Russia - GO or not?
Jun 15th, 2015, 05:13 AM
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think if someone from another country or city looks at our (NYC) newspapers, they may get the same idea. However, there IS great tension between the U.S. and Russia right now, but I also know that I'm looking forward to going back to Moscow, even as an American, and of course hope for the best. Just want to get my husband more comfortable.
Jun 15th, 2015, 01:18 PM
#24
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Then I take it you would not go to China, Vietnam, Myanmar and many other countries that have troubling "political situations". I on the other hand value my travels to those countries and view my travels there as a broadening experience, as well as an opportunity to observe another country's art, architecture and culture..
Jul 17th, 2015, 03:36 AM
#27
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi!
I'm from Russia. Don't believe your husband's colleague. It's not true. It's just political propaganda. But no one cares. There are thousands of tourists in Moscow, St Pete and other big cities and i think 1/3 of them are english speaking.
Just don't believe.
Have a nice trip!
I'm from Russia. Don't believe your husband's colleague. It's not true. It's just political propaganda. But no one cares. There are thousands of tourists in Moscow, St Pete and other big cities and i think 1/3 of them are english speaking.
Just don't believe.
Have a nice trip!
Jul 21st, 2015, 05:59 AM
#29
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 15,774
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think you said you are staying at Savoy
Just today I walked near the hotel...there is a lot of work going on around it ..basically a mess and huge noise ... Don't know about Sep., but I am sure glad I am not staying there.
Just today I walked near the hotel...there is a lot of work going on around it ..basically a mess and huge noise ... Don't know about Sep., but I am sure glad I am not staying there.
Jul 21st, 2015, 06:43 AM
#30
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,818
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Diane...I think you know my position on going. I'm happy you have both decided to do so. Will await your TR. Meanwhile, I'm quie sure I have at times shared Eastern European pics, and especially the old Soviet Russia and by contrast today's Russia. If not, please write.
stu
stu
Jul 21st, 2015, 02:25 PM
#31
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
danon - Thanks There was work going on previously and I emailed them to find out if it was still going on and they told me it was finished. I will now email them again.
stu - Yes, we're going, but wondering about our hotel as per above. BTW - The head of the Jewish Museum in Moscow was shot. This is a different museum from the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.
//news.artnet.com/in-brief/moscow-jewish-museum-director-sergei-ustinov-shot-318541
stu - Yes, we're going, but wondering about our hotel as per above. BTW - The head of the Jewish Museum in Moscow was shot. This is a different museum from the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.
//news.artnet.com/in-brief/moscow-jewish-museum-director-sergei-ustinov-shot-318541
Jul 21st, 2015, 02:29 PM
#32
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
danon - See my previous post - We are concerned now about the construction but If we change hotels we're screwed as we have already put in our application for our Visa using The Savoy Hotel's Invitation.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 02:48 AM
#33
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just got this reply back from The Savoy - "Unfortunately there is a reconstruction of the road near the hotel, but You have no reason for concern because we will assign You a quiet room with a backyard view."
Hope all will be OK now.
Hope all will be OK now.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 06:20 AM
#35
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
danon - I believe it doesn't matter as long as you have a Visa. I even saw one company who will get you a Visa and said that only "big" hotels have Visa invitation services, and if you go through their company they will get you one from one of those hotels even though you won't be staying in them!
Jul 22nd, 2015, 06:36 AM
#36
"BTW - The head of the Jewish Museum in Moscow was shot.
//news.artnet.com/in-brief/moscow-jewish-museum-director-sergei-ustinov-shot-318541"
what....
Just love the lack of reaction to this comment.
//news.artnet.com/in-brief/moscow-jewish-museum-director-sergei-ustinov-shot-318541"
what....
Just love the lack of reaction to this comment.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 06:43 AM
#37
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 15,774
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Many Russian travel agencies will issue the invitation for 30-50 dollars, they don't care where one is staying.
It is all nonsense anyway.
I managed fine on my own in SP and Moscow ...people have been helpful and friendly.
It is all nonsense anyway.
