Russian - Moscow: Spring 2009 Updates from the Field

When we first heard that we were assigned to visit a city outside of Moscow, several of us jumped at the chance to accompany one of the Russian students to her hometown of Tula.   During the two-hour bus ride to our destination, Masha proudly informed us that her city was famous for its samovars and military weapons.  She also noted for us the moment when we switched federal districts (Tula is the capital of its own federal district), marked clearly by a shift from bad roads to no roads.  The bus dropped us off on the main street (Boulevard Lenina) in front of the old kremlin or fortress.

Our first stop was the samovar museum just outside the fortress walls. The word “samovar” translates literally as “self-boiler”, and unsurprisingly, a samovar is basically a traditional Russian device for boiling water—it’s shaped like an urn and is often used to prepare tea. In traditional Russian households and at social events it is the axis around which things revolve, occupying the center of the table. The city of Tula has a special renown for its samovars, and in fact we learned that this was the first place samovars were produced commercially. Inside the museum were samovars of all sorts, shapes, and sizes. With our luck, a large school group was just in front of us. So, we had the chance to listen to a tour guide expand and expound upon the various classifications of samovars and point out some rather famous ones in the museum—including one of Stalin’s samovars and one of Tsar Nicholas II’s.

After admiring the old and decorative samovars, we entered the kremlin and walked around the courtyard in amazement that the entire city used to be confined within its four walls.  Unlike the Moscow kremlin, this place has only been partially restored; the cupolas have spots of rust mixed in with gold, and the overall effect is something more "authentic" than the spotless shininess of Moscow's tourist spots.  Of the original four churches, only two remained and the bell tower had also been removed.  One of the churches continued in its original profession, while the other now housed the city's weapons museum, which was the next place we visited. Tula, aside from its samovars and tasty pastries, is also famous for its armaments factories. Peter the Great ordered the construction of the first firearms factory in Russia here, and the trade continues to this day. During World War II the city produced a large percentage of the small arms for the Red Army and also became one of the “hero cities” of the war for stopping a key German offensive. The weapons museum consisted mainly of two large rooms—ancient weapons and modern weapons. Frankly, the showcase was heavily slanted toward Russian weapons, but that made it more interesting to see the progression all the way from flintlocks to Kalashnikovs. The highlight of the museum for me was a display of enormous RPG’s (rocket-propelled grenades). A charming, very old woman who was leading a group of young schoolchildren stopped in front of the display and recited with pleasure all the details of each model to an answer of ooohs and aaahs from the crowd of kids.

After lunch and conversation, we set off down the main avenue in search of the older sections of the town.  Here the buildings were no longer made of stone or concrete, but wood, with decorative eaves and window shutters differentiating each place from its neighbor.  Masha turned in at the entrance to an old bakery, where we were able to purchase pranniki--honey cakes made with jam or cream inside.  Munching as we walked we also snapped photos of the biggest church in the city and strolled through the grounds of the sports stadium on the outskirts.  As the evening drew to a close, we made our way back to the bus stop and by 10:30 that evening were back in the hustle and bustle of Moscow.  Most of us discovered that even in a city that has as much to offer as Moscow, it's good to get away for a while into the relative quiet of the smaller cities perched on its outskirts.  And to see remnants of Russia's past in the preserved and maintained buildings and museums in Tula.