2012-03-18 Call To Kyiv
The list of largest statues in the world is mostly full of massive monuments of Buddha in Asia. When you look past those, you get essentially the former Soviet Union’s statues to the Great Patriotic War. This is what the former USSR states refer to World War II as and it is the most brilliant title for the war. They are still passionately proud of the defense of their country in the turbulent time.
I have now seen three of the four tallest in the former USSR. The wintry enduring Alyosha in Murmansk, the strangely ugly Peter the Great monument in Moscow, and the stoic Mother of the Motherland in Kiev. The fourth is the Call to the Motherland in Volgograd, better known as Stalingrad during the Soviet era.
Meeting up with some new American friends I made we set out to see the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, essentially an Orthodox monastery known for its caves. The caves were home to the monks who lived there for over a millenia. They lived their entire lives in these caves with minimal access to the world above. These fellow American students from Prague were grateful to have me along, as my Russian knowledge became a valuable asset in finding out way around.
The real surprise though was not the very pretty and impressive complex but the statue we saw in the distance. The Mother of the Motherland statue was further down the Dnieper/Kyivan hill park and was stunning. It is too bad y'all have to wait for me to upload photos but I cannot wait to show you. To improve the experience, they played Russian Soviet music on loudspeakers to build the patriotic atmosphere.
I’ve seen much more of Kyiv than I thought I would have this weekend. I am continually proud of my inherent natural ability to memorize maps and find my way around, as well as my broken Russo-Anglo-Ukrainian language that has been quite successful.
Last night with my new Ukrainian friends I was brought to a secret local bar hidden in through some back alleys with absolutely no signs. Not even over the door. This place was created to mimic an insane asylum in dedication to Nikolai Gogol. Beer is a dollar, a steak and fries meal is $5. It really does not get much better than that. Brilliant bar, hopefully one day I can find myself back there.