Pushkin is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. He published his first poem at 15 and at his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum he recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty“. Poems like this led to his being exiled by Tsar Alexander the First, however, Pushkin went on to write Boris Godunov and Eugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832.

Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya was the Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, politician, and the wife of Vladimir Lenin from 1898 until his death in 1924. She served as the Soviet Union's Deputy Minister of Education from 1929 until her death in 1939.

Inside the building there was a monument to Yuri Gagarin

   
Monument to Yuri Gagarin

Further in there was an exhibition of the Soviet Union during the Cold War Space Race ...

... and a short introductory talk by our guides, including a demonstration of the spinning chair used in the trianing of cosmonauts.

In another room was another exhibition about Samantha Smith. She was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine, who spent a week here during her visit to the Soviet Union. Samantha became famous as a "Goodwill Ambasador" during the Cold War. In 1982 at the age of 10 she wrote to the new General Secretary of the Communist Party, Yuri Andropov asking him what he would do to avoid a nuclear war with the US.. She received a personal reply and an invitation to visit the Soviet Union. She accepted and attracted a lot of attention in the media. She went on to write a book about her visit, Journey to the Soviet Union, but unfortunately she was killed in a plane crash at the age of thirteen in August 1985.

Members of our party came from Maine and John and Carrie Schuchardt from The House of Peace in Massachusetts and the Samantha Smith Chapter of Veterans for Peace - they brought some items for the exhibition including a poster of Martin Luther King and these were exchanged with items presented by the exhibition organisers.

The Samantha Smith Chapter of Veterans for Peace, North Shore MA.
(see their press release issued April 19, before out trip)

More views from around the Camp

Day 8
Livadia Palace
May 3rd

Our next stop was Livadia Palace, the summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family in Crimea.

The region is known for its healing climate and it became a popular resort, especially following the development of the railroads in the 19th century. In 1861, Tsar Alexander II bought land in Livadia and built the Grand Palace as a gift to his wife. It was also here, at the Church of the Holy Cross, that the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II came to the throne and where his bride-to-be, Princess Alix converted to Orthodoxy and adopted the name Alexandra Feodorovna.

Perhaps the Palace is most widely recognised as the meeting place for the Yalta Conference in 1945, when Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to determine the future of Europe.

US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was given 43 rooms in the Palace to house the members of the American delegation. The Russian delegation was housed in the Yusupov Palace, and the British in the Vorontsov Palace some five miles away. There is a museum at the palace and it is still sometimes used for international summits.

Above we see the reception room of President Roosevelt. He held two meetings here with Stalin..

The palace was built in the style of Italian Neo-Renaissance villas, with open patios, elaborate balconies and ornate interiors. White Crimean granite was used as the building material. The most "Italian" element of the palace is the inner courtyard, which is surrounded by arcades, full of greenery, and has a marble fountain in the middle.

Immediately after the Revolution, the palace briefly became a museum preserving the heritage of imperial family life. Later on, it served as a tuberculosis sanatorium for peasants and from the end of World War II until Stalin's death in 1953, the residence was used as a dacha for state officials. In 1993, the palace was reopened as a museum..

One of the rooms displays pictures made by the royal children.

The statue in the grounds shows the iconic picture of the three world leaders at their meeting in 1945. A favourite place for tourists!

Group Visits

In the afternoon the study group split into three groups. One went to the house of Anton Chekov, another to visit some military veterans and the third to visit a local group of high school students.

Council of Veterans

Some of the group went to meet up with the Council of Veterans. Here we see Will Griffin with an impressive 93 year old WW II veteran. He joined the Army of the former Soviet Union at 16 years old (he lied about his age) and today still does push-ups for exercise.

He joined the Army as the Soviets were pushing the German fascist army away from the Soviet Union and he was stationed in Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Now he is concerned about climate change and says the future of our children depends on what we do now.

In his blog, Bruce itemises some of the things he said:

We have a negative attitude today about US-NATO military encirclement of Russia.

During the war I met American soldiers near the end of the war – it was a joint victory against the Nazis. In Austria we were amazing friends with each other.

The military budget of the USA is today more than 10 times grater than the Russian military budget. Russia can’t be an aggressor.

Ninety-eight percent voted in our 2014 referendum to re-join Russia. There was not one casualty during that time. During the Soviet Union we had education for free, medical care for free, housing for free, vacation for free. 98% of our kids went to summer camps for free.

