Travel Stories - Russia

"kursk"

introduction

I bought a ticket for the night train from Moscow to Kursk. After half an hour of waiting we are allowed to enter the platform. It is still dark in the wagon and I’m searching for the right bench/ bed that is still folded up. A few minutes later, when I put all my stuff away and took my shoes off, I’m greeting the other people in my couple; an older woman and two young local boys. In front of me there is a beautiful dressed - I think - Tartarian woman with her boyfriend - she wears a square red hat trimmed with gold, a purple dress with golden glitter, black shoes and her hair is very black and long. She’s wearing very lots of gold rings around her fingers and bracelets and has got an Asian but also Turkish and Mongolian appearance. Behind me is a woman with two very big fake breasts and a man with a very big belly; his shirt is too short to cover it all. The tickets are collected and we get a plastic bag from the conductor; within is a clean sheet, bottom sheet, bedspread and small towel. The train suddenly jerks forward, the light goes on and I get to bed with difficulty – the place is so small. I change my clothes and climb on my upperbed. I listen to some music and an hour later the light goes out. I’m trying to sleep till it’s six o’clock when I supporse to arrive in Kursk.

Battle of Malojaroslavets

The Battle of Malojaroslavets was a battle in the Campaign of Napoleon in Russia fought in Central Russia between the Empire of France and the Empire of Russia on October 24, 1812. The French Grande Armée, decimated in the previous months, still had 20,000 men left, compared with 12,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry in the Russian army. The goal of the French emperor Napoleon, after having had to give up Moscow, was to move south to Kaluga, to conquer this city and from there back to Smolensk for spending the winter there. The Russian supreme command found out about this plan and sent an army to Malojaroslavets to stop the French. The battle that followed was extremely fierce and Malojaroslavets passed over five times hands. Eventually the French won, but their goal to capture Kaluga was now out of the question. The Russians kept Malojaroslavets half surrounded from the south, so that only the road on the west side, to Smolensk, remained for the French open. The Russian army lost 6 to 7,000 men, the French army 4 to 5,000.

A Russian hostel

It is half past six when I’m woken up by the controller in the train and he returns my ticket to me. He indicates that I have to put all my stuff back in the plastic bag yesterday evening given to me. Half an hour later I am standing in a long queue for the exit of the wagon - apparently most of the people go out at this stop of "Kursk". With the tram I travel through the city and get out in the center. After asking questions here and there to local people someone knows the hostel that I found on the internet. On the last building where it could be is indeed the name "hostel" written at the wall but I do not see a door. I ask someone and he accompanies me to an empty courtyard with a fragile iron staircase. I walk the steps up and ring the bell. A chubby blond Russian woman opens up. I take off my shoes, pay for the night and she shows me a bed in the dormitory. There is a gigantic fat guy with tattoos who snores very loud. Luckily the woman tells me that he will leave today. I have a cup of coffee and meet three Russians in the old TV room whose furniture badly needs to replace. With some laughter I look at the carpet that almost takes off. The paint on the wall is pink, there are four chairs (an office chair), there is a plastic plant standing and every 10 minutes the whole building shakes because the tram passes by. I decide to make a detour in town.

The lacking museum

I walk past the Central Market on the way to "Krasnaya" plaza - the road goes up and before I know it I am sweating all over the place. On a large square I see a grotesque building and assume that this is the war museum that I will visit later because now it’s closed. Where the square is, I hear reverberating Russian music coming from different boxes and I also notice that people in suits are walking around with a red rose in their hand. You can’t miss the large light green dome of the "Assumption" cathedral and the gigantic large open space here - it looks like a boulevard built to hold parades and this kind of things. A monument of Lenin stands stands in the middle and there is again a large monument with plaques and wreaths to honor the dead who are fallen I think in WWII. The sun is shining and it is warm, even though there is still a strong fresh breeze blowing. I arrive in the main street "Lenina" street but unfortunately there is no information center. After walking around for half an hour in the wrong museum, it turns out that the old war museum in the officers building is no longer up to date.

