Ekaterinburg or Yekaterinburg. The question is ‘why’?

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Yekaterinburg was founded in 1721 by Peter the Great as the area is rich in iron ore and, as at this time, Russia was embroiled in the Great Northern War with Sweden, Peter gave instructions for new sources of iron to be sought. He named this city after his new wife Catherine (not to be confused with Catherine the Great who came later!) Yekaterinburg is the 4^thlargest city in Russia after Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The population is just over 2 million. Yekaterinburg is technically in Asia at the foot of the Ural mountains that is traditionally the border between Asia and Europe.

The temperature in Yekaterinburg was much colder than Moscow at a fresh 6 degrees Celsius. I have decided to wear two watches to try to beat the confusion of Moscow time versus local time!!

We met our tour guide for the day, Olga, who, after her introduction opened a small tin box and invited everyone to take a small semi-precious stone from within. Roisin and I dipped our hands in the box and we both pulled out, coincidentally, the Agate. Olga told us that this stone protects against respiratory diseases.

Our first visit of the day was to the Asia-Europe border. This lies about 20km outside Yekaterinburg. Olga plied us with facts about this city. Due to its strategic position, Yekaterinburg was off limits to all foreigners until 1991. For this reason, the city is behind the likes of St Petersburg and Moscow in terms of development. The first impression is that this city is much dirtier that it’s larger more cosmopolitan counter parts. Not by way of refuse and litter but dusty and grimy with many grey buildings in desperate need of repair. Due to its location, you could describe the city as grubby!! There are some new buildings in the city, namely a 54 floor skyscraper affectionately known as the ‘beer can’ due to its round shape. To me I feel ‘tube of smarties’ is a more apt name. In 2018 Yekaterinburg will be one of the host cities for the FIFA world cup and there is plenty of evidence that the local authorities are slowly cleaning up their city.

The border between the two continents is not how I imagined. Our mini bus pulled in to a layby along the side of a busy road and from there it was a short walk uphill to the border monument. A white line separated the two continents so, like the tourists we are, everybody took turns of taking photos straddling both continents just like the tens of thousands of tourists before us!! Roisin and I had the obligatory photo of us standing each in a different continent!! We were then taken a hundred yards or so into the forest. Here, we were met by a number of trees and fences with many ribbons tied around them. These were all shapes, sizes and colours. Olga said that these ribbons have no significance and is just a tradition of newly wed couples. It is here she used another word that sounded bizarre (although somewhat quaint!) coming from a non-native English speaker when she referred to this tradition as ‘tacky’!! Olga certainly says it as it is. In fact, her English was impeccable using some lesser known words such as ‘twee’ and ‘OTT’.

Our next stop was a monastery called Ganina Yama, 16km outside Yekaterinburg before heading back in to the city to visit the Church on the Blood. We visited these sites in that order due to their location. However, as the rest of the day was devoted to the last emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, and in order to relay the story, I need to explain about the Church on the Blood first.

1n 1918, during the rise of the Red Army, The Romanov family, Nicholas, Aleksandra and their five children were sent to Yekaterinburg and imprisoned in the cellar of a house belonging to a local engineer. The White Army, who were loyal to the Tsar,were quickly advancing on the city. As the royal family were seen as a threat, their execution was ordered. A number of Red Army soldiers together with some Hungarian peasants stormed in to the house and down to the cellar where the captives were being held. A tirade of bullets slaughtered Nicholas and his family. However, some of the ladies wore so many jewels on their dresses that most of the bullets ricocheted. Seeing that Aleksandra and her daughters still lived, the soldiers fixed bayonets and finished the job. The whole family were wiped out along with four of their servants who, although they were allowed to leave by the Red army, chose to stay and suffer their fate alongside their masters.

That was in 1918. In 1976, Yeltsin ordered the demolition of the infamous house, concerned that it would make a focal point of monarchist sympathisers. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, the Church on the Blood was built and the Romanov family were canonised and considered martyrs.

Outside the church stands a statue of the family with 23 steps, being the number of the steps down to the cellar. Olga, our well informed guide, compared this to the 23 step the first Romanov Tsar climbed to his coronation in 1613. Inside the church stands an icon that, rumour has it, is the most expensive ever commissioned.

Another monument behind the church indicated the entrance to the engineer’s house. This memorial includes an orthodox cross of which many can be seen at all sites of religious significance. I asked about a slanted bar across the lower portion of the cross that doesn’t appear on the standard Christian cross. This is to signify two thieves who were crucified along with Jesus. One repented and the other one didn’t therefore the left part of the bar points up towards heaven and the other one points down to somewhere a little warmer!! (and I’m not taking Ibiza!!)

