Lovers of Joseph’s Brodsky’s poetry finally succeeded in making his ancestral home in St. Petersburg into a memorial space. The kommunalka in the city center was inhabited by Brodsky and his parents, and the poet lived there between 1955 and 1972, when he was forced to emigrate. The museum is now informally called the “Room-and-a-Half” – the name Brodsky gave his former home in one of his poems. The family occupied two rooms, but a large part of one was taken up by a photo lab used by the poet’s father.
Efforts to make the apartment into some form of a museum failed for two decades, due to the fact that the other rooms were continually inhabited by neighbors. One woman refused to move, forcing organizers to completely seal off her part of the property and the front door, and make the museum accessible only via what used to be a servants’ entrance from a back stairwell. The museum is not completely finished, and pesky mildew problems have prevented its curators (who also run the city’s Akhmatova Museum) from bringing in valuable historic items and manuscripts.
For now, the space is more of a symbolic tribute to Brodsky’s life in Russia, with sculpture busts arranged in the communal kitchen to represent the public accusing him of “parasitism” at his infamous trial. In another room, historic footage is projected on the wall while Brodsky’s voice recites his poetry.
To access the museum as it is being finished, contact the Akhmatova Museum and ask about tours.
Moscow’s Central Museum of Archaeology has reopened after a three-year renovation with an underground exhibit – just opposite the entrance to Red Square – that focuses on the foundations of the Voskresensky Bridge built by Boris Godunov over the capital’s Neglinnaya River, which is now channeled underground. The museum recounts this period of medieval Moscow using modern multimedia displays that allow guests to see what the area looked like in the seventeenth century. The archaeology museum is located on Manezhnaya Square and is part of the Museum of Moscow network. It is open every day except Mondays. Admission is 300 rubles.
Russian Railways is resurrecting a tourist train route around Lake Baikal this summer, using an old steam locomotive and reintroducing a section of the picturesque Circum-Baikal Railway that had been shut down. Trains will depart from Irkutsk and consist of five cars decorated in early twentieth-century style. A one-day ticket covers guided tours at various stops, as well as time on a Baikal beach. The train holds 200 passengers and travels to the town of Slyudyanka and on to Port Baikal through historic, turn-of-the century tunnels, engineering marvels of their era, surrounded by the beauty of Baikal. The journeys are organized by RZD Tour, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, and are said to cost R4,000.
A similar train tour existed prior to 2011, but was closed due to lack of demand, a problem Russian Railways hopes to solve by attracting tourists from Mongolia and China.
rzdtour.com
A new luxury hotel under construction in Moscow’s central Zaryade Park may become Russia’s first to be managed by the Hong Kong chain Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, according to Kommersant.
The Zaryade area, for decades dominated by the giant Rossiya Hotel, was a vacant lot for several years, until authorities decided to convert it into a park with some tourist facilities, like a hotel and concert hall.
The park will be completed by late 2017 and will showcase Russia’s natural landscapes.
Mandarin has three dozen hotels around the world, including eight in Europe.
Russian divers say they have uncovered a unique Byzantine vessel off the coast of Crimea, not far from the ancient town of Balaklava. Expedition organizer Roman Dunayev said the team has found remnants of one or two ships full of ancient amphorae, some of them intact, dating from the tenth or eleventh century, making the discovery one of the biggest of its kind. The ship will need to be investigated for months with special equipment.
Balaklava was founded by the ancient Greeks before it was conquered in the fourteenth century by the Genoese, who left behind an ancient fortress on a hill overlooking a picturesque bay. Crimea was on many major trade routes, making it a rich site for archaeologists.
Moscow’s VDNKh park is on its way to claiming the title of “most hip park in the capital.” Now under new management, the park is soon to open Europe’s largest aquapark, as well as a beach on the banks of the Moscow River, with four pools, volleyball courts, and Russia’s most impressive zipline park.
For highbrow visitors, the space will also serve as the long-awaited home for the Museum of Cinema. Without its own space for over a decade, the museum will reside in one of the historic, 1930s-era pavilions, with room enough for three movie screens.
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