Russia is a huge country (1/6 of the planet dry-land after all) although less than half of it is so densely populated as the central region where I live. Mostly it's all woods, fields, rivers and really awful passability. I mean, roads. There are certain regions where the roads are nothing but a driver's nightmare. Like the one I live in. Orlovskaya oblast, my home province, is one of the poorest (most stripped) lands in the country. The scroungers-bosses of our administration proclaim its agricultural, educational and whateveral prosperity... when practically even for them there's nothing left to rob, nothing to profit by. Not many know that the only way we can see our current Mayor nowadays is on the "Wanted" posters around the town. That's so fantastically ridiculous. The region is dying out, unemployment issues get worse, the products costs are higher than in Moscow, the budget money is sucked out even before it gets here. And now there's the Crisis, hallelujah! - even more ways of pocketing regional finances. Oryol, the regional centre and my hometown, once sweet and comfy, is now a muddy, greyish and most of the time uninspiring place to live in. But the truth is that nobody cares. Neither the media-hailed government, nor the majority of its inhabitants. Oh, they complain and argue and annoy each other on the streets day by day. But being constantly irritated and unhappy is what they got used to. It's the way of life.
HOWEVER! The above-written was the necessarily dark introduction to a much more light-hearted story. The purpose of this blog is not to describe the everyday hardships and troubles of Russian folk. Quite on the contrary, I would like to present some instances of the brightest and loveliest things that can be related to Russia. Literature, cinema, music, nature, characters - the articles here won't be bound by any specific topic. Be it a realia or an individual worth commenting - then already it could somehow add a piece to the puzzle that's called the mystical "Russian spirit". And as two rebellions against mediocrity, my friend, schoolmate and collaborator Julia (aka Vinney) and I will try to keep the blog updated on the pieces of the puzzle. If it is useful to at least one or two persons interested in our vast and incoherent country then we take it as purpose fulfilled.
So here we go, let's find it out.
***
Chapter 1: Oryol
In Russian "oryol" means "eagle". There are some legends as to why Ivan IV (the Terrible) decided to name the fresh-founded fortress after this noble bird in 1566 but they're so boring I won't enlarge on them. Instead I'd like to express my own personal feelings about the place I've lived in for all my life up to now.
Regional centre or not, Oryol is not that big to be called a city (though its population is more than 300 000). It is a town but I still prefer to call it a 'big village'. The mentality and manner of living are practically the same as in the country since the town is mostly (and keeps being) inhabited by the former villagers and their descendants. So, intellectually and socially people are used to "solve" their problems by quarelling and picking each other to pieces and blaming the government and etc.
Nevertheless, the town hasn't lost its charm completely. Not yet. There are moments, like autumn leavefalls or dark winter evenings, when you can hear the town breathe, when its soul begins to peep out from beneath and you feel very much at home. Oryol claims to be a 'university town' as there are many higher education institutes around. Well, quality of the education they give is often questionable but at the same time there are still great minds of the old - professors whose knowledge and intelligence are nothing but worth their weight in gold. Yes, you are regularly woken up deep in the night by somebody singing drunk serenades under your windows - for the most common and ineradicable sin of our men is drinking, a lot and on any possible occasion. But sometimes you may hear them sing really good stuff, you know. Local radio is much better than the most popular FMs around the country: while the majority of commercial waves play Pussycat Dolls our lovely 'Radio-Express' would be playing Beatles. We've got a couple of really awesome theatres. And the town is very green. Everything's not lost.
As an example, I suggest taking a look at the town's beauty in the pics below or learn some of its history on Wikipedia
The cinema theatre "Pobjeda" (meaning "victory"). About 20 steps from my house. (Last time I went in there was June 2008 for "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian")
The Karl Marx Square in the centre
The Alexandrovskiy Bridge that joins Lenina Street
Lenina Street that I live in by the way
The 'Arrow" Stella in memory of those who died here during WWII,it stands at the conjunction of two rivers - Oka and Orlik
View of the Stella and the Children's Park
The Mikhail Archangel Cathedral
The old Town Council building
The Orlik river
The park up the river 
The Post (on the right)
View of the Mikhail Archangel Cathedral
A very nice satellite shot of the greyishness that is Oryol from the space (credit to GoogleMap). The lines point to the 2 places that I'm divided between during the day:
Next time I'm going to put some century-old black-and-white pictures of the town that I simply love. And something else for sure. Check back!
Take care everyone who dropped by, however few you are.
~ Ksenia :+)
No comments:
Post a Comment