The Cathedral is located near the Kremlin just off the Moscow River. It is a major church in Moscow of the Russian Orthodox religion. Alexander I commissioned the construction of the Cathedral which was completed after many years in 1860. Alexander III consecrated the Cathedral in 1883.
The Cathedral was demolished by the Bolsheviks under Joef Stalin as part of an anti-religious campaign after the Russian Revolution. Demolition was completed in 1926. It was intended to serve as a site of a huge statue of Vladimir Lenin who Stalin succeeded him after his death in 1824. A lack of funds in the 1930s prevented the statue from being built. Nikita Khruschev who succeeded Stalin turned the site into an enormous swimming pool.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the Cathedral was reconstructed starting in 1994 and took several years to rebuild. The Cathedral was consecrated in 2000.
Both the exterior and interior are stunning works of architecture and art. Unfortunately picture taking is prohibited inside.
The Cathedral has recently been the site of a number of protests by opposition groups to Vladimir Putin’s administration. Under Putin’s regime church and state have been again closely allied. The church is lead by Archbishop Krill who has emerged as a controversial figure both in religious as well as political affairs. As such, the Orthodox church has regained a significant place in the culture of Moscow and Russia after the fall of the USSR.
I’ve put together a brief slideshow of images I took during a recent visit this fall. Most of the slides are of the cathedral itself as well as shots of the Kremlin taking from the patios surrounding the cathedral.
The easiest way to view the show is to click on the following link: http://player.vimeo.com/video/52064127
The show is also located on my Website: www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
All of a sudden it’s cold here is Mockba. Yesterday we’re were in the teens (Celsius). This morning we awoke to about +50 C. As I’m writing this it’s 23:14 and the temperature is 00 C going down to -1 or -20 C tonight with a chance of frost.
Days are again getting shorter with sunrise about 7:30 and sunset around 17:30.
Looks like winter weather is starting to arrive. Last year it held off until mid-November.
Nancy’s school is off next week so we’re off to the south of France.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Days are again getting shorter with sunrise about 7:30 and sunset around 17:30.
Looks like winter weather is starting to arrive. Last year it held off until mid-November.
Nancy’s school is off next week so we’re off to the south of France.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
All of a sudden it’s cold here is Mockba. Yesterday we’re were in the teens (Celsius). This morning we awoke to about +50 C. As I’m writing this it’s 23:14 and the temperature is 00 C going down to -1 or -20 C tonight with a chance of frost.
Days are again getting shorter with sunrise about 7:30 and sunset around 17:30.
Looks like winter weather is starting to arrive. Last year it held off until mid-November.
Nancy’s school is off next week so we’re off to the south of France.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Days are again getting shorter with sunrise about 7:30 and sunset around 17:30.
Looks like winter weather is starting to arrive. Last year it held off until mid-November.
Nancy’s school is off next week so we’re off to the south of France.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Never Before
13 октября 2012
Something happened to me while driving home yesterday from Nancy’s school that has never happened to me before.
While driving into a treacherous intersection in our neighborhood where 3 lanes of a service road to the right merge into 3 lanes of a major highway it was the usual chaos. The service lane cars thrust themselves onto the highway without even looking. In order to navigate through this deadly logjam you have to be aggressive or you won’t be able to get in the lane you need to be in to make a right turn ahead or more importantly you’re trying to avoid being side-swiped or worse by a car.
Navigating through this intersection requires a combination of aggressive and defensive driving. Sometimes you just have to let the guy whose just jutted out in front of you in to avoid a crash.
This was the case yesterday and as I let the guy in a white BMW go ahead of me he waved a wave of thanks! No one ever even acknowledges you from a car window or walking down the street. The guy actually waved to say thanks for letting me in…amazing…
До следующего раза ...
Борис
While driving into a treacherous intersection in our neighborhood where 3 lanes of a service road to the right merge into 3 lanes of a major highway it was the usual chaos. The service lane cars thrust themselves onto the highway without even looking. In order to navigate through this deadly logjam you have to be aggressive or you won’t be able to get in the lane you need to be in to make a right turn ahead or more importantly you’re trying to avoid being side-swiped or worse by a car.
Navigating through this intersection requires a combination of aggressive and defensive driving. Sometimes you just have to let the guy whose just jutted out in front of you in to avoid a crash.
This was the case yesterday and as I let the guy in a white BMW go ahead of me he waved a wave of thanks! No one ever even acknowledges you from a car window or walking down the street. The guy actually waved to say thanks for letting me in…amazing…
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Lenin’s “Dacha”
3 октября 2012
Recently we were on a day-long tour of Vladimir Lenin’s Dacha which served as a strategic headquarters for Lenin and his key supporters during the Russian Revolution of 1917.
