Day 14 - Thursday, Sept 26 - On the train and arriving in Yekaterinburg

Another beautiful but very chilly morning as the sun came up. Only 32 degrees with heavy frost and some fresh ice on small ponds along the train.

Fortunately, my mother is feeling better this morning but 3 others in our group are down with intestinal problems. I’m religiously washing my hands, using hand sanitizer and keeping my fingers crossed.

At 8:30 we are stopping briefly in Tyumen, the center of gas and oil production in Siberia. The railroad station here was constructed in 1915.

In the morning, Tamara gave a presentation on the very convoluted history of the Romanov Dynasty from 1613 to 1917/1918. The last czar, Czar Nicholas II abdicated in May 1917 to the demands of the people who wanted a Russian Republic. This was very short-lived as the Bolshevik revolution was in October 1917. His entire family was murdered in July 1918.

This afternoon we are getting off the train in Yekaterinburg, the second largest city in Siberia with a population of 1.5 million. It was founded in 1728 on the banks of the Iset River to refine iron ore which is found in the region. Our guide said that it was named for Empress Catherine I and her namesake, St. Catherine. In the Soviet era, it was renamed Sverdlovsk and then back to Yekaterinburg after the Soviet era. It was particularly confusing because for years after the last city renaming, the train station/stop continued to be called Sverdlovsk.

As we left the train station, a light wet snow was coming down! The temperature was in the high 30s and it was very chilly.

Our first stop was the memorial to the people who had died in the labor camps during the Soviet purge. In the 1970s, a mass grave was found but it wasn’t politically possible to publicize this until the 1990s when the remains of 19,000 people were discovered. In 2000, this memorial was constructed. Tatiana, our local tour guide, told us that her great-grandfather was sent to a labor camp (not here) in 1937 after friends turned him in for singing a song critical of Stalin. People turned others in thinking it would save them but it didn’t. Many years later our guide learned that he died in 1938 of pneumonia. She doesn’t know where he was buried.

Memorial to people who died in Stalinist purge

Memorial to unknown people of all faiths who died in the purges

Not far from here is the dividing line between Europe and Asia, similar to the Continental Divide in the US. From this line, all water flows either to the east or the west. Many people were there having their photos taken straddling the line. We followed the tradition of drinking a glass of champagne while at the dividing line.

Standing in Asia and Europe

We then headed back to the city to the “Church-on-the-Blood”. This Orthodox cathedral was built in 2000 on the site of the home where Czar Nicholas II, his entire family and his loyal staff were brutally murdered in the basement on July 17, 1918 by the Bolsheviks. The 7 members of the family were canonized in 2000 by the Orthodox church.

Site of murder of last czar

Tonight we set the clocks back another 2 hours.