HEADING FOR MOSKVA RIVER EXPANSES
|
With summer approaching, we are irrepressibly attracted by water. Moscow offers a lot of places for swimming, rowing, windsurfing and sailing sports. The river bus is one more pleasure of this kind that is not less tempting and not depending on whims of weather. River buses are spacious double-deck motorboats cruising on the Moskva River, the capital's main water artery. The most asked for route crosses the very center of Moscow. However, Red Square and the Kremlin are offered for the "dessert" of a two-hour trip. We begin at the departure point, that is, at the moorings in front of the Kiev Railway Station. Among the nine Moscow terminuses this is the only one situated on the riverbank. It was built exactly one hundred years ago as a wooden pavilion that was replaced in World War I with a magnificent neoclassical-style building. There are only but few such structures on the both sides of the Atlantic that can boast such a grandiose glazed platform roof over the tracks designed by architect Vladimir Shukhov, originator of the first Moscow Shabolovka radio and TV tower commonly known as the "Shukhov Tower". We start our journey downstream the Moskva River that runs through the city from northwest to southeast. The river forms several picturesque meanders because of which its bed length within the city confines reaches 80 km. Our itinerary is six times shorter than this length. Ladies and gentlemen, look to the left and straight ahead please. How splendid is this red-white attire of the cathedrals crowned with golden cupolas, how harmonious is the high belfry of the Novodevichy Convent founded in 1524. Among the inhabitants of this nunnery there were fourteen women of the Romanov dynasty. At present the Novodevichy Convent accommodates a cemetery of the same name where the best people of Moscow and Russia are buried. A striking contrast to the repository of eternal rest is formed on the same bank by the Luzhniki sports complex exemplifying eternal movement. Some fifty years back there was a huge construction site of the main stadium of the Soviet Union there. Initially, the number of seats of the Great Sports Arena exceeded a hundred thousand. But when important football matches were played there was a shortage of seats for all those wishing to attend. Take, for instance, the games between the famous Moscow Spartak and Kiev Dynamo soccer teams: the stands were full to cracking although there was not even a trace of today's fans with posters, rattles and fire crackers at that time; what's more, everything went off without acts of vandalism or brawls. The solemn ceremony of the complex opening took place in summer 1956 when the First Spartakiad of the U.S.S.R. Peoples was held. In 1980, the fire of the 22nd Olympic Games was brightly blazing there. The 1990s were marked by passions around the intended stadium reconstruction. And, finally, at the close of the summer of 1997, the Great Sports Arena adorned with new many-colored and very cosy armchairs and a splendid canopy that fully protected the stands from weather whims has celebrated its rebirth by a football match confronting the Russian national team and the all-star combined team of the rest of the world. Now, we've been talking enough about the stadium; let's have a look at the opposite riverside. In this place, the right riverbank is particularly high as it turns out, there are in Moscow mountains that were called Vorobyovy Hills since olden days. They became first of all famous by the fact that shortly after the tragic insurrection of the Decembrists at the end of 1825, two young Muscovites from well-to-do nobility families, Aleksandr Herzen and Nikolay Ogaryov, climbed the steep slope above the Moskva River and swore to continue the struggle for the liberation of Russia from autocracy. Many years later, this vow echoed from London in the shape of the emigre Aleksandr Herzen's newspaper The Bell that called on Russia to take up the axe. In 1870, Herzen's death year, in the small Volga town of Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) a boy named Vladimir was born into the equally well-to-do and intelligent Ulyanov family. Having grown up, he took the sound of that bell as a guide to action. Probably that is why the Vorobyovy Hills for many years were called Lenin Hills... Some decades later, the Lenin Hills accommodated a student campus with hostels, study and laboratory buildings, research institutes, an observatory, and a museum of the Moscow Lomonosov State University (MGU), one of Russia's oldest, biggest and most prestigious higher learning institutions. At present, MGU has more than a dozen of departments, about 300 chairs where hundreds of academicians, professors, associate professors, senior and junior researchers train thousands of young professionals in practically all fields of knowledge. In 245 years of its existence, MGU has trained more than a million of students. The University's main building is the last of the "magnificent seven" of the first Moscow high-rise houses. A strange fate befell the Leninskiye Gory (now Vorobyovy Gory) metro station that is now floating above our heads: the matter is that the bridge that accommodated it is in a distress condition and has been shut for repair long ago. A little bit further on, you can see something quite strange, piers without a bridge. Don't be scared, ladies and gentlemen: in the place of the former railway bridge a new highway bridge, part of the Third Ring being laid out to improve urban traffic that is tied up with jams at the peak hours. The previous Andreyevsky Bridge has not been scrapped but serves its own dedicated purpose. Last fall it was painstakingly detached from its piers and floated slightly downstream where it was successfully turned into a pedestrian bridge. The relocated bridge derives its name from St. Andrew's (Transfiguration) Monastery founded on the slope of the Vorobyovy Hills in the mid-17th century and abolished already under Catherine the Great to subsequently turn into an almshouse for many decades ahead. St. Andrew's Monastery was famous for its enlightenment mission: in effect, it housed the very first school in Moscow; monks were busy translating foreign-language books into Russian. At the present time, the Synodal Library is situated there. Having doubled Luzhniki, let's admire both the same traveler bridge wrapped up in a gentle green lattice covering as well as beautiful summer-houses, small architectural works of art and the picturesque vegetation of the Neskuchny Sad (Amusement Garden) that smoothly blends into the Central Recreational Park named after Gorky, the famous Gorky Park. Behind the