In the usual sense a dacha is a second summer home, often hand-built by the owners, and serves as a getaway for weekend relaxation. There is no standard definition of dacha. The buildings run the gamut from what at first glance might be described as shacks or cottages put together from odd pieces of lumber and metal all the way to complete beautifully appointed summer resort houses you might expect to see in the US or Europe. Some have running water, electricity, septic systems and heat while many are not as comfortably appointed.
To call "Lenin’s Dacha" a dacha is understated by conventional standards by several orders of magnitude. The word estate comes to mind and more aptly describes Lenin’s Dacha.
Originally known as the “Estate of Gorki” this large plot of land has three well appointed buildings and was owned over the centuries by noblemen. Over the years the buildings were renovated and expanded a number of times. The estate is located about a 30 minute drive south of Mockba. During the Revolution of 1905 the estate was owned by General Anatoly Reynbot who served as Mockba’s governor.
After the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917 Vladimir Lenin, a key architect of the revolution, moved into the estate after the property was nationalized in 1918. Lenin’s Dacha served as the strategic headquarters as Lenin oversaw the revolution and the transition of the Russian Empire autocratically ruled by Tsar Nicholas II to Communist Russia.
Today the property serves as a museum displaying many of Lenin’s tactical and everyday living items including his car fitted with tractor treads and skies attached to the front wheels to travel in the heavy snows of Russian winters.
I’ve put together a brief slideshow of images I took during our visit. The easiest way to view the show is to click on the following link: http://player.vimeo.com/video/50685725
The show is also located on my Website: www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia
До следующего раза ...
Борис
In the usual sense a dacha is a second summer home, often hand-built by the owners, and serves as a getaway for weekend relaxation. There is no standard definition of dacha. The buildings run the gamut from what at first glance might be described as shacks or cottages put together from odd pieces of lumber and metal all the way to complete beautifully appointed summer resort houses you might expect to see in the US or Europe. Some have running water, electricity, septic systems and heat while many are not as comfortably appointed.
To call "Lenin’s Dacha" a dacha is understated by conventional standards by several orders of magnitude. The word estate comes to mind and more aptly describes Lenin’s Dacha.
Originally known as the “Estate of Gorki” this large plot of land has three well appointed buildings and was owned over the centuries by noblemen. Over the years the buildings were renovated and expanded a number of times. The estate is located about a 30 minute drive south of Mockba. During the Revolution of 1905 the estate was owned by General Anatoly Reynbot who served as Mockba’s governor.
After the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917 Vladimir Lenin, a key architect of the revolution, moved into the estate after the property was nationalized in 1918. Lenin’s Dacha served as the strategic headquarters as Lenin oversaw the revolution and the transition of the Russian Empire autocratically ruled by Tsar Nicholas II to Communist Russia.
Today the property serves as a museum displaying many of Lenin’s tactical and everyday living items including his car fitted with tractor treads and skies attached to the front wheels to travel in the heavy snows of Russian winters.
I’ve put together a brief slideshow of images I took during our visit. The easiest way to view the show is to click on the following link: http://player.vimeo.com/video/50685725
The show is also located on my Website: www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Friday, September 14, 2012
On Hitch Hiking in Mockba – They’re Not
14 сентября 2012
Last November I posted a blog note about people hitch hiking here in Mockba. Turns out I was wrong. As I explained then it looked to me like when someone wanted a ride they’d stand along the curb and stick their arm out extended downward. When a car stopped the person would talk to the driver presumably to ask if he/she was going in the right direction.
While I was right that people were looking for a ride, what they were actually doing is haling a gypsy (unmarked) cab. Just like it Manhattan there are licensed medallion cabs, usually yellow with a lighted sign on the roof telling you if the cab was occupied or not. Then there are unmarked gypsy cabs that don’t have a meter – you have to negotiate the fare before moving on. The conventional wisdom is you’re likely to get ripped off if you flag down a gypsy cab.
It turns out that there are a lot of gypsy cabs, also un-metered, cruising around the streets of Mockba looking for fares. While not always the case, many are Russia Ladas, a small “basic” car produced in Russia about the size of a Nissan Almera. When the car stopped the “hitch hiker” was not asking where the driver was going but rather negotiating a fare.
Gypsy cabs in Mockba have the same reputation as they do in Manhattan – watch your wallet! On the other hand licensed cabs in Mockba have about the same reputation for being rip offs.
