A Walk in Kiev – From Medieval Town to Post-Soviet Metropolis

Founded as a trading post back in the 5th century in the Ostrogoth region on the far eastern border of the Roman Empire, Kiev later grew to become the capital of the first ‘Rus’ in early medieval times. The ‘Rus’ embraced a vast territory between todays Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Western Russia. Centuries later, after a war lost against the Mongols and having changed hands more than once, it finally became part of the Czarist Empire.

In Soviet times, Kiev was the capital of the second largest Socialist Republic of the Union, i.e. the Ukraine. This large and fertile land, not subject to the exceptionally harsh winters typical to the majority of Russian territories, features a long coast with several port towns on the Black Sea, and since the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War, it accounted for a good share of the population and workforce of the USSR.

Despite being kept in great consideration by the Soviet central government for its economic and military value, the Ukraine was among the fiercest opponents of the Bolshevik revolution back in the years of Lenin and the Russian Civil War. Some top-ranking Soviet leaders actually came from this Country, but that it remained separated from Russia even in Soviet times was not just by chance.

As a matter of fact, after the collapse of the USSR, the Ukraine immediately left for independence, entering a very difficult transitional phase, which is basically still lasting today. The general weakness of all recent presidential administrations, the claims of ownership over the former national industries and natural resources by private owners, and substantial border controversies with Russia, have produced living conditions for the population which are much lower than for other ex-USSR countries like Russia, the Baltics or Belarus.

All these pieces of national history are reflected in Kiev, a very large city where you hear echoes from all the eras of its complicated past. This chapter presents a quick account of the highlights of Kiev’s heritage from older and newer times, providing also an impression of how this town is evolving today. Photographs were taken in spring 2018, and portray a bit of everything, from spectacular Orthodox temples to gigantic Soviet statues, cannons from WWII, the Chernobyl Museum, panorama views of the city and more!

Map

The map below shows the location of everything described or portrayed in this post.

Pictures were taken mostly in central Kiev, itself a pretty extensive area, served by public transport, but more quickly and efficiently explored by taxi. As of today (2019), the cost of life for a visiting westerner is incredibly low, so even taking a taxi for every shift is not inconceivable.

Of course, there are some parts of the central district which are interesting to explore by walk, and if you are a well-trained type you might simply spend your day walking from a destination to the other – getting a more complete view of the city center, and avoiding traffic jams which constantly plague the city.

I really enjoy driving, but in Kiev I would not suggest moving around with a car on your own, cause traffic is really a nightmare, traffic flows are fuzzy and chaotic, so you may be easily wasting your time, letting aside the chance of accidents and damage to your car.

The central districts appear reasonably safe, so you may relax and move around by foot, taking all the pictures.

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Sights

Saint Sophia’s Cathedral

If you want to start you exploration with a true masterpiece, then head directly to the very central Saint Sophia’s Cathedral. This glorious church and monastery founded around the year 1000 AD was renewed and modified over the centuries, but the main features of the central church have remained basically unaltered since its origin.

Access to the monastery grounds are via the tall bell tower. You can also climb upstairs, very much advised to enjoy a very good view of Kiev’s central districts, including the nearby church of Saint Michael.

Looking farther, you can appreciate the size of the outskirts of the city, which is really extensive. The typical Soviet/post-Soviet amenity of the most peripheral districts is readily apparent. There is also a plant looking like an oil power plant, with giant red and white chimneys, right in town.

The majestic river Dnepr can be barely seen from here, looking east.

From the outside the church in the monastery – resembling the plan of Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Constantinople – is a masterpiece, but the mosaics inside are really unmissable.

Unfortunately, taking pictures inside is strictly forbidden (many guards around).

Saint Andrew’s Church & Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A quick detour to the east from the alley connecting Saint Sophia’s to Saint Michael’s Cathedral, Saint Andrew’s Cathedral is a nice example of Czarist Rococo style. Unfortunately the church was undergoing renovation inside at the time of my visit.

On the way from Saint Andrew’s Cathedral to Saint Michael’s Cathedral you can find a Soviet monolith, today the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The building, with a line of prominent columns aligned ahead of the façade, was built over a terrain formerly part of Saint Michael’s Monastery.

