"Touring Moscow the day the USSR fell"

As arranged at 9.00pm I met Bindu in the foyer and the first thing she said was, "Do you fancy going to Red Square?" I did not need asking twice, I went immediately back to my room for my warm ski jacket, gloves and hat and we were off. As she had been there a couple of days she knew her way around a little and we headed straight for the subway station. At the entrance to the subway we pushed back the doors and the heat that rushed out was incredible compared to the temperature outside, in the event of a war, the entire subway system would be the air raid shelter for the Muscovites. We had to buy our token which was fifteen Kopecks, which if you try to convert into English money would probably be 0.0001p.

The Rouble is the basic unit of currency in Russia and this is divided into 100 Kopecks with coins of 1,2,3,5,10,15,20,50 Kopecks. The exchange rate with the English pound had been for many Years one Rouble to £1.00, however this had jumped over the past year due to inflation, to fifty roubles to the £1.00. I found over the next few days that nobody wanted the Russian currency, only the US. Dollars that I had brought with me.

After purchasing our tokens we placed them in the slot at the turnstile and pushed them open to go down the escalators and to the trains. The escalators were immense and appeared to just disappear down to the depths of the earth, again the reason was that in the event of war, the citizens would require a shelter. A funny thing we both noticed was all the couples were having a really ’good snog!’ as they stood on the escalator, the guy always on the higher step than the girl, and they were all certainly ’going for it!’ in a big way.

As the bottom of the stairway came into view, so did the palatial splendour of the station itself. All I could say was "WOW!" There were huge chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, not just one or two but three rows of them! Each arch way had a mosaic depicting a soldier on horse back dressed for battle, this could have been either some war hero or was just communist propaganda. Once we had figured out which way the train went for Red Square, we jumped on one, (they arrive every ninety seconds!). Once on board we relaxed and chatted freely about anything and everything, or at least I did, the poor girl could not get a word in which was probably due to the fact I had been in solitary confinement for the last couple of days on the train from London. Everyone was staring at us, it was obvious from the way we were dressed that we were Westerners.

At each station, a voice in Russian announced the station name. Soon we arrived at Krasnaya ploshchad (Red Square), which was of even greater splendour than the one at which we had first seen. There was marble from floor to ceiling and every arch had a carving which I think was of bronze or something similar. There was not one piece of litter or graffiti seen. It looked just like the inside of a museum except for the small fact that a train went through every ninety seconds!

We exited the subway and found ourselves actually in Red Square, something that I had only ever dreamed of seeing until now! It had to be the coldest place on earth, the wind was so bitter on that night it was hurting my face. I later found out the temperature was -17º Celsius and with the wind-chill factor it would have been a lot lower however, we came prepared and were well wrapped up to keep warm. We walked across the huge cobbled square and headed in the direction of Lenin’s mausoleum, just beneath the huge walls of the Kremlin where they change the guards on the hour every hour. The guards currently in position stood motionless at the entrance to the mausoleum (probably frozen to death!), but as it was almost 11.00pm we did not have long to wait. As the last few moments ticked away, at exactly one minutes and forty five seconds three guards appeared ’goose stepping’ from the huge gates of the Kremlin. The sight was unbelievable, something I shall always remember as they stepped in perfect rhythm along the Kremlin walls towards the mausoleum. Next, with a bit of fancy foot work with the guards currently in position, they changed places as the clock chimed the hour, and the timing was impeccable! The two guards being relieved then ’goose stepped’ back along the walls, through the gates and into the Kremlin.

Bindu and I then departed Red Square and travelled back to the hotel for drink in the bar,  where we sat chatting for a couple of hours, before turning in for the night. What an amazing day!

9th December (Day Four)

I managed to wake up at 7.30am but was still feeling quite tired as Bindu and I had stayed up late talking about anything and everything. She was a Parole Officer in New Zealand and worked with violent sex offenders and other hard core criminals, not the sort of people with whom one would want to associate!

I went down to breakfast and met Bindu as we had arranged. We were shown to a table where four other people were already sitting in an almost empty dining room, quite a strange custom, but then most things appear a little strange in this country. Our food was rather bland and plain, not the sort of thing I had in mind for breakfast, but it had to be better than yesterday’s chicken! The food consisted of black bread which is very Russian and also very tasteless, a hard boiled egg and a small amount of butter. I was beginning to realise just how bad the economy was in Russia, far worse than I had previously imagined. After drinking a couple of cups of coffee to help wash down the dry bread, I asked the waiter if I could have another hard boiled egg. At first there was the obvious language problem, but he genuinely wanted to try to please me so he went to get an English speaking waiter, and when they returned I asked him for another egg. At first he appeared a little embarrassed and then he quietly told me that if I wanted another egg, I would have to pay for it, which of course was not a problem but the amount was a couple of Kopecks and just seemed so insignificant at the time. As I said this economy is in a dreadful state.

