The Russian Journals, Part Eight: The Big, Bad Kremlin

Chapter One

This story about the Kremlin is going to be in two parts because there are many photos to go with it. In this chapter, I will start off with a true or false quiz, and in the next chapter there will be an essay question at the end. So, pay attention, and turn off the cell phones. Lattes are allowed during these sessions.

Check all that are true.

The Moscow Kremlin is:

--­a fortress

--a repository of tsarist treasures

--the seat of the Russian government

--the official residence of the Russian president

--a military museum

--site of numerous Russian Orthodox cathedrals

--where cannon barrels captured from Napoleon are displayed

--where all Russian tsars were crowned

--the spiritual center of Russia

--the home of the world’s largest cannon and bell

--formerly a wooden stockade

--the cultural center of Russia

--where clothing from tsars and tsarinas is displayed

--not the only Kremlin in Russia

--where the tsars partied down after being crowned

Is that your final answer? Need to call a friend?

Did you answer “true” to all of the above? Congratulations! You have won a copy of my Frankfurt to Moscow boarding pass. Please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope and $9.95 for handling.

Yes, the Moscow Kremlin is all of the above and more. Like many new settlements in old Russia, the Moscow Kremlin began with a wooden stockade for protection from invaders. “Kremlin” in Russia means “fortress,” and drawings of the early Moscow Kremlin look much like the Army forts of the American West. Situated on a low hill that afforded an excellent defensive posture, archeologists have discovered artifacts dating to the third and second millennium B.C.

The earliest recorded mention of Moscow dates to the twelfth century. A wooden fortress was built in 1156, and eventually stone and brick replaced the wooden ramparts after a fire in 1356 destroyed them. This fortress was intended to protect the new city of Moscow from Lithuanians in the northwest, the “Golden Horde” (Tatars and Mongols) from the east, and fractious Russian principalities everywhere.

In 1485, Prince Ivan the Great ordered the red brick walls and towers to be built. They exist today as the famed red walls of the Kremlin.

Red walls of the Moscow Kremlin, topped with swallow-tailed merlons (battle platforms).

Built in an irregular triangle, the 1.3 miles of wall encloses sixty-eight acres. The southern wall follows the Moskva River, the western wall the Neglinniya River, and the western wall faces Red Square. (By the way, the "Red" in Red Square is not because of the red star of the Soviets, but because the word for "red" in old Russian means "beautiful.") Wall heights range from six to sixty-two feet high, and eleven to twenty-one feet thick.

Kutafiya Tower

The Kutafiya Tower is on the left, the bridge over a former moat, and the red Troitskaya Tower, the tallest of the pass-through towers at the Kremlin. Built in 1495-1499, has had several different adornments on the top of it, the latest being an illuminated ruby star. With the star, the tower is more than 227 ft. high, and its walls range in thickness between nineteen and twenty-two feet.

Some towers were pass-throughs, providing access into the Kremlin. Some were used as prisons, others as water supplies, still others provided secret tunnels, and of course more were “listening” towers to detect hostile tunneling. More information regarding these towers and their history can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlin_towers.

The Troitskaya Tower.

The Arsenal, now a military museum. Displayed in front are some of the 875 cannon barrels captured from Napoleon’s forces, some famous Russian cannons, and other foreign cannon barrels.

The Senate building on the left, and the former USSR Presidium on the right, which now houses the president’s administrative offices and other governmental offices.

The Kremlin State Palace, above, is used primarily for concerts and ballets. There are 800 rooms in this building, one of them being a 6000-seat conference hall. It is the largest public building in Russia.

Some tourist standing next to the Czar Cannon, the largest cannon in the world.

Cast of high quality bronze in 1586, the 890mm caliber gun tube’s weight is 40 tons. It has never been fired, and the cannon balls, which don't fit anyway, are mock-ups.

A short distance away is the largest bell in the world, the Czar Bell. Cast in 36 minutes in November of 1735, the bell weighs 200 tons. A fire caused the roof of a structure built over the casting hole to fall on the bell, and the ensuing cold water poured on the fire cracked the bell, causing a chunk weighing 11.5 tons to fall off. Eventually the bell was placed on a pedestal, where it remains today. It has never been rung.

The eleven and a half ton "my bad."

Walking away from the bell and along a tree-lined path, I began to see the famous onion domes for which the Kremlin is known.

Oh, and of course these dudes were everywhere around the office buildings:

And now, because Cathedral Square deserves a chapter all its own, we come to a pause in this presentation of the Moscow Kremlin.

(to be continued)

Gullible's Gazette, Issue No. Two

Item One: What goes around, comes around.

I had a $72 ticket to accompany my friend Patti to The Lion King Sept. 29. Then the post office intervened. Erin wanted me to sub for her on the 28^th, and do the Moose Pass to Hope to Cooper Landing postal route.

Curtis asked me to sub for him on the 30^th for the Seward to Moose Pass route, which involved two round-trip drives to Seward at 70 miles each. First, though, I needed to be trained on his route. Tuesday the 29^th was the only day I had.

The Anchorage Performing Arts Center

I called Patti and gave her the sad news. There was no way I could make the 200 mile round trip into Anchorage Tuesday evening for the stage performance, not after 140 miles earlier, and 140 miles the next morning, not with my energy still attempting a recovery from the cold I’d brought home from Russia as a souvenir. I asked her to see if she knew anyone who could use the ticket.

The enchanting interior carpet. Hey, the soda stains don't show.

The very next day, my next door neighbor called with a ticket for the Sunday matinee performance. And, it was worth every second of it. The puppet/costumes/masks were exquisite. My favorite was the warthog.

Inside the theater, before the cameras were prohibited. Yes, it filled up. Don't enlarge this one. It's blurry. Do the next one.

The rest of the theater.

Item Two: Happiness is….

… a deck full of split spruce and birch firewood before the snow falls.

Item Three: Fall chores

I spent several hours outside today doing pre-winter chores. I emptied flower pots, stored the deck furniture, rolled up hoses, cleaned up the slash from splitting firewood, and in general got the exterior ready for snow and snow-plowing. Just as I finished and was walking back to the house, rain drops started falling. Down-valley was a very dark rain storm inching its way closer.

Item Four: Everything in its time

The outside of the house may be ready for winter, but the inside is another story. One of my late husband’s favorite sayings was, “I’m so far behind, I think I’m in the lead.” Proof positive of my position:

That’s a draft stopper, one of the four I set in the tracks of sliding windows to stop the cold from coming in. This one’s been on this table since last spring, waiting for me to put it in storage with the other three.

Underneath it? Some 2008 files that I started, and never finished, purging from the filing cabinet. I made it as far as “D.”

Item Five: Spying on the neighbors

This is the view from my living room windows.

Here’s a closer view of those funny white spots that aren’t snow.

And a bit closer. They’re mountain goats.

Click on the photos to enlarge to full screen. Then you can count then.

Item Six: Book Review

Great book to curl up with in front of the fireplace. Written by an Alaskan whose great-grandfather bragged of his exploits in Mexico and the US. The writing’s pretty good, and the story even better. Some fact, some fiction—the writer leaves you to decide which. On the whole, a great description of Mexican life back in the days of Pancho Villa. This book was self-published and might be hard to find.

Item Seven: Me thinks….

…thou dost protest too much.

Item Eight: For the military buff:

My neighbor Miles, the military buff, with the Russian military cap I brought back to him. Miles just helped his Seward High School team place second in the state cross-country championships.

Item Nine: Against All Odds

How can you get anything done in this mess?

Item Ten: Does Pablo want….

Oh, never mind.