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It was kind of a memorial trip. My friends and I used to visit Ladoga lake many times a long time ago and we loved the lake and nearby forest. The Ladoga lake was favorite place of my friend LG, who recently died from cancer. It was on Ladoga where he broke his toe during soccer game, and broke my nose with his head during another rough soccer game. We were pretty reckless. It was not just our group habit, it was generally accepted approach to life in Russia and still is. If you put a safety belt in car for example, the driver will feel insulted. Once our recklessness resulted in tragic death, on Ladoga lake also. We took abandoned boat and tried to sail on it to the city of Priozersk. Boat sunk and one guy, VM, drowned.

Trip to Russia 2004

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 19:00:59

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called a totalitarian state, which I observed during my short visit to Belorussia.

City of Vitebsk is known in the West mostly as the birth place of painter Mark Chagal. There are two museums of Chagal in Vitebsk, but not a single picture. Chagal offered several of his picture as a gift to his hometown in 60-ties. But communist authorities did not accept the gift from the painter surrealist, they prefer Socialistic realism.

City of Chashniki turned out to be an un-impressive Soviet style small town of standard concrete 3-4 floor buildings. Entire town was re-built after WWII. There was heavy fighting in that area and the old town was completely destroyed. Lady in local museum was very impressed by my grandfather's license and asked me to send her a copy for placing it on display in the museum. Museum was closed for renovation at the time of my visit.

The city of Minsk is preserved as a time piece of the old Soviet Union, complete with all slogans, statues and names. These who feel nostalgia for USSR, go to Minsk

Kiev is again becoming city of golden domes. Most of the 400 churches were destroyed in 1935.

Odessa, my love! It is dirty, polluted, but I love it anyhow. I wanted to buy a small fish (bichki) on "Privoz" market and asked if they are from the bay. Sales woman exclaimed: "How can you ask that! You are from Odessa, right!? You should know that this particular type of bichki is from the sea, not from the bay!" I am not from Odessa, I was born in St. Petersburg, but my father is from Odessa. How could she know this?

My next destination was my other grandfather (on father side) hometown. I have list of government employees of city Bolgrad, Ukraine for year 1914. See it in attachment. My grandfather is listed there as the manager of military draft department. Bolgrad was founded by people, who came there from the Varna region of Bolgaria in 1806-1824, upon invitation from Russian ...