Russia’s Highway of Death

by Neil Woodburn on

Traveling between Russia’s two largest cities should not be as difficult as it is.

Most people take the overnight train but the train is unfortunately a popular target for criminals. I once heard a story that the train pulled into Moscow one morning and nobody got off – the entire train had been gassed and all passengers robbed.

Another option is taking the highway. As you can see from the above photo, this is not the best of options either–especially in the winter. It is only two lanes wide, full of trucks, and poorly plowed. And apparently trucks like to drive on the wrong side of the road occasionally (yes, the photo above is looking out the front window of a car).

The fine folks over at English Russia have put together a few other scenes of carnage and alarm from this notorious highway for us all to enjoy. Check it out.

Me? I’m going to take my chances with gassed trains next time I make the journey.

Word for the Travel Wise (01/28/07)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just a couple of weeks back Neil discussed touring Moscow in winter and how his travels at such a frigid, freezing time came off strange to most and how strange it was that he actually found himself enjoying not-so-much the cold weather, but the difference in attitude and face among Russian natives. According to his travel notes he found the people were quite festive. Strange, because Russinas aren’t normally considered festive.

Today’s word is a Russian word used in Russia:

stranno – strange (it’s)

Ready to learn Russian? Check out Master Russian first. They have numerous excellent sound files and the text is clear and easy to read. Learning also goes beyond your Russian A, B, C’s at their site as they have crosswords, literature, proverbs, folk music, and homework help. Other good sites include Learning Russian and this Ectaco Translation Dictionary. Click here for two language book rec’s on Amazon. BBC has the basics to download and hear audio, while Wiki provides the in depth Russian lang back history.

Past Russian words: , shakzochniy, paka, spasiba, tuhmohzhmyah, tantsihvat, durak

Retracing Napoleon’s Russian Footsteps

by Neil Woodburn on

I posted a few days ago about how enjoyable Moscow can be in the wintertime despite the horrific cold weather which is so legendary in the Russian capital.

The Russian winter, however, has regularly proved fatal to one type of traveler intent on reaching Moscow: the foreign soldier.

Most recently, it was Hitler’s troops who fell to the ravages of winter just 41 kilometers outside of Moscow. Before that it was Napoleon’s. Napoleon, however, accomplished what Hitler never could; he actually reached the Russian capital. He waited there for five weeks for the Czar to surrender (which he never did) and then hastily retreated as the worst part of the winter hit.

The result was catastrophic.

A fascinating article in City Paper (The Baltics States) retraces this failed military campaign and tells the story of how Napoleon marched into Russia via the Baltics with 500,000 soldiers–only to return a few months later during his winter retreat with just 40,000 remaining.

The account of this tragedy has recently resurfaced due to the discovery of a mass grave in Vilnius containing more than 2,000 of Napoleon’s soldiers who had frozen or starved to death.

It was a horrific campaign through harsh lands and stark conditions. I’ve traveled the same route via train and suffered through equally as cold Moscow winters, but I simply can’t imagine doing so on foot, across such great distances, with 19th century clothing and gear, and Cossacks shooting at me.

History, geography, and travel are indeed strange, and at times, horrific bedfellows. When you have the opportunity to combine all three together and understand their correlations, it makes for a very powerful experience indeed.

Permafrost Disappearing, Siberia Terraforming

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s not very often that we get to witness the earth changing. Unless there is a volcanic eruption or an earthquake, geological changes tend to be very slow and difficult to observe.

Now, thanks to global warming, this is no longer the case.

According to a report published on RFERL, Scientists studying Siberia’s frozen tundra are reporting a drastically changing landscape in which permafrost is melting and having a profound affect upon local communities and ecosystems.

For example, as the ground melts, numerous lakes are beginning to form where there were never lakes before. Not a bad thing really–we all like lakes–except that such an action releases carbon and methane into the atmosphere which then contribute to global warming.

On the other end of the spectrum, lakes which have existed for many years are starting to disappear as the permafrost melts and the waters are absorbed into the earth.

The melting earth is also sucking up Siberian homes which were built upon the rigid permafrost but are now sinking into muddy tundra. There are homes in Yakutsk, for example, where the windows have already sank below ground level.

This is not good. There are 10 million square kilometers of permafrost in Russia and as it melts, the impact will be felt around the globe.

Visit now before Siberia becomes one gigantic, methane-producing swamp.

Russian Bus Stops… and Other Soviet Oddities

by Justin Glow on

Just the other day I was thinking to myself, “what does a Soviet roadside bus stop look like?” Having never visited that part of the world, I was left to my own imagination — that is, until I ran across this lovely little collection of Soviet bus stop photos taken by photographer Christopher Herwig.

Okay, so I never really pondered the aesthetic qualities of Soviet bus stops, but that doesn’t make this set of photos any less cool. Many of the structures are uniquely designed with abstract shapes and colorful markings — quite a departure from the standard “window box bus stop” (can you tell I made that term up?) so common in North America.

Turns out, Russia’s architectural uniqueness extends beyond roadside bus stops. EnglishRussia.com (previously featured on Gadling here and here) has a ton of posts dedicated to profiling many of these bizarre buildings. I suggest you have a look.

Recent Russian weirdness from Gadling: