Ukraine

Ukraine Between the Wars. 5: Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Kropyvnytskyi

This is the final installment in this series. Most of these photos can be selected for a better view. The ones that are grouped in twos or threes, especially, can be selected for a much more detailed view. I took great care in selecting and improving these photos from our trip this area in the Fall of 2020, I hope you enjoy them.

I highlighted here the four cities that are in this blog entry. Our route through them formed a backward “N”.

ZAPORIZHIA

Unlike the previous two cities, Zaporizhia is not under Russian control.

Zaporizhia on the wide Dnieper River has a long and illustrious history. Scythians lived all around here perhaps as far back as 1000 BC. Also Turkic Khazars, Kumans, Tatars, Cossacks, and Slavs made this area their home.

These Cossack in this bus stop mural remind me of the characters in “Taras Bulba”.

Being a navigable river, it was well-known to Greek traders. The Greek geographer Herodotus wrote about the Dnieper:

“As far inland as the place named Gerrhos, which is distant forty days’ voyage from the sea, its course is known, and its direction is from north to south; but above this, no one has traced it, so as to say through what countries it flows. It enters the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen after running for some time through a desert region… It is the only river besides the Nile the sources of which are unknown…” The Histories, Book IV.53

The first written record of Zaporizhia was in 1492, the same year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue!

The whole area on both sides of the Dnieper was known as the “Wild Fields“, the largely untamed region that the surrounding powers (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Ottoman Empire) were either unable or unwilling to claim. But finally in 1789 Catherine the Great of Russia invited Mennonites to settle in this area. They came over en masse from Prussian Danzig. The island of Khortitza, erstwhile stronghold of the Cossacks, was given over to these Mennonites for a “perpetual possession”.

But perpetuity was not to be had. In 1914 the Mennonites sold the island to the city and the majority eventually left. The Russian Revolution and World War 2, especially, meant hard times for them. Many of those who did not see the writing on the wall and emigrate to the New World were forced to relocate to central Russia and Siberia.

Holy Protection Church on Lenina Street.
The Church of Saints Peter and Fevronia. A telephoto from the apartment window.
Lots of international franchises and big box stores like Epicentr, on the right.
The Hydroelectric dam, built by the Soviets in 1932.

Matching the “Wild Fields” there was also the “Wild River”. Because of the Dnipro Rapids, navigation was always a tricky proposal. The most dangerous of these rapids, fatal for many, was the Nenasytets, (“Roaring Rapids”). Pilots, when they approached the fearsome site, changed into a clean shirt and read the Lord’s Prayer. If you are going to die and ““knock on Uncle Peter’s door”, it was said, it is best to do so prayed up and in a clean shirt.

Despite the dangers the ships kept coming, seeing that this was an important route that led all the way up to the Varangians (who had migrated south from Jutland and southern Sweden). Testimony to the failures and successes of traders on this route are burial mounds as well as forts and sanctuaries.
The original (left) Dnieper Route connecting the Varangians with other ancient trading partners, as well as later alternate routes, chosen because the growing dangers of going up the Dnieper. The purple area was the territory of the Rus, the term “Kievan Russia” or “Kievan Rus” did not exist until the 19th century. Those latter terms are often used to legitimize the nationhood of Ukraine much earlier than is warranted.

With the building of the Zaporizhia dam in 1932 the danger of rapids were mostly a thing of the past. So were many villages. The water level rising 40 meters, dozens of villages on both side were flooded. But with the dam the cities of Zaporizhia, Dnipro, and Kiev now had port access to the Black Sea.

But the Soviets added another chapter to this dam story. In 1941, in WW2, they blew a large breach in the dam, flooding the area all the way down to Nikopol. This killed thousands of civilians, as well as soldiers on both sides. The death toll was between 20,000 and 100,000. Later in the war the Germans used forced labor to repair the dam.

Dnieper River. This barge is heading out to the Black Sea. On the far shore is Khortytsya Island, once home base to the Zaporizhian Cossacks. Earlier reachable only by boat, this very long island is now reached by five bridges. There is a nature reserve in the north part of it. At one time there was a native moose population here but farming and poaching, especially, led to their extinction here. What is most probably still in the island – somewhere – is buried treasures from the Cossacks. In between their wars and plundering forays they cached their goods in hidden spots. Of course, if they died in subsequent adventures the location of these treasures would be lost, some being found by farmers or metal-detectors.
It was only a short walk from the apartment to the Dnieper. Left. Marsh Frog. Center. Birch trees and meadows This is what I imagine much of this area once looked like. Right. Grey-headed Woodpecker.
Vegetable and fruit vendor right under our window.
This is the type of transportation we took to the next major city upriver , Dnipro.

A good city guide is linked below. I usually do not pass on these types of links because they are usually poor quality. This one seems well-designed and quite useful. Pegasus Airlines, a Turkish company. Unfortunately, they do not cover the other three cities in this article.
https://www.flypgs.com/en/city-guide/zaporizhia-travel-guide.

DNIPRO
Above: The view from our apartment in Dnipropetrovsk – often mercifully shortened to Dnipro. The next several photos are all of Dnipro.
Much of the downtown area of Dnipro is in the grand Soviet style.
There are several rocket displayed near Heroiv Garden Square, near the city center. Shown here is the Tsyklon-3 (“Cyclone”) rocket. Along with the previous Tsyklon-2, Kosmos, and Zenit, these were prime examples of the city‘s secret successes in rocketry. This company also produced the Sputnik satellites that would soon astound the Western world.