Saint Michael’s Cathedral

This beautiful church, with distinctive golden domes, was reconstructed in its baroque form in the late 1990s, after it had been completely demolished in the 1930s, among the darkest hours of Stalin’s communist dictatorship. The ancient mosaics which adorned the original church, dating back to the Byzantine period, were transferred to major museums of the USSR before demolition took place.

The accurate reconstruction work has produced a beautiful ensemble, with a church in the middle, a tower over the main gate, and several smaller buildings. The contrast between the blue façade walls and the golden roof produces a very nice chromatic effect.

Friendship of Nations Monument

Descending towards the river from Saint Michael’s Cathedral, you soon reach an artery of the city called Kreshchatyy, and a typical soviet building – the Ukrainian House, today a congress center. This artery leads to the central Independence Square.

Next to the Ukrainian House you can find the head of short promenade leading to a balcony with a gorgeous view of the Dnepr. Going there, you pass under an arch, framing some sculptures including a – strangely – moderate soviet memorial, the Friendship of Nations Monument.

The size of the Dnepr is impressive. The balcony is a vantage point for a panorama view of the northern and eastern districts of Kiev.

Governmental District

Taking to the south from the Friendship of Nations Monument you get access to an extensive city park. Immersed in this park are the residence of the President of the Ukraine – Marijnsky Palace. This is a fancy blue and cream palace, with a nice Italian-style garden ahead of it. It is still working, so it is usually off-limits for tourists. A great panorama to the east can be seen from besides the palace.

Next to the presidential residence you can find the small Parliament Building.

On the border of the park you can find the International Hotel Kiev, part of the soviet heritage. The park is pointed with many soviet statues and memorials, as well. To southern end of the park you meet the area of the old arsenal. The metro stop there resembles some of the stations in Moscow.

Further south you come to  what is probably one of the most popular area among tourists, you meet more soviet buildings, including old soviet hotels.

Monument to the Unknown Soldier

The southern end of the governmental district is marked by the nice area on top of a cliff rapidly descending to the river. Here you will find the sober Monument to the Unknown Soldier. The focus of the monument is an obelisk with an eternal flame nearby. Access to the obelisk is via an alley with commemorative slabs along the sides.

The obelisk is constantly guarded by the military. The area is quiet and nice to stay. The panorama to the east is again really gorgeous.

Immediately south of the obelisk, it is possible to see a monument to the victims of the Holodomor Genocide. This was a famine intentionally caused by Stalin in the year 1933, in support of the industrial development plans. By conveying all the food to the cities with industrial plants, and simultaneously prohibiting any movement to Soviet citizens among districts within the Union, Stalin and the Soviet Government set the stage for one of the worst famines in European history, causing millions of victims among farmers and the rural population. The rural population of the Ukraine was among the most hit by this move.

Pecerska Lavra Monastery

This is probably the best known monument in Kiev. This immense monastic complex is basically a citadel, with several churches scattered over a large area descending towards the river. Besides the churches, it is possible to find several buildings with refectories, dorms and more, plus an incredible museum with some incredible treasures from ancient times.

The churches date from different epochs, and some have been altered over the years. The most prominent, nearby the entrance, is in baroque style, with a tall tower ahead of it.

The size of the monastery is really striking, and it is very lively, with religious services and related activities often taking place.

The archaeological museum with its golden treasure is surprisingly rich and valuable.

A less usual feature of the monastery is an Orthodox church dating from the late Czarist age, late 19th-early 20th century. It reflects the typical innovative style of the time, without departing from the classical subjects of the Orthodox iconography.

One of the most famous features of the Lavra is the catacomb with the mommies of the monks. This is really impressive, cause the tunnels are very narrow and dark, and you go there with a small candle. Taking pictures is strictly forbidden, and technically very difficult, due to the low light of the place.

Looking south from the beautiful area of the Pecerska Lavra Monastery, you can spot the most prominent Soviet monument in Kiev – the Motherland Monument.

