FROM MOSCOW, RUSSIA

(click on thumbnail images to enlarge)

Moscow, the Morning...

MOSCOW, Mar 24, 2007 - After traveling for about 30 hours since Shenzhen, I finally made it to Moscow.  And what a gorgeous spring morning it was...

We landed at Moscow's newly renovated Domodedovo airport shortly after sunrise. As you can see from the second frame above, construction seems to continue while the airport operates its normal schedule. 

On the way to the city, birch (or aspen) trees, typical of Russian landscapes, lined the highway.  There was no sign of spring here as yet even though this has been the warmest March on record so far.  The temperature was -2C (29F) when we landed.  So it's all relative.

Closer to the city, but still in the suburbs, we passed this pretty new church.  We also saw several others under construction.  There aren't many places in the world these days where new churches or temples are being built.  The fact that it is happening in Russia is another sign of its spiritual reawakening.

When I got to my hotel, it was still early in the morning and my room was not ready.  So I took myself on a walking tour of Moscow city center.  Feel free to join me...

My hotel is right behind the world famous Bolshoy Theater where in 1877 Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" ballet premiered.  Now the place seems to be becoming famous for another reason - the length of reconstruction.  It is being renovated for several years, first the new stage, and now the old one.  I am told there are two more years to go.

A few hundred yards away, Ralph Lauren and western-led globalization seems to be even climbing up the Kremlin's outer walls. :-)

Closer to the Kremlin entrance, a much more domesticated scene.  Three large dogs, huskies or German Shepherds

, were lazily snoozing in warm sunshine in a freshly planted bed of tulips.

Here's a close up of two of these lazy Kremlin "guards." :-)

Okay, on to the Kremlin now...

At the entrance to the Red Square, one can find this tiny little church that contains an icon of the Mother of God that's believed to be miracle making.  The church and the building behind it was bulldozed by Stalin to make way for the tanks and rockets that paraded through the Red Square during on November 7, the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.  It was rebuilt in the early 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

As I entered the church, a service was in progress.  I stayed for a few minutes and took these two pictures of the icon without using a flash.  I suspect I was probably violating some sort of a rule for doing it.  But nobody noticed, except perhaps the divine spirit whose home this is.  So far, nothing untoward has happened to me as punishment. 

This is the view of the little church from inside the Red Square.  Bright morning sunlight has lit this place where so much history was made as cheerfully as I have ever seen it.

Right next door is another lovely church, my second most favorite inside the Red Square.

Looking toward the Kremlin, you may notice that the communist red star is still gracing its spires even if communism is long gone.

In the middle of the vast Red Square sits the Lenin Mausoleum, the square red marble structure visible behind this security guard.  The buildings with the yellow facade behind the red wall are the government palaces inside the Kremlin.

This is the spire at the other end of the Red Square.  It also has a red star on top, though I cut it off in this shot.

You will get a fair idea how big the Red Square is from this picture, taken from close to the other end from which I entered. You can see the little red church that Stalin had razed in the distance in the right middle part of the picture, just to the left of that green construction facade.

This is another (long) view of the Kremlin walls and the Lenin Mausoleum from the far end of the Red Square.  If you click on the thumbnail to the right, you will see a photo taken on Nov 7, 1941 from roughly the same spot.  It shows thousands of Russian troops marching through the Red Square in commemoration of the Red Revolution, before going off to war against the Nazi Germany.

Across the wide square is a huge GUM department store, built in the late 19th century, that still serves as such.

Now, as we are about to leave the Red Square, you may have been wondering what my favorite church was, if the other one, at the entrance, was my second most favorite.  Voila...

...it is the famous St. Basil's Cathedral, built by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, a place where many Russian czars had been crowned, before Peter I moved the Russian royal court to the newly built St. Petersburg in the 18th century.  As you peruse the several other shots of this magnificent church basking in the spring sunshine, taken from various angles, you may be also interested in some of its rich history (that follows)...

St. Basil's was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Czar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. (He did in fact go on to build another cathedral in Vladimir despite his ocular impediment!) The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovite masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself.

This huge billboard, off to the side of St. Basil's, is a stark contrast to the grandeur the old cathedral.  It is reminiscent, however, of similar enormous advertisements that I had just seen in Shenzhen.

On my way back to the hotel, I passed by this building.  It is the Russian Duma, i.e., the nation's parliament, equivalent of our Capitol.

And back at my (Marriott) hotel.

Moscow, the Evening...

Now, fast-forwarding from early morning to early evening, you'll see some Moscow sights at sunset.  

I found myself walking back to my hotel from another Moscow neighborhood, around another famous cathedral, Christ the Savior, whose golden domes were gleaming in the setting sun.

This is another church that Stalin had ordered destroyed.  It was rebuilt in late 1990s, as Moscow prepared to celebrate its 850th anniversary (in 1997).

At the other end of the large plateau that surrounds the church, there is this pretty 18th century structure, the Glazunov Gallery.  It is one of hundreds of beautiful baroque-era structures that have been restored in the last 16 years since the fall of the Soviet Union.

A little farther along, I caught the setting sun lighting up the Kremlin onion domes and spires visible here in the distance...

...as well as a bit closer, as seen from across this large intersection.

And that's all she wrote from Moscow on this day one of my visit...

Click here to go to Day 2 in Moscow.

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