The production of these rockets had to be a secret, both to the outside world and to other citizens of the Soviet Union. The company that made these also made heaters, electric juicers, and a host of other household appliances, as well as nuts and bolts, etc. Everything from toasters to tractors. And that is what the company, Yuzhmash, was officially known for, and what they advertised – nothing related to military or space tech. Many of the workers themselves and their families, naturally, did know about that second line of product. This (if we add the families) would be over half of the city!

So, in order to keep their clandestine product under wraps, in 1959 they made the entire city a closed city. No one from a foreign country, even communist countries, were allowed into the city. But the citizens themselves began referring to their city as the “Rocket City“.
Views of Heroiv Garden Square. Except the top center frieze which was near the Transfiguration Cathedral.
This is listed as a newspaper publisher. But at the time I thought I saw a news van with cameras, so I am not sure what it is.
Left: Heroiv Garden Square. Right: Sidewalk in front of ATB-Market, a pretty convenient supermarket chain. The lady on the right is working a Schwarma kiosk. Note the sign for french fries: Kartofel Fry.
Transfiguration Cathedral.
Prince Grigory Potemkin had great plans for this church but the Russo-Turkish War (actually, the sixth of such wars in a series of ten, 1568 to 1878!) caused a delay of many years. Finally in 1835 the church was built, but on a much smaller scale. Further diminution of Potemkins grand vision for this church came when the Soviets closed it in 1930. And from 1975 to 1988 it became a “museum of atheism” (Wiki). Because as a response to that insult, an earthquake that last year put an end to that use of the building.

“What are you doing here?”

This was the question put to us by a young couple whose apartment we rented in Kryvyi Rih, a city as hard to pronounce as it is to spell.. Part of it was just a finger-on-the-map whim. Also it was on the way back to Kiev, where we were due soon to fly out. It seemed like a normal Ukrainian mid-sized city, not touristy at all. And that is usually a plus for us.

But for them it was odd, the equivalent of a foreigner from, say, China wanting to see Cleveland or Wheeling, West Virginia.

The interior of the Orthodox Church in Jubilee Park built “in honor of the Mother of God “Perishing” , in honor of the fallen soldiers in Afghanistan, and members of other local wars.”
One of the largest flower clocks in Europe. Below it is a museum of local history.
This city is most known for its iron ore mining. Huge sections of the city are devoted to industry and open-pit mining and related industries. Do you see that pollution? It is a real problem. This city has the worse air in the Ukraine thanks to the mining and resultant steel processing.

Stalin’s rapid and brutal industrialisation of the city in 1931, coupled with the collectivisation in the country kick-started the growth of the city.

It was rapid: In 1941The city had grown exponentially, a tenfold increase in population, over 200,000.
It was brutal: Collectivisation of private holdings from generations past, stealing their harvest, and the resultant famine. Millions starved in the whole USSR in the 30s. But by 1941, at over 200,000, the population of Kryvyi Rih had increased almost tenfold to 200,000.
The Tram System is pretty convenient. In all of our travels I think this is the first time I read of a city giving free transportation to their own citizens. As of May 1st, 2021 the city started giving them free rides.They need only to present their “Kryvyi Rih Card”. Great idea.
Rooks are common in Jubilee Park. As a Westerner I always do a double-take when I see one since they are not in our hemisphere.
Along with the industrialization there are beautiful and serene scenes as well.
The two pictures above are Saksahan part of the Inhulets River, in the south part of town. The view immediately above is of Rock Eagle’s Nest. It was difficult to get here. After coming by tram we walked quite a ways though thick brush, the path being hard to follow.

There are many exposed ferrous outcroppings, some marred with graffiti. But the view was spectacular.
The market area downtown. Very clean. Notice the mural with the general color scheme of the Ukrainian flag.
This fort was also in Jubilee Park.
Left: The bus station we left from as we headed north again. The city being almost 100 km (78 miles) long (and 20 km wide), there are several bus and train stations. This is the longest city in Europe! Right: Old and New Propaganda.

Kropyvnytskyi

his city, the last in our series on Ukraine Between The Wars, draws less-than-glowing praise from Wikivoyage. It is “not famous for its places of interest, but the downtown still bears the remnants of old architecture.” They also add “The locals like to call Kropyvnytskyi “a little Paris” due to its resemblance to Paris before the Soviet Union have destroyed the look of the city in the 20th century.”

From the same source I learned about – but did not see – Fortress Elizabeth, “the oldest preserved Earthen Fortress in Europe.”

We only spent one day here so I do not have much to comment about this pleasant city.

This could be a photo from a hundred years ago – if you do not look too carefully.

I hope you enjoyed reading these articles. Feel free to write. Comments, corrections, praise, censure – all equally welcome. Below are links to all of my Ukraine articles:

Ukraine Between Wars: Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Kiev, Ternopil, Uman
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2022/04/29/ukraine-between-wars/

Ukraine Between Wars 2: Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Myrhorod
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2022/05/17/ukraine-between-the-wars-2-chernihiv-nizhyn-myrorhod/

Ukraine Between Wars 3: Poltava, Kharkiv, Izyum
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/ukraine-between-the-wars-3-poltava-kharkiv-izyumwe-stayed-only-a-couple-of-days-in-poltava-not-being-able-to-find-a-suitable-place-to-stay-long-consequently-i-did-not-get-to-see-the-city-like-i/

Ukraine Between Wars 4: Kramatorsk, Mariupol, Berdyansk
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2022/06/09/ukraine-between-the-wars-4-kramatorsk-mariupol-berdyansk/

