Ufa

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Look at the globe: Here it is, the Earth And on it, Bashkiria, No bigger than a leaf. Just one small birch leaf, One leaf on a tree. And the birch, the great Russia, Stands so green and tall. (poem by Mustai Karim. Translated by Arthur Shkarovsky)



My life has been connected with Ufa since times immemorial, perhaps when I was seven or eight years old (let’s assume 1992-1993). Basically, there are three important cities in my life: Birsk, Ufa, and St. Petersburg. When I was a little child, mother took me and brother to the circus, of which I remember only taking photos on the clown’s lap. Our sister was too little back then. Also, my brother was having some medical treatment many years ago in a sanatorium, and I also remember visiting Ufa when we took brother home because he complained of being there all alone. I even remember my father, now deceased, taking me in a truck to some settlement, and I guess it was Ufa. When a child, however, I used to boast to my friends that father took me to… Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. During the school years, I don’t remember whether I went to Ufa, most likely no, but I did go there a lot (for one-days visits mainly, because the distance is only about 80 kilometers or so) during the student years. Ufa was a source of language textbooks for me (I went for the first time in 2002, and was very anxious lest I should be robbed and beaten at the bus station – the city was rather a novelty for me, being for the first time so long away from home). The first time, I bought Italian, Swedish, and some other textbooks. It was not easy to study them, though very interesting. I remember studying languages from 7 in the morning till 1 in the noon… Shit, now I’m only studying them for about a single hour during the whole day. The second link to Ufa was basketball. I was a member (though not as efficient as I desired) of the institute team and we went there to be won over by stronger teams of large universities. Of course, I didn’t do any sightseeing during those days, simply stayed in the dormitory. Finally, the third memory I have inside my head is that of me and a girl (and other students) going there on a sort of cultural visit, including a botanical garden, the national museum, and a theater. Also, I and Alexey (my schoolmate) had a prolonged walk there in 2008, when I saw and photographed the main sights. Some of those are included in this selection. A particular reason of my visiting Ufa so often was its being a ‘hub’ for me – to go by plane or train to Moscow or St. Petersburg, until I discovered the Yanaul train station (more convenient and faster because it is more direct, while a train from Ufa has do descend south to Samara, going very indirectly).





Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. It is a major city and centre of what not: petrochemical industry, oil refining, has over a million inhabitants, has an excellent hockey team ‘Salavat Yulayev’ and is generally the heart of republic. Remember, it is a simple Russian city with a short list of sights, but nevertheless deserving because it has a slight ethnic (Bashkir) touch. The republic generally offers ample opportunities for tourism, such as skiing and hiking (the Ural Mountains – see my notes on Iremel ascent), rafting, speleology, horse riding, honey-making etc, and Ufa can be the starting point. My favourite sights are Gostiny Dvor, Monument to Salavat Yulayev (national hero), Monument of Friendship, Prospekt Octiabria; the city centre has a lot of old buildings, some of them are wooden (a rare species in modern large cities). The city overlooks the banks of Belaya River and in summer it is possible to make a boat trip (one or two hours). River Belaya experiences some drying problems these last two years, but usually Ufa is a starting point for river cruises from where you can leisurely go to Moscow and even as far as St. Petersburg (if you follow the river bodies on a map, it is even possible to raft or boat down to Iran! – Belaya flows into Kama, Kama into Volga, and Volga enters the Caspian Sea, and Iran has some of its shore). Maybe I should build a raft and do this.

For a land journey (there’s more in Russia than just Moscow, Petersburg and Trans-Siberian), I would suggest a route such as Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan-Ufa-Chelyabinsk (or Yekaterinburg, or Perm, or Orenburg, or Samara – cities are not to everyone’s liking); there are frequent trains and convenient transfers are easy to arrange for these cities (Kazan-Ufa portion can be done also by bus). I didn't yet visit Perm and Orenburg.



I and Alexey went to Ufa at 9 o’clock in the morning. It’s a bit rough on the nose when you enter the city because there are treatment facilities and oil plants, but there’s also a different, cleaner route from the so-called Zaton, or from the Eastern direction. The first sight we saw was the so-much-seen-by-me-and-him Northern Bus Station, from where I used to depart always for my hometown. It is now being renovated. It is a peculiarly looking building, sort of concrete monster. From there we walked a short distance to Victory Park, featuring the Monument to Heroes of the Soviet Union Alexander Matrosov and M. Gubaidullin, a T-34-85 tank, the grave of two-times’ hero of the Soviet Union Musa Gareyev, and some military weapons. From the park, a beautiful and vast view opens on the Belaya River valley. Near the park there is also Lyalya Tulpan Mosque (a modern construction) and the Grieving Mother Monument to people perished in local wars and armed hostilities. Please forgive me if certain portions of the narrative are gloomy. We took the bus to Gorsovet (City Council) – a good-looking administrative building opposite to Lenin Square with a tall statue of the man, and then saw the Russian Academic Drama Theater (the very one I went to in 2006), the circus (how long ago I’ve been inside it!), and finally decided to stop for a bit at Semya Shopping Mall. I took some usual food such as buckwheat with pork and cheese, noodle soup, and kompot for a drink. Alexey decided to try KFC’s fried chicken and was then complaining about it. As for me, I like KFC’s.