After breakfast I went to pack to get ready for the move to the Hotel Cosmos, Bindu had nothing planned so we went together so that we could do some sight seeing as well. When we arrived at the hotel we were both taken aback by the sheer size of the place. From the outside it looked like a huge office block that was set in a semi-circle with various access ramps for vehicles and pedestrians. The hotel had twenty five floors with more than one thousand seven hundred bedrooms, three restaurants and express lifts to the various floors. The foyer was huge with what resembled a satellite hanging from the ceiling. Compared to the procedure at the last hotel, ’check-in’ was straight forward although they did comment that I was a day late, (I’m surprised they never sent the army to look for me!). After finding my room and dumping my back-pack, Bindu and I headed off to the Kremlin for a spot of sight seeing, so it was back onto the subway at our nearest station which was VDNKh, just how one pronounces it I’m not too sure!  By midday we were at Red Square once more and standing outside the cathedral of St. Basil, which was built on the orders of Ivan the Terrible in the 1550’s. The huge ’Onion’ Domes have been a symbol of Russia ever since, and it is outside here that all reporters stand during news broadcasts. so I finally felt that was I actually in Moscow.

It is said that when the cathedral was finished the Czar had the architect blinded so that he could never re-create it. There were not too many people around and the general feeling was one of peace and quiet. It was an strange feeling to imagine that if war was every to break-out between the super powers, it is this exact spot that would be a likely target for a nuclear missile Quite an eerie feeling.

On one side of Red Square are the massive walls of the Kremlin and about half way along is Lenin’s’s Mausoleum where we had been the previous night. Unfortunately it was not open on Mondays (Just my luck!). It is a huge grey granite building with a red carpet leading up to the entrance, I had one more day in Moscow so planned to return the next day.

We walked around the walls of the Kremlin (more than one mile) which is actually a large walled castle and has been the seat of government for more than 800 years. As we approached the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there was a couple who had obviously just got married, posing for photographs in front of it. I later learned that it has become traditional for newly weds to visit the site on their wedding day, I imagined it must be a good luck symbol. Beneath the marble lies the body of one of the soldiers who helped stop the German advance on Moscow in 1941.

Next we went into the Kremlin itself and purchased some tickets to enter the various cathedrals within the walls, at a cost of twenty Kopecks each. This turned out to be far better than I had previously imagined. The architecture and paintings were unlike anything I had seen before, the only problem was one is not permitted to take photographs inside the buildings to help protect the paintings from camera flash lights. It is hard to describe the splendour of the buildings as each room was painted from floor to ceiling with beautiful pictures depicting various people and scenes in history. The views were breathtaking, certainly worth twenty Kopecks!