Ukraine Between Wars 5: Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Kropyvnytskyi
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2022/06/14/ukraine-between-the-wars-5-zaporizhia-dnipropetrovsk-kryvyi-rih-kropyvnytskyi/

DONETSK DETOUR: September 2020
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2021/09/15/donetsk-detour-september-2020/

Berdyansk, “The Odessa of Azov”
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2021/10/20/berdyansk-the-odessa-of-azov/

YAREMCHE: UKRAINE’S WILD WEST
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/yaremche-ukraines-wild-west/

Ukraine Between the Wars. 3: Poltava, Kharkiv, Izyum

The Exaltation of the Cross Monastery was the site of the fateful Battle of Poltava, 1709. Although not yet finished Charles XII, Emperor of Sweden, used the site as his headquarters, ousting a monk from one of the cells for his personal quarters. On the outskirts of the present city and sitting upon a moderate rise, it was a suitable choice for the coming conflict.

We stayed only a couple of days in Poltava, not being able to find a suitable place to stay long. Consequently I did not get to see the city like I wanted to. A shame, because this is a city where a major historical event happened, the Battle of Poltava, which signaled the rising of the Beast to the East (Russia) and the demise of the one to the North (Sweden). I don’t mean to imply that Russia was more “beastly” than Sweden. I just liked the sound of the phrase! If anything the Swedish Empire of Charles XII was worse than the fitfully enlightened reign of Russia in the time of Peter the Great.

The Column of Glory, celebrating the victory of Peter I over Swedish forces.
A glimpse of times somewhat more recent. This beautiful building has been repurposed into a grocery store as well as other ventures.
A detail from the previous building pictured. One of the the signs pointed to a store titled “Comrades from Europe”.
A mosaic depicting that momentous battle. This photo and much more information can be found at:
http://www.battle.poltava.ua/index.html. (Note: My browser flagged the site as “insecure”, not having the https prefix. Use at your own disgression.)
This is just one of the many of the gorgeous homes along Monastyrska Street. The city has several areas with houses like this as well as others which, having been damaged in previous wars, have given way to huge Soviet-style buildings (especially those surrounding the Column of Glory Plaza) or more modern Western style buildings.
. Back to school for little Oleg. He rides the same bus we take to the train station and on our way to Kharkiv.

I was so pleased that we were able to make it to the city of Kharkiv, just twenty miles or so from Russia. And it has a lot of Russian character to it, as can be expected. We had better apartment options here so we stayed a bit longer.

Eighty years ago my Uncle Erich, in the Wehrmacht under General Paulus, may have trudged right through this city on his way to the fateful encounter in Stalingrad. As far as my mother knew he never made it back from that Russian city. I often read memoirs and websites on this whole topic, hoping to come across mention of one Erich Kotenbeutel.

Left: Erich Kotenbeutel Center: His unit before they pulled out to Russia. Erich is behind the table, right side, grimacing into the sun. Right: My mother, Martha (Kotenbeutel) Riggle. She was stationed in Leeuwarden, Holland, in an anti-aircraft site intercepting British and American planes. Five years later she intercepted – and married – Leslie Riggle, my father.
Our first proper view of the city was looking back at the grand train station where we arrived from.
What we appreciated very much was the large expanses of green spaces within and on the north-east edge of the city. These were easily accesible by metro.
The supermarket. This is where we would do our grocery shopping when we lived here. A lot of food we sorely miss: good bread, chocolate, buckwheat…
Pedestrians near Freedom Square. A very modern city.
Just like in the previous city of Poltava, there are many examples of old architecture. I believe this one was converted to a Bed and Breakfast.
This grim hero was once a Soviet soldier, I think. He has now been given a new identity – and a new flag! I am sure the flag is not there now.
There are some buildings that were damaged but I am not sure how. There certainly is a lot more damage as of this writing. Painful to think about it.

This artful facade is over the entrance to the Kharkivsʹkyy Derzhavnyy Akademichnyy Teatr Puppet Theater across from Constitution Square. The building, formerly a bank, since 1925 converted into its present iteration. The building is now listed as “damaged or destroyed”. Note the doll on the right has CCCP on his helmet. A glimpse of the Kharkiv – and the Ukraine – that might still be. Peace and harmony between different peoples.

More to come later.

Grain elevator, Savyntsi, Kharkiv Oblast, between Kharkiv and Izyum. I was impressed by the number and size of these storage facilities. And I have lived in Kansas! Truly Ukraine is the Breadbasket of the World. Or was.
Two unusual sites greeted us as we arrived at the Izyum train station. This sign that showed the change of Izyum’s  Square from “Lenin” to “Lennon Square”. All part of the country’s desovietization. The second site was this quirky statue of a lion and woman. I could not find any information on this. Anyone?
Finally lunchtime! Elementary school.
Commemoration of the many citizens from Izyum who died in the Chernobyl disaster.
War Memorial. Rocket launcher. This whole area, known as the Izyum Salient, changed bloody hands a couple of times in the Second World War. A few hundred meters to the east was a fortress, built in 1681, the same year as the founding of the city. The city grew. No trace of the fortress remains.

The uphill walkway that leads to the grand statue complex (next picture) is lined with tanks, howitzers, and other “chariots of firepower”.
Scythian Kurgan “Mother” statues, 5th century BC. This hilltop in the west of Izyum is the site of many battles and remembrances over the centuries. Cimmerians, Scythians, Mongols, Cossacks, Ukrainian, Nazis, Soviets, Ukrainians, and now Russians. I am sure I left out many others.