There were shortcoming too. We could not travel outside of the Soviet Union and our economy began to slide near the end.

Now many things have changed. Russia has more social programs to benefit the people.

We are faithful to these memories. We do not want war. If we have to we will cut the head of the snake that seeks to surround us. We hope mankind will be smart enough not to start a war.

If someone wants to compete with each other let them compete in sports stadiums, places of art, etc.

In Russia we are more oriented towards using capitalist profits to help people. Eighteen percent of the population in Russia live in poverty. We now have the task to bring them up so we don’t need any war and neither do you in the USA.

High School Students 

A second group visited a school for people with learning difficulties run by Valentina, a friend of Tania's.

On the right we can see Mary Beth with Mary, a Crimean debate teacher who brought her high school students along to meet people, practice their English and act as interpreters.

Chekov's House

The third group visited the  house of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). The White Dacha, was designed by L.N. Shapovalov and built in 1898 - after the success of The Seagull. Chekov took up residence there after his father died in order to help him cope with tuberculosis. He planted a variety of trees and kept dogs and tame cranes..

After Chekhov's death (1904) the house was looked after by his sister, Masha, until 1921 when it became a museum. During the Nazi occupation Maria Pavlovna refused to leave and put up pictures of Hauptmann (the German dramatist) on the wall and refused to let a German officer move into her brother's rooms. Nothing went missing but the house was damaged by the Luftwaffe during one of the last air raids on the area.

The Harbour, Yalta

Our hotel in Yalta was close to the harbour area which, in the evening, was full of life and music.

Day 9
On to Sevastopol
May 4th

Chersonesus

The first stop was at the ancient Greek colony of Chersonesus, which was established in the 6th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica, across the Black Sea.

The ruins are a popular tourist attraction

The Saint Vladimir Cathedral is a Neo-Byzantine Russian Orthodox cathedral on the site of Chersonesos and commemorates the place where it is thought that St. Vladimir was baptised.

'The Valley of Death'

The Charge of the Light Brigade in the Valley of Death by William Simpson (1855)

As it is now

Moving on again, we paused at the site of the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade which ocurred on 25 October 1854 during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The war was fought between British and Russian troops and Tennyson immortalised the event in his poem of the same name. It was a failed military action led by Lord Cardigan and was due to a miscommunication which resulted in Cardigan's light cavalry chrging a Russian artillary battery. There were very high British casualties with no military gains.

Balaclava Harbour.

The Siege of Sevastopol ocurred from 1854-1855 during the Crimean War. Anticipating the siege, the Russians scuttled ships of the Black Sea Fleet to block and protect the harbour, to use their naval cannon as additional artillery, and to free up the ships' crews as marines. After the war, it was quite a technological challenge to recover the ships.

Balaclava has occupied a place in military history for centuries. More recently however visitors to the town have been able to experience and tour an old Soviet Submarine base that was constructed during the Cold War.

Museum Coastal Battery 35 "Maxim Gorky-II"

The gun battery was used by the Soviet Union during World War II in the Crimean Campaign. The invading German forces gave the battery its English name - Maxim Gorky (after the author and political activist) - it is not the Russian name..

The nazi forces reached the Crimea in the autumn of 1941 and overran most of the area. Sevastapol stood out as the only target not taken. Several attempts were made to secure the city in October and November 1941 and a major attack was planned for late November. However, heavy rain delayed it until 17 December 1941 and even then the attempt was unsuccessful.

In an attempt to divert nazi forces to protect their new acquisitions, Soviet forces launched an amphibious landing on the Crimean peninsula at Kerch in December 1941. It saved Sevastopol for a time but the bridgehead in the eastern Crimea was finally eliminated in May 1942. The battles had resulted in over 80,000 defenders being killed. However, the onset of the Crimean blitzkrieg was delayed. The evacuation was to take place close to the 35th battery. Not much remains today - just a solitary rock with a protruding rail remains. Maxim Gorky II was finally taken on July 4, after the Sapun positions were captured, making it the last major pre-war fortification to take part in a campaign.

Restoration work began in 2007 by citizen enthusiasts with the help of charitable donations.

Our guide explained how 30,000 Soviet sailors and soldiers were killed by the fascists at this place as they tried to defend Crimea. They are still discovering bodies in the area. She told us that not all of the Soviet military personnel were heroes, they were just simply human beings. This was not a museum to glorify war but to remember the spirits of the dead.