The Local Conflicts Museum

Accessing the area dominated by the immense statue to the Motherland from north, you find some damaged military vehicles. These are Russian vehicles requisitioned by the Ukrainian military in the course of the recent tensions which led to the annexation of the Crimea – a former Ukrainian territory – by Russia. The vehicles on display are Russian-made and Russian-operated relics, found on Ukrainian soils.

As the explanatory panels tell you, they are a proof of unauthorized military actions carried out by Russian troops on the territory of the Ukraine. As of today, the Ukraine and Russia are not openly fighting, but they are not friends.

The Local Conflicts Museum is actually a wonderful collection of military vehicles, tanks, cannons, missiles, a few aircraft and even a submarine and an armored train. They are all from the Soviet weapons arsenal, and despite the name of the museum, there is even a ballistic missile among them.

The collection is split in two parts. One is on display over an apron which can be freely accessed. In this part you can see a few classic Soviet tank designs, rocket launchers and an attack helicopter Mil Mi-24.

The second part is located nearby, but it is somewhat more secluded, and can be accessed only with a small fee. Here you meet first a few aircraft, including a Lisunov Li-2, a license-built Soviet copy of the Douglas C-47.

There are a few attack aircraft from various ages (you can find many more in the beautiful air museum in Kiev, see here, a must-see for every aviation enthusiast), but what will probably capture your attention is a mighty SS-4 Sandal missile. This strategic missile type, also known as R-12 in the Soviet inventory, was the key element of the Cuban crisis. Before that, its deployment was planned in the last years of the Eisenhower administration also in the German Democratic Republic (see here). This was a major asset for the USSR in the years of the Kennedy administration, and was deployed in large numbers within the borders of the Soviet Union – preferably next to the borders, due its relatively limited range (see here).

Nearby the missile, you can find its launch gantry, which was anchored to the ground through a metal crown. This is what you find in todays Germany, the scant traces of the planned deployment of this system out of the USSR (see here). Another exemplar of this iconic missile with its gantry tower can be found in an excellent museum close to Minsk, Belarus (see here).

An impressive array of cannons with different calibers, a small submarine and an armored railway car with turrets – a similar one can be found in the Parola Tank Museum in Finland (official website here).

Also on display is a tactical nuclear missile with its movable canister truck.

Motherland Statue

This iconic statue is actually one of the youngest WWII monumental memorials of the USSR. Despite being planned soon after the end of the Great Patriotic War in the early Cold War period, it was not until the early 1980s that this metal colossus was built and inaugurated, at the presence of the then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

The statue stands on a very nice natural stage, on top of a cliff dominating a wide panorama with river Dnepr in the middle.

The area around the monument forms a WWII memorial. There is provision for a big eternal flame, which despite the name is not constantly operating due to the massive gas flow needed for feeding it. Scattered around are some interesting groups of sculptures celebrating the efforts and the final victory of the USSR in WWII.

The foundations of the Motherland Statue host a nice crypt with the names of thousands of soldiers and civilians fallen in the battles over the Ukrainian territory during the Great Patriotic War (which is WWII for the USSR).

Besides the slabs with the names carved in them, there is very nice and sober mosaic decoration on the ceiling.

You can get access to the crypt visiting the Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Similar to other museums dedicated to the Soviet actions in WWII you can find in Moscow and Minsk, this collection is a true must-see for anybody with an interest in the topic. The museum right under the Motherland Statue, with access from the front of the monument (official website here). In the case of the museum in Kiev, the totally Soviet construction adds to the value, with red stone and bronze lamps and ceiling decoration adding to the atmosphere.

Before you get access to the original collection, you can see in the hall of the museum, and in a few small rooms nearby the entrance, material from the recent Russian-Ukrainian confrontation.

The original collection is on two floors. There are uniforms, flags, many weapons, military gear, personal diaries, maps, passports and military papers. What is especially striking is the abundance of German material from the time, with tons of swastikas, Nazi insignia, original uniforms and more.

There is a small collection of rare Nazi daggers. Other interesting items include an Italian-issued certificate of merit, given to a Soviet soldier fighting in the Italian resistance movement.

