I took the Metro out to the VDNKh stop. As you emerge, you see the stunning soaring tower of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. 100 meters of titanium clad concrete, thrusting a rocket ship into the cosmos. Build back in 1964, as a tribute to the bold new Soviet Cosmonauts and the Brave […]
Browsing Posts in Travel
Moscow: Museum of Cosmonautics
June 2, 2010
Moscow: Armed Forces Museum
June 2, 2010
Moscow’s Central Museum of the Armed Forces doesn’t specify a country in its title, but the answer becomes clear when you step inside. This is the Armed Forces of the USSR, comrade! Allowing for the Soviet focus, it is an excellent museum of its kind, well laid out, with many shiny artifacts. Outside are arrays […]
Abkhazia and Sukhumi
May 24, 2010
Before I arrived in Georgia, I had applied to the Abkhazian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sukhumi for a visa to visit Abkhazia. After a little toing-and-froing I was assured that my visa would be waiting in Sukhumi and my name would be on the “approved list” at the incoming border checkpoint. I took a […]
Gori's Stalin Museum (Revisited)
May 21, 2010
Despite the 2008 war, neither Gori nor its famous Stalin Museum seem to have changed much since my previous visit in 2007. The tall statue of Stalin still dominates the town square. The Stalin Museum still provides a positive narrative of Stalin’s life with a focus on the great Soviet WWII victory, and no mention […]
Tbilisi Ateshgah (Restored)
May 20, 2010
The Tbilisi Ateshgah (aka Atashgah or Fire Temple) was under restoration when I visited it in 2007. That work is now complete and, mercifully, the restorers have been gentle. The old brickwork has been cleaned, and in a few places discreetly repaired, but has largely been left “as is”, without any gross tampering. A perspex […]
Batumi's Stalin Museum
May 19, 2010
The Stalin Museum in Batumi is much more modest than the imposing Gori Stalin Museum. It comprises three mid-sized rooms, in a former worker’s hostel which housed the young Stalin when he was organizing workers in Batumi. However, the Batumi museum provides a much more personal and enthusiastic touch than in Gori. Your 3 Lari […]
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