Day 13 - Perm - echoes of the soviet past remain

Gulag Memorial, Perm

3,767 Miles  GMT  +4  Temp -19

Arrived here this morning just after 8am. The station is on the outskirts of the town, the buses were packed, so we put our luggage into lockers at the station and walked as we are only here for a few hours.

Perm, formerly known as ‘Molotov’, after the man who invented the petrol cocktail. In Soviet times this too was a restricted city, even to non-resident Russian citizens, and did not appear on any maps. Military staff weren't allowed to leave the city either whilst they were serving, for fear of revealing secrets. This was due to an enormous tank/cannon/rocket making factory complex located in the city. 

It’s a grey city, lots of Soviet concrete and still has non-working military hardware made then displayed on streets like an out of date showroom. 

These are parked next to a school

This was also the home of Perm-36, a notorious Gulag, which started life in the Stalin era during the 1930's continuing to operate until 1987.  It was during the Stalin era Siberia became synonymous with death. The Gulag population grew from approx 30,000 in 1928 to eight million in 1938. Prisoners were underfed, mistreated and literally worked to death; the average life expectancy was under two years, and 90% of inmates didn’t come out alive. Boris Yeltsin announced the release of Russia’s last 10 political prisoners from a camp near Perm in 1992. That’s not to say there aren’t any no of course, they probably started picking them back up the next week.

Perm –36 is now a museum, I didn’t feel the need to visit it, given the experience of the KGB museum in Vilnius. 

This all paints a very grey picture of Perm, but like so many of the formerly closed cities dependent on the manufacture of military equipment, the last decade has been a time of massive change, not only because the industry was drastically reduced or in some cases ceased, but also because the cities were opened, and people had no idea what lay outside. Lena has very strong feelings about how these cities were treated, and the impact on the citizens of those cities. I'm sure she will write something about it at some point.

I presumed that closed citi were a thing of the past, but I akse yelena to confim it..........she whistled and looked at the ceiling......I guess that's a no then.

We did visit two of the remaining three museums in Perm. The first being the Perm State Art Gallery, which houses a renowned collection of primitively carved religious icons dating back to the 17th century. Alas no photos allowed, but they do have a website in English

The second was small, but perfectly formed and dedicated to Sergei Diaghilev, the legendary ballet and opera impresario, whose family originated from Perm. I told Lena when we came out that they had omitted one small detail in the museum – he was gay. Lena nearly wet herself laughing at the thought of a museum dedicated to a gay person in such a repressive city. 

 

We will shortly have a six hour journey to Ekaterinburg, which will take us over the border from Europe into Asia, as well as taking us into the Ural Mountains and western edge of Siberia.

when was the last time your train was cleaned in England?

 Life on the train is quite pleasant, and better than the UK. We've paid 'a commission' on each train to mainatin our own compartment, but that seems a small prie to pay.  The trains are clean and warm, and the restaurant cars have a baic menu but offer good value food and a changeo scenery. 

This train is bound for Beijing, via Ulan Bator, so we have a Mongolian style restaurant