TelinFyodor

   Vologda is the main city in Vologda oblast, situated 400 kilometers from Moscow. I have been there for several times, and despite its poor condition I like it very much. Vologda is one of those places where many features of Russian culture have been preserved. It's good that in 2000s--a time of big prices for oil and a rise of the Russian economy--Vologda had no great influx of money. Therefore, beautiful historic buildings of Vologda were not demolished and replaced by ugly shopping malls and apartment blocks. So, Vologda is a place where the spirit of old Russia remains, however ruined its condition may be in some parts of the city.        This time I arrived there by train. When I travel by the train I like the night trains. You can spend the night sleeping and arrive at your destination in the morning, around sunrise. I wrote "sunrise" just formally, since actually Russia cannot boast of many sunny days during wintertime. Usually the sky has a ...

Kimry is a town in the south of Tver Oblast, Russia.  It’s located at the junction of the Volga and Kimrka Rivers, 133 kilometers east of Tver.  It’s railway station, Savyolovo, is on the Moscow – Kalyazin line.  Kimry also has a river port on the right bank of the Volga.  In every street in the center of the town, there are unique, incomparable, small houses and mansions.  Many of them are in very bad condition now, and some are completely abandoned.  It is interesting that Kimry got the status of a town only after 1917, so all these architectural monuments can be considered as stunning "rural" housing.  Unfortunately, during the Soviet period the town’s architectural integrity was badly damaged.  In 1936, authorities demolished the cathedral complex on the central Troitsky Square, where Pokrovskaya Church (built 1816-1825) and Troitskaya Church (built in 1829) stood on the bank of the river junction. . The remaining Ascension Church (1814),...

     Zaraysk is a small town that lies 120 kilometers southeast from Moscow.  It was originally settled in the 12th century, but was burned down or otherwise destroyed several times by nomadic tribes. The last time, it was burned by Mongols under Khan Batu in 1237.  In that time, this land was part of the Ryazan principality--one of the main competitors of the Moscow principality.  In 1521, together with the entire Ryazan Principality, the town was annexed to the Moscow Principality.  Zaraysk became an outpost near the southern border of the principality, and a target of devastating raids of Crimean Tatars during the entire 16 th century.  During the period of 1528-1531, by order of Vasily III, a stone kremlin with seven towers was built here.  The walls of the new fortress were three meters thick and nine meters high.  The new fortress was a powerful fortification, since the Osiotr and Monastirka rivers were natural barriers ...