Secret escape route to the sea

Remembering the dead
 

Tower of remembrance containing the names of those killed

Organisers of the Crimea Spring

While here we had the opportunity of meeting key organisers from the 'Crimean Spring'. They told us how, following the right-wing coup in Ukraine, the Crimean people quickly organized local militia to resist any incursion and a referendum on whether to return to Russia or stay part of Ukraine. There was a 96% vote for integration into the Russian Federation, with an 83% turnout. The official result was the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and integration of the region into the Russian Federation.

We could see that a lot of critical construction work was now taking place where previously, as part of Ukraine, little attention was being paid to the Crimean Peninsula..

 This was the final stage of our visit to the Crimea.

Day 10
On to St Petersburg
May 5th

St Petersburg lies on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and during 1713–1728 and 1732–1918, it was the capital of Imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow, 388 miles to the south-east.

In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd in order to remove the German parts of the name. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed to Leningrad. On 6 September 1991, the original name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned.

Day 11
Sightseeing
May 6th

Street scenes

There are so many amazing buildings in the city and so much history that a visit is required in order to really appreeciate them.

 
The City Duma

The City Duma, shown above, was established in 1785 in the course of Catherine the Great's municipal reform. Emperor Paul replaced it by the so-called Ratusha, but his son, Alexander I, had the Duma restored four years later. Nicholas I, the next emperor, expanded the institution from six to twelve members in 1846 and Alexander II of Russia reorganized it again during the reform of the 1870s. In September 1918 the Duma was abolished and its functions devolved on the Petrograd Soviet. The headquarters of the Duma were erected on the main city street, Nevsky Prospekt, between 1784 and 1787 and the Italianate tower was added in 1799–1804. Two more floors were added to the building in 1913–14.

Singer House, also known as the House of Books, is located at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Griboyedov Canal. It is recognized as a historical landmark and is officially an object of cultural heritage. It was the former Russian branch of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.

The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian Emperors from 1732 to 1917. Today, the palace and its precincts form the Hermitage Museum, situated between Palace Embankment and Palace Square. It has been calculated that the the Winter Palace has 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 staircases..
The Alexander Coulmn was named after Alexander I (1801-25) and erected after Russia’s victory over Napoleon.

The Hermitage Museum

Day 12
More Sightseeing
May 7th

The State Hermitage Museum is the second largest museum in the world. Founded in 1764 to house Catherine the Great's art collection. It was been oprn to the public sine 1852. The museum collections are spread over six buildings along the Palace Embankment  including the Winter Palace.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected on the site where political nihilists fatally wounded Emperor Alexander II in March 1881, the church was constructed between 1883 and 1907, funded by the imperial family. In order to build a permanent shrine on the exact spot where the assassination took place, it was decided to narrow the canal so that the section of road on which the tsar had been driving could be included within the walls of the church.

Political History Museum, St Petersburg

Our visit to the Political History Museum was very interesting and informative. The story of the revolution was described in pictures, posters and exhibits.

A severe shortage of bread resulted in mass demonstrations on February 23, 1917 in Petrograd. These developed within few days into the real uprising and  the revolutionary events of February – March 1917. The result was that the Russian monarchy fell from power and was replaced by a Provisional Government. Members of the Provisional Government came from various liberal and left-wing political parties, some previously represented in the Duma, and others in the Petrograd Soviet. Russia became one of the most democratic countries in the world: class privileges were abolished, political freedoms were proclaimed, amnesty on religious and political cases was declared, the death penalty was abolished, and all political parties received the possibility to operate legally.

However, the Provisional Government faced a number of difficult issues: the agricultural issue, the national issue, the issue of war and peace. Convening the Constituent Assembly, called upon to determine the future political system of Russia, was delayed several times. It had neither a clear program of actions, nor a leader who could rally previous political forces. It didn’t have full power in the country, or even Petrograd. The influence of the Petrograd Soviet, which had become a source of real power, was continuously growing. Future political crises became inevitable.

Soon, the initial wave of support for the Provisional Government amongst the Russian people subsided and unrest grew, a result mainly of Russia's continued participation in the First World War and the economic effects of the fighting on Russian society. The unrest reached a peak with the Kerensky Offensive on July 15, 1917 which was supposed to boost the morale of the troops and reignite support for Russia's participation in World War I. However, the offensive ended up having the opposite effect. Troops and workers had become frustrated with Russia's continued involvement in World War I which led to the July Days revolt against the Provisional Government and the unrest continued throughout that summer and sparked calls for more discipline and a stronger, more unified government.