For the next few hours we walked around the buildings and I took lots of pictures of the outside, and of the worlds largest cannon which had never actually been fired. Just how effective it would have been, I do not suppose anybody knows. Nearby was the largest bell in the world weighing in at two hundred tons. It had part of it laying beside it which had broke off during a fire in 1737. Towering above the bell is the Bell Tower of Ivan the Terrible, the first man who could justly lay claim to be Czar of all the Russias, and who was crowned at the Kremlin in 1547. The tower stands eighty one meters tall and is topped with a dome of gold. I was interested to learn that Napoleon attempted to blow it up in 1812, what a relief he never succeeded as it was one of my favourite buildings. Just across from the Kremlin walls is GUM the biggest department store in Moscow. Although the building was impressive, the range of goods on sale are best described as depressing if not pathetic. Shop after shop with nothing to sell except for just a few of items in each, the windows were bare but still there were a lot of people walking around so it made me surmise there must be something to buy, but just what I could not see. We went into the various shops to look until we came across a store with big security guard outside who appeared to be vetting people as to whether or not they were allowed in. As we approached, being Westerners with hard currency, the doors swung open allowing the crowds outside a tempting glimpse of the goods on sale behind the curtained windows. Inside we found the latest televisions and radios and there was even a video recorder which was attracting the crowds during a demonstration. All of this, on face value, appeared fairly amusing to us as they are just every day items, but it was obvious that only the rich could afford the items on sale here. It was interesting to see that one of the worlds most powerful countries does not have even an electric cash register at the counters, instead they are all equipped with an abacus. If you think about it too much, it is actually quite disconcerting and somewhat alarming to think that the Russians are in charge of so many nuclear weapons, some of which are pointing at the U.K.! I went into a shop that had drinks on sale to purchase a Pepsi to quench my thirst. In the window the bottle of Pepsi was displayed with pride of place in the middle of  the window and once inside I soon located the counter selling the item, which was placed on a shelf behind the sales woman, and was situated between bottles of whiskey and vodka. Before she would give me a bottle I first had to go to the cashiers booth in the centre of the room and ask for a bottle of Pepsi. Fifty three cents was the reply which was obviously referring to American Dollars. I handed over a $1.00 bill and waited for my change which took a few minutes to work out. When I received my change, it comprised American money as well as some Swiss Francs! I wasn’t prepared to complain, so I headed back to the Pepsi counter where I handed over the sale receipt I had been given. I could not believe what happened next, the sales woman proceeded to wrap the bottle in fancy paper as if it was a bottle of champagne. After thanking her, Bindu and I left the shop and went into the huge galleries of the building and I tried to open my bottle of Pepsi which required a bottle opener, which of course I did not possess. By the time I had the bottle open and was drinking the contents, we noticed that a small crowd had gathered close by and was watching me drink the Pepsi. It then dawned on me, that this was something that they probably could not afford and me sitting there drinking the Pepsi was a show of decadence that I was not meaning to display. I immediately felt very uncomfortable about the whole situation. Quickly I finished the drink and tossed the empty bottle in into the waste bin and proceeded to walked away, but was almost immediately aware of a commotion ensuing around the waste bin. To my horror the crowd of kids were fighting over the empty bottle, I assume that they regarded it as some form of Western trophy. I have to say that it was a very sad event to observe, and we left the department store feeling quite depressed and sad. There appears to be so many unhappy people......

 The day was slipping away and at 5.30pm. Bindu and I said goodbye for the last time and I headed back to my hotel to meet with the group that the Russian authorities had put me with. That was something that I was not at all happy with. As far as I was concerned I was an independent traveller however, I had been told that the group leader had my Trans-Siberian train ticket, so I had no choice really. By the time I had made my way through the Moscow rush hour and got back to my hotel it was dinner time and my group were already eating, so I went to join them. The leader introduced himself and told me his name was Paul. He invited me to sit down and have dinner first, then he would discuss details of the Trans-Siberian train afterwards. He made a comment about the fact I had been missing now for two days!

The rest of the people in my group looked really nice and I was pleasantly surprised to see we were all around the same age. I could tell from their appearance they came from various parts of Europe, although just where was difficult to ascertain I sat down opposite an English girl (Jo) and an Irish lad (Martin) and we got chatting about our experiences.

After dinner Paul told us of the arrangements for the next day which I did not think the majority were too happy about as, like me they did not like to have their independence taken away. I made an apology to Paul and told him that I had to meet my friend from New Zealand and that we had arranged to meet in Moscow many months ago. My real intention was to visit Lenin’s mausoleum and do yet more sight seeing on my last day in Moscow, Bindu was actually flying home the next day so I would be on my own. Paul agreed to this and asked if I wanted to go with everyone else to the Russian state circus the following night, before we went to board the Trans-Siberian train. I paid him for the ticket and agreed to meet for dinner the same time tomorrow. For the rest of the evening I spent my time writing a Christmas card and letters to Michelle. I was really starting to miss her!

10th December (Day Five)

TODAY THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS CEASED TO BE!

What started out to be my last day in Moscow, turned out to be the day that ’coup’ number two took place and history was changed. The first report that I could make out was that therehad been an attempt to overthrow the government again, only this time it had appeared to have been successful, the only difference was that it had been a peaceful affair without any fighting or disturbances. I had breakfast at around 9.00am and then returned to my room to pack my bags, as that night I would be on the Trans-Siberian train and therefore would not be requiring my bedroom. All the bags were left in a locked room for the day, and we were told later that we could have a shower in the room before we went to the railway station. It was hard to get all the information about the coup, but I spoke to Paul, the guide who has arranged my train ticket and he was depressed about everything as information was always hard to come across. He, like us, was left to speculate and assume that there was a new government in power.

After I left the hotel, I headed offon the subway destined for Red Square to visit Lennins mausoleum which had been closed the previous day however, when I arrived at the square it was soon obvious that I would not be going into the mausoleum today either! All around Red Square were crowd control barriers to keep everyone to the outside and away from the Kremlin walls and Lennins Mausoleum. It later transpired that the authorities were concerned that extremists might try to damage the casket that Lenin was lying in, so being Russia (or whatever it’s called today) they had closed the mausoleum to everyone. I was feeling very disappointed that I was not going to see the ’great’ Lenin for myself, it is rumoured that the body looks just like a wax model.It would have been interesting to see it for myself.

