Ryazan

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I had diarrhea on the very morning of my departure from Yanaul to Moscow. I felt not happy about it. I chose Ryazan for my short visit because it is not far from Moscow (to fill a day’s expectation between the trains) and has an interesting old Kremlin. In this entry I use information taken from the web to make the story more informative.

The Ryazan land was populated by tradesmen as early as the VII-VIII centuries, and the land became an independent Murom-Ryazan principality at the beginning of the XII century. Ryazan turned out stronger than Murom because of several reasons, one of which is its good fortifications: steep earth mounds and high timber walls. However, a stronger force from the East would come in the winter of 1237, that is the Tatar-Mongol horde, who, despite the six days of Ryazan’s brave resistance, forced their way into the town and destroyed everything they could and left it in ruins. With the course of time, Ryazan built its Kremlin, developed, and entered the modern times as one of the thirty largest Russian cities.

I came to Moscow at 4.40 in the morning and waited till seven at Kazansky railway station, reading the information boards about the various trains, rules, tariffs etc. I spent the time effectively – recharged my music player. Moscow and Ryazan are linked by the comfortable express elektrichka called "Sergey Esenin", covering the distance in three hours, from seven till ten in the morning. The area near the train station was filled with cars and was not pleasant to the eye; I tried to find a baggage room, there seemed to be none, so I went with my rucksack, bought a map; it was rather a long way from the station to the Kremlin. Ryazan is a typical Russian city; but I saw some very old trolleybuses which I do not remember having seen in any other city. The city suffers from traffic jams, though it has only half a million habitants, and the central streets where I walked were packed with vehicles.

Approaching the Kremlin, I saw a yellow bell-tower (Sobornaya bell-tower), standing at the end of a tree-alley, with a path and a bridge leading to it. The trees were of course bare and combined harmonically with the white colour of the snow. Now, the word Kremlin is sure to evoke the image of Moscow Kremlin, but Ryazan’s is tiny and should not be compared. The Kremlin stands on a hill, with an earth mound surrounding it, and two small rivers, Trubezh and Lybed, flowing past. I saw a small multi-domed church far away but used photo zoom instead of my feet to approach it. Right next to the bridge is another church, also yellow (orange).

The Kremlin was founded in 1095, but construction on its territory ended only in the beginning of the XX century. The Uspensky Cathedral was the first stone structure there. It is a remarkable construction, the whole complex of whitewashed buildings really evokes images of old Russia. I was interested in visiting the museum, housed in the so-called “Oleg’s House”. It is an architectural monument from the XVII-XVIII cc. Its three floors feature some interesting exhibitions: “From Rus to Russia” and “Ryazan wooden sculptures and carved iconostases”. The first exposition is based on the idea of Russia’s statehood, territorial, political, and cultural unity. It displays the development of a typical Russian town from the early Middle Ages till the beginning of the XX century. There are electronic guide tablets in each room (in the Russian language).

I entered Oleg’s House and bought tickets for two exhibitions – From Rus to Russia and the entrance ticket to ‘Chanters’ House’ (Pevchesky Korpus). The exhibition was very interesting to me, and there was but a single other visitor. I saw miniatures displaying the tradesmen’s activity such as the pot maker’s, the blacksmith’s. It looked charming. I saw a lot of crosses, mainly small ones, very unusual jewelry and triple-bead semi-rings, dating back to the XII-XIII cc.; ancient arms – chain armours and spears, plus various items related to railways, medical service and education, dishware, and paraphernalia for high-society dances – fans, gloves, dresses, etc etc. Now, what I saw next I have never seen in my life.

A separate hall was devoted to the exhibition of cultic wooden plastic arts of the XVI-XIX cc. from the collections of several regional museums. There were many dozens of wooden sculptures, small and large, portraying Orthodox saints and other religious themes. Thecarvingswerecarefullyrestored.

Then I went to the Chanters’ House – a monument of civil architecture of the middle of XVII c. It was called so because chanters carried out their songfests there, though the building was mainly purposed for the provisor and the treasurer. There is a room with excellent, colourful, shining wall paintings. The building’s exhibition depicts the culture and daily life of the peoples of Central Russia in the XVII-XIX cc.

The next, and final for the day, exhibition presented miniature dolls designed and made by a Ryazan citizen Lyudmila Kuleshova. It was the second discovery for me on this day – also things the likes of which I haven’t seen before.

The dolls, made professionally and with utmost attention to detail and historic accuracy, represent historical characters from various epochs: tsars of Rurikovich and Romanov dynasties, some famous European gerents – Francis I, Ekaterina Medici, Henry II, Maria-Antoinette and others. The costumes were made true to the fashion of the corresponding historical period. No wonder the author received many diplomas at competitions and exhibitions in Germany, Italy, Bulgaria etc.

As I walked backed, I saw several memorial plaques dedicated to Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn, Ivan P. Pavlov, Nadezhda Krupskaya, a monument to Maxim Gorky, and to Sergey Esenin, and a plaque in Soviet style.

I finished my trip in Malina shopping mall where I had some chicken strips, and bought snacks for the train journey to St. Petersburg. By some wondrous arrangement, the train took six hours (instead of three, as I should expect) to reach Moscow. I guess it went by some devious route.

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Photos

Memorial Plaque
In this building on December 3-5 1917 there took place the first guberniya congress of Soviets of workers, peasant and soldier deputies