Unease also escalated amongst Russia's businessmen and industrialists in the Provisional Government. Support for the restoration of order was strong even amongst the politicians who formed the Provisional Government..
Immediately following the 'July Days', Aleksander Kerensky became prime minister of the Provisional Government and swiftly appointed Kornilov the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army. With the help of officers of the Russian Army, Kornilov amongst them, he hoped to deliver a more unified form of government.

After a failed coup, Kornilov was removed from his position as Commander-in-Chief and incarcerated in the Bykhov Fortress with 30 other army officers accused of involvement in the conspiracy. The Provisional Government had lost all credibility and crumbled. On 15 September Kerensky proclaimed Russia a republic - contrary to the non-socialists' understanding that the Provisional Government should hold power only until a Constituent Assembly should meet to decide Russia's form of government, but in line with the long-proclaimed aim of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He formed a five-member Directory, which consisted of himself, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Tereshchenko, Minister of War General Aleksandr Verkhovsky, Minister of the Navy Admiral Dmitry Verderevsky and Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Aleksei Nikitin. He retained his post in the final coalition government in October 1917 until the Bolsheviks overthrew it on in November 1917.

Shortly after Lenin seized power with the Bolshevik "October Revolution" Kornilov managed to escape from Bykhov Fortress and went on to establish the Volunteer Army, which fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. He was killed in battle against Bolshevik forces in the town of Ekaterinodar in April 1918.

The Russian Civil War (7 November 1917 – 25 October 1922) immediately after the two Russian Revolutions, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future.

Green Armies - armed peasant groups which fought against all governments in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922. The Green armies were semi-organized local militias that opposed the Bolsheviks, Whites, and foreign interventionists, and fought to protect their communities from requisitions or reprisals carried out by third parties. The Green armies were politically and ideologically neutral, but at times associated with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

Red Army - founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov that split from the Menshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) at its Second Party Congress in 1903. The RSDLP was a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organisations of the Russian Empire into one party.

White Movement - a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the Communist Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds and to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations insurrectionists both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945).

Allied Intervention - After the Bolshevik government withdrew from World War I, the Allied Powers openly backed the anti-communist White forces in Russia. Allied efforts were hampered by divided objectives, war-weariness from the overall global conflict, and a lack of domestic support. These factors, together with the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion, compelled the Allied Powers to withdraw from North Russia and Siberia in 1920, though Japanese forces occupied parts of Siberia until 1922 and the northern half of Sakhalin until 1925.

Lenin's Office

Lenin worked in this office practically every day from April 4 to July 4 1917. When he returned from exile, he became actively involved in the political life of revolutionary Russia. In his work “April Theses” Lenin said that the program of the Bolshevik Party was to create a socialist revolution. He announced this for the first time in the mansion of M. F. Kshesinskaya on the night of April 4, 1917 right after his arrival in Petrograd.

 E.D. Stasova, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), used to work in the same room. Her desk is to the left of Lenin’s table. The room has access to a balcony, from which Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders often made speeches to the workers and soldiers of Petrograd.

Lenin made his last speech from the balcony on July 4, 1917, when addressing the Kronshadt sailors who arrived at Petrogradto take part in a demonstration against the Provisional Government. During the suppression of the July demonstrations on July 6, 1917, troops of the Provisional Government took over the Kshesinskaya mansion and destroyed the Bolsheviks’ headquarters.

The museum also included some of the lowlights of the Soviet history - such as ‘The Great Terror’ – Stalin’s purges from August 1937 – November 1938 when approx. 1.7 million people were arrested on political charges, 700,000 of whom were executed.

Peter and Paul Fortress

From the museum we went to the nearby Peter and Paul Fortress. This is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. In the early 1920s, it was still being used as a prison and execution ground by the Bolshevik government.

The Peter and Paul Fortress

Now an important part of the State Museum of Saint Petersburg History which also owns virtually all of the building, except the part occupied by the Saint Petersburg Mint.

