From Houston to Sydney 2013
Russian Far East - 2014
What a delight it was to wake this morning and have a hot shower, my first hot water for four days.
We experienced a Very Rare Thing this morning – free time. We were free to have breakfast any time between 7:00am and 11:00am, as our meeting time was 2:00pm. I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast over some wonderful conversation with several other members of the group before going out on a extended walk of about two and a half hours.
My walk took me on a wide circuit that featured fewer points of interest than yesterday’s walks, but true gems when I came across them. I began by walking to the eastern end of Lenin Prospekt, and then turning south to south-west along Chernyshevskogo Street, a wide, dusty, noisy thoroughfare frequented by large trucks.
Although there were some modern buildings with interesting shapes, the prospects of seeing anything really interesting seemed slim, until I came upon something I didn’t think still existed in Russia – a statue of Stalin. And this was not some forgotten, decaying statue either. It was a newly made head-and-shoulders statue situated in pride of place in front of a large, modern glass-fronted office block of a mining company. This is one of only two statues of Stalin in all of Russia, and its erection about three years ago was understandably quite controversial.
Proceeding further south-west along Chernyshevskogo Street, I passed several old timber buildings in varying states of preservation (mostly tending towards the decaying end of the spectrum) before arriving at the Monument to Pyotr Beketov and the Transfiguration Church that I had seen on yesterday’s walk, coming from a different direction. Unlike yesterday, I ventured inside the church, where the chanting and strong aroma of incense immediately told me that a Russian Orthodox service was underway.
Walking still further to the south-west along Chernyshevskogo Street, I arrived at a large, classical style structure – a two-storey yellow building with green roof and domes, in the centre of which was a tall pink and white ecclesiastical structure. I later discovered that this was the Yakutsk Dukhovnaya Seminary. I entered the grounds through a side gate and discovered a beautiful old pale blue chapel, which I also entered. Empty apart from one elderly lady, the decorations were far more ornate, and also more intimate in scale, than any of the other Russian Orthodox churches I had visited on this trip.
I then proceeded north along Lenin Prospekt to the Opera and Ballet Theatre. This was a stark, brutal, modernist building, characteristic of Soviet architecture in the 1970s and 1980s, and seemingly out of character with the softer lines that characterized most buildings in Yakutsk. My walk finished as I headed north-east back to the Hotel Lena.
After a short rest, catching up on e-mails and making a skype call while the wi-fi was working well, it was time to meet for the afternoon program. Our first stop was the Mammoth Museum, housed within a building of the North-east University. Because of the permafrost that is found throughout Yakutia, many of the world’s best preserved mammoth bones, and even mammoth meat and skin, are found in the area. Some impressive mammoth skeletons were on display, the largest of which was only a medium sized mammoth at 2.5 metres in height; some of the larger ones were 4 metres high. The display also included other extinct animals from the region, including the Arctic Rhinoceros. Our informative visit finished with a 15 minute long 3-D video showing the excavation of mammoths in the Arctic north, including the recovery of mammoth meat and about 3ml of blood. It was fascinating.
Our next stop was at one of the places I visited on my morning walk, the Yakutsk Dukhovnaya Seminary. This time, rather than just exploring blindly (which is always fun), I received a detailed commentary on the significance of the seminary in the spread of Christianity in the Russian Far East. Being part of a group also made me a little braver in taking photos inside the 18th century chapel, which I had done during my morning visit, but in a far more restrained way than during the afternoon visit.
Our next stop was interesting, but also a bit strange. We stopped at the cultural centre for Yakut people, a place that is apparently dedicated to preserving the traditional culture of the region’s indigenous folk. There was little commentary provided at this location, apart from pointing out the totem poles erected at the front of the building. Inside, however, we were met with an unexpected ‘performance’ by a group of Yakut children who were practicing their traditional music. I have uploaded a video showing this interesting and distinctive music at http://youtu.be/hxFGxPfGvfI. It runs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds, which should be sufficient for you get the idea (be ready for the two little surprises towards the end though!).
Our next stop once again returned to an area I had already visited on foot, and yet again it provided new insights that I had not previously gleaned. We stopped at the monument to Yakutsk’s founder, Pyotr Beketov, and this time I noticed something I had inexplicably missed on my previous visits – hundreds of padlocks attached to the fence overlooking the Lena River. These are placed there by couples on their wedding day, who then (I understand), throw the key into the river as a symbol of their intention never to break their wedding bond.
Following this visit, we crossed the road and stopped briefly at the monument to victims of the Russian Civil War (1918-1923). An eternal flame was burning, highlighting (we were told) Russia’s abundance of natural gas. We also learned that the monument, but under the Soviet administration during the 1950s, was dedicated to the memory only of the Red Army victims. Apparently a monument is planned in another part of town, near St Nicholas Church, for victims of the other side in the near future.
Next we entered the 18th century Transfiguration Church, situated immediately behind the Civil War Memorial. Although a service was concluding, there seemed to be no problem in entering or, surprisingly, taking photos. On this visit, I ventured much further into the church than on my earlier visit, and was amazed to find a huge fresco facing away from the entry door (i.e. facing towards the altar) showing the last judgment in gruesome detail. The fresco looked to have restored fairly recently (like the entire church building), and was certainly not 300 years old.
Our final stop for the day was something quite special. One of the defining features of Yakutsk is that it is built on permafrost. There are two places in Yakutsk where some insight into permafrost can be gained. One is Permafrost Kingdom, a rather kitsch underground display that is built into the permafrost. The other possibility is the Permafrost Institute, which is a Soviet-era collection of drillings in glass cases. Our local hosts thought we might prefer Permafrost Kingdom.
Located about 13 kilometres from Yakutsk’s town centre, Permafrost Kingdom comprises two colourfully lit tunnels that have been drilled into a hillside into the permafrost. In some ways, it is like an underground version of the Harbin ice festival, although there are some other oddities, such as the frozen preserved mammoth’s head and a large informative map showing the distribution of permafrost through Russia.
The temperature inside Permafrost Kingdom was a very cool -8 degrees Celsius. In winter, people visit Permafrost Kingdom to get warm as the temperature underground at that time of year is -20 degrees Celsius, positively balmy compared with the outside chill. We were told to bring all our warm clothes, and in addition, we were issued with insulated coats that made me look like a druid from space. I can’t say I learned much at Permafrost Kingdom, but it was certainly an interesting experience, and one that is unique to Yakutsk.
We returned to the hotel at about 6:30 pm, and had a free evening. This will be a good opportunity to get some rest because we have already been warned that our schedule in Mirny tomorrow begins as soon as we step off the plane and will continue until at least 10:00pm, which is just a quarter of an hour before the sun will set. The days are already getting shorter!
Day 9 - Yakutsk
Wednesday
9 July 2014