I managed fine on my own in SP and Moscow ...people have been helpful and friendly.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 01:59 PM
#38
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,749
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
bilboburger - You noticed that, eh? I'm sure stu would respond but he doesn't spend too much time on Fodors. He's a good man. And we've briefly discussed via emails that my husband and I want to go to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow (which is different from the Museum of Jewish History where the founder was shot and for which I've given the link to the story).
But still, no one else mentioned it except you. Wonder what the shooting was all about.
But still, no one else mentioned it except you. Wonder what the shooting was all about.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 07:45 PM
#39
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,818
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Bilbo....Russian Jews have historically been a turkey shoot
for the Russians. Hate to be krass, but the shooting (he's still alive)of a minor oligarch who has major business interests in addition to his honorary "job" as Museum Director...and a penchant for slightly tainted transactions...does not seem out of whack.
I would bet it's nothing to do with his being a Jew. Resident Jews have been cannon fodder for the locals for centuries, some for a reason, others for no reason other than the target being a Jew. When Tsar Alexander II was gruesomely assassinated in March of 1881 by a "terrorist" cell ("Will of the People") of 27, six of whom were young anti-Tsarist Jews, guess where the total blame fell! And for the next 30 years, Alexander III followed by Tsar Nicolai (Romanov)tacitly unleashed massive deadly massacres ("pogroms", meaning "attack..")on a regular schedule. The close to 5 millions Jews who had been subjected to living in abject poverty within a Pale of Settlement (350,000 square miles ranging from the Baltic to the Black Sea) began to emigrate from Russia, Romania and Poland in droves, amounting to over 3 and a half million by the start of WWI. The majority went west with the larger numbers finding refuge in USA and Canada. With trans-Atlantic passage costing about $40 and train travel from Russia costing another $40, worldwide Jewish Relief Organizations were strained to the "max" (this is all spelled out succinctly in several of my published historical books, especially one which dealt with large, organized groups trekking across a xenophobic Europe to reach the ports on the North Sea).
Carrying contraband packages to USSR's "refuseniks" (prayer books, religious articles, medicines) and to the Cuban small Jewish community (2003)produced some anxious moments. But all turned out without major mishap and the missions were accomplished. Pride ruled the day.
I am a first generation half-breed, mother was American born. My family came to Boston from Russia from 1912-14, just in the nick of time before the World War exploded.
These pre-holocaust days of death and destruction planted seeds that would blossom full strength in the 30's and 40's.
for the Russians. Hate to be krass, but the shooting (he's still alive)of a minor oligarch who has major business interests in addition to his honorary "job" as Museum Director...and a penchant for slightly tainted transactions...does not seem out of whack.
I would bet it's nothing to do with his being a Jew. Resident Jews have been cannon fodder for the locals for centuries, some for a reason, others for no reason other than the target being a Jew. When Tsar Alexander II was gruesomely assassinated in March of 1881 by a "terrorist" cell ("Will of the People") of 27, six of whom were young anti-Tsarist Jews, guess where the total blame fell! And for the next 30 years, Alexander III followed by Tsar Nicolai (Romanov)tacitly unleashed massive deadly massacres ("pogroms", meaning "attack..")on a regular schedule. The close to 5 millions Jews who had been subjected to living in abject poverty within a Pale of Settlement (350,000 square miles ranging from the Baltic to the Black Sea) began to emigrate from Russia, Romania and Poland in droves, amounting to over 3 and a half million by the start of WWI. The majority went west with the larger numbers finding refuge in USA and Canada. With trans-Atlantic passage costing about $40 and train travel from Russia costing another $40, worldwide Jewish Relief Organizations were strained to the "max" (this is all spelled out succinctly in several of my published historical books, especially one which dealt with large, organized groups trekking across a xenophobic Europe to reach the ports on the North Sea).
Carrying contraband packages to USSR's "refuseniks" (prayer books, religious articles, medicines) and to the Cuban small Jewish community (2003)produced some anxious moments. But all turned out without major mishap and the missions were accomplished. Pride ruled the day.
I am a first generation half-breed, mother was American born. My family came to Boston from Russia from 1912-14, just in the nick of time before the World War exploded.
These pre-holocaust days of death and destruction planted seeds that would blossom full strength in the 30's and 40's.