Next: Kramatorsk, Mariupol, Berdyansk (link below).

Ukraine Between the Wars. 4: Kramatorsk, Mariupol, Berdyansk

Ukraine Between the Wars. 2: Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Myrhorod

For a while we were sure we would get into some kind of trouble by overstaying our visa in Ukraine because of the Covid travel restrictions, but once we were convinced (at maybe the fourth visa office we visited) that there would be no problem we decided to make the most of it and go around to the farther corners of this country. We started with Chernihiv. a city around 50 miles south of the border with Belarus (or 30 miles east of it, because of a finger of that country poking southward). More concerning to the residents of Chernihiv was their being less than 50 east of Chernobyl. Many from this city lived, worked, and died in that city.

Conversation and ice cream at the Chernihiv Train and Bus Station.

Chernihiv, like almost all of the sizeable cities of Ukraine, have a Soviet-era tank on display.
I love these buses. They remind me of the “Killer Tomatoes” in Guatemala City. But these are much safer, of course. We were fortunate that our apartment was right on this avenue, Five stories up. We were able to do a lot of people-watching while enjoying our pizza. By the way, in all of our time in Ukraine we hardly ever stayed in hotels. It was usually apartments that were available. Available though often hard to find!
Chernobyl Memorial of the Disaster of 1986. Not only did many of the citizens of this city die during the meltdown and cleanup, but also prevailing winds over Chernihiv brought additional problems.
One of the best features of Chernihiv is this very spacious forest park extending southward from the city to the Desna River. Aside from the wildlife we met some interesting people. This friendly lady met us with her farmyard entourage, a cow, two goats, and a mule, all looking rather well-fed. With my halting Russian we were able to have a conversation of sorts for several minutes. I wonder how she is doing now.

This is one of the biggest draws of travel for us – meeting local people and trying to make a connection, trying to understand a country by its people, not merely gawking at, and “selfie-ing” in front of touristic “must-see” sites.

A Tale of Two Cities … and Two Airplanes: Chernihiv and Nizhyn

I could not ask for a better segue from the last city to this next one.

Two Tupolev Tu-22 airplanes from the Nizhyn Air Base collided quite near that city. The two pilots ejected from their planes. So far so good. But one of the planes flew on! Unmanned. For 52 minutes. Heading right for the next city I am writing about! After 52 minutes the plane finally crashed a few hundred meters from the train station on the south side of town. Of course, the terse Wiki article I read this from raises twice as many questions as answers:
Why did the one pilot so quickly leave an apparently functioning airplane?
What happened to the other plane?
Were there casualties on the ground?
Were these pilots, presumably still in training, ever held responsible?

Here is a woman memorialized who was a much better pilot, a World War Two hero for the Soviet cause, Gubina Lyubov Mikhailovna who, says the inscription, “died a brave death“.
A closer look at that delapidated church behind Gubina in the previous photo. The Trinity Church was built in 1733. I am sure this place of worship had auspicious beginnings but, for decades now, the glory has long since departed. The church is fenced off. No one can get inside. People were breaking in to take what was not nailed down. Others, more respectable, spaded up the yard to grow potatoes, hops, and who knows what else. Money for restoration was available but it had been siphoned off to other priorities or pockets.

Nizhyn was a very interesting city. I wish we could have stayed longer. Not only are there a number of ancient churches and other buildings but also some of the homes were quite quaint and arresting in their variety. Also, we had occasion to go on some enjoyable nature walks.
“When Goldenrods last in the dooryard bloomed…” (Apologies, Walt). The four photos on the ends show the variety of private homes in Nizhyn. (This image can be selected for a much better view.) The center photo is of our nature walk along the Oster River. The path, after a hundred meters, trends right through the woods and comes out at an oxbow, what used to be river, now a luxuriant marshy area. And, judging by the many fishermen we saw there, rich in fishes. It would be great to come back here.

Well, I thought that – until I came across a recent news report of mines being detected on the outskirts of the city, one person already seriously injured. Maksym Kyrychuk, the Ukrainian army battalion commander was unclear as to who had laid the mines.

“It could have been Ukrainian territorial defense units.“, he admitted.

A sad update on those houses pictured above: I received a report yesterday (May 17) that Russian missile strikes have damaged or destroyed eighty percent of the homes in Nizhyn.

Local transportation. They also had much more modern buses. I was just intrigued by the four Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) canisters mounted atop the bus. Good idea. I wish America would embrace this method more.
Lots happening around the Neptune Sporting Goods store. I love the brickwork design on the store. I hope it is still undamaged from the recent fighting in this city. More importantly, I hope the people are finally able to get back to normalcy and peace.
As we are waiting for our train to Myrhorod this Jackdaw is waiting for a handout.

MYRHOROD: City of Peace

And up until recent months the city, for the most part, lived up to its name. It was founded as a fortress on the turbulent frontier of Kievan Rus. The 12th and 13th centuries saw this area at times threatened on several sides by powerful entities: Poles, Lithuanians, Turks, and others. It is said that that peace treaties were hammered out here, thus the name “City of peace” – Myrhorod (Миргород).

Fishing the still waters of the Khorol River. I think maybe the river at this place is dammed up or possibly even cut off from the rest of the river. Behind him are a couple of the Kurorts (health resorts). There seems to be from six to eight resorts in this town. “Since 1912, Myrhorod is known for its underground mineral waters.” (Wikipedia).

