things to see in Urals: Kolpaki, Verkhoturye
Recently documentary series “the Ridge of Russia” appeared on russian TV. They tell russian history related to the Urals region and show its wonderful places. One of them is the mountain Kolpaki – natural reserve and the favourite point for people looking for wild nature of Urals.
After we saw this mountain on TV, we decided to go there and without “putting it in the cooler” for the time, on early Saturday morning we set out.
The mountain Kolpaki is situated not far from the border between the Sverlovskaya area and the Perm region. Additionally an idea arose to add one more point to our travel route – the ancient rural town Verkhoturye, founded in the end of 16th century, an orthodox center of Urals.
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the GULAG museum Perm-36
We all know that the history is cyclic and is used to repeat. People should know where some events will lead us to, based on a huge experience of mankind.
One of the most terrible pages of newest history of Russia is the repression period, the time of GULAG. We decided that for better understanding of this period we have to merge into the atmosphere of that time. That’s why we went to the unique GULAG museum, which was founded by people who were convicted in political crime and exonerated after the USSR destruction.
The museum was founded on remains of the prison camp Perm-36 for political prisoners. This prison camp was founded in 1940 during the GULAG period and was closed in 1988, when “perestroika” started in USSR. The camp was designed to hold 1000 prisoners and contained few barracks, auto repair shops, depots and administrative buildings. Prisoners worked on logging and small technical works which didn’t require professional skills.
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the Church on the Blood
We’d like to tell you about the most famous and historically significant place in Yekaterinburg –
the Church on the Blood. This place is a shrine where the pilgrims from all over Russia gather.
The Church was built on the site of the house of engineer Ipatieff, where the royal family Nikolai II, his wife, sun and four daughters were assassinated and the 300 year old monarchy of the Romanov dynasty came to an end.
In April 1918 because of the onset of white army the Ural Regional Council (Urals Bolsheviks – Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party) decided to confiscate the house to carry out a hasty assassination over the royal family in it.
Yakov Yurowski was appointed a commandant of the house. He offered to invite the royal family into the basement in pretence of giving them a shelter, then he told them that «their friends» (the white army) were coming up and therefore they are sentenced to death, the shootings followed.
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Shrovetide train
Today, in one of sunny spring days we want to tell you how russian people greet spring.
Since earliest times the Shrovetide is celebrated in Russia in honour of spring coming – a holiday week with pancakes baking and street festivities.
The tradition to bake pancakes came to us from slavs. They took spring as a source of new life and hallowed the sun which gives light and warm for everything alive on the earth. First they baked unleavened cakes in honor of the sun, and when they learnt how to make a batter they baked pancakes. Pancakes were considered as a symbol of the sun, because they are also yellow, round and hot. Slavs believed they ate a piece of the sun, its heat and power.
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