St. Petersburg -- Winter Palace and Hermitage

When Czar Peter the Great built St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital beginning in 1703, he constructed his Winter Palace on the banks of the Neva River, which runs through the heart of the city. The current Winter Palace was completed in 1762 and Catherine the Great, who ascended to the throne that year, immediately began adding other buildings — hermitages — to the complex to house her growing art collection. The last of these buildings was completed in 1852.
It is said that Catherine the Great dispatched courtiers throughout Europe with bags of cash to buy art treasures for her collection. The history of the Hermitage as an art museum traditionally dates to 1764.
The Hermitage’s vast collections were dispersed somewhat in the years following the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and during World War I, when many works were moved to Moscow. After the war, the Soviet government established a network of regional art museums, raiding the Hermitage again in order to stock these museums. Finally, in 1934, the plundering stopped and many works were returned to the Hermitage.
This unbelievable collection of art was threatened again during the siege of Leningrad — as St. Petersburg was known during the Soviet period — by Germany in World War II. Before Hitler’s forces completely encircled the city, museum officials managed to two trains full of priceless art for safe keeping in the Ural Mountains. Photographs on display show the Hermitage’s walls filled with empty frames.
The Hermitage survived the war and in 1945, the art collection returned from evacuation. Restoration of the building continues to this day.
The Hermitage is ranked as one of the world’s half-dozen greatest art museums, with the largest collection of Rembrandts outside his native Amsterdam, as well as extensive collections of works by Da Vinci, Botticelli, Matisse, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Rousseau, Pena, Corot, Rodin sculptures, Van Gogh, Gauguin and two full rooms of works by Picasso.

Photos, top to bottom: the Winter Palace and Hermitage; the entrance gate; first landing of the Grand Staircase; upper landing of the Grand Staircase; Armorial Hall, a reception area used by the czars; one of many ballrooms in the Winter Palace; St. George Hall, one of several receiving rooms used by the czars; the St. George Hall throne; the Silver Tomb of war hero Alexander Nevsky (1750s); the 18th century Peacock Clock; Rembrandt's masterpiece of Abraham and Isaac; The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, the Hermitage's most famous painting; Da Vinci's Madonna.

Photos by Jerry Van Marter, taken Feb. 10, 2008.

The Kremlin ... in color!

The Moscow Kremlin, or simply The Kremlin (meaning "citadel") sits on a hill overlooking the Moscow River in the heart of the Russian capital. The 68-acre complex is enclosed by a wall one-and-a-half-miles around and contains four palaces, four cathedrals and a number of other government buildings. Cathedral Square is considered the heart of the Kremlin.
The site has been continuously inhabited since the second millennium B.C. and has been a fortress since the early 14th century, when the first stone structures were erected. The existing Kremlin walls were constructed in the late 15th century and though they were partially destroyed by Napoleon as he retreated from Moscow in 1812, they remain largely intact. Some other buildings, built in Tsarist times, were destroyed by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution.
The Kremlin was closed to tourists from the time of the revolution until 1955. The world-renowned Kremlin museums were opened to the public in 1961 and today long lines of visitors from the around the world visit.
Surprising to me on my first visit is how colorful the buildings are. As a child of the Cold War, I had always pictured the Kremlin as a collection of monolithic gray buildings. Quite the contrary, the dominant colors are gold and ochre.
I was also struck by how Cathedral Square dominates the landscape of the Kremlin. It never occurred to me that the predominant symbol of Soviet power and the communist threat would be watched over by a magnificent quartet of ornate cathedrals. Go figure.

Photos, top to bottom: the Kremlin Wall, which encloses the 68-acre site; the Trinity Gate (yes, THAT Trinity), the main visitors' entrance; the Cathedral of the Assumption, the largest of the four cathedrals in the Kremlin; the Cathedral of the Deposition, built in 1488; the Kremlin Senate, still the headquarters of the executive branch of the Russian government; a large bell, cast for the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, which broke during casting; a large decorative cannon; the Eternal Flame, commemmorating Russian war dead; the Stalingrad Memorial, one of 12 monuments to Russian cities that put up the fiercest resistance to, first Napoleon, and then Hitler.

Photos taken by Jerry Van Marter

Scenes from a St. Petersburg stroll

St. Petersburg was built, starting in 1703, by Czar Peter the Great, who moved the Russian capital from Moscow in order to create a "Window to the West," where he believed Russia's destiny awaited.

Peter invited traders, merchants and others from throughout Europe and St. Petersburg quickly became a cosmopolitan city -- far different from Moscow, which to this day has remained decidedly Russian. With the wave of European visitors and emigrants, St. Petersburg became an international city of culture and the arts. From writers such as Dostoevsky and Pushkin to dancers such as Nuryev and Baryshnikov, St. Petersburg has produced Russia's greatest artists.