Bottom line: don’t take any type of cab in Mockba unless you’re really desperate.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
While I was right that people were looking for a ride, what they were actually doing is haling a gypsy (unmarked) cab. Just like it Manhattan there are licensed medallion cabs, usually yellow with a lighted sign on the roof telling you if the cab was occupied or not. Then there are unmarked gypsy cabs that don’t have a meter – you have to negotiate the fare before moving on. The conventional wisdom is you’re likely to get ripped off if you flag down a gypsy cab.
It turns out that there are a lot of gypsy cabs, also un-metered, cruising around the streets of Mockba looking for fares. While not always the case, many are Russia Ladas, a small “basic” car produced in Russia about the size of a Nissan Almera. When the car stopped the “hitch hiker” was not asking where the driver was going but rather negotiating a fare.
Gypsy cabs in Mockba have the same reputation as they do in Manhattan – watch your wallet! On the other hand licensed cabs in Mockba have about the same reputation for being rip offs.
Bottom line: don’t take any type of cab in Mockba unless you’re really desperate.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Sunday, September 9, 2012
On Estonia
9 сентября 2012
Estonia has an especially interesting history and was an important “holding” of the Soviet Union. As the Cold War heated up Russia invaded Estonia shipping off entire families to Siberia on very short notice (it is said: “15 minutes”) to set an example that Soviet satellite countries were to fall in line with the USSR or suffer severe consequences.
Estonia, and Tallinn in particular represented the most western frontier of the Soviet Union and thus became an important tactical holding of the USSR. While we were in Tallinn we took a day-long tour of the western coast of Tallinn and visited old, now rotting, military installations including a horizontal ICCM missile silo which would be the first line of attack had the US launched an attack on the USSR. The silo we visited was basically an enormous cylindrical culvert sunk into the ground so from above it would not be detected by planes flying overhead or by spy satellites. At one time it held 4 missiles that would be rolled out of the silo, aimed and fired – presumably at the US. There were holes in the back of the silo that allowed fuel lines to connect to the missiles.
Today the silo is empty and overgrown and hidden by trees and bushes. If you weren’t aware of the history you’d walk by thinking it was an abandoned drainage pipe.
We also visited an enormous block of concrete that served as an artillery battery that supported a huge canon aimed at London and England. All around the area were abandoned military control buildings and barracks that housed troops stationed in Estonia. All were overgrown and in various states of decay and collapse.
One of our other stops was to a large non-descript building surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by security people not keen on curious photographers getting close to the building. We were told that buried deep beneath the building was a sarcophagus that contained the decommissioned uranium from warheads originally hidden in the silos I described above. When the cold war ended and the Soviet Union collapsed the warheads were buried here. The hot uranium has a half-life of 10,000 years so it’s going to be around for a while hence the barbed wire and cranky looking security guards.
If you’re interested I’ve posted a slideshow of images I shot when we were in Estonia. Some images show the things I’ve described above as well as the Old Town section of Tallinn. The easiest way to view the show is to click on this link: http://player.vimeo.com/video/49012736 . I’ve also posted the show on my site at: www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia Click on the last entry.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
Estonia, and Tallinn in particular represented the most western frontier of the Soviet Union and thus became an important tactical holding of the USSR. While we were in Tallinn we took a day-long tour of the western coast of Tallinn and visited old, now rotting, military installations including a horizontal ICCM missile silo which would be the first line of attack had the US launched an attack on the USSR. The silo we visited was basically an enormous cylindrical culvert sunk into the ground so from above it would not be detected by planes flying overhead or by spy satellites. At one time it held 4 missiles that would be rolled out of the silo, aimed and fired – presumably at the US. There were holes in the back of the silo that allowed fuel lines to connect to the missiles.
Today the silo is empty and overgrown and hidden by trees and bushes. If you weren’t aware of the history you’d walk by thinking it was an abandoned drainage pipe.
We also visited an enormous block of concrete that served as an artillery battery that supported a huge canon aimed at London and England. All around the area were abandoned military control buildings and barracks that housed troops stationed in Estonia. All were overgrown and in various states of decay and collapse.
One of our other stops was to a large non-descript building surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by security people not keen on curious photographers getting close to the building. We were told that buried deep beneath the building was a sarcophagus that contained the decommissioned uranium from warheads originally hidden in the silos I described above. When the cold war ended and the Soviet Union collapsed the warheads were buried here. The hot uranium has a half-life of 10,000 years so it’s going to be around for a while hence the barbed wire and cranky looking security guards.
If you’re interested I’ve posted a slideshow of images I shot when we were in Estonia. Some images show the things I’ve described above as well as the Old Town section of Tallinn. The easiest way to view the show is to click on this link: http://player.vimeo.com/video/49012736 . I’ve also posted the show on my site at: www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia Click on the last entry.
До следующего раза ...
Борис
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