The rest of the day I travelled around on the subway and headed for the U.S.S.R Economic Achievements Exhibition which was located close to my hotel at the subway station VDNKh. It was a huge park with almost eighty pavilions and open air displays of soviet economic and cultural achievements. Outside the gates was the impressive two hundred and ninety five feet high monument to the Russian space programme with a museum beneath it. It looked like a rocket with the vapourtrail behind it, and it was in a huge arc towering above the streets, I could see it quite clearly from my hotel bedroom window. Inside the park the best pavilion, for me, was the Cosmos hall which I suppose was the Russian equivalent to Cape Canaveral space centre in Florida USA. The hall housed replicas of Soviet spacecraft and satellites, including Vostok in which Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space in 1961. I actually had trouble getting into the park as I did not have the correct change to place into the collecting box at the turnstile. An old woman told me Nyet! when I tried to go through. She pointed to a perspex box with money inside and I assumed that meant I had to pay to go in, not a problem I thought, but then this is Russia and nothing is simple!! It appeared that she did not have any change when I offered her some Roubles and she pointed for me to go away and to keep the path clear. Again I tried to go through and this time she became very aggressive towards me and began to shout. Once more I tried to give her some money and tried to understand why she was so angry.

Finally I managed to push some Roubles into the slot in the perspex box, only now she became even more upset with me, I suppose by not putting in the right amount of coins, it messes up the system? Any way, eventually I got in and it was worth every penny of it. I later went back to the hotel, and on the way began to wonder what to do with the roubles that I had left over. I had changed too many and had not been able to spend many of them due to the economic crisis that was taking place. It was only on the way to the hotel that I had an idea, I could not spend the Roubles that I had, and with the average wage being something ridiculous like £20 per month, I decided to give it away to a Russian who I guessed could really do with it, the problem was who and how do I not offend them? Then it came to me, in the underpass between subway station VDNKh and the hotel Cosmos was an old lady begging most days, as I went down the steps I could see her stooped almost double with one hand held out and the other crossing herself as if to thank any one who may give her something. As I approached her I selected all my Roubles which must have been around £5 worth, and rolled them up so that I could give her them and it would not be too obvious to anyone that was looking just how much I had given her. As I got to her she was bent almost double and her head was low and not looking up at me so I took hold of her hand and put the money into her palm and closed it tight around the rolled bundle, and immediately sensed the surprise of the woman and she thanked me and crossed herself as if to say "God bless". I never looked her in the eyes, I just kept on walking towards my hotel and I hoped that the money would come in useful to the old lady and her family if any. I was feeling disturbed at the poverty that surrounded me on the streets with people begging everywhere I went, and street vendors selling boxes of rotting fruit and vegetables to ordinary people. Donating what to me was a small amount of money, gave me a great sense of satisfaction, if only for the reason that the old lady would smile when she counted it, then it was money well spent!

Back at the hotel I wrote yet more postcards to Michelle, Mum and Dad and just about every one else on my postcard list. The day had shot by and at 5.00pm I had dinner with ’the group’ before heading off to the Moscow state circus which despite the high price, $15, was well worth it. I say high price because in Moscow $15 can buy a lot of things and a ticket would not usually cost that much.

We suspected that Paul was on the fiddle with us to make a bit on the side! Anyway the circus had many different acts with the majority being acrobatic and juggling, some of the acrobatic acts were superb with people being bounced high into the air, landing onto the shoulders of someone else, all very clever.

Once the circus had finished we went back to the Hotel Cosmos to have a shower and gather all our possessions, as we were soon to leave for Yaroslavl Railway Station to catch the Trans- Siberian train.

Yaroslavl Station is the place where the Trans-Siberian train arrives and departs. It was built in 1902 as a stylised reproduction of an old Russian fort (terem). We were told over dinner by Paul that we needed to get ourselves into groups of four as that was the number of beds in each compartment on the train. Martin (Irish), Jo (English), Katrine (Swiss- German) and myself decided to share a compartment, which should be good as they appeared to be easy to get along with, which will be important over the next week as we make our way to Beijing in China. Once at the station we were all feeling slightly apprehensive as to just what we could expect, I was probably more anxious as I had already had experience of the Russian trains and just how dismal they are, however we were booked to travel on the Chinese train which should be more comfortable.

At 12.20am the train pulled out of the station exactly on time, and I was off on the longest train journey in the world!

Read Neils complete adventure here.