Unity Day

Today (4 November) is a public holiday in Moscow – Unity Day. 

Most people also took yesterday off, which means the city has been pretty quiet, as many people take advantage of the four day break to head out to their dachas (a house with a plot of land). Moscow is surrounded by numerous villages of dachas – in Australia we might call them weekenders – and it sometimes seems that almost everyone has one. Most Friday afternoons the roads are clogged worse than usual as people drive out to their dacha to do some gardening, painting, relaxing and whatever else one does in such places.

We had coffee first thing today and then did some shopping. I was surprised at just how quiet it was, even allowing for the dacha exodus. Returning to Mayakovskaya metro station I found out why – there were many thousands of people in Tverskaya Ulitsa with Russian flags and bunches of red, blue and white balloons celebrating Unity Day.

After taking a few photos I was motivated to find out what Unity Day is about. What I write next is plagiarised straight out of Wikipedia. I, at least, admit this – there have been revelations recently about members of the Russian Duma (parliament) who have engaged in fraud and plagiarism to obtain university degrees.

 Unity Day commemorates a popular uprising which expelled Polish invaders from Moscow in 1612. It is called Unity Day because all classes of society, from tsar to serf, united in the effort. During the Bolshevik years the day was replaced with a commemoration of the Russian Revolution. In 2005 the traditional holiday was reinstated. This did not make those remaining Communists in Russia very happy.

Age shall not weary them. A small group of diehard communists gather regularly in Plochad Revolutsi (Revolution Square) near the statue of Karl Marx

  Apparently only about 4% of Russians know what the holiday actually commemorates. I won’t be too critical of that though. I have spoken to Australians who don’t know who the first governor of Australia was (come on guys – he came out with the First Fleet – rhymes with fill up) and watched a You Tube video of Americans unaware of what the DC stands for in Washington DC (and it’s not Dodgy Congressmen). There are people everywhere who don’t make much of an effort.

For the younger generation, the hammer and sickle adorned red flag seems to be a thing of the past

Entrance to Tverskaya metro station. Bad day to catch a train.

The ever security conscious Russians (the word on the jackets is 'police')

OK, I know I'm getting a bit long in the tooth and young people keep looking younger with the passing years, but aren't these guys a bit short to be in the army

Map of a part of Ukraine known as Crimea painted up with the colours of the Russian flag and being carried by a guy dressed up as a Russian bear. I find it ironic that a day commemorating the expulsion of invaders from Russia is being used to celebrate the invasion of a neighbouring country by Russia. I confess Russian foreign policy completely baffles me - their actions over the past 12 months may have poisoned relations with Ukraine for decades, if not longer.

Christmas 2014

Today, January 7, is Christmas in Russia. It also happens to be my birthday. Which means that my birthday has always fallen on a public holiday during my stay in Russia. Nice, as it means Wendy and I have the day off. 

Winter has been very mild so far this year. Some snow fell in mid-December, but since then the temperatures have been hovering around zero and the footpaths are generally clear of snow and ice. There is also green grass visible in some parks. 

The adults had their fun over New Year, and Christmas is about kids. I don’t typically see many children about in Moscow, but they were much in evidence when we went walking this morning. I think they head off to visit babochka (granny) and see kids shows at the theatres. Unlike Christmas in Australia, most of the shops and cafes seemed to be open. 

From what I can see, Muscovites are not unaware that Christmas in most of Europe is celebrated on 25 December, so they do tend to double dip the celebrations a bit. 

Moscow is pretty quiet this time of the year. Many people have left the city and, for a couple of weeks, it is almost always possible to get a seat on the Metro.

Whoever is in charge of such things has decided that this year many of the trees in the parks in central Moscow would be covered in blue and white fairy lights. An extraordinary amount of effort has gone in to these decorations. The park at Kitai Gorad, through which we walk to on the way to work, is lit up like a fairyland – as it is dark until about 10am at the moment, these lights are a welcome delight on what might otherwise often be a gloomy morning trudge. 

Christmas lights in Kitai Gorad park

Many more Christmas markets, somewhat similar to the Weihnachtmarkts of Germany & Austria, have also been introduced. A welcome touch, though they need to work on their Gluhwein – it’s more like soft drink.

Pushkin Square

More decorations in Pushkin Square

When too much is never enough

Christmas lights in Revolution Square, opposite the Bolshoi Theatre (centre). TSUM (with the sign on the right) is an expensive department store.

Christmas shop window display in TSUM

May Day

Lunchtime at Sparrow Hills last week produced the first evidence of Spring in the form of a worker enjoying a lunchtime sunbathe beside the Moscow River. Personally I don't think 15 degrees is quite warm enough to shed my shirt, but it has been a long winter.

Oh my, that feels sooo good!

Today is May Day. Traditionally a worker's holiday, it seems to be as much, if not more, a celebration of the arrival of Spring. The length of Tverskaya Ulitsa (a couple of kilometres) was blocked to traffic and access to pedestrians permitted only after passing through security checks. Ever security conscious, I expect the Moscow authorities are even more jumpy after recent events in Boston.

No sign, though, of anyone doing anything other than enjoying the day.

Excuse me, has anyone seen my balloon?

  

All right, you lot, just wait for the signal

 

Always on the alert for unauthorized interplanetary beings, a Man in Black mingles unobtrusively with the sunflower squad at the May Day parade.

Igor, put the kettle on, love. The family's arrived

No dear, I really haven't seen your balloon.