How many are operating now (May 2022)? Reading several of the reviews of these resorts in Google I have not found any that are more recent than March.

Left: Entrance to a Health Resort. Center:Hops. Like several towns in Ukraine, Myrhorod has hops growing all over like weeds. Very useful for nighttime teas. Right: Candid shot of a sidewalk market along the main street, selling local produce. Onetime local resident Nikolai Gogol would heartily approve. He wrote that “a man who works on the land is purer, nobler, higher, and more moral.“.
Speaking of Gogol, we meet him again at the train station. This Russian author has written quite a lot about Ukraine, especially this town and the region around it. The most famous of these works is Taras Bulba, part of his Myrgorod Tales.

This is the train that takes us to our next destination, Poltava. Trains in Ukraine are of two varieties: Modern, quick and expensive, like this one, and old, creaky, and cheap, like the one we rode into Izyum.

But this, also, probably has changed I read that this rail line has now been severed by the Russians.

More to come later. These blog entries always get more involved than I originally plan. The more I research the more interesting bits of information I find. I hope you find this interesting too.

UKRAINE BETWEEN WARS

Photos can be enlarged. From left to right:Odesa, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Kiev, Mariupol, Kiev.

Of course, the word “between” is a misnomer. The country, in some part or other, has witnessed intermittent conflict for many years now.

We were in Ukraine in 2020, from March to October, over seven months. During that time we unlearned and learned many things about this vast country. To begin with, I learned that the the country is “Ukraine”, not “The Ukraine”. We also learned how beautiful and varied the country is. Thanks to not being able to fly out after the three months our visa allowed, we were able to tour almost all the areas, from Odesa in the Southwest to Kharkiv in the Northeast. Also Kiev, Lvov, Berdyansk, Mariupol, Uman, and many other places.

Now witnessing the sad conflict this land is now seeing it is painful to imagine what must be happening in many of these places and to the friends we have encountered there. This post focuses more on the people than the landscape. I wonder how they are doing now.

Ivano-Frankivsk. Happy to finally graduate. Photo was taken in the old town area.
Ivano-Frankivsk. City square near the main cathedral.
Ivano-Frankivsk. Statue of Stepan Bandera, Ukraine hero to some,, neo-Nazi radical to others (who know their history). The controversial figure is flanked on both sides by the Ukrainian and red and black flag of the UPA, Ukrainian Nationalist Movement. The colors symbolize Ukrainian blood shed on black soil. The enemies of national Ukraine were not only the Germans and Russians but also, at various times, the Jewish residents.
  • Shevchenko Park, Odesa. We just happened to be in the park when they were having this commemoration ceremony. May 9th is Victory Day in Ukraine marking the surrender of Nazi Germany. Actually Germany capitulated on the 8th but it was already the 9th in Moscow.
Kiev. Motherland Monument ironically facing the direction of Russia, with sword and shield – and on the shield a hammer and sickle! Bordering this is, I think, Ukrainian wheat. The hammer and sickle survived the otherwise thorough desovietization in Ukraine starting in the 90s.
This whole area is an open air museum, filled with Soviet-era statues and military hardware from several eras, from the 40s to quite recent.
Also from the Military museum. Too young to experience any of these previous wars, this girl enjoys the outing with her parents and older brother. I wonder how things have changed for them in these last months.
Kiev family crossing in front of the Brodsky Synagogue on Shota Rustaveli St. built in 1898 by sugar magnate Lazar Brodsky. Damaged by the Nazis, repurposed as a puppet theater by the Soviets, it went back into the synagogue business at the turn of this century.
Kiev. Ancient and modern warriors together at Sophia Square. Rearing up on his high horse is hetman warrior Bohdan Khmelnytsky. He fought against the Poles in the Cossack Rebellion 1648-57. Because of his growing role in this the decade was known first as the Khmelnytsky Uprising and, after killing 300,000 Jews (not a typo), the Khmelnytsky Massacre.

Interesting contrast between these two warriors. Khmelnytsky was the first to have a treaty with the Russians. The modern soldier in the background, I would guess, takes a different view of the Bear from the East.
Ternopil, close to the border with Poland. This is one of a series of posters along a downtown street near the castle. As far as I can tell these are modern military enthusiasts reenacting famous battles sites and scenes from the past. My reading of Ukrainian is not too good, though. I welcome any comments on this.
Uman. This city has a large Jewish presence, especially during the time of the yearly pilgrimage to visit the grave of the famous and controversial Nachman of Breslov. Why does this seven-story broadside tell (at the time) President Trump that he would love the man? I have no idea. But he is two centuries too late to meet him.
Hamming it up outside the fenced-off Lviv National Opera House, closed due to Covid and renovation at the time we were there.

During the brutal last days of Nazi occupation all 40 of the opera orchestra were surrounded and forced to play the “Tango of Death” and were then stripped and shot, one by one.
Odesa. Service at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral. We were amazed at the number of cathedrals in this city, and at their lavishly ornate interiors.
Beautiful blossoms hide an ugly scene. The Trade Union Building in Odesa. A Russophile group had a demonstration in front of this building in 2014 seeking for the Oblast of Odesa be declared an autonomous republic when they were confronted with a larger masked contingent with bats and torches. This latter force pushed the protesters back and, eventually, into the building. The hooded pro-Maidan group then started setting the building on fire. Many of the demonstrators jumped out of the building only to be clubbed to death by the pro-Maidan group. Over 100 were killed, either from the fire inside or from jumping outside.