Back to the Romanovs. Their corpses were taken to an abandoned mine outside the city and dumped in a water filled pit. However, the following morning the bodies were found floating so were retrieved and dismembered. The soldiers then tried to burn the bodies but without any luck. They then tried to dissolve them in acid before taking them further afield to bury them. Unfortunately, the truck they were using got stuck in mud only 2km from the pit therefore the soldiers had no option but to bury the remains where they stood. A monastery known as Ganina Yama (Ganina Pit) was built on the site of the disused mine. It is there our tour now took us.

On entry, women in trousers, jeans or slacks have to wear a wraparound maroon coloured skirt and must cover their head as the whole site is considered most holy by the orthodox church. Not too sure of the significance of maroon but it made our group look like a convention of blacksmiths!! In fact, Roisin looked more ready to shoe a horse than to wander this historic site.

There are seven churches within the confines of the monastery, one for each of the Romanovs who perished in this atrocity. We visited each one in turn before wandering along a horseshoe covered walkway (must be that blacksmith thing again!!) that skirted the pit where the bodies were originally dumped. Although the pit has since been filled in, there is quite an indentation in the land marking the top of the hole.

Originally it was thought that the murder was the work of counter revolutionaries but later it became evident that the ‘massacre’ was organised by Party leader Yacob Sverdlov. In 1924, Yekaterinburg was changed to Sverdlovsk in his honour only to revert back to its original name in 1992.

Despite these events happening almost 100 years ago, today has been a very moving, sombre experience and although the Romanovs were no saints (but ironically, they are now - literally!!) should their executions have been delayed by a few days, the White Army would have overrun the city and perhaps liberated the family. Would this have stopped the rise of Communism? Who knows but Russian history may have taken a very different turn of events.

The most famous son of Yekaterinburg is Boris Yeltsin. The city folk have erected a statue of him in one of the main squares. The statue is a white marble obelisk imprinted with Yeltsin’s image. It stands 10 metres tall and is the first major statue of a political leader to be erected since the collapse of the USSR. The statue is said to express determination and will although not all residents are happy with this monolith. Olga (say it as it is) the tour guide says it’s more like the expression you have after exiting the toilet after a really satisfying deposit!!

The excursion finished at 3pm so we had about 5 hours before we were due to be picked up at our hotel. Having spotted a TGI Friday’s whilst the bus was driving around Yekaterinburg, Les and Mary, Roisin and I decided it was time for a late lunch (or was it an early tea?) We were soon joined by Adeline who had had the same idea. Shortly afterwards three Irish ladies appeared, also from our tour. Perhaps the driver drove passed TGI’s for a reason and left us with a subliminal message as it seemed to have drawn most of our group to this safe haven of Cajun chicken and Jack Daniels barbeque sauce!!

We were picked up in another fleet of varying size cars and 4x4s. It makes me wonder if the communal mini bus was booked for another gig and they have had to employ family and friends to turn up for the cost of petrol money!! Nevertheless, everything went like clockwork and we were escorted on to the platform to await the train that will take us to Irkutsk.

Irkutsk is 2,515 miles from Yekaterinburg and a total of 3,557 miles from Moscow. This leg of the journey will last 3 nights and cross a further three time zones. So, when we were shown to our compartment we were a little surprised that it was standard class and four berth. However, I recalled reading that on this leg of the journey there is no 1^st class and in order to retain privacy, all four berth tickets had to be purchased which was the case when we showed our booking to the provodnitsa. Whilst waiting to board, we had to wait for passengers to disembark so not surprisingly, on entering our compartment, it was a case of ‘who’s been sleeping in my bed’!! Two of the berths had neatly rolled up mattresses but the other two mattresses were dishevelled on their respective bunks. Within minutes of showing our tickets, the provodnitsa reappeared with four sets of clean linen.

The mattresses were of blue and white stripes, not too dissimilar to the material that prisoners of the gulags used to wear, and rather lumpy. As there were only two of us in this compartment we had the brilliant idea of sleeping on two mattresses for extra comfort. It wasn’t until I laid on the mattress I realised that two lumpy mattresses just make the mattress twice as lumpy!! Space was once again at a premium. The Provodnitsa remained sour faced throughout. The carriages were older than those from our previous leg and definitely had that 70s feel. Now I know what the inmate of Prisoner Cell Block H felt like!! Once again there are two basic bathrooms, one at each end of the carriage. The difference being that they are the non eco type and therefore toilet paper may be flushed…every cloud!!!

My first experience with the bathroom had me following on from a burly Russian dressed in grey jogging pants, a sleeveless top with the word ‘Panthers’ emblazoned across and flip flops. As I passed him he said something to me in Russian and laughed. As I closed the bathroom door behind me my nostril encountered an odour that was definitely NOT the sweet smell of success!! On opening the window, I guess the Russian must have said something like ‘I’d give that 10 minutes if I were you, comrade!!’

Our first major stop was after 2 hours at a town called Bogdanovich. (I’m sure he played Centre Forward for Chelsea!!) The temperature on the station clock said 11 degrees Celsius. It’s getting warmer already!!

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