On our walk, we saw the imposing Monument to Heroes of October Revolution and Civil war, several weddings taking place, Uralsib bank (the tallest building in Ufa, and one of its few ‘skyscrapers’), the modern Youth Theater, Netyanik (Oilman) Culture Palace, Rodina Theater, Gostiny Dvor with a modern sculpture of marten’s home (marten is on city’s coat-of-arms). Alexey was rather tired and sleepy because he didn’t sleep well. I suggested taking a coffee from the nearby McDonalds, and did it eventually, but he said he disliked coffee. We sat for a short while in front of the Gostiny Dvor having a rest.



Our next point (I suggested it) was the Soviet Square and the nearby National Museum of the Republic. I just wanted to add a local favour (in the form of at least some colourful gowns, which I was sure were exhibited), though, of course, a museum does not substitute a real Bashkir village. When I was in the museum in 2006, I just remember fleeing from it after a certain time…



From the very first steps, the museum amazed me. On its ground floor were, first, fishes in aquariums, and next to them rooms decorated to look and feel (they did!) like CAVES, with narrow passages and stalactites hanging from the ceiling. As I have said, there are a lot of caves in Bashkortostan. But what impressed me even more than caves were the ‘three-dimensional installations’, as I have termed them, combining sculptures of people with background drawings looking so true to life. We visited the geological department with lots of stones, some fossils, saw little bugs and butterflies, stuffed animals (Alexey exclaimed, 'Poor they!’ while I said he did not have to bother about them). There is the wild-hive beekeeping department telling the story of republic’s borthnichestvo – bortniks would climb hollow trees using some artful arrangements and take honey from wild bees. Sort of Winnie-the-Poohs, but it was a trade of the local population.



We saw the ancient objects found in the republic and a reconstruction of an ancient settlement (just to mention – the whole museum is so perfectly arranged I couldn’t stop admiring everything) and the now lost wooden Ufa Kremlin (long live Wikipedia!) which in days of yore stood at the site of the modern Friendship Monument. It burnt down in 1759. As we passed through the centuries, we saw lots of historic documents related to the local history, a reconstruction of an industrial plant, a rather excellent map of the Russian Empire with small pictures of the nations inhabiting it, and saw a very admirable and ‘goose-bumpy’ 3D installation of armed hostility, apparently, between some troops and folk, and another one displaying the address of Emelyan Pugachev, leader of Peasants’ War of 1773-75 in Russia, to folk. The very dreadful photo of quarterization you see is related to Pugachev, because first his head was cut off and then he was quarterized, in order to ‘ease his pain’. The cruelty of people is sometimes beyond understanding.



The other halls were full with old items, documents, banknotes and coins, adornments, and we gradually found ourselves in the XX century, the century of revolutions and wars. Now I’ll touch upon the hall that amazed me most – the one devoted to Soviet times, full of red colours, even the ceiling lamps bearing the five-point stars! The bust of Stalin looks from the depth of the room and the atmosphere of Sovietism fills each molecule of the space. I and Alexey agreed that there isn’t any sort of political or other ideology in nowadays Russia, basically everyone lives as they please and can afford. There’s also a hall dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, with mottoes and appeals in red letters on placards, such as ‘All for the victory’ etc. Approaching the end of the visit, we dived in the era when we were born and lived for 5-6 years in the Soviet Union… It included heaps of photos, old money (I even can remember some of them!) and prize pots. I cannot say anything about the Soviet Union because I was too little and don’t even remember its collapse. Then we paid a visit to another department, with lots of national clothes and other items, musical instruments, spoons, and coin adornments. I was absolutely satisfied with the museum and wondered why I did not go to museums before.



Our next stop was Salavat Yulayev Monument. It was a long way to go, so we had a preliminary rest in a park, both being rather tired, I mainly because on the previous day we’ve been to the workout room. Three notable buildings on the road were Majit Gafuri Theater, Bashkir State University, and Congress Hall. Salavat Yulayev is a Bashkir national hero, he was one of the leaders in the Peasants’ War of 1773-75, a brother-in-arms of Emelyan Pugachev, and a poet. He was held in Rogervik prison for about 15 years (modern Estonia, Paldiski), sentenced to penal servitude for life. The place, though, is not at all gloomy – it stands on the high bank of Belaya River, has a fountain, and we saw lots of people walking there and several wedded couples with their friends and relatives on photo session. The statue itself, hero mounted on horse, proclaims freedom of spirit and energy of youth. From the river bank a view opens on the railway bridge, and some areas of the city. After this monument, I wanted to see the Friendship Monument, but there were two reasons we didn’t – 1) my camera battery discharged completely and 2) we were tired and it was time to catch a bus to Birsk lest we’d arrive too late. In old times, the wooden Ufa Kremlin stood on the place of Friendship Monument, then Troitskaya Church, blasted in June 1956. In 1957, the 400-th anniversary of Bashkiria’s voluntary joining to the Russian Tsardom was celebrated and the monument symbolizing the people’s friendship was built in 1965.

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Photos

Northern Bus Station and Hotel
under renovation currently

Matrosov and Gubaidullin Monument
Matrosov died rushing himself onto the firing port of a Fascist dzot, Gubaidullin did the same