There are clearly also many Soviet artifacts from the time, including original newspapers, books autographed by Stalin, and more. There is also the wreck of a downed Soviet aircraft.

On the top floor you get access to the collection through a monumental wall with metal sculptures.

Further Nazi and Soviet gear, uniforms, medals and papers are on display here. There is a diorama portraying the battle of Berlin, and even some Japanese war material – the USSR fought against the Japanese Empire especially in the months between the collapse of the Third Reich and the end of WWII in 1945.

Before you come to the crypt under the Motherland Statue (described above) in the dome on top of the museum, you can visit also a more modern commemorative display, with black and white pictures of people involved in the war.

Independence Square

This is the geographical and symbolic center of Kiev. This large square is crossed by a major road, with massive Soviet apartment or office buildings, which splits it in two.

On one side there are a few similar buildings creating a curved theatrical set. Looking closer, they are adorned with Soviet iconography, hence probably dating back to Stalin’s years. You may also notice they are not so well-kept – this applies in general to all buildings around the square, producing a strange ‘disorder feeling’.

There are traces of an original gate, from older times and misaligned with respect to the main axis of the square.

On the other side, the square is dominated by the monster Soviet building of Hotel Ukraine. This is preceded by a kind of modern mall, flanked by classical buildings probably dating back to an older era.

The district around the square is rich of older – pre-Soviet – buildings, making for an interesting stage for a relaxed walk.

To the south of the square you can find a group of particularly striking examples of Art Nouveau from the late 19th-early 20th century. Some of them are really world-class masterpieces, like the famous Chimera House, with sea monsters, animals and various strange creatures haunting the house.

Golden Gate

A few minutes walking from Independence Square you can find the so-called Golden Gate, which is a reconstruction of one of the medieval gates of the city. The appearance of Kiev was greatly altered following its evolution in the centuries, leading to the disappearance of the walls and gates of the ancient city. The famous Mussorgsky theme closing the Paintings of an Exhibition is dedicated to the ‘Gate of Kiev’ – this monuments provides an idea of the real size an shape of such a gate.

In the district around the monument there are examples of buildings from many ages and architectural styles. Soviet emblems are featured on many facades.

Chernobyl National Museum

Kiev is located less than 70 miles from Chernobyl power-plant. As a secondary effect of the increased popularity of Chernobyl as a tourist destination – as a result of the recent encapsulation of the ill-fated plant into a hi-tech protective armor increasing safety for visitors – Kiev has become a crossroads for international tourists.

The Chernobyl National Museum (official website here) has the function of a documents center for the accident, with rare artifacts taken away from the exclusion zone, papers and recordings from the time of the accident (1986), models of the power-plant and the contaminated area, and more.

Among the weirdest items on display, some specimen of mutated plants and trees, a mommy of a mutated animal, and photographs of similar subjects.

Another area of the museum is actually a memorial for those who perished, suffered a severe health condition or were deported for safety reasons after the accident. The latter happened to a number of smaller villages, including the now well-known Pripyat, which has turned into one of the largest ghost towns in the world.

There is also a quick pictorial overview of the Fukushima accident.

The district where the museum is located, north of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, features several old-fashioned and classical buildings from pre-Soviet times, and Art Nouveau buildings as well.

Yet some Soviet monsters are scattered around the district, like market buildings and university buildings – don’t forget Kiev used to be a capital of a Soviet Republic!

The Salpa Line – Finland’s Anti-Soviet Barrier

Possibly one of the world’s best preserved military installations from WWII, Finland’s Salpa Line – the name ‘salpa’ meaning ‘latch’ – is a defense line composed of about 700 reinforced concrete bunkers with anti-tank cannons and machine-guns, more than 200 miles of anti-tank obstacles, roughly another 200 miles of trenches pointed with over 1200 machine gun nests, 500 artillery positions and more than 700 quartering dugouts. All this, and everything necessary to operate this enormous war machine, including hundreds of miles of new roads, electric cables, dams, telephone lines, etc., was built to defend the border between Finland and the Soviet Union.