In 1917, the Czarist monarchy was overthrown by the Bolsheviks of Lenin, ushering in more than 70 years of communist repression. Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow and St. Petersburg, renamed Leningrad, languished until the collapse of communism in 1991. Since then St. Petersburg has been reborn as Russia's most vibrant city.

These photos are from a stroll down and around Nevya Prospekt, St. Petersburg's grand boulevard.

From top: a statue commemorating Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg in 1703; the Hermitage, including the Czar's Winter Palace -- now site of one of the world's greatest art museums; the General Staff headquarters, adjacent to the Hermitage and the seat of the Czarist government from 1703-1917; the interior of the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, erected in the 1880s by Czar Alexander III on the spot where his father, Alexander II, was assassinated in 1881 -- the entire interior of the cathedral is done in mosaic tile; the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, modeled after famed St. Basil's in Moscow; the ballet and opera houses where Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, Nuryev and Baryshnikov, among many others, gave the world some of its greatest music and dance; the Grand Hotel Europa, St. Petersburg's most magnificent and one of Europe's grandest hotels; Disney and Batman have arrived, too; so has Colonel Sanders, which is always packed.

Photos taken by Jerry Van Marter, Feb. 10, 2008

He Shoots! He Scores!

It’s Sunday in St. Petersburg — the first Sunday of Lent — and for morning worship at the Anglican Chaplaincy in St. Petersburg, we’re seated on the free-throw shooting line.

This hardy band of believers, about 40 in all, come from Anglican traditions in their home countries — England, Wales, Australia, several African nations — along with a few from here in St. Petersburg and today four from the PC(USA): Joe and Hannah Kang, missionaries at the ELCROS (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States) Seminary who worship here regularly; Gary Payton, regional liaison for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland; and me.

They worship on what is now the third floor of the Swedish Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg (second photo from top). Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 this was a large cathedral, with towering vaulted ceilings. During the communist era, the church was taken by the government, converted into a three-story complex and used for storage and offices and here, on the third floor, a gymnasium was built.

The backboards and goals have been taken down and the bleachers have been removed, but the floor is still intact. And so our seats in the front row of the worship space are even with the foul line (top photo).

A retired Anglican canon conducts weekly services here and provides pastoral care to the small flock. Lay member of the congregation clearly carry the ministry load. One woman gets up at the end of the service and announces the annual Lenten fundraising project — this is the third year for this program so, she says, “I believe we can now call it a tradition.”

The congregation is going to raise money to buy ducks for farm families in Bangladesh, a project akin to Heifer International in the U.S. Last year they raised funds for mosquito nets for poor Malawians.

She distributes film canisters and urges church members to fill them between now and easter with 5-ruble coins, which stack in the canisters perfectly. “Don’t use ‘kopeks’ (lesser coins that are worth a fraction of a penny),” she says in her clipped British accent. “They drive me simply mad.”

As at both services Gary and I attended last Sunday in Moscow — at a Russian Orthodox Church and at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, pastored by PC(USA) missionary Bob Bronkema — we partook in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Once again I was struck by the unity of Christ that is present everywhere in the world no matter the race or national origins of the congregation members nor the denomination of the church.

In such circumstances, particularly here in Russia where the church is reemerging after 70 years of communist rule, one is reminded that squabbles over the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary or tile in the church kitchen or color of new paint in the fellowship hall just don’t matter.

In the afternoon, we walked over to visit Jin Eun Kim, another of our missionaries in St. Petersburg, who worships with a Korean-Russian Lutheran congregation in the Church of Peter, the largest ELCROS building here (third photo from top).

This congregation, along with a number of other congregations that also use the building, worships in the second-floor sanctuary of a building that used to be a single towering worship space. The Soviet government turned this sanctuary into a natatorium (swimming pool). Pictures in the narthex depict large swim meets that used to take place here between the 1960s and 1980s.

The swimming pool is still here — the sanctuary floor is laid over it like a giant pool cover. The spectator bleachers are still intact on either side of the new sanctuary (fourth photo from top). Church members talk of converting the first floor, where remains of the pool can still be seen, into a memorial to Lutherans of various nationalities who died for their faith during the Soviet era.

Walking around St. Petersburg, we see dozens of churches, testaments to the faith that people from all over Europe and Asia brought to St. Petersburg after Czar Peter the Great began construction of this wondrous city in 1703 as a “Window to the West.” He moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg and it became a far more cosmopolitan city than Moscow ever was. After the revolution in 1917, Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow, and St. Petersburg — renamed Leningrad — languished somewhat until the collapse of communism in 1991.

It is once again vibrant here, with much new construction and rapid reemergence of the city’s many religious traditions. Russian Orthodox churches still predominate (fifth photo from top), but strolling down the main boulevard — Nevsky Prospekt — we see Swedish Lutheran, Finnish Lutheran, German Lutheran, Roman Catholic (bottom photo), Armenian Orthodox and other churches.

Some with former swimming pools or gymnasiums and some without.

