Today we leave Moscow for St Petersburg. It's a late-night overnight train (11:30pm to 8:30am), so we still have a fair bit of time to continue exploring Moscow.
First task: pack up and exit the hotel. Well, not quite. Because we have a late train, we're leaving our bags at the hotel until closer to train time!
It was wet out, so we decided on indoor pursuits — although we usually had to walk in the wet to get to them! The first port of call was the Museum of Modern Art, a couple of blocks north of our hotel. Much of the museum was in the process of setting up new exhibitions, but there was a fascinating exhibition there of Alexander Pankin and the Avant Garde. The part of this exhibition that interested us most was those works which involved the realization of mathematical objects (Number series, irrational and transcendental numbers, scientific ideas) in the art space ("meta-abstraction"). Here are just a few...
Diptych: The imaginary nature of the Black Square (the iconic painting by Kazimir Malevich)
(L) Mathematical representation of the Black Square; (R) Structure of the Black Square
The middle frame is the explanatory text from the left hand image (How's your Russian?)
One whole room was devoted to Pankin's investigations of one Malevich work, a small Suprematist drawing. One treatment was a 3-dimensional representation that revealed Malevich's work when viewed from one specific angle, defined by a viewing tube.
Bach's square (2018)
We then left and braved the rain again. We walked the short distance to Chekhovskaya Metro Station, caught a train to Kropotinskaya Station. Went up and called in to Il Patio for a pleasant Italian lunch. From here we went over to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, only to find a huge queue that was not moving at all.
We reconsidered our options, and decided to go back into the Metro, go to the Biblioteka imena Lenina Station, and come up just outside the State Historical Museum at the end of Red Square. Good move! The exhibition there in The Museum of Patriotic War of 1812 gives a wonderful Russian perspective of the Napoleonic War of 1812 to 1814.
In particular, there are about 20 large scale paintings showing Napoleon's advance into Moscow, the torching of Moscow by the patriots, and the subsequent catastrophic retreat by Napoleon and his troops. Napoleon was ultimately defeated by the Russian scorched earth tactics where, as they retreated, the Russians set fire to all the crops and stores left behind them, not allowing the French troops to re-provision themselves from the land! And the burning of Moscow itself was the last straw! During the retreat, the Russian winter killed huge numbers of the French invaders!
They are also showing a collection of gems created by Peter Aksenov's jewelry house for the 2016 BBC series "War and Peace". These are exquisite!
After a couple of hours in the Napoleonic Wars, we left the museum to find the weather little better. We did,however, find the zero kilometre marker just off Red Square, and we also paid another visit to farewell Saint Basil!
We returned to the hotel, took our leave from the friendly staff, and took a taxi to Leningradsky Station for our train to Saint Petersburg. This station is one of a group of three stations — the other two are Kazansky and Yaroslavsky. Leningradsky, aka Moscow Passazhirskaya station, is the oldest station in Moscow, and is dedicated to trains to and through St Petersburg (aka Leningrad during the Soviet era).
We had time to have a gourmet deluxe hamburger at the station before it was time to board our train. This leg we were travelling first class. The accommodaton was rather cramped, especially with our rather large luggage! But we stowed it away, and were comfortably ensconced in our cabin for the trip into Saint Petersburg.
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