History – in brief

The Winter War

Finland enjoyed the rigors of WWII since 1939, when following the Ribbentrov-Molotov pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR, it was agreed off the records that this Country should enter the sphere of influence of Stalin’s communist dictatorship. Finding no other way to submit the Finns, Soviet troops attacked Finland from the East all along their common border, from the Gulf of Finland up north to the Barents Sea, at the end of November, 1939.

This rarely told chapter of WWII is known in Finland as the Winter War. Finland, which on a September 1939 map looked somewhat larger to the east than it looks today, fought fiercely against a numerically much superior enemy, which at the time was not engaged on any other major front. Despite the very difficult situation, with no help – except limited arm supply – from the outside, the motivated Finnish Army led by General Mannerheim recorded some marked victories especially in the central sector of the border, and managed to avoid a complete defeat. This unexpected military resistance, and the promise of Britain and France to support Finland had the war continued further, led the USSR to agree upon a peace treaty as soon as mid March 1940, basically crystallizing the military situation reached at the time. As a result, the border moved west by about 60 miles in southern Finland, with the loss of the Karelian Isthmus and the city of Vyborg, the access to lake Ladoga, Finland’s Eastern Karelia – simply known as Karelia in Russia – and a large territory in Lapland, mostly uninhabited. Finally, the peninsula and port town of Hanko, 70 miles west of Helsinki, was ceded to the USSR for 30 years.

Building the Salpa Line

It was at the end of the Winter War that Finland’s government, following the suggestion of General Mannerheim, took the decision to built the Salpa Line, to defend the new border against any possible attack of the Soviets.

Construction work on this impressive system, made not only of a chain of forts, dugouts and barracks, but also of an extensive network of communication and transport infrastructures, was carried out mainly between spring 1940 and summer 1941, Finland’s so-called Inter-War Period. Up to 35’000 workers – mainly civilians from private companies – were involved, roughly bringing the defense line to completion by mid 1941. The line was designed primarily to protect the most populated and easily accessible part of the Country in the south, and a major concentration of strong points was erected along todays border line with Russia, between the Gulf of Finland and the town of Joensuu.

At the same time, a smaller branch of the Salpa Line was erected on a much smaller scale on the new border with the USSR, along a 3 miles line cutting through the Hanko peninsula.

The Continuation War

In the period between the end of the Winter War and the surprise offensive of Germany against the USSR in June 1941, the Nazi Wehrmacht had successfully annexed Denmark and Norway to the Third Reich, thus becoming a neighbor state for Finland, just like the Soviet Union. In the process, Finland allowed Germany to transport troops and material to northern Norway moving on national land, and receiving arms in return. In the same period Hitler refused to endorse further Soviet attacks against Finland, thus further narrowing the diplomatic distance between Germany and Finland, which nonetheless managed to remain independent throughout WWII.

When the war broke out between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Finland took the initiative and attacked the USSR, soon regaining control of basically all territories lost in the Winter War, including the port of Hanko, by the end of 1941. The German Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet port town of Murmansk and the nearby area, rich of natural resources, from the northernmost Finnish region of Lapland.

Due to the quick movement of the front line back east, the Salpa Line saw basically no fight, and was maintained until the end of the war with the Soviets in 1944 as a rear defense line.

This phase is known as Continuation War, and quickly turned into a war of attrition along a stable border line. This equilibrium was cracked when the military situation started to get worse for Germany after the defeat of Stalingrad in early 1943. After months of negotiations with the USSR to put an end to the conflict, following a massive Soviet attack on the Karelian Isthmus in August 1944 and the second loss of Vyborg, an armistice was signed in September between Finland and the Soviet Union, in favor of the latter. It restored the border line as it was at the end of the Winter War and imposed a long-term lease of Porkkala – a peninsula on the Gulf of Finland 30 miles west of Helsinki – instead of Hanko. Also included were heavy war reparations and the neutrality of Finland with respect to further Soviet campaigns. Plus the immediate expulsion of all German forces from Finnish territory.

Nonetheless, differently from almost any other Country touched by the Red Army in the events of WWII, Finland managed to retain its complete independence from Stalin’s communist empire, and part of the credit goes to the existence of the Salpa Line, a major deterrent against any further Soviet military aggression.

