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Beginning of Moscow Virtual Tour   

A TRIP TO PODOLSK
"Moscow-the-ugly: moonscapes and and human warehouses of the industrial suburbia"

To get to Podolsk, one of Moscow satellite cities, you need to drive through vast industrial suburbia.

Granny Roza and boxes of clothing she collected for our poor underpaid workers in Dubrovki

This vertical cement thing marks where Podolsk begins

On January 25, 2002 I went to Podolsk, a city known for its cement and sewing machine factories, to visit "Granny Roza". A couple of words on the place of Roza Vasilyevna in my life. In 1998 I bought from her a summer house (dacha) on the Volga river in Tver region, where we are trying to set up something of a mini-farm or a retreat or whatever it develops into. Roza has a great compassion for our cause. She collects clothing for our workers, helps us with advice, and writes letters of support to big government officials. The latter task is natural to her because she is a former apparatchik herself. So, on this gloomy slushy late January day I was off to Podolsk, 20 or so kilometers south of Moscow, to collect several boxes of clothing. I took with me Olesya's along, received last instructios which of a zillion little buttons to push, and began collecting materials for The Virtual Tour of Moscow project to be eventually posted on www.net-cities.com. This is my first attempt to systematically document Moscow and the surrounding area in such a way a to give a sense of being here. So don't be too harsh on me.

Halfway through Moscow, moving South

My attempt to convey the sense of huge unnaturally straight dirty highways.

A police car sped past me walking on a low cement fence between sides of the road.

I don't know how www.net-cities.com will re-work my stories, but here or elsewhere I aim to convey a realistic rather than "touristy" sense of what Moscow and the rest of Russia are like. Some may think that I dwell on ugliness. To that I'll say that Russian anti-esthetics is so perfect that it has value of its own, for those who understand the interplay of the opposites. Those who don't shoud go to Paris..

Typical Moscow suburbia. Varshavskoye shosse and Balaklavski prospekt.

I picked out this yellow Moskvich car among scenery consisting of shades of gray

The last look towards Moscow. South Butovo district.

The city of Belgorod (710km south of Moscow) boasts has Russia's lowest crime rate. I was told that cars are left unlocked for the night there with keys in the ignition. We are a mile away from Podolsk

"Driver! Don't rush. Sombody is waiting for you at home." A reminder to the  motorists to observe the speed limit. I recall a very clever client of mine, president of FYI Information Resources Jonathan Halperin, musing on the fact that Russians take seriously only very specific physical as opposed to symbolic messages.

Electric communter trains and high voltage towers dominate suburban landscape.	Podolsk. The first signs that you are in the countryside	City's main square has the usual statue of Lenin
Houses build in lage 40's by German prisoners of war.	Every provincial city has one of these cement structures that used to bear "Long live communism" and similar banners. This one merely announces that Podolsk turned 220 years.	Garbage receptables that turn - a sign of progressive city management
	Baba Roza sharing her vision of Russia's future. Despite being a former party functionary, she considers land ownership to be essential for	Roza Vasilyevna and the boxes she collected. If you look carefully you'll also see letters of advice she writes to high officials.
A random shot of Podolsk city center.	On my way back to Moscow. The banner over the road invites us to buy bathroom tiles.	A tourist attraction - a country estate connected to the name of some literary figure - was noticed in the afternoon dusk and mist on my way back to Moscow.

Lots of cards with hood up along the road. You need to be your own mechanic to travel in Russia by car. To spare your feelings I took no pictures of a least dozen accidents I've seen on my way back to Moscow. Russians don't slow down on icy roads seemingly as a matter of principle.

As I said before, you need to be your own mechanic if you want to explore Russian countryside by car. Getting your flat tires fixes is, however, no problem. Tire repair shops abound.

Beginning of Moscow Virtual Tour   

Posted Feb. 3, 2002 ~ Last update Feb. 3, 2002

Contact info - Main Index - Accommodation - Drivers - Dacha & Horse Riding - Between Moscow & Saint-Petersburg