Jul 22nd, 2015, 09:27 PM
#40
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,818
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
For Bilbo...the assassination of Alexander II
The Wayfarers
Stuart Tower (The Lighthouse Press LLC, 2003, 596 pages, Lighthouse Point, FL)
Prologue
St. Petersburg, March 13, 1881
Signs of spring had arrived much earlier than Alexander
could remember. Perhaps it was merely a slight lulling respite before the inevitable March storms crippled Mother
Russia once again. The massive snowfalls of the previous
months, hammered by ten consecutive days of severe rainfall, had been reduced to thousands of rivulets all around the sprawling city known as the Venice of the North. St. Petersburg appeared its most brilliant that afternoon, with a strong, broad ray of sunlight bouncing off St. Isaac’s golden
Alexander breathed in deeply and closed the window,
wincing at the sharpness of the cold air. Despite the sunshine, there was more than a hint of winter-past and winter-future in that briefest of breaths. He had a full Sunday schedule ahead, beginning with a boring, obligatory review of the palace guard on the muddy parade grounds on the north side of the armory.
He wouldn’t be bored for long. Following the review was
an agenda item that Alexander had been eagerly looking
forward to. He would be signing into law some partial reforms to the election process—an act that would have been
unheard of during his late father’s regime.
For the past thirty years Alexander had been initiating
reforms to appease the proletariat, particularly regarding
the free election of local officials.
This, he thought wishfully, will silence those fanatical
bastards. Maybe they’ll even consider a moratorium on those
horrible bombings they’ve perpetrated these last few stressful years. Alexander knew all too well that he, indeed, was the prime target. The exceptionally bold palace dining room bombing just a year ago was a near miss for him, and had resulted in the deaths of eleven guests and servants. These “Will of the People” fanatics were everywhere one turned!
By noon the agenda was clear, and Alexander was feeling
quite good about himself and the new reforms. Good
enough to venture out, to take an afternoon ride into the
heart of the city. “Will of the People,” narodnaya volya, be damned!
The carriage, a steel-reinforced gift from Napoleon III,
and four attendants were waiting by a side entrance as
Alexander walked over to the head of the horse guards,
Colonel Malenko. The ramrod-stiff officer snapped smartly
to sitting attention in the saddle, his eyes straight ahead.
“Colonel, I would like to pass through Nevski Prospekt
and circle round by way of Catherine’s Embankment alongside
the canal on today’s outing. Many of our people will be
out and about on a lovely day like this, after all that dreadful rain. I’d like them to know that their Guardian is alive and well and cares so deeply about their welfare.”
“Yes, Sire, we shall do that, Sire!”
And with that, the Czar of all the Russias stepped briskly
into his plush carriage as one of the attendants signaled
the footman to proceed.
The Colonel barked out orders, keeping his frisky white
steed in line. Six red-uniformed horse guards preceded the
carriage. Even with the currents of unrest that permeated
the capital these days, there didn’t appear to be justification for a larger contingent, or even a rear guard, for that matter.
It was a decision that proved to be a disastrous error of
omission of the highest magnitude.
The explosion was heard back in the palace, where a
premonition-driven Princess Yurevskaya, Alexander’s former
mistress and controversial wife, ran out onto the parade
grounds. Just then, one of the horse guards dispatched by
Malenko arrived, and with one brief look at the grief covering the young man’s face, she collapsed in a heap of satin, velvet, and crinoline.
Czar Alexander II, for all of his demonstrated democratic
ideals, for all of his power to mollify the rabble-rousers,
for all of his gestures of goodwill toward the downtrodden,
the poor, the minorities, was careening toward his death,
blown to proverbial smithereens. The tightly wrapped
miniature sticks of dynamite, expertly compressed into a
metal container, had been literally tossed between his legs
by one of the terminally disenchanted.
Life in Mother Russia, the Pale of Settlement, and its
surrounding nations would quickly become a long-playing
drama of terror, unspeakable deeds, and genocidal massacre.
On this bloody day the tenuous future of those who
would bear the full wrath of vengeance was changed forever.
And so begins our story …
The Jews? One-third will convert.
One-third will die of starvation and disease.
One-third will flee.