This incident gives insight on the current situation in Ukraine (April 30, 2022). The war here is not mainly a war between Russia and Ukraine. It is a war between Ukrainians and Ukrainians. A civil war. The majority who died in the above incident, and who died earlier in Maidan Square, were Ukrainian citizens.

Personally it saddens and irritates me when I read about clueless young idealistic men from America desire to fight in a war that does not concern them. A civil war is a slow, long-lasting burn. Americans, of all people, should know about that.

This series is continued below.

Ukraine Between the Wars. 2: Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Myrhorod

We also spent time in the Donbass Region, including the cities of Kramatorsk, Mariupol, and Berdyansk. More on that part of our trip is linked below:
https://fromnowhere2nowhere.wordpress.com/2021/09/15/donetsk-detour-september-2020/

Favorite Posters from Around the World: Europe

This is the first of two or three travel blog entries. The photos here are all of Europe, going generally from West to East. These were taken from three separate trips to that continent.

As long as I am pursuing this theme of favorites I thought you might enjoy these posters I made from various places we have visited. The photo above is of Porto, Portugal, looking over the Douro River. (It might seem redundant to repeat the place-names, since they are on the images, but I do for those with slow connections)

These images were all post-processed with Gimp. A wonderful free application available in any OS.

Coimbra, Portugal. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Actually, the university is on the summit. An intriguing, ancient town with plenty of ups and downs. Also a Roman aqueduct.
Cordoba, Spain.
Also Cordoba, Spain. I could not decide which poster from this beautiful city to choose so I am showing both. George Borrow, in The Bible in Spain, describing this mosque in his visit in the 1830s, said that many of the pillars were fallen. Apparently major reconstruction has taken place.
Parma, Italy. And what did we find in a vending machine on the street? Parmesan cheese! A delicious wedge, not the crumbly bland shaker cheese from America.
The Vatican. Rome, Italy.
Strasbourg, France. A placid view of a city that has seen its share of turmoil. Germany and France both have plenty of half-timbered houses (Fachwerkhäuser in German).
Lübeck, Germany.
Bensheim, Germany, on the Bergstraße. The town of my birth, back when it was West Germany. A lot of memories here. Many warm days I would walk the path up the hill past these vineyards and – don’t tell anyone – take a couple or ten deliciously purple grapes.
Wittenberg, Germany. A significant site in Lutherland, along with Martin Luther‘s town, Eisenach. These were both in East Germany. Though not obvious in this photo, it seems that the eastern region of Germany has retained more of its historical structures, not modernizing as much as the West.

Slovenia. I could not say exactly where. Taken from the bus from Austria to Ljubljana.
Trebinje was a pleasant introduction to Herzegovina. Plenty of ancient stone buildings seen, some centuries old, along the riverwalk leading to the arch bridge east of downtown.
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, seen from the Yellow Bastion. On the right bank of the Mivjacka River, about in the center of this view, was where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, the crime that sparked World War One.

It was not really that cold when we visited here so I was surprised to see snow on some of the hillsides surrounding the city. But looking closer I saw that the “snow” was white gravestones. Thousands of them, from a much more recent war.
Ohrid, Macedonia, a peaceful corner of the country. The bird drying his wings in the foreground is the Pygmy Cormorant, Microcarbo pygmaeus, is found only in south-east Europe and parts of western Asia.

Timisoara, Romania. This is the city where in 1989 the government tried to take away the priest. But the parishioners surrounded the entrances of his church (not seen here) and protected the priest from arrest.

Fagaras, Romania. We saw this beautiful cathedral as we were just passing through. This structure is more impressive to visitors than to many of the locals, who know that it is only a recent construction and consider it garish, ill-proportioned, and kitschy. I let you decide.
Sibiu, Romania. Neighborhood Watch? Many roofs in the center of this town have these “eyes”. Aside from this unique feature, Sibiu is picturesque and interesting. They have retained many of the old buildings, including a good part of the city wall.
Chisinau, Moldova, is maybe the best city to see plenty of Soviet-era statues and monuments. Also, to the north of the city, is the largest cemetery in Europe, including graves of many World War Two dead. Several of the gravestones are fascinating to explore. On some of them I saw laser-etched the deceased holding, variously, a guitar, a cigarette, vodka, or a Kalishnikov!
Confession time. I thought this view was of Transnistria but it is only the border (the bushes in the foreground are Transnistria!). The view is of Bendery Fortress and the city behind it is Bender, the last city of Moldova. Hmm. Should I bother reworking the poster? You just cannot believe everything you see on the Internet!

We already had a hotel booked in Tiraspol, Transnistria, but customs would not let us two passengers in. Our crime? Being American and, thus, obviously contagious with Corona Virus. The rest of the van went in. This is when the Corona Virus first started causing travel problems. We had to flag another van returning to Chisinau.

A few days later we were able to go through Transnistria, not getting off, on our way to Odesa.
Lviv, Ukraine. Looking down maybe the main avenue of the city. This city oozes architecture on several streets and ancient alleys. This is the main street from our apartment to the historic center of the city. And, unlike many Ukrainian towns, “historic” means more than just a plaque or a place name of what *used* to be. This city escaped much of the destruction of the last two world wars. But there were fires. Most of the Gothic churches were destroyed in the two major fires in, I think, the 15th and 16th century, leaving mainly Baroque and Roccoco structures.

There was so much to see in Lviv so I am going to wax a bit wordy. The Opera House, for example An enterprising German architect managed to fit that beautiful building right near the center of the city – by building it over a swamp. For a while there was some unsettling settling of the structure. Thankfully it stopped.

During the last day or so of the Nazi occupation all 40 of the opera orchestra were surrounded and forced to play the “Tango of Death” and were then stripped and shot, one by one.

When this building was constructed the city was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It has since belonged to Poland, Ukraine, Germany (for a short months starting with Operation Barbarossa), the Soviet Union and the Ukraine again. During this time the name changed from Lemberg to Lvov to Lviv. And “The Ukraine” has changed to just “Ukraine”.

The city has many old doors with carefully crafted woodwork and curiously overwrought iron. Some of these doors are centuries old.

Train Station. Kharkiv, Ukraine, about twenty miles from Russia. I hate to think what this looks like now.

Kharkiv, Ukraine. This is not a composition shot. I walked through the square until I could get both structures in one view. The cathedral, Svyato-Krestovozdvyzhenskyy Nyzhnyy Khram, and the Independence Monument.

This is the end of the European posts. Next I will show some from Asia.

Favorite Aerial Photos: Asia and Europe

Whenever we fly I always covet the window seat. I find the long-distance details of the land below to be fascinating. Over the years I have also figured out how to take better aerial photos. Here are some of what I think are my best photos of some very memorable trips.

Manila, Philippines. Beautiful view as we left the Philippines. We were bleary-eyed at this point, having tried to sleep on the floor of the Manilla Airport waiting for our check-in. Very poor accommodations.
Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan. A star attraction (pun intended) is the Goryokaku Fort that figured prominently in a nationwide rebellion here a century and a half ago. The fort is the dark greenish star just to the right of center.

Also, this is the bay of Matthew Perry’s visit and of the subsequent Treaty of 1854. The Shogunate were reportedly shocked and awed by Perry’s naval gunnery demonstration, understanding that there were now new variables in the military equation. Goodbye, Samurai.
Seoul, South Korea. Gangnam is on the bottom.
Dalian, Liaoning, China. We lived for most of our time in China in a tall apartment building like the ones shown here. On the 25th floor.

It was hard getting good aerial shots in China. The air was almost always like you see here. And on other occasions I was even told by the flight attendants not to take pictures!
Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. This city, traditionally Uighur, has now been purposefully overwhelmed with the Han. Current percentages right now are roughly Han 75%, Uighur 12%, Hui 9%. We had some time to kill at the airport and really wanted to explore the city, but we were unable to find transportation.
Ossora, Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Occora, Камчатский край. Karaginsky District Coordinates 59.848713, 163.447194. This is one of only two towns I saw as we flew over the Kamchatka region. Very remote and inhospitable-looking.
Kamchatka Peninsula, Eastern Siberia, Russia. This beautiful expanse of land was full of volcanoes, dormant and otherwise.
Kazakhstan. Somewhere between Almaty and Astana. This looks like a good location to shoot upcoming “Dune” sequels!
Kiev, Ukraine. Little did I know that we would return here in a few years and spend seven months in this country, including several days in Kiev.
Germany. Returning to the country of my birth after having been away forty years! It was a surprisingly touching feeling to see the old country again.
Spain. Shortly before landing in Madrid.

Fiumicino, near Rome. This was the beginning of our return to China. I was very glad to have this and all the rest of my camera photos because a pickpocket in Rome stole my phone and the hundreds of other photos of this same trip. Yes, Rome was a mixed bag for us. Glad I went. Sorry I took that number 64 crosstown bus. And sorry that I slipped my Samsung too casually into my pants pocket.

Easy in, easy out.

Next: Favorite Aerial Photos: The Americas.

Twenty-five Favorite Bird Photos from Around the World

When I first had the idea to write an article like this it was going to be just ten birds but, as I went over my hundreds of pictures of birds it changed to 15, then 20 – and now 25! I tried to narrow the choices down to those birds which I had a decent photo as well as something worthwhile to say. That leaves out a lot of good birds, like the Andean Condors, which I never got a decent shot of.

1. Black Stork, Ciconia nigra. Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. I searched for this bird in many countries and finally came across one! They are very wary. This shot is a telephoto from across a river.

2. Eurasian Hoopoe, Upupa epops. Kazbegi, Georgia. I have seen this bird in many varied places, from a hospital property in Dali, China to castle walls in Portugal and Spain. And many places in between. For being a boldly marked bird he is often hard to see.

3. European Bee-eater, Merops apiaster. Dilijan, Armenia. These birds also make a dent in the dragonfly population.

4. Eurasian Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis. Yaremche, Ukraine. One of my most favorite birds. There is a noticeable difference in the amount and extent of red faces in these birds. The ones in Turkey, for instance, have smaller and paler red face markings.

5. Asian Openbill, Anastomus oscitans. Sukhothai Historical Park, Thailand. I was able to get close shots of these storks both here in Sukhothai Historical Park and Ayutthaya, both in Thailand. They are fairly easy to approach.

6. Eurasian Three-Toed Woodpecker, Picoides tridactylus. Ile Alatau National Park. Almaty, Kazakhstan. My wife and I were hiking up the gorgeous Alatau mountains, just south of Almaty, when we rested in a pine grove. This little fellow came down to see us, even climbing onto my wife’s pant legs! The adult female came down, maybe to warn the youngster to “Get back here. That is NOT a log!”

7. Palm Dove, Spilopelia senegalensis. Antakya, Turkey. Also called Laughing Dove, although it takes a bit of imagination to hear the laugh. This pair here was on a street scene in downtown Antakya.

8. Lammergeier (Bearded Vulture), Gypaetus barbatus. Haghpat, Armenia. I was fortunate to see a majestic Lammergeier cruising between the cliffs in this scraggly edge of Armenia. This is the bird, according to the legend that killed the poet Aeschylus, dropping a tortoise on his head.

Truth is, this vulture, also called Bonebreaker, does kill tortoises and other animals this way, by dropping them from up high. It is also known to push little animals over the edge. And – if Wiki is to be believed – the occasional mountain climber!

There was a woman hiker who fell to her death a few years ago in the Pyrenees. She was partially eaten by a Lammergeier. The article assumed she had fallen but now, given what we read above, could she have been on the edge and pushed over?

9. Hoatzin, Opisthocomus hoazin, near Puerto Maldonado, Peru. This is in the Madre de Dios Department, the Peruvian Amazon. Another bird usually heard – a hoarse, coughing call – before seen. They like semi-open woods with water nearby.

10. Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti. Paracas National Reserve, Peru. I had to hurry this shot because a split second later another tourist boat came into full view (you can see it partially). Before this trip I never knew penguins were found this far north.

11. Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes similis. Tena, Ecuador. A very common, beautiful bird, found all through cities and degraded natural areas from southern South America to Mexico.

12. White-throated Magpie-Jay, Calocitta formosa. Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. I don’t know how many times I was fooled into thinking I was hearing different birds when it was just these Jays. I have seen them in several regions and it seems that they have different calls depending on the areas. At least that is my impression from the many times I have seen them.

13. Turquoise-browed Motmot, Eumomota superciliosa. Parque Bicentenial, El Salvador. In Mexico the Motmot is called “Pajaro reloj” (“Clockbird“) because their tail swings left and right, like a pendulum on an old clock. Even though they are colorful they are often hard to see, because they are usually on a vertical branch in the understories of the forest.

So much for now. I will add the next twelve bird entries next time. This is turning out to be more involved than I thought it would be. I hope you will check back in a few days for the rest.

Berdyansk, “The Odessa of Azov”

From Mariupol we continued to another city on the Sea of Azov, Berdyansk. It took us about an hour and a half to get here by bus. The city is by a long spit that juts like a comma into the Sea of Azov. If you check a map you can see it is one of five evenly-spaced spits running from Sjedove, just a couple miles from Russia southwest along the coast to Kosa Biryuchyy which is almost to the Crimean Peninsula.


Like many midsize towns in Ukraine Berdyansk is an interesting blend of urban and rural, new and old. But unlike most towns Berdyansk has some distinctives: aside from having beaches and being a famous coastal fishing port it also boasts numerous health resorts, sanatoriums, and “mud clinics”. These clinics, heralds one website, may even exceed the ones along the Dead Sea.

Soviet era truck

In 1862 Czar Alexander II arranged the layout of the streets, all straight and trending down to the sea. You can still see this grid layout in the old part of town. Even though World War 2 left its mark there are still many historical buildings here. Close to a Ferris wheel is the tiresome and cliched “I (heart) Berdyansk” sign. We have now seen this in many countries throughout the world. Please, city planners, stop.

New and old: Soviet statuary in front of an administration building. In the top right is the Pedagogical University Building.
Left: Advertising fail if ever there was one! Center: Statue in store window. The city has many whimsical statues. Right: I guess pigs here are the real trash grubbers, not dogs or cats.
The indoor section of the market looks pretty clean.
People-watching along the seaside promenade.
Multicolored Salt Marshes of the Berda River Plain north of the town.
Rutted dirt road leading to the plain.
The Mis’ke #2 cemetery just north of town.
Left: Pet Cemetery. In memory of beloved Lala. Center: Company while waiting for the bus to take us back to town. A cat not quite ready for the cemetery Right: Buses that take us around town are like this. Almost looks like wood paneling!
The completion of the Crimean Bridge and the souring of Russian-Ukrainian relations have both caused a dramatic downturn in shipping here. Between 2019 and 2018 the drop was about 50 percent. The cause? Depends on who you ask. Shippers here claim not getting permission to enter the Kerch Strait. Russia denies this.
The Sea of Azov has an abundance of fish, three kinds of Sturgeon (Great, Starred, and Russian), Azov Turbot, Mullet, Anchovy, just to name a few. But also – to the consternation of beachgoers – there is an unwanted abundance of …
Barrel Jellyfish. The Sea of Azov and eastern parts of the Black Sea are in the midst of a cyclical jellyfish bloom thanks to an increase of both salinity and water temperature. The last spike in numbers was in the 1970s. Aside from clogging fisherman nets these creatures are a poisonous nuisance wherever they are. In places where they are especially abundant those who just venture in the water – not even touching the animal – are stung by the amount of their secretion in the water.

One solution is to use the jellyfish as medicine or food. They are being researched for possible anti-cancer properties as well as treatment for diabetes. And then there is food: One person actually said that it tastes like jelly with saltwater. That is not my observation. Having tried it in China, I would say it has a pretty bland taste, maybe insipid tofu,

Left: Looking eastward over to Russia. Center: This is supposedly the biggest aquapark in Europe. It has seen better days. Right: Concerned about his own cargo and that of his colleagues, the merchant Carlo Tomasini built this lighthouse in 1838.

Combining some research with our fairly recent memories of this town I can see there is a lot that we missed. I hope that we have an opportunity to return to this pleasant place.