A few hundred meters outside the center seems to be the great war memorial - today an excellent opportunity to go and see it because I have enough time. It’s nice weather and I’ve got time left because of the closed warmuseum. I walk the whole "Lenina" street where a lot of shops are still open on Sunday and where it is very crowded with people. There is the fork that goes to the train station and the other to the bus station - I follow the route to the busstation and after a meter or 600 I come across the big monument. It is a tall obelisk with an eternal flame and numerous large wreaths. No tanks or artillery pieces but a lot of graves and monuments. The latest monument is the one that they put down for the marines of the "Kursk" submarine that drowned after a terrible accident.

The "Kursk" submarine:

The "Kursk" submarine was part of the Russian Northern Fleet, which had been reduced enormously due to lack of financing during the 1990s. Many submarines were rusting in ports along the Barents Sea. The August 2000 exercise should become the biggest summer exercise since the collapse of the Soviet Union ten years earlier. Officially, the accident with the submarine in question is caused by a problem with a fuel component for a dummy torpedo that had to be fired as an exercise. Approximately 8 hours after the first explosion, the last survivors would also suffocate due to lack of oxygen and carbon monoxide poisoning. Initially, Russia tolerated no foreign aid and they tried to rescue the crew themselves with rescue submarines. First it was said that the wreck could not be found immediately. Then followed the excuse that the escape hatches could not possibly be opened. When divers did not descend to the wreck until days after the accident, this turned out to be incorrect, but it was already too late. The entire boat (wreck) had already made water and the crew had already died. A consortium of two Dutch companies, Smit Internationale and Mammoet, has secured the Koersk. The front part, with the torpedoes, was sawn off and remained on the seabed. The wreck was then towed to the Roslyakovo shipyard of the Russian navy. After this, 115 of the 118 dead could be recovered. All crew members received the Order for Bravery posthumously. The commander of the Kursk received posthumously the title Hero of the Russian Federation.

On the way back to the hostel, I do my shopping and walk into three pubs to ask if going to broadcast the footballmatches of the World Cup tonight. None of them will do so, which is remarkable for a country that will organize the event itself in four years time. In the hostel I seem to be all alone and all the people in my dormitory checked out. In the evening I am alone in the TV room (is a big word) and at 7:45 pm I turn it on to see the first football game of the day. I open my cardboard cheap wine and immediately know why that is - it is not very good but it will do. It feels like I'm in a 60s movie set with a small old-fashioned TV with black and white images with parts of noise here and there and blurred image. Tomorrow I make plans to go to the battlefields of Kursk in "Prokhorovka".

tips & advice (2014)

You can take the tram from the center with no. 2 and 4 towards the train station; cost 12 Rubles - takes about a 20 minutes. With tram 2 (other direction) you go to the bus station. You stop at the final tramstation near the bus station at a large bend - follow the group of people 100 to 200 meters further up.

Kursk - Prokhorovka: there is a bus in the direction of "Belgorod" from the bus station. You have to get off at 110 km from Koersk at a T-junction- from here it is still 28 km to Prokhorovka. There is an old wooden mill and a katusja rocket installation; there is also a bus stop right at the road where you come from - there are very few buses to drive along - these cost 85 Rubles. I hitchhiked further to Prokhorovka.

Kursk - Voronezh: there is one train per day at 06:30; this train arrives at 11:30 in Voronezh and costs 800 rubles. You can also go by bus - it leaves at 08:20 and arrives at 13:25. Costs are 408 Rubles (+ 15 Rubles for your bag).

Name: Hostel "Kursk"

Address: Ul. Verknyaya Lugovaya 32

Price: 450 rubles (dormitory)

Tel.nr: +7 919 219 0222

Content:

This hostel is a stone's throw away from the Central Market and Krasnaya Plaza and I think it is the only cheap hostel in Kursk. Watch a big sign hanging on the wall with "hostel" - then you have to walk up an empty courtyard (there is no dog) and up the ramshackle iron stairs. Ringing the bell and then a nice chubby blonde woman opens up - Marina. The building itself is clean but is necessary to be refurnished - the furniture, the decoration and everything is very out dated. There is only one shower, I think there are four or five dormitories so it can be very crowded when full. The tram crashes past, I think there are only men in the hostel (haven’t seen one girl when I was there) and the beds are not too best but you get clean bedding, sheets and a towel. The shower and toilet are clean and in itself good. There is a small TV room and a kitchenette - unfortunately there is no WiFi. With tram 2 and 4 you can reach the train station.