Series #7. Postcards: A Window to Yekaterinburg
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Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk, is one of the biggest and most economically powerful cities of Russia. Wide prospects, huge industries and lots of things to see. This can only show a little, a mere glimpse.
Will you be the next Hero?
At the Sverdlovsk train station, a huge memorial commemorates the victory in the Great Patriotic War. A worker walks in step with a tanksman, and the inscription reads, "To the heroes of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, the tanksmen of the Special Ural Tank Corps, from the workers of the Sverdlovsk region".
A young Russian army soldier, dwarfed by the memorial, sits lonely beside it. What is he thinking? Will he have the courage to become a hero like they did, if the
Rodina calls?
Ural Trans Mash
If you ever wondered which place makes the self-propelled artillery for the entire USSR and Russia, travel no further.
Guardian of the Old
An old industrial building rises in the street, with distinct old Russian architecture.
A Monastery in the Forest
In the forests of Ural mountains, monasteries are hidden from the eyes of the tourists. But it doesn't take much effort to find them, just ask the locals.
The Temple commemorates the murder of the Tsar family
The Tsar who was murdered in the Revolution, has been made a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church, and his family likewise. A modern temple was built in their honour, with a memorial statue.
Lamp Posts
Those are rather specific design, uncommon for many other Russian cities
Pre-revolutionary Center
The city is old and big, harbors a far larger old historical center than Omsk. Here's just a few buildings from that ensemble.
Still Death
Historical buildings decay like all other ones do. Without money to keep them afloat, after 20 years of neglect, many are slowly desintegrating and require funds for repairs. However, the dying calm mood of the place is something that lingers on even after you leave it.
Yekaterinburg Administration - Workers' Imperial Style
A huge and beautiful Stalin Empire-style building with worker statues decorating the facade is in the center of the city, right across Lenin square.
One Lenin forgotted in the depths
We deliberately decided not to show the huge and nice Lenin statue in the middle of Sverdlovsk. Most can see it anywhere. But this Lenin, so neglected and forgotten, likesome of the historical buildings in the center, is hidden in the lush forests of the enormous
Sverdlovsk Dendrarium. There he lives out his retirement. But even though the statue is small, and far less known than the Central Square Lenin, and is in great neglect, you can find flowers brought there on holidays.
Dendrarium the size of a forest
Yekaterinburg prides on it's enormous dendro-park, which houses lots of tree species and extends through a large portion of the city.
Ostankino's unlucky twin from the Dendropark
What is that huge, decaying and abandoned tower? Ostankino's unlucky twin. A 220 m concrete tower, was to be around 360 m with the 100m steel spire, and provide TV coverage for the entire area. It was started in 1987 and in a few years, put up to full height.
But even though the concrete works were finished, the collapse of the USSR and the ensuing economic disaster spelled doom for it.
In the 1990s, it was first unguarded, leading to the deaths of several reckless idiots, but later it was put under guard and is now scheduled for completion in 2011, with funds secured from the government.
Remember each war dead by name - Afghanistan and Chechnya memorial
Many of our people died in the wars against islamist nationalists in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
This memorial is a restless, mourning soldier sitting besides the Eternal Flame.
First constructed as an Afghanistan memorial, it has 10 stellas for 10 years, commemorating each and every citizen of the city who died in the conflict. Even though there's barely ten names on each stella, all are accounted for.
Later a Chechnya section was added in the background, with panels bearing the names of the later war dead.
Here's where we end our small tour...
I like urban decay photos as much as anyone, but images of other cities would be interesting too.
. Lotsa processing, but some good stuff there as always. Why the different versions of some of the shots?
