Moscow Journal – 5-8-07

Moscow Journal – 5-8-07

I fell back asleep finally Saturday morning after writing my first Moscow Journal entry and was awakened to the sound of knocking on my door around 10 AM. The visiting professor here at the Seminary was checking to see if I was up and about. We had made arrangements to be tourists together in downtown Moscow for the day. I got dressed and had a quick breakfast, and then we headed out to the Metro.

Our plans were to visit the Kremlin, and St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square. We also hoped to go inside of the Christ the Redeemer Cathedral (Khristos Spasitel’ Kafedral), re-built in the last 13 years. The original had been torn down in the Stalinist era and a swimming pool was built on the place where it had existed. At one time it was the largest church in Christendom, and the Russians have rebuilt it basically exactly as it was once . . . except that outside on the grounds on the north side is a very large statue of Tsar Nicholas II.

The United Methodist Theological Seminary where I am volunteering and staying is in the southwest section of Moscow, just outside the territory of the inner ring of the Moscow Metro system. It is closest to “Sportivnaya” Metro Station. The name is appropriate since a huge stadium and several other sports arenas are in the area. If you visit Moscow and go to the overlook in front of Moscow State University, you can see the stadium and all of Moscow laid before your feet, as I did when I was here for the first time in January of 1994.

The neat thing about that is that when I was looking out over the city of Moscow way back then, I, of course, had no idea that I was also looking at the buildings of the neighborhood where I would be staying now! The Seminary is in the Weaver’s Quarter (Khamovnichesky Val), and the first Russian Orthodox Church I visited is nearby. It is called St. Nicholas of the Weavers. After visiting it in January of ’94, the following June I found it again when some of my friends from my second VIM trip visited Moscow on the way home from Pushkin (formerly called The Tsar’s Village, where the summer palaces were) , near St. Petersburg. We were helping to remodel a nursing home.

If you’d like to, you can see a photo of St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church in the middle of this webpage:

http://members.tripod.com/~WOLFIELUC/russdomes.html

Another special thing about this area is that St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church is down the street from Leo Tolstoy’s house. When I was here in January of ’94, the museum in it was closed for the New Year Holiday, but we were able to go inside in June of ’94. While standing in one of the hallways near a table blocking the way to the opening of one of the rooms, the guide said, “At this table Tolstoy wrote ‘Anna Karenina!”’ I was enthralled. So now I am very excited to be living about 10 blocks from Tolstoy’s house and St. Nicholas of the Weavers’ Church.

On Saturday when we got off the Metro near Red Square, we found that because of the preparations for the Day of Victory holiday on May 9th (tomorrow), Red Square was closed to pedestrian traffic in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum. The holiday commemorates the victory in what the Russians call “The Great Patriotic War”, known to us as WWII.

If you remember photos and news videos of May Day parades at Red Square, you might have some idea of the preparations for the pomp and circumstance tomorrow. However, nowadays, instead of Soviet-style signs covering the whole sides of buildings, there are billboards and building covers in the new Russian Federation mode. When we went through GUM, the big shopping center, to get to the other side of Red Square, we could see the stage and large video screens facing the VIP stands in front of the eastern walls of the Kremlin.

The screens were displaying film footage of the Soviet Army in WWII while heroic and sentimental music like the song “Katyusha” played in the background. I’m sure the celebration tomorrow will be wonderful, but the crowds will be too big for me to hazard a trip down there unless one of the students wants to go down with me.

I can imagine that it will be a little like Washington, DC on the 4th of July . . . but not as hot! I feel a bit like Snoopy in the tall grass when I find myself in the midst of huge crowds, though – and it is no fun trying to get home on the Metro after the fireworks on the 4th of July in our capital, so I think it will be similar here.

Anyway – on Saturday we had a lovely time together, as we toured the churches of the Moscow Kremlin after exploring all that was available to see inside St. Basil’s Cathedral. If you are not sure which church St. Basil’s is, please look at this website to see a photo of the most famous Russian Orthodox Cathedral:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/russia/moscow-st-basil-cathedral.htm

One surprising thing about our visit to the Kremlin was that there was an exhibit from the “Forbidden City” of China’s Imperial Era there. Amongst the very interesting artifacts was the Dragon Throne all the way from Beijing and the ages past. We didn’t stay in the small exhibition room very long because it was late in the afternoon by that time. Out on the plaza between the Patriarch’s Palace and the largest churches there: Uspensky (the Assumption), St. Michael the Archangel (patron angel of Russia), and Transfiguration, we enjoyed the beauty of the buildings and exploring those that were open. While on our tour of the Kremlin in the summer of ’94, we were only able to see the inside of the church of St Michael the Archangel because Uspensky Cathedral and the other churches were closed.

So much has changed in thirteen years! It is difficult to take it all in, though for me there are also many comparisons between Moscow and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan where I lived for almost 5 months in 2005.

All together, Saturday was a wonderful day, even though when we reached the large doors of Khristos Spasitel’ they were being closed for some reason an hour and a half before the guidebook stated they would be closed. My new friend, the Old Testament professor, had already been inside, so I didn’t mind too much. I trust I will be able to worship there and explore the beauty inside it soon.

Well . . . since it’s 1 AM, I guess I had better go to sleep. I hope whenever you do that, you will have pleasant dreams.

Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy