Bolgar

Bolgar town lies on the shore of Volga river. It contains the evidence of a medieval city.

An early settlement of Volga-Bolgars existed between 7th - 15th centuries, AD.

It was the first capital of the Golden Horde in 13th century.

The big minaret.

Bolgar represents the historical cultural exchanges and transformations of Eurasia.

Khans tomb.

Khans tombs and tombstones. 

The white chamber and below is the bath.

The black chamber from the inside.

The small minaret.

Another excavation on the process.

If you click to enlarge, you'll see the black line. It was a line on the ground which tells that the whole city was burned down during the invasion of Mongols. Each later on the ground tells different times of whose occupation. That is according to what materials were laid to make houses. 

The minaret and crosses.

The place continue to be the most popular destination for Muslim pilgrims. At the same time, a church is located just beside the mosque. The church is a Russian Orthodox one. People in this small town go yo the same area to pray. They just enter different doors. 

I have read the entire history of Volga-Bolgars and it is impossible to retell in one sitting. It is very interesting to know how the east and the west were interconnected at those times. How Mongols achieved such a period in history. Life in this part of the world was quite impressive as the turn of events were pretty rich in culture & now history.

I'm adding some link which you may read if you find it interesting to dig deeper down this historical town.

Bolgar History

Mongol Invasion of Volga-Bolgaria

Linking with:

Skywatch Friday

Scenic Weekends

Inspired Sunday

The Eternal Regimen

The Commemorative March of the Eternal Regimen was the highlights and the most important part of the 70th Victory Day celebration/commemoration in Russia.

Thousands of people in every city have taken part in the march bringing the portraits of their relatives who died during the WWII. 

As you probably know that Russia and the former USSR republics lost some 25 000 000 ++ lives in the war. It then will not surprise you to know that every Russian person you meet has someone in his family or someone he knows amongst the casualties of the war.

70 years passed but the sorrow it brought to every family is still strongly evident. People could not have forgotten a close relative passing away in such a tragic event.

Many of those portraits are parents, brothers, grandparents & great-grandparents to some.

It is heartbreaking to witness such march especially when you know many of them in the crowd. 

It is one thing when you just learn about it in history books. It is one thing when you just hear people talk about it. But it is another when you hear stories yourself from first hand witnesses, survivors and families of those who perished.

"NO ONE IS FORGOTTEN, NOTHING IS FORGOTTEN"

That's what they would tell you and that's  what the message they would like to convey.

The march halted at the eternal flame where people laid flowers, uttered prayers and stood in silence while watching the flame.

Flames can be very mesmerizing. If you stand in silence and stare at it, many thoughts will flourish into your mind ... especially philosophical questions about life & death.

Note: This is a different flame from the other war memorial I have posted before. There are at least 2 in the city. 

The pictures of many people holding portraits of their deseased loved ones are not my shots, I took them from the interenet since I didn't get a good chance to take photos myself. The rest however are mine.

I'm  linking this post to:

Our World Tuesday

WATW

Today in 1945

May 9th marks the end of WWII

and the proclamation came the day after on newspapers.

"10 MAY 1945"

"OUR CAUSE IS RIGHT, WE HAVE WON!"

Soviet Leader: Joseph Stalin

British Prime Minister: Winston Churchill

U.S. President: Harry Truman

The WWII has ended 70 years ago.

People in Russia and the former Soviet Republics celebrate Victory Day on May 9 as a national holiday.

May people never forget what it had caused the world. May people remember those who have fallen and keep in mind what they fought for. 

May people understand the value of peace, life and future.

May any bloodshed NEVER again happen in any lifetime.

RIP to all lives taken by the war.

PEACE to the world!

WWII Memorial & Eternal Flame

May is a month of holidays in Russia. May 1-4 is a holiday celebrating Labor Day and May 9-11 is a big holiday celebrating and commemorating the Victory Day of the WWII.

Since the country has been to many different wars, memorials to those wars are seen all around. Losing 20,000,000 lives of both army and civilian, WWII was an extremely important part of their history. 

Many memorial monuments come with an eternal flame. It is an eternal flame of glory forever lit for the known and unknown lives that were lost in the war. 

I like this massive sculpture of a man trying to rise after having fallen. It represents the people, the country that no matter how much the war has taken from them, they stood to survive.

The whole complex is with the sculpture, stele, and the eternal flame. This is just one of the complexes. I'll  show you what's in the Victory park next post.

The city is busy preparing for the big event on May 9. 

Linking with: 

Our World Tuesday

Church of Paraskeva Friday

The Church of Paraskeva of Friday, or Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, was built at the end of the 16th century by Ivan Mihlyaev (who built the Peter and Paul Cathedral). The church has three altars, the high altar was sanctified in the name of Epiphany, the right one in the name of three Kazan saints, Guria, Herman and Ignaty, and the left in the name of the Holy Paraskeva. Closed and converted into a prison in 1937, in 1957 the church was once again open for prayer. Since its recent restoration, the high altar has been consecrated in honor of St. Paraskeva.

sourceof info: http://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/kazan-churches-tour-4788.html

This pictures were taken last summer, I thought that I'd wait for summer before sharing this but it looks like it'll still take a long time before greens come out and will look like in this pictures. It is spring, it is warm but no greens yet and lately the weather has not been a very hopeful. It's pretty grey, damp and muddy. Some remaining snow-ice won't  melt without re-agent. One day it rained, the following day it snowed (sleet) another day was sunny. I feel like we're in whirlwind of changes. I hope everything gets stable soon.

By the way, last Sunday I've posted about Easter. I think I was a week advanced for the Russian Orthodox Easter. It was only yesterday in fact. In Catholic it was the Sunday when I posted about Easter. I have colleagues who are Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim & Judaist,  so we, altogether respect & celebrate every religious holiday we have.

Linking this post to: 

Inspired Sunday

Our World Tuesday

Memorial

Memorial for those who died during the civil war while establishing the Soviet State.

Some graves of prominent people in some 1800s-1900s. 

One's a poet, a playwright, a musician. 

There are more of them burried under the snow at the moment so I wasn't  able to make picture.

This graveyard is located in a small part of a big park in the city. It was there even before th park was improved.

Linking with:

Inspired Sunday

Maslenitsa

Pancake Festival

The holiday dates back to pagan times when folks would bade farewell to winter and welcome spring. Maslenitsa has both pagan and Christian ancestry. 

Pagan's was celebrated on the vernal equinox day.

Christian's on the week preceding the Lent.

Maslenitsa, derived from the word maslo which means butter or oil in Russian owes its existence to the tradition of making pancakes, blini in Russian.  The holiday therefore involves a great deal of pancakes. 

There are different sorts. From plain to those with toppings or stuffed with, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, jam, condensed milk, meat, fish, vegetables, mushroom and caviar. My favorites ones are those which are stuffed with ground meat and the ones stuffed with boiled condensed milk. I love them and believe me I won't  exchange them with caviar. 

The holiday also involves a lot of fun. Lots of eating, drinking and festivity games for both adults and children. 

Maslenitsa is however not only about merry-making. There is a schedule of activities celebrated during a week. Here's a quick peek on that: 

Monday: Welcoming.

- ice-hills, seesaws and other mess for the games are created

- assembling the Maslenitsa doll out of straw and old woman's clothing

- (traditionally) the rich starts baking pancakes on this day while the poor, only on Thursday or Friday

(you can read about that here)

Tuesday: Day of Games

- sleighrides, home to home surprise of on-the-spot performances, etc.

- fun & mischief falls on this day

Wednesday: Regalling, the Sweet Tooth day

- feast on houses with blini and other dishes

- son-in-laws would visit to enjoy their mother-in-laws pancakes

Thursday: Revelry 

- broad Maslenitsa begins, highlights & climax of the game

- (traditionally) fist-fights happen on this day- it said to commemmorate Russian military history 

"Never hit a man when he is down" is a Russian proverb which roots from the holiday of Maslenitsa. 

I asked my Russian friends if they still practise such "game" nowadays. They said no. Not all of them are happy about this specific "game" though they recognize its origins and the significance of it in their history. 

I've first come along with this when I watched the film "Barber of Siberia".  It was an old, good movie.  

Friday: Mother-in-laws Eve

- a mother-in-law, with all her kind is invited to a son-in-laws home for a treat

I find this fun :) please read here if you want to know how is it all done

Saturday: Sister-in-laws Gathering

- young wives would invite suster-in-laws 

Sunday: Forgiveness Day

The title itself is self-explanatory. This is one very  interesting part of the festival. You can read details of it here.

The festival commences with the burning of Lady Maslenitsa (the doll).

It then the first day of Lent. Clean Monday, which ws considered the day of purification and fast forbidden foods.

If you want to read more details about the festival, please click the link below: Maslenitsa, Russia

(with pictures from the internet and source of information from russiapedia)

I'm  linking this post to:

Our World Tuesday

and WATW

Men's Day

23

February

Dyen  zashchitnika Otechestva

DEFENDER OF THE FATHERLAND DAY

It is now popularly called Men's Day to go along with the Women's Day on March 8. This is also a counterpart of the Father's  Day in other Westetn countries.

Historically,  it was the date of the creation of the Red (Soviet) Army in 1918. It  was historically celebrated by those who served in the army who therefore defended their homeland. 

However, if the men in one's  life have not been a part of any war, it still considered polite and important to recognize them in this day. In this way,  it can be shown that men and women are both important  to one another as Women's  Day is widely celebrated. It is considered rude to forget about Women's  Day celebration in Russia.

The funny side of this celebration is that it's  one day a man is allowed (very often by wives or girlfriends) to do as they please. They are exempted from taking the trash out, driving the kids to school and so on. They are usually pampered on this day. 

Since it is a non-working holiday, I had the chance to watch some of them celebrate the holiday. I saw many couples and families in the mall. It is them, men, who are shopping. Well, being shopped by women in their lives. It's either a wife, a girlfriend or a mother. It is funny to observe from aside. They are happy, though sometimes they look shy, they still can't  hide in their faces the feeling that someone is taking care or pampering them. Some of them are walking alone, probably enjoying the "freedom" from kids and wife :). Others are with other male friends. 

I think it is a nice holiday. I believe that men should be given a day of pampering just as women on March 8. The best thing about it is that one brings happiness to another.

Blizzard after Thaw

The spring is on it's  way, yes, but yesterday there was once again a blizzard followed with a temperature below 10. Weekend was as warm as 0 degree. It jumps and drops that high or low. Older people suffer much at this point in time as pressure drops and rises, their blood pressure does too. I am suffering from either lack of sleep or so much sleepiness. It all ends up to a bad headache.

These pictures were from the Victory Park. It's one of my favorite places (when there're not too many people around). It's  quiet and it has a certain atmosphere. An atmosphere which leads you to Russian history. Sad, heartbreaking but very meaningful and thought-provoking.

These planes are some of those which were used during the WWII. "The Great Patriotic War" as it is called in the country.

They are just there lying on a wide square accessible to people. People can touch them, kids climb on them in summer.

There were many, I mean Many different kinds of tanks too. If you don't  pay much attention at them, you'll think a tank is a tank and that they all look the same. In fact no, there are several types and each has it's  special features-strength and peculiarity. There was one time when in the news, one of the tanks was found on the street outside the square at midnight. Some youngsters, hooligans or not, were having fun and decided to see whether they still could make them move. And they saw. They were also arrested after that. That is why now, there's  a cobstruction going on and I  couldn't  have any picture of them. I will in summer.

Once again, the once clearing view is blanketed with snow and snow continues today.

Other happenings around the world on the links below:

Our World Tuesday

WATW

St. Basil Cathedral

The iconic cathedral located at the heart of the Red Square in Moscow.

It was built in the 16th century to commemorate  a military victory under the rule of Ivan the Terrible.

If you remember me posting about Kul Shariff mosque, this is the cathedral which architecture was originally based from the old mosque which was destroyed during the seige of Kazan. 

(Here is the post if you missed it Kul Shariff Mosque)

One very interesting fact obout the cathedral is after whom it was named.  It was named after St.Basil the Blessed (a.k.a St. Basil the Fool) who impressed Ivan the Terrible when he foretold a fire that swept through Moscow. He was later burried at the spot where the cathedral stands.

Another very interesting fact about this cathedral was the architect who built it. After it was completed, Ivan had him blinded to prevent him from building a more magnificent building for anyone else.

For a more detailed history of the cathedral, please click the link below.

St. Basil Cathedral History

Pictures were taken in the summer of 2010 when I  first visited Russia.

For more interesting churches around the world, please click below.

Inspired Sunday

Kazan Kremlin

Let me give you a tour to the city I live in. It is the city of Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Tatarstan is one of the many republics in the Russian Federation. It is located in the heart of Russia, 800 kilometers from the country's  capital - Moscow.

Kazan, the third largest city was founded in 1005. The territory  of Kazan is a region of beautiful forests, rivers and lakes. Kazan's history is closely connected with history of civilisation of the East and the West.

Let's  begin from the most important part of the city - the Kremlin.

Kremlin means a fortress, a citadel, a fortified complex housing the official resident of the president (the Republic's president) and several other important institutions of the city.

In the year 2000, Kazan Kremlin was included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural heritage.  

0

There are two languages spoken in the city. Tatar, which is the national language of the republic, and Russian - the country's  national language. You will notice that every edifice with a name, the name is written in both languages.

Standing big and tall, this is one of the pillars of the fortress. 

One side of the big wall.

One of the entrances.

The Kremlin from afar.

Next time I'll take you inside and show you what and how it looks like.

Note: The pictures are taken from different times. All of the shots personally taken.