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March 01, 2017

Travel Notes

Flick Museum

New decade, new digs

Russia’s unique Museum of Cinema, a collection of rare films and other motion picture industry memorabilia, finally has a space to call its own in Moscow’s VDNKh park. Created in the perestroika era, the museum functioned as an arthouse cinema in Moscow’s Krasnaya Presnya neighborhood before it was evicted by its landlord. Its search for a new home has taken a decade.

Moscow authorities only provided the Museum with a pavilion in the Soviet-era park after its founder, Naum Kleiman, was fired. The Culture Ministry appointed a new director, and six long-serving employees then left the organization in protest.

The new Museum of Cinema plans to do great things with its newfound government backing. Its stated goal is “developing national cinema,” and the new pavilion has three movie screens, exhibit space, and a cafe. It is set to officially open in spring 2017.

Kremlin Digs

New tour plumbs foundations

The Kremlin Museum has launched a new tour showcasing the latest archaeological finds from the former site of the 14th Wing, which has been demolished.

The tour is called “The Ancient Kremlin and the Holy Monasteries” and includes a peek at the old foundations of the Chudov Monastery and Maly Nikolayev Palace. The fourteenth-century Chudov Monastery and Ascension Convent were among Moscow’s first major church buildings destroyed in the Bolsheviks’ anti-religion drive.

The tour is offered every day between 11 am and 1 pm, except Thursdays. The cost is R500 per person.

Visa Free

Belarus seeks EU, American visitors

Westerners who dream of visiting Belarus can finally rejoice: the secluded, authoritarian state has significantly eased its visa restrictions for short-term tourism.

Citizens of the US and EU member countries can now visit Belarus without a visa for up to five days, provided they travel by plane. Oddly, people from these same countries traveling to Belarus from Russia cannot take advantage of the visa thaw. For more information see:

bit.ly/belarus-visa

Border Fortress

700-year-old building discovered

Russian archaeologists are studying an ancient Korean fortress discovered in the Far East, inside the country’s Land of the Leopards Nature Reserve. It is located 14 kilometers from the village of Khasan and lies directly on the Russia-China border (see Russian Life Jan/Feb 2017). The foundations of the fortress are said to date to the fourteenth century, the era of the Kingdom of Joseon, the predecessor of the Korean Empire.

Price of Fame

Karelian village suffering

A settlement in northwestern Karelia that was named Russia’s “most beautiful village” in the summer of 2016 is now contending with an influx of tourists that is detracting from its old-fashioned charm.

Kinerma (visited on the Spine of Russia, see Russian Life July/August 2016) has a permanent population of just five. Entrepreneurial residents went out of their way to have their village join the International Association of Most Beautiful Villages, based in France. This, however, led to media coverage generating so many tourists that residents have started having second thoughts.

Some of Kinerma’s traditional wooden homes are 260 years old and have been relatively well-preserved. There is also just one guesthouse, while the summer tourist season can bring in as many as 30 people daily, according to Nadezhda Kalmykova, whose family accounts for four of the five locals, and who has petitioned the regional government for help.

Tags: village lifebelaruskremlintravel

See Also

The Most Beautiful Village in Russia

The Most Beautiful Village in Russia

Last week tiny Kinerma was named as this year's "most beautiful Russian village." As it turns out, Kinerma was a stop on The Spine of Russia project...

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