Red Corner: Mother Russia

by Neil Woodburn on

If Mother Russia had always stood where she stands today, German soldiers would have taken one look at the sword-wielding, screaming Banshee, and high-tailed it back to the Fatherland for some nerve calming schnapps.

When the Mother Russia statue was unveiled in 1967 at the site of World War II’s most horrific battle site–Stalingrad–it was the tallest statue in the world at the time.

Standing 171 feet tall (20 feet more than the Statue of Liberty), the mammoth woman looms over an intense memorial dedicated to the 600,000 Russians who died here. She is ferocious, intimidating, and packs a 14-ton stainless steel sword that is 90 feet long. You will never see anything else quite like her.

No one does memorials quite like the Russians and the one here is no exception. Indeed, it is the granddaddy of all Russian memorials.

Although the name of the city has been changed to Volgograd after Stalin fell from favor, the entire area remains one gigantic memorial to the infamous battle in which both sides ordered their troops not to surrender.

The Soviets lost more people in the war than all other countries combined. To visit the memorial at Volgograd–the symbolic heart of this conflict–is to gain a sense of Russian patriotism and to see and feel firsthand the utmost somber regard in which the war is still deeply imbedded today in the Russian psyche.

City of Contrasts. Bite Me.

by Iva Skoch on

If I read one more time that a place X is a “place of contrasts” I am going to scream or start sending letters, depending on which side of the contrast spectrum I will find myself. Beijing has been called a “city of contrasts” by CNN, Los Angeles by PBS, St. Petersburg by The Mercury Sun, Genoa by The New York Times (Et tu, Brute?) The list goes on.

In fact, when you type in “city of contrasts” into Google, you get 113,000 hits. You get hundreds of pictures when you type in the same in Google Images. The funny thing is, most of those pictures show no contrast at all, even if the most trivial kind. Take the picture displayed. The description says: Kazan, Russia: City of Contrasts. And, where would the contrast be? The ugly houses versus the less ugly houses?

What I want to know: Is there a place on Earth that’s NOT a place of contrasts? Contrasts are everywhere – the poor and the rich, the new and the old, the beautiful and the ugly. Contrast is a given. Even my kitchen is a place of contrasts, if you examine the unwashed dishes next to the hand-cut crystal glasses.

As places start looking more gentrified and similar, travel writers will really need to get more creative. That is one good thing globalization could accomplish.

Red Corner: Madonna’s Outer Space Visa Revoked

by Neil Woodburn on

Pop singer Madonna was the subject of the Russian parliament last week when they voted to deny her the opportunity of flying to the International Space Station as a tourist aboard a Russian rocket ship.

252 legislators rejected the proposal after suffering through a week of Madonna-related controversy in which the singer’s Moscow concert was nearly cancelled after protests by the Russian Orthodox Church over Madonna’s sacrilegious performances on stage. The public outcry carried over to the parliament session where only 42 legislators supported the Madonna space initiative.

A motion to place the washed-up singer on the next rocket to the sun, however, is currently being considered by the Russians.

Red Corner: Moscow’s Most Extravagant Restaurant

by Neil Woodburn on

The Soviets were always gung-ho over building the very biggest of things.

Their predecessors, the Capitalist Russians, share the same passion.

Consider for a moment, Turandot. This Moscow restaurant, which opened earlier this year, spreads across 65,000 square feet, seats 500 people, and cost over $50 million to build.

If it weren’t serving food, it could double as a museum.

According to wine writer Jancis Robinson, over 100 artists toiled on the mammoth construction, marvelously recreating an 18th century aristocratic residence bathed in resplendent opulence and gilded gold.

The New York Times also wrote about this extravagance last May. Having not yet visited myself, I’ll quote briefly from just one of the Times’ many descriptive passages.

“A marble Venetian courtyard – with statues of Neptune and other ancient gods and live mandarin trees, and bookended by two Gianmaria Buccellati boutiques – opens onto the palace, which is crowned by a sky-blue dome and a 1.5-ton crystal chandelier.”

The food seems almost secondary to every article I’ve run across. But once diners get over the striking interior and finally settle down to eat, the reviews of the “imperial Asian” cuisine have been pretty decent, and very pricey.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to visit my next time in Moscow.

Word for the Travel Wise (09/09/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Before we took off on our trip most of the group had planned on flying through Moscow into Dushanbe so they could get the right flights with Tajik Air and that is what they ended up doing. I decided to bypass all that because Tajik air tends to be a little fickle and didn’t want to chance getting in late. I went through Turkish Air which also meant I didn’t have to apply for a Russian visa. Thank goodness! I’ve heard some horror stories about getting visas for Russia, especially from our European team members. Just thought to share a piece of the tale for anyone going through the process right now.

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

tuhmohzhnyah – customs

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