Under the Provisional Government, hundreds of Tsarist officials were held in the Fortress. During the July Days demonstrations, the Fortress garrison of 8,000 men declared for the Bolsheviks and on October 25, the fortress was taken by theBolsheviks. Following the ultimatum from the Petrograd Soviet to the Provisional Government ministers in the Winter Palace and after the blank salvo of the Cruiser Aurora, the Fortress fired 30 or so shells at the Winter Palace. Just two hit, inflicting only minor damage, and the defenders refused to surrender at that time. On the morning of October 26, the Winter Palace was taken by forces under Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko; the captured ministers were taken to the Fortress as prisoners. Between 1918 and 1921 at least 112 persons, including 4 grand dukes, were killed here.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733 on Hare Island along the Neva River.

The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, who were finally laid here in July 1998. Among the emperors and empresses is Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years.

The Cruiser 'Aurora'

Another popular attraction was the 'Aurora' - a 1900 Russian cruiser, currently preserved as a museum ship in Saint Petersburg. Aurora was one of three Pallada-class cruisers, built in Saint Petersburg for service in the Pacific. During World War I Aurora operated in the Baltic Sea performing patrols and shore bombardment tasks. In 1915, her armament was changed to fourteen 152 mm (6 in) guns. At the end of 1916, she was moved to Petrograd for a major repair. The city was brimming with revolutionary ferment at that time and part of her crew joined the 1917 February Revolution.

The ship's commanding officer, Captain Mikhail Nikolsky, was killed when he tried to suppress the revolt. A revolutionary committee was created on the ship, with Aleksandr Belyshev elected as captain. Most of the crew joined the Bolsheviks, who were preparing for a Communist revolution. At 9.40pm on 25 October 1917 a blank shot from her forecastle gun signalled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace - it signalled the beginning of the October Revolution.

In summer 1918, she was relocated to Kronstadt and placed into reserve.

The Piskariovskoye Cemetery is a reminder of the scale of the tragedy the city lived through during the Second World War and (the 900-day Siege of Leningrad). For over 2 and a half years the Nazis kept Leningrad under siege, preventing any movement of people, food or armaments, but despite the horrors experienced by the city's residents, Leningrad did not surrender. In St. Petersburg we take pride in the fact that during almost 300 years of the city's history enemy forces have never invaded it.

642,000 people died during the siege of Leningrad alone - mostly from starvation - and a further 400,000 died during evacuations. Altogether 28 million Soviet citizens lost their lives during the war – something it will take a long time to forget.

Some half a million of them, including 420,000 civilians, are buried in the cemetery's 186 mass graves. The slightly raised mounds are marked by year and a long alley leads the visitor to a monument with a statue of the Motherland, portrayed as a grieving woman. Many of St. Petersburg families come to the cemetery once or twice a year to bring flowers and pay tribute to the city's defenders, perhaps to members of their own family, who died during the Siege, which the Russians call Blokada.

A solemn moment for Dave Webb, Subrata Ghoshroy and Will Griffin

Victory Day (May 9th) is a holiday in Russia that commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. It was first inaugurated in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, following the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender late in the evening on 8 May 1945 (after midnight, thus on 9 May Moscow Time). We watched the parade build up during the day it moved quietly (except for a few sporadic laments) along the main street which had been closed to traffic for this purpose.

Just a small part of the massive parade

Our guide in Crimea arranged for her friend Elena (centre, above), who lives in St Petersburg, to escort our group in the 'Immortal Regiment' march which we joined when it was fully underway. It drew well over one million people altogether and they walked more than three-miles through the city to Palace Square.

Elena carried a photo of her grandfather who fought against the Nazis during the war.

Elena later wrote, "Exactly 1 million, 180 thousand people participated in the Immortal Regiment this year in St. Petersburg. Please tell your colleagues that we all in one boat on the Earth."

June 14, 2019
Curtis Memorial Library
Brunswick, Maine USA

This report was presented by Mary Beth Sullivan, Rev. Bill Bliss, and Bruce Gagnon on behalf of the Global Network. It was sponsored by PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Maine.

The purpose of the Russia study tour was to listen, learn, and stand against the constant demonization of Russia by the western media. The idea was to build people-to-people bridges between our nations rather than an escalating arms race which could bring us WWIII.

During the WW II Nazi invasion of the former Soviet Union 28 million citizens lost their lives from the fascist attacks and occupation of the Soviet Union and the memory of that war is deep in the consciousness of the Russian people to this day.