The request to severe any contact with Germany led to the final chapter of WWII for Finland, the Lapland War, when the Armies of Finland and the USSR attacked the Wehrmacht in the north of the Country, starting a campaign lasting months until the final defeat of Germany, causing the total destruction of many villages and of the town of Rovaniemi.

Sights

As a result of the course of events, Finland’s fortified line of defense did not see any direct military action. This spared it for posterity as a notable example of military technology of the Forties. Of course, as war technology evolved rapidly soon after WWII, the Salpa Line rapidly became obsolete and was largely abandoned. Most dugouts, soft construction works as well as most wooden, unreinforced positions have been reclaimed by nature. Only traces of the trench lines exist today, except in those spots where they have been explicitly preserved for the public.

Heavy positions are a totally different matter. Except for a few mainly in the northern part of the Country, blown up by the Soviets in the months of the Lapland War to help expelling Nazi troops from the Finnish territory, most bunkers and strong points are still there, basically intact. The majority has been abandoned, but due to a demolition work being an economy nonsense, they can still be seen today.

At least two small groups of bunkers in the very south of the Country have been turned into top-level museums on local military history, with a modern visitor center, guided tours and so on. Some bunkers, like in Joensuu, can be visited as little local museums. A good number of the reinforced concrete installations have been left open for interested visitors, stripped of any dangerous military hardware, sometimes even partly refurbished, and in most cases they can be freely accessed – provided you find them. Some are included as checkpoints along official multi-miles hiking trails, which are among Finland’s top tourist attractions. More often, either you know where they are in advance or you will hardly find them in the wilderness.

For reaching most of the non-advertised bunkers of the Salpa Line, you need to drive to very secluded locations along unprepared roads. If you like this kind of archeology, this adds much to the fun!

The good news is that Finland considers the Salpa Line a historical landmark as a whole, thus any damage or alteration is strictly prohibited and severely prosecuted. So you are not to see your search frustrated by finding a bunker covered in graffiti or used as a shelter by ravers or drug addicts – as it is often the case with the much similar Atlantic Wall in France. This is also because except for a few cases the superstite installations are located far from any urban center. By the way, Finland boasts one of the Europe’s lowest crime rates, so exploration is made potentially dangerous only because of intrinsic – rusty barbed wire, mimetic manholes, narrow passages, total darkness … – or natural causes – badgers, boars and bears!

In the following a description of a few notable points of interest along the Salpa Line is presented. The list is extremely far from complete, as it would take at least several months of dedicated work to explore the Line in its entirety! Yet this selection provides a good specimen of all basic types of sight you can find along the line. Photographs were taken during a visit in summer 2017.

Map

The following Google map was created based on the very useful information provided on this website, which is an excellent starting point for any exploration of the line. Basic info on the corresponding Salpa Line sites are provided on it almost one by one, and pinpointed on a map, but apparently there is no comprehensive map on that website. The website is also Flash-based and totally ‘iPhone unfriendly’ – it simply doesn’t load on my iPhone 6S. So I can’t take any credit except for having put together all points and having made them smartphone accessible. The red signals refer to points pictorially described in this article. The area of Hanko and the museums of Mikkeli are not covered in the map, whereas some sites will be described in another chapter.


The list below is ordered roughly from the south to the north.

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Virolahti Bunker Museum, Virolahti

This site – Virolahden Bunkkerimuseum in Finnish – is among the southernmost of the Salpa Line, conveniently located on the busy E18 connecting Helsinki to St.Petersburg. The museum is a good starting point for getting an idea of the features of the line. There is a visitor center with a modern setup, where you can see a collection of light weapons from both the Finnish and Soviet sides – actually many Soviet weapons left behind by the retreating Red Army at the beginning of the Continuation War were later reused by Finland’s Army. Much information is provided in a synthetic and readable way – both in Finnish and English – on the construction of the line and about the war history of Finland, with a focus of what happened along the sector of the front closer to the Gulf of Finland.

