hot and humid. I met up with Ruth from church who was leaving in a few weeks. Peter was working for most of the week.

And so we returned to England for the summer, enjoying Harrogate and Thirsk in Yorkshire before coming back 10 days ago.