Graves, Eurasian Border, Tanks, Missiles....

September 5th 2017

We abandoned hiking in the Ural Mountains as the weather forecast was pretty awful for the day. Instead, we decided to visit the Romanov graves and a few other places of interest around Yekaterinburg.

Our guide was due to pick us up at 9am, we showered (now a luxury!) and went for breakfast. I had some salmon on rye bread, eggs, toast and crepes to make sure I was ready for the day ahead. We made it to the reception on time and met our guide as he was coming through the hotel entrance. His name was Konstantin, he seemed very professor-like! He asked us where we were from and preceded to tell us that the Urals are like the highlands; people regard themselves as highlanders who hate the Muscovites!

We got into his beat up car, also with a cracked windscreen, and headed for our first stop of the day; it was a mass grave outside of the city. There were almost 20,000 names on the pillars; these graves were Stalins doing. Stalin is not liked in Russia and all statues of him have been removed by law!

Our second stop was the Eurasian border; it is the border between Europe and Asia and runs from the artic urals to the southern urals into Kazakhstan. There are around 50 different points throughout Russia which show where the border runs; these are all marked by an obelisk which is actually pretty cool. Apparently, two tectonic plates crashed together millions of years ago creating the border; the geology east of the urals versus west of the urals proves that these are two completely different land masses, hence the border! And the best part is.....we got certificates! 

Our next stop was the Military Museum of Yekaterinburg. Granted it sounds boring, but actually the collection on show was amazing! The exhibits are all (mostly) restored real vehicles from WW2, some with bullet holes as proof. Unfortunately, the inside part of the museum was closed, but according to our guide, who turned out to be a historian, the outside area is the best anyway! We spent the better part of an hour walking around tanks, missile launchers, helicopters, trains, planes and boats; Iain said its the first time, and probably the last time, that he would be able to touch a missile, so why not! The museum was the brainchild of the director of the UMMC, the biggest mining company in the Urals; he is a billionaire who has given a lot back to the city and continues to, even to this day. Our guide showed us one of the missile launchers and told us how all Russians sing a specific song when they see one; he started to sing, but unfortunately we were too slow to get it on camera!

After the museum, we got back in the car to head to Ganina Yama, the Monastery of the Holy Martyrs. This is built around the spot that the Romanov bodies were originally disposed of. I mentioned in a previous blog about the Romanov murders but did not go into much detail; I think the story, as gruesome as it is, deserves to be covered in its own post.......