The outside part is organized along a short trail in the trees. The first main stop is a reconstructed trench, with an example of a spherical soft concrete bunker type, conceived to cover dugouts. Nearby you can see two small heavy metal turrets. These were designed to be partly interred, to form an armored machine gun nest. The thickness of the metal construction is stunning! There is also a line of stones put in the terrain, a typical anti-tank obstacle to be found in many sites of the Salpa Line.

A German-made Pak-40, 7.5 cm anti-tank cannon in perfect condition is presented in a reconstructed open-top field fortification.

Nearby, you can access a perfect example of an anti-tank bunker. Three main areas are featured in this type of bunker. First, a relatively large living and sleeping area, with bunk beds for troops, a big stove, a water sink, and an air pump. Second, a firing room with a 45 mm anti-tank gun permanently installed, with the barrel leaning out of a suitably designed blind window. Third, a firing room with a machine gun, with the barrel leaning out of an open slot cut through the thick concrete wall of the bunker. Both the cannon and machine gun fire basically in the same direction, from the front facade of the bunker, whereas the only way in is through a sealed door to the back.

The bunker is provided with a metal observation turret on top, accessible through a ladder mounted in a very narrow vertical tunnel with a sealed door.

Another original bunker you can visit in Virolahti is a quartering bunker, capable of sleeping 40 people. The construction is similar to the large living area of the previous bunker, but this is larger.

Examples of original trenches which have not been refurbished can be spotted as smooth grooves in the ground between the reinforced bunkers. Finally, there is also a collection of cannons – some of them very old – and machine guns, from the USSR, Finland, Sweden, France and Italy. Heavy cannons from various ages were provided by France at the time of the Winter War, and put in place along the Salpa Line in more points, so they can be spotted pretty often in Finnish museums.

Not a part of the museum, it may be interesting to check out what the frontier with Russia looks like today. You can come pretty close to the border zone driving south of E18, along the unpaved Kurkelantie road going to the small villages of Reinikkala and Kurkela. There is a well signed respect zone instituted along the border line, which cannot be accessed without all necessary papers and permits.

Nonetheless, the striped posts marking the border can be spotted with a zoom lens from the distance. I can’t guess whether in Soviet times the border did look like this, or instead it used to appear less penetrable. Of course it may be just a matter of appearance – when I was there, I personally didn’t even think to try coming close to Russia without an explicit permission, so I don’t know what may happen should you try to get near the border by entering the respect zone by foot!

The Virolahti site can be visited in something less or something more than 1h, depending on your level of interest. It is flat and easy to tour, with a large free parking nearby. Website here.

Salpa Line Museum, Miehikkälä

This is probably the biggest exhibition on the Salpa Line, and the most visited also. The visitor center proposes a series of itineraries for touring the site on a self-guided base. The highlights are anti-tank and machine gun bunkers, a plane spotting wooden turret, trenches of various types, cannons and more. Together with Virolahti (above), it is surely a place to be if you want to capture at a glance what the Salpe Line is all about.

The Miehikkälä site is unique in its own respect due to the morphology of the territory, with a rocky cliff prospecting on an area of wavy land. The two main armored positions with an anti-tank gun and a machine gun are atypical, dug deeply in the rock, accessible from the top of the cliff, with the barrels leaning out at the level of the surrounding terrain. The bunker with the anti-tank gun features an observation/firing turret directly accessible from the firing room through a very long vertical passage. In the living quarters there is a collection of rifles.

The bunker with the machine firing chamber presents preserved sleeping and living quarters, and an observation turret.

Ahead of the rocky cliff you can find two armored turrets like in Virolahti, and an example of the most typical anti-tank barrier of the Salpa Line, made of aligned big rocks put in the ground. This is a distinctive feature of the Salpa Line, and following the rocks may help to find the location of more secluded bunkers in other sites.

Another interesting item is an old Soviet T-34 tank with the corresponding shelter.

To the back of the cliff you can find a German-made Pak-40 anti-tank cannon in an open-top field fortification. Looking in the direction of the barrel, you can see a long grove aligned with it. This is a tank trap, where the tank was forced to slow down trying to cross the grove right on the line of fire of the anti-