Krymsky (Crimea) Bridge, the only suspension bridge spanning the Moskva River, we are almost bumping into the jackboots of the multi-meter statue of Peter the Great. This czar who acquired the complicated craft of shipbuilding in Holland laid a solid foundation of the future successes of the Russian fleet. In his honor Zurab Tsereteli, President of the Russian Academy of Arts, erected a monument on the spit of the island formed by the river and the Bypass Channel. Nearby are a host of most interesting buildings, for instance, the Moscow Variety Show building on Bersenevskaya Embankment. A full house for shows staged in the cosy auditorium is a common thing because only the stars excelling in this popular theatrical genre are invited to perform there. The Variety Show takes up the "club" portion of a huge 500-flat house built in 1928-1931 to the design of architect Boris Iofan for high-ranking Soviet statesmen and party leaders. Author Yury Trifonov in his novel The House on the Embankment lifted the veil of the secrecy surrounding this grim-gray architectural monument: the lives of its numerous inhabitants were stamped out by the standard verdict: "Ten years without the right of correspondence," which meant death. Just opposite the huge gray building stands the Cathedral of Christ the Savior whose tragic story also reflected our people's fate. Erected in honor of the victory over Napoleon's army in the Patriotic War of 1812, it became a religious and cultural center where national anniversaries and jubilees were celebrated. Outstanding sculptors and artists including Pyotr Klodt, Aleksandr Loganovsky, Ivan Kramskoy and Vasily Vereshchagin were invited to decorate the Cathedral facades and execute interior paintings. Church music by the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and spiritual psalms of the unsurpassed creator Pavel Chesnokov were heard; Fyodor Shalyapin's powerful bass filled the entire volume of the giant cathedral. Following the revolution of 1917, the All-Russia Church Council was held under the shadow of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior where it was decided to restore the patriarchal system abolished by Peter the Great. But on December 5, 1931, the main Russian sanctuary was blown up. According to Stalin's idea, the tallest of the high-risers, the Palace of Soviets designed by the same Boris Iofan, was to be erected in its place. The construction of this unparalleled (420 m high) building was interrupted by the World War II. Subsequently, the outdoor Moskva Swimming Pool was opened in its foundation pit. This notwithstanding, at the close of the 20th century the will of the people of renewed Russia returned the Cathedral of Christ the Savior from oblivion and it rose from the ashes. Its golden cupolas shine over the capital just as they did a hundred years ago. Located close to the Kremlin, it completes the panorama of the historically established magnificent architectural ensemble, the face of the capital that mirrors in the river. The Kremlin, this legendary stronghold of the Russian state power with its towers, cathedrals and palaces behind redbrick walls, appears in all its beauty before the eyes of those who sail along the Kremlin Embankment. Out of the five towers crowned by fine ruby stars, only the Vodovzvodnaya (Water-lifting) Tower is located on the very waterside, the Borovitskaya (Pine Grove) and the next Troitskaya (Trinity) towers peeping out of it. And a way up the Vasilyevsky Slope, the famous Spasskaya (Savior) Tower's chimes regularly ring; the beautiful Nikolskaya (St. Nicholas) Tower situated on the same line with it proudly keeps silent. Incidentally, the towers found "not worthy of stars", which was the highest distinction, are also admirable-each in its own way. Along the embankment behind the Vodovzvodnaya Tower come the Blagoveshchenskaya (Annunciation) Tower followed by the oldest Taynitskaya (Secret) Tower that is more than 500 years old (from here, a secret tunnel led to the river bank), the First Bezymyannaya (Nameless), the Second Bezymyannaya and the Beklemishevskaya (Beklemishev) towers. It is noteworthy that the greater part of the Kremlin towers, churches, palaces as well as the huge Ivan the Great bell tower were erected by Italian architects invited to Russia since the times of Ivan III (the last quarter of the 15th century): Aristotele Fioravanti, Marco Ruffo, Pietro Antonio Solari, Antonio Gigliardi and Aloiso di Carcano. As far as the Great Kremlin Palace whose sumptuous facade overlooks the Moskva River as well as the former Cathedral of Christ the Savior are concerned, they were created by the Russian architect Constantin Ton. On the very same left side, just behind the Ustinsky Bridge, the Moscow River takes in the water of the Yauza River, the capital's second greatest stream. Its banks also show a lot of interesting things. Alas, the Yauza is too narrow and shallow even for a river bus. By the way, it's only a ten-minute unhurried walk to the All-Russian State Foreign Language Library named after Rudomino where presentations of publications, displays and creative gatherings are constantly held as well as to the Japanese, British and French cultural centers housed under the library roof on the Yauza River bank. It takes even less time to reach the Illyuzion Cinema located on the ground floor of the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment. True, there is no landing platform at the Ustinsky Bridge, and if you want to get to the cinema or the library with its richest collections of books in all living and many dead languages, you'll have to get off the river bus at the Rossia Hotel or at the terminal landing stage at the Novospassky Bridge. And it's precisely there that our motorboat is heading for the expanse of the river waves to get moored shortly afterwards. Those interested can visit the Novospassky (New Savior's) Monastery dating back to the 15th century and returned to the Moscow Patriarchate at the end of perestroyka. The imposing view of the entrance gate bell tower lavishly decorated with columns is able to pacify the souls longing for dry land, just as a visit to the monastically ascetic Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Savior Transfiguration) Cathedral adorned with a splendid iconostasis and the burial vault of the Romanov boyars. The accession to the throne of one of the representatives of this dynasty in 1613 signified the end of the troubles that engulfed Russia after Boris Godunov's death. Mikhail Romanov became the founder of a powerful czar dynasty that lasted more than three hundred years... via"DIPLOMAT" Magazine |
                            
|