From Russia with love

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So far Moscow has been equally as welcoming as its counterpart to the north, St Petersburg. The following morning after our arrival the night before we awoke early, today was going to be a long day; we had two tours booked. First was a metro tour, which involved the guide meeting us at our hotel and then walking from our hotel to the closest metro station and showing us about various station stops helping us become familiar with the key transport of the city. Later that evening the same tour guide will take us on a night city tour of Moscow. We opted to do this as we both figured it would be the safest environment to take photos at night. From prior experience after doing a single tour both Michelle and I were usually quite buggered in the evening, suddenly the idea of doing two tours in a single day didn’t seem like such a great idea.

However before all that was breakfast. It has to be said, it is healthy for me to be on holiday, be it a work trip to Sydney or a holiday abroad, these are the times I have the healthiest breakfasts. First course; fried tomato with herbs, egg, sausage, perhaps some hash browns and baked beans with some freshly squeezed orange juice. Second course; a bowl of assorted fruits including apricot, pair, banana with strawberry yoghurt drizzled on top, and on occasion to finish it off a cup of coffee. This usually sees me through usually till early afternoon if not till lunch time.

Since St Petersburg, one thing Michelle and I have now realized is that in some sense we over-did the tour bookings. At the time we had read a lot of horror stories about tourists getting about in Russia, so for us, the tours were a ‘worst case scenario’ contingency, worst came to worst we would at least have safe guided tours. What has actually happened is that during our free times we’re happily going off on our own and visiting museums by ourselves and seeing the sites without feeling the need for a guide at all, so when it came to our first two tours in Moscow, we both looked at them purely for their instrumental purposes. Tour one, for helping us acquire a 20 pass metro card (for about 300 rubles, approx AUD$10), and tour two for its ‘wheels’ in getting about all the popular night time photo sights. All the tour guide talk in between (the bits we chose to tune in for, the keyword ‘soviet’ got my attention every time) was just icing on the cake.

The metro passes we acquired in the morning tour I am proud to say have had a significant workout since. The metro system in Moscow in many respects is similar to London’s but with a few advantages; one, unlike most other city rails there are no zones, all of Moscow metro is one zone, London has about 7. Secondly, the underground stations are like museums themselves; some are pre-World War II and others post, all uniquely decorated in marble, some with large statues of solders in memory of battles previously fought, others celebrating various trades and traditions unique to Russia. All were spotless and well maintained. The metro lines themselves were mighty efficient with trains coming every two minutes, and during peak between every 30 seconds to a minute apart. Even with all the metro signs written in Russian, I still believe this metro system to be the easiest I have ever been on.

After our morning tour of the metro system our guide dropped us off in Red Square. Surrounding Red Square were a huge assortment of souvenir style markets, each tent selling various Soviet and Russian knick knacks. Feeling quite proud that we did the majority of our shopping already in St Petersburg (the cheaper of the two capitals; Moscow is the third most expensive city in the world) we decided to have a brief look to see what the richer city had to offer. To our great disappointment we quickly discovered that we had been had in St Petersburg with the exact same items on sale in Moscow for 300 rubles cheaper. I’ve since ascertained, between a larger population and many more souvenir shops to compete with competition have brought down the prices to a low. So there’s a travelling tip for you, do your entire souvenir shopping in Moscow.

A few days later we caught the metro all the way out to Victory Park, a monumental museum to the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War (this being the war against Nazi Germany in World War II). Proudly featured at the main entrance of the museum lies an obelisk, the height of which is exactly 141,8 meters; 10 cm for every day of the War. The war monument in its entirety; the museum featuring an array of exhibits from fine art to the tools of war, including a collection in the thousands of ‘Iron Cross’s’ worn by Nazi troops to the outdoor grounds featuring Soviet and Nazi armourments in the form of Tanks, Helicopters and Fixed-Wing crafts was all very proudly presented and when one looks back through the history and the origin of the Patriotic War particularly along the Eastern Front you can see why Russia is so proud; in the midst of near annihilation, the Soviet Union came out on top.

It almost makes me regret that I was not an observer of those times (yes, I chose my words very carefully there), the politics between governments, the double-sided deals between such great powers. It has been fantastic to say that I am here in Russia right now, seeing what is left, what remains of what many would undoubtedly exclaim as an end of an era and tracing back the origins to the Great Patriotic War to the very beginning.

On June 22, 1941, Germany broke its non-aggression pact with the USSR and began an invasion. According to the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s own autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ the war was out of necessity, acquiring new territory for German settlement in Eastern Europe. He envisaged settling Germans there as a master race, while deporting most of the inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labor.
Stalin, realizing that the non-aggression pact wouldn’t last forever proceeded to mass develop and ready legions of tanks and infantry, only he didn’t expect Germany to break the pact so soon, needless to say, the Soviet Union was somewhat prepared to defend the Mother land.

The Soviet army on the eve of the German attack had significant power, on paper. On June 22, 1941 the Red Army and Navy had over 4.6 million people, 23,000 tanks, 18.700 planes, 910 ships and cutters.

The Soviets were prepared for winter warfare and on December 5, 1941 reinforcements from Siberia attacked the German lines around Moscow, supported by new T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers. The exhausted and freezing Germans were routed and driven back between 100 and 250 km (60 to 150 miles) by 7 January 1942.

The Germans introduced forced labor across the occupied territories of the USSR. A working day was 14-16hrs long. The population was not supplied with clothing, shoes or the means to stay clean. The bread ration was 200-300 grams per day. But these official food rations often were violated. Over 4.1 million people died of starvation, infectious diseases, hard work and lack of medical supplies.

Ultimately, bit by bit, like a game of Chess between these two Superpowers, the Red Army forces knocked down the pawns in its path and in the years ahead and won back the Mother land, forcing the Germans to retreat further and further back. Finally, upon the assault on Berlin where the Fuhrer himself admitting defeat took his own life, the war was one. The citys defenders finally surrendered on 2 May. However, fighting continued to the north-west, west and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May as German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets.

Russia has been an eye opener; never before have I stood in streets with such history, visited museums with such fresh ‘larger than life’ monuments of an era only foretold to me (and people of my generation) from Hollywood films and for those fortunate by their Grandparents, sitting on their knee and be told stories of a lifestyle which today many of us take for granted.

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Photos

End of an Era
Soviet tanks and helicopters now stand as part of a memorial in Victory Park