A trip to Vladimir, part one

Earlier this month, we spent a week in the city of Vladimir while Olga was doing some fieldwork. This is the nearest “big” city on the main rail line going east, about three hours or so. Getting away from Moscow’s urban overdrive is always a relief, and just rolling along on the train through the flat fields is a relief, even if you are shepherding a toddler up and down the aisles!

Vladimir has about 316,000 people, and it doesn’t take very long to realize just how different Moscow is from the rest of country. Everything in Vladimir feels dustier, poorer, more broken. It is a relief to get away from all the elitny baloney, but there remains an almost palpable sense of despair and isolation in the provinces.

And of course, it is hard for someone from America in particular to get his head around the idea of a place who best days were more than 800 years ago…

-----

Vladimir was founded in the 12^th century as one of the far flung principalities that would eventually come together as “Russia.” Its heyday was relatively brief, but enough to lead to some breathtaking stuff.

The center of the city is Cathedral Square, where sits Assumption Cathedral. Construction began in 1158 on this iconic Russian building, which is said to be the model for the more famous Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin.

The church sits on a bluff of land over the Klyazma River, with an unbroken view into the far distance. One can see why it would have been an attractive place to build a fortified town. Like many sacred Russian buildings, it is patrolled by a platoon of mean old women who specialize in frightening children and harassing visitors. Once you get past them, the church is amazing. The interior feels cave-like, with thick walls, deep shadows broken by flickering candles, and lots of little chambers and lonely places. The real treat are the frescoes by Andrei Rublev of the Last Judgment, which were painted in 1408. They are a little worse for wear, but unmistakeably powerful and haunting.

----

Nearby is St. Dmitry’s Cathedral, a smaller and less imposing structure but amazing all the same. The outside is covered with incredibly detailed images from the life of King David.

The hard thing about visiting UNESCO world heritage sites with an 18-month old is that you have to keep one eye on the priceless architectures and reliefs, and the other on a running around 18-month old.

------

The great thing about travel is going through all the effort to put yourself in a strange situation, and then taking it for granted long enough that you are surprised when you realize just how weird everything has gotten. This is an awkward way of saying that we passed this scene nearly every day not far from our hotel,along the main street, Lower Moskovskaya Ulitsa. The building, like many old wooden ones of its era, is leaning one way. Behind it is an Old Believers’ Church, that is apparently off the tourist beaten track.

--------------

Residents apparently can’t put much faith in their local government, but happily, there is a political party that can help! Putin’s United Russia graciously sponsored a playground in the center of town where we frequently went to play.

This is very peculiar to me, and reflects just how profoundly party politics here is nothing more than a matter of branding. The brand creates all the fun stuff, like playgrounds, while the “serious” business of cleaning up trash and fixing potholes is up to the government. It is a sign of severe decay in the civic infrastructure when these two endeavors – politics and government – are considering completely separate in the eyes of most Russian subjects.