 

Military music festival

Last week the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival was held over seven evenings in Red Square. We bought tickets for Friday night's performance.

Now military music really isn't to my taste. All that brass, drums and marching around. I prefer to chill out on the balcony with a glass of wine and some Cafe del Mar playing in the background.

Opening performance of the festival. Spasskaya (Saviour) Tower, after which the festival is named, is the big tower with the clock on the right. By the way, I am now taking the precaution of adding a watermark to my photos. If people want watermarkless copies, email me at the address on the watermark.

Anyway, it was great. Red Square is a magnificent setting for a performance of anything, especially as the sun sets and the lights are turned on St Basil's. Yes, there was lots of marching, but I couldn't help but be impressed with the precision and there was some pretty imaginative choreography, too, both of the soldiers and the accompanying dancers.

So I suspended my prejudice against big brass bands for the night and thoroughly enjoyed the music. Being the bicentennial of Napoleon's invasion of Moscow, the 1812 Overture got a good workout.

Tell you what, though, it got darned cold when the sun set. I was shivering when we were walking home, and I had a warm jacket on. Autumn has moved in. I'm noticing the sun is quite close to the horizon now at 7am, and it won't be too long before it's dark when we get up in the morning.

I've added a link to a video I also made on the evening - click here  

Notice the guy in the foreground with the bucket and broom cleaning up after the horses.

Bagpipes and kilts always ensure the Scots a distinctive performance.  

With the Singapore show it was all about the dancing

The Chinese didn't seem to have a military band at all, just dragons and green umbrellas. 

Ending, of course, with fireworks

Kolomenskoe sand sculptures

 
A number of excellent sand sculptures depicting historic characters and events have been created in Kolomenskoe Park. Tickets are only 100 rubles, about $3 - they are worth a visit (price quoted does not include airfares)

St Basil's in sand

Napoleon. This is a thoughtful sculpture, with his Russian adversaries on the far side and a broken chessboard in between.

Looking far less relaxed than Napoleon are these French soldiers, no doubt wishing they were sipping wine in Provence rather than dragging this cannon through the mud (sorry, sand).

Tolstoy, writer of that epic novel of Napoleon's invasion of Russia 'War & Peace'. Despite its size, the book is quite readable. Give it a go sometime.

View of the sculpture park. They will be removed in September 2012. The face on the left belongs to Maxim Gorky, about whom you can read in an earlier post.

Tchaikovsky

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without good old Peter the Great.

Armour-plated police

Australian elections are sedate affairs. People queue up for a few minutes at the local primary school on their way to the shops on a Saturday morning. Voting is compulsory – if it wasn’t, everyone would just go straight to the shops. When the results are released, no one suggests there was election rigging. Just like supporters of the losing team at an Australian Rules football game, people shrug their shoulders and say to themselves ‘there’s always next week’. 

There is never, by the way, any spectator violence at Australian Rules games, despite the passion of the supporters. The umpire might be blind and stupid, depending on the decision they just gave, but no one really questions their fairness. Being unfair just isn’t Australian.

 It’s a happy place.

The Russian Presidential elections were held a couple of days ago. 

Yesterday I went for a walk down Tverskaya Ulitsa (street), near where I live. I felt I had walked on to the set of one of those 1960’s apocalyptic science-fiction movies, like Soylent Green. There were more police in Tverskaya than the whole of Australia (OK, I’m exaggerating, but I’m sure you get the drift – there very large numbers). Many were armour plated. 

Armour-plated police

 They had been brought there in military-style transports, and incongruously, mini-bus. There were heavy duty paddy-wagons. Lining the street there seemed to be every orange, city-maintenance truck in Moscow. There were barricades. 

Moscow is not a happy place.

Just some of the police transport vehicles

More armour-plated police

Paddy wagon

The communist rally at Pushkin Square. They came in second, with about 17% of the vote.

Lenin is still kicking on. The image on these flags is gazing at the largest McDonalds in Moscow.

Sneg

Sneg is Russian for snow.

Two days ago it began seriously snegging. Until then we had occasional light sneg, often followed by rain and above zero temperatures, which would melt most of it. Now it looks like the sneg is here to stay.

St Basil's this morning

 And just in time for Christmas. The Orthodox Church in Russia uses the Julian calendar, which means they celebrate Christmas on 7 January.  Those of us on the Gregorian calendar celebrate Christmas on 25 December. This is great for expats in Moscow, as we get to celebrate Christmas, New Year and then Christmas again (even better for me as my birthday is also 7 January).

Father Christmas in Russia is a fellow called Ded Moroz (pronounced De-yed - Grandfather Frost). A giant Ded Moroz has recently appeared next to my favourite Christmas tree at Tverskaya Square. Ded Moroz is usually accompanied by his granddaughter, the lovely Snegarochka (Snow Maiden), who has also made an appearance by the tree. She’s a considerable improvement on the unpleasant elf Krampus, who accompanies Santa in some Central European countries.

The charming Snegarochka at Tverskaya Square

 Ded originally wore red and gold, until Stalin decreed he should wear blue, so as not to confuse him with Santa. With the end of the USSR red Deds have been making a comeback and now it seems its Ded who is confused, as I see both red and blue ones.

On another topic I’ve been quite impressed with the rapid response to snow clearing by the Muscovites.  It’s obvious they have done this before. Suddenly there are tractors, front end loaders, bobcats, guys with shovels and nifty little mechanised-broom carts everywhere.

Kamergersky Pereulok (Lane), a fashionable mall not far from Red Square, where I had coffee this morning.