Juggling act -- a conversation with the Rev. Stacy Bronkema

The Rev. Stacy Bronkema is a gifted Christian educator serving as a PC(USA) missionary in Moscow, Russia, with her husband, Bob, at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC). She’s also the mother of three young daughters — Rachel, 11, Naomi, 9 and Bethany, 7 — and after 18 months of juggling these two heavy responsibilities, she appreciates both the joys and the challenges.

“I made it really clear when Bob and I were interviewing for these positions that my family was going to require a lot of time,” she says during a late-night conversation in the family’s small but comfortable apartment in Moscow. “The missionary recruitment folk in Louisville said ‘okay,’ and though it’s really time-consuming it’s working.”

Stacy is involved in the ministry of the congregation at MPC — Sunday School and women’s Bible study groups — while Bob handles worship leadership and the many social ministries of the church.

“Old-timers appreciate that having a family has changed the dynamics of the congregation,” Stacy says. “The congregation was intent when we came that congregational life be enhanced and more family-oriented. Our family has sure done that.”

MPC’s Sunday School has grown under Stacy’s skilled leadership, moving from a “one-room schoolhouse” model to multiple age group classes. “We really love the diversity of this congregation,” she says of the congregation’s multi-national, multi-denominational make-up.

Stacy’s first love is the numerous women’s Bible study groups she leads during the week. A Wednesday night group that used to meet in the cramped apartment of a church member who lived near Red Square has now moved to the U.S. Embassy.

“It was really hard to get to Red Square and many women didn’t want to be over there at night, but it’s much better at the embassy,” she says. The group includes American, Swedish and Russian women.

A new Friday morning Bible study group meets in another part of town, near the upscale Anglo-American School. That group is less diverse — American women or women married to Americans — but it is using the same study materials Stacy used at the PC(USA) church she and Bob served in Palatka, FL, before coming to Moscow. “I really love those (“Beth Moore”) materials,” she says, “so it’s lots of fun.”

The girls are very happy in Moscow, especially at their school — the Hinkson Christian Academy, where another PC(USA) missionary, Alan Smith, teaches — Stacy says, and through her daughters she’s made some wonderful friends.

“Rachel’s and Bethany’s best friends are Korean and their mothers want to practice English so I spend a couple hours each week with them and they’ve become two of my closest friends,” she says. “I’m delighted with the community Rachel and Bethany have created for us.”

The Russian language “is really hard,” Stacy admits. “Some days I have to just stop answering the phone because it’s so exhausting trying to figure it all out.”

A native of Fox Island, near Tacoma, WA, Stacy says what she misses most about being in Moscow is family. “Really, I’ve been away since seminary, so we’re really glad to be going back to Washington State for an extended stay this summer.”

As a Tacoma native now living in Louisville, I can relate.

Orphans of Smolensk

Photos taken Feb. 7, 2008 by Jerry Van Marter at the orphanages at Dukhovschino and Kardymoro, villages near Smolensk, Russia.

Images of Smolensk

Smolensk — Russia’s oldest and most strategic city

Smolensk is the westernmost city in Russia, less than 50 miles from the border with Belarus, one of the former Soviet republics that has retained a totalitarian government.

Smolensk is also the oldest city in Russia, dating back to at least the 9th century. It was already a sizable city — its population is currently 400,000 — when Moscow was first getting started in about 850 A.D.

From its earliest days, Smolensk has been critically important economically and militarily. The three rivers that flow through it provide access to the Caspian, Baltic and Black Seas, a rarity that makes Smolensk an historically commercial hub in eastern Europe.

Militarily, all invasion routes to Russia run through Smolensk and so it has been a crucial battleground for centuries. Since the 15th century, Smolensk has been a strategic front in wars with Latvia, Poland, France and Germany. In recent centuries, both Napoleon and Hitler successfully overran Smolensk, but paid such a heavy price that their subsequent attempts to push on to Moscow came to ruin.

Smolensk, then, features various monuments to war heroes, as well as churches dating back to the 12th century, and its singular piece of architecture: the remnants of a 45-feet high/20 feet wide wall that, when built at the turn of the 17th century to defend the city against an imminent Polish invasion, completely encircled Smolensk. Originally running more than 3.5 miles with 38 towers along its length, only about one-third of the wall and its towers remain.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s most long-standing and highly-evolved “twinning” partnership in Russia — between First Baptist Church of Smolensk and White Memorial Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, NC, makes Smolensk a crown jewel of the denomination’s Russia Church Twinning Project (Extra Commitment Giving account #047954).

Photos, top to bottom: The eternal flame commemorating World War II dead; the 17th century defense wall; a memorial to those who died defending Smolensk against Napoleon; St. Michael's Cathedral, a 12th century church; St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, built 1150 years ago and the oldest church in Russia; the main cathedral of Smolensk, completed early in the 18th century.

Photos by Jerry Van Marter