Podolsk

Map

June 30, 2007

This swamp is in Moscow, Podolsk is another ten minutes drive away.

On they way there we passed Ostafyevo airport (which I never even knew existed). The villagers of Shcherbinka have the pleasure of admiring gliders and other exotic machines all day every day.

Behind the airport is the Ostafyevo estate, turning 200 this year. The main building is like your typical early XIX century structure, except that there are long and unusual galleries in the wings.

Sadly, the wing on the right has already been restored. The end result looks like the entrance hall to a public sauna, done up with all of the subtlety you would expect from such an establishment. There is a yawn-inducing museum in the basement, decorated in the most up-to-the-minute poor taste and both architecturally and artistically illiterate.

The last private owner of the estate — Sergey Dmitrievich Sheremetev — took leave of his sense somewhat in his old age, installing monuments to those who’d visited or stayed at the estate on its lawns and paths — Pushkin, the poet Zhukovsky et al. All of the monuments were erected circa 1913, but were recently restored, the pedestals being polished beyond recognition. Correction, they’re very easy to recognise — this is what the fittings in the elevator lobbies of newly built “elite” apartment blocks look like. Is there anything more hideous than granite that’s been polished until it sparkles?

Yes, there is: this recently restored basement. Notice the hallmarks of the union of architects’ handiwork. For some reason, this sort of thing is not currently considered cringeworthy.

On we drive, Podolsk-bound. We pass several across the street banners containing a toe-curling spelling mistake.

Look for tiles? [Instead of “Looking for tiles?”]

Podolsk straddles several hills.

There’s a swamp in the centre, overlooking it is a Ferris wheel you can ride for 150 roubles.

Next to the swamp, a dozen metres from the highway, there’s yet another wooden home-turned-museum where Lenin briefly lived. Soviet toponomy has been preserved in its entirety and in a pristine state. From (teenage martyr) Pavlik Morozov Street:

To Revolyutsionnyy Prospect.

Street ads are now legal here, just like in Ryazan.

Mirror image of across the street banners.

The whole city is a mixture of the unmixable.

“McDonald’s” and the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The logo of a youth festival, attended by people who’ve already celebrated their 50th birthdays, and the fact that it’s currently 2007.

Eagle and pigeon.

And then all of a sudden — thought formations from the mind of the universe (under the patronage of the municipal government’s culture and arts department I’ll have you now).