I think that I don’t make mistake if I say that we are always waiting for summer and it flies by in a flash! This summer is not exception and we are again immersed in autumn time with new tasks, challenges and adventures in NORDI. But before we concentrate on that, I would like to tell you about my trip during holidays which is somehow related to our areas of interests in the research centre…my trip from Helsinki to Moscow by car, more than 1000 km, new small cities between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow.
Related to this trip I remember one famous book from classic Russian literature which was written by Aleksander Radischev with the title “The trip from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow”. On the pages of this book the author described small towns and villages between two big cities and inserted his philosophical thoughts about social system in Russia in 18th century. Especially because the content of this book included only names of these small towns, the censor gave the permission for the publication and many people had the opportunity to read about social and political views of Aleksander Radischev to the situation in Russia.
I read and studied this literature work in the school and only now during my holiday trip I remembered it and understood many expressions of the author about Russia, Russian people and the life between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow… During my trip I had mixed feelings because insight of me there was the fight between the habit to comfort and at the same time my eyes saw the most beautiful landscapes, historical small churches and people which live in wood houses from the both sides of the road. In some parts of the trip the road was of poor quality and because of that there is no opportunity to feel yourself comfortable but this possibility to touch to the Russian culture and feel some parts of the Russian soul makes you forget about any difficulties or inconveniences.
But I start since the beginning, or the first town which you could pass, when go to Moscow direction, and this is Vyborg or Viipuri in Finnish. This is the city which has the long history and was established by Swedish king during the Middle Ages.
Close to Vyborg there is located the cultural capital city of Russia, Saint-Petersburg which was established by tsar Petr the Great in year 1703. This is “the window to Europe” for Russia as was told by tsar Petr. Tsar Petr was wise governor and by means of Saint-Petersburg he made Russia more open for European countries and improved the cooperation between European countries and Russia in the field of trade, construction, education and culture. Saint-Petersburg has many historical places, museums and monuments. Saint Petersburg is also home to The Hermitage, the largest art museum in the world. Many people from the whole world come to this city in order to attend famous world performances in Mariinsky Theater. It’s possible to describe this city more and more but it’s better to go there and see all these sights by eyes.
The next city which you pass by the trip to Moscow and which I would like to mention here is Velikiy Novgorod. This beautiful city is lies along the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen. No other Russian or Ukrainian city can compete with Novgorod in the variety and age of its medieval monuments. The foremost among these is the St Sophia Cathedral, built between 1045 and 1050. The Novgorod Kremlin, traditionally known as the Detinets, also contains the oldest palace in Russia (the so-called Chamber of the Facets, 1433), which served as the main meeting hall of the archbishops; the oldest Russian bell tower (mid-15th cent.), and the oldest Russian clock tower (1673). A visit to Novgorod usually leaves guests with unforgettable impressions of the inimitable and majestic Novgorod landscape. There are enchanting sights on the boat tour of Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov river.
The next small city which is very popular nowadays among president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev and Prime-minister, Vladimir Putin, is Valday. They like to go to this small place for the vacation and also to organize meetings and working appointments there, especially in summer time.
As I mentioned already there are many small towns and villages which you pass through between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. As people live in these villages usually making household by themselves (growing vegetable and fruits, getting milk from cow or goat, etc.), they also sell figurines made from wood and other hand-made things along the road. Also you have the opportunity to buy brooms, samovars, or drink genuine Russian tea from such samovar with Russian pies which are very delicious. One of such places is Bologoe which is famous because of one old Russian song: “Bologoe, Bologoe, Bologoe, it’s somewhere between Leningrad and Moscow”…
Bologoe is located in 164 km far from next city which I passed and this is Tver. Tver, which is north of Moscow, was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian Empire, with a population of 60,000 on January 14, 1913 as mentioned in Encyclopedia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa Rivers. The city was known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990. Nowadays Tver is large industrial center with the population 400 000 people. You could visit also many historical churches in Tver and plunged into the times of Aleksander Nevsky.
So, very soon you will be in Moscow region with small towns as Klin and Solnechnogorsk, and many villages. My trip went through successfully and finally I was in the capital city of Russia, Moscow where my parents waited for me. I would like to say that this trip gave me the opportunity once again to remember that Russia is so large, there are so many different cities, small towns and villages there, so many beautiful landscapes and even untouched nature. It means that new educational year in NORDI will be also interesting, challenging, with many new trips to Russian cities, universities and many new co-operations which give us new research projects and publications with olad and new friends from leading Russian universities from Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and maybe Velikiy Novgorod and other cities, who knows... And before next summer vacations we could say that we know about Russia a little bit more than nowadays…
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Katja Novikova, Research director, NORDI
