Day 9 - Saturday, Sept 21 - Ulaanbaatar to Ulan-Ude
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| Route to Ulan-Ude |
Around 6am, the Mongolian border agent opened our door and took our passports which were on our small table. I barely realized she was there before she was gone. We had to wait for our passports to be returned. The train started up and we were able to go down to the dining car for breakfast.
We are traveling
through the Selenga River valley which has very different terrain.
The hills are largely tree-covered and have a mix of deep green
evergreen trees and Aspen that are turning a beautiful golden color.
The train is following the meandering river with marshy areas along
the side.
The small villages
we started passing are looking pretty decrepit, with many houses in
poor repair and concrete buildings that are falling apart or were
never completed. We don’t know why – maybe it had to do with the
economic collapse under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. Then we started
seeing villages that looked more prosperous, with some new houses
under construction and older houses looking better maintained – no
idea why the change.
We then had to be in
our compartment at 8:20 for the Russian immigration. Someone came
through to collect and check our passports. Other people came into
the compartment to make sure nobody else was hiding in the
compartment. Yet another person came in and asked if we had anything
to declare which we didn’t.
In the morning,
Tamara gave a lecture on the many indigenous groups of people who
have lived in Siberia. It was interesting to see the many different
types of attire and types of housing used by these people.
Alexei gave a
lecture on the history of tea and tea drinking in Russia. It is very
different from the stylized ceremonies of China and Japan – it is
mainly a social occasion for people to get together. Your host would
be offended if you did not participate in discussion. In addition to
the tea, we had a wide assortment of somewhat sweet treats.
The rest of the day
was free until we arrived in Ulan-Ude at 3:30.
Ulan-Ude was founded
in 1666 after the Cossacks drove out the Mongolians and established
an important trading post here for the tea route from Beijing to
Moscow. This is part of the Buryat Republic which is based on the
Buryat ethnic group of Mongolian descendants. About half the people
are of Caucasian descent. After 6 days in predominantly Asian
communities it was a surprise to see so many people on the street
that look like us.
We first stopped at
the main square which was developed during the Soviet times where
many of the official buildings had the austere and solely function
(ugly) architecture. In the square there is a 25’ tall bronze
statue of Lenin’s head. This wasn’t constructed until 1971, after
the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth.
From there we walked down the merchant street where the buildings had been constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, two Jewish merchants built a beautiful house and shop in 1907 but when the communists took over, they had to flee the country first to China and then to Israel when Mao Tse Tung took over in China. Our guide said that at one time, 40% of the people were Jews which was really surprising. They had earlier been constrained to ghettos but in the late 1800s were able to move more freely.
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| Lenin Sculpture and our tour guide |
From there we walked down the merchant street where the buildings had been constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, two Jewish merchants built a beautiful house and shop in 1907 but when the communists took over, they had to flee the country first to China and then to Israel when Mao Tse Tung took over in China. Our guide said that at one time, 40% of the people were Jews which was really surprising. They had earlier been constrained to ghettos but in the late 1800s were able to move more freely.
On the main street
is a statue of Anton Chekhov who stopped here on his way to the
eastern shore of Russia to study the life of inmates who were exiled
there. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the little girl with the
statue.
We went to the
church street which has ornate wooden buildings and the first
stone/brick Orthodox church constructed in the city.
Nearby was a memorial constructed in 2000 to the thousands of people who were sent to the gulags or killed directly during the “red purge”. The wall was inscribed with the birth and death dates of the people who had been purged. Most died in 1937/1938 but a few survived the gulag and didn’t die until 1980 or later.
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| Anton Chekhov |
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| Traditional wooden house |
Nearby was a memorial constructed in 2000 to the thousands of people who were sent to the gulags or killed directly during the “red purge”. The wall was inscribed with the birth and death dates of the people who had been purged. Most died in 1937/1938 but a few survived the gulag and didn’t die until 1980 or later.
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| Red Purge Memorial |
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| Ceiling of opera house - note Lenin at the top |
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| Traditional Russian musicians |
1937 marked the height of Stalin’s purges after he had collectivized agriculture in the Ukraine and committed genocide against the kulaks. In fact, much of your trip has been an interesting description of the power of the Leftist totalitarian state, from the fear of the voices of the people in Beijing to the destruction of the Buddhist temples of Mongolia. What do the Taliban and Stalin have in common? They destroy Buddhist artifacts.
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