Konstantin Pobedonostsev,
Procurator of the Holy Synod,
Russian Orthodox Church,
(responding to the “Jewish question” posed by
Alexander III)
The Wayfarers
Stuart Tower (The Lighthouse Press LLC, 2003, 596 pages, Lighthouse Point, FL)
Prologue
St. Petersburg, March 13, 1881
Signs of spring had arrived much earlier than Alexander
could remember. Perhaps it was merely a slight lulling respite before the inevitable March storms crippled Mother
Russia once again. The massive snowfalls of the previous
months, hammered by ten consecutive days of severe rainfall, had been reduced to thousands of rivulets all around the sprawling city known as the Venice of the North. St. Petersburg appeared its most brilliant that afternoon, with a strong, broad ray of sunlight bouncing off St. Isaac’s golden
Alexander breathed in deeply and closed the window,
wincing at the sharpness of the cold air. Despite the sunshine, there was more than a hint of winter-past and winter-future in that briefest of breaths. He had a full Sunday schedule ahead, beginning with a boring, obligatory review of the palace guard on the muddy parade grounds on the north side of the armory.
He wouldn’t be bored for long. Following the review was
an agenda item that Alexander had been eagerly looking
forward to. He would be signing into law some partial reforms to the election process—an act that would have been
unheard of during his late father’s regime.
For the past thirty years Alexander had been initiating
reforms to appease the proletariat, particularly regarding
the free election of local officials.
This, he thought wishfully, will silence those fanatical
bastards. Maybe they’ll even consider a moratorium on those
horrible bombings they’ve perpetrated these last few stressful years. Alexander knew all too well that he, indeed, was the prime target. The exceptionally bold palace dining room bombing just a year ago was a near miss for him, and had resulted in the deaths of eleven guests and servants. These “Will of the People” fanatics were everywhere one turned!
By noon the agenda was clear, and Alexander was feeling
quite good about himself and the new reforms. Good
enough to venture out, to take an afternoon ride into the
heart of the city. “Will of the People,” narodnaya volya, be damned!
The carriage, a steel-reinforced gift from Napoleon III,
and four attendants were waiting by a side entrance as
Alexander walked over to the head of the horse guards,
Colonel Malenko. The ramrod-stiff officer snapped smartly
to sitting attention in the saddle, his eyes straight ahead.
“Colonel, I would like to pass through Nevski Prospekt
and circle round by way of Catherine’s Embankment alongside
the canal on today’s outing. Many of our people will be
out and about on a lovely day like this, after all that dreadful rain. I’d like them to know that their Guardian is alive and well and cares so deeply about their welfare.”
“Yes, Sire, we shall do that, Sire!”
And with that, the Czar of all the Russias stepped briskly
into his plush carriage as one of the attendants signaled
the footman to proceed.
The Colonel barked out orders, keeping his frisky white
steed in line. Six red-uniformed horse guards preceded the
carriage. Even with the currents of unrest that permeated
the capital these days, there didn’t appear to be justification for a larger contingent, or even a rear guard, for that matter.
It was a decision that proved to be a disastrous error of
omission of the highest magnitude.
The explosion was heard back in the palace, where a
premonition-driven Princess Yurevskaya, Alexander’s former
mistress and controversial wife, ran out onto the parade
grounds. Just then, one of the horse guards dispatched by
Malenko arrived, and with one brief look at the grief covering the young man’s face, she collapsed in a heap of satin, velvet, and crinoline.
Czar Alexander II, for all of his demonstrated democratic
ideals, for all of his power to mollify the rabble-rousers,
for all of his gestures of goodwill toward the downtrodden,
the poor, the minorities, was careening toward his death,
blown to proverbial smithereens. The tightly wrapped
miniature sticks of dynamite, expertly compressed into a
metal container, had been literally tossed between his legs
by one of the terminally disenchanted.
Life in Mother Russia, the Pale of Settlement, and its
surrounding nations would quickly become a long-playing
drama of terror, unspeakable deeds, and genocidal massacre.
On this bloody day the tenuous future of those who
would bear the full wrath of vengeance was changed forever.
And so begins our story …
The Jews? One-third will convert.
One-third will die of starvation and disease.
One-third will flee.
Konstantin Pobedonostsev,
Procurator of the Holy Synod,
Russian Orthodox Church,
(responding to the “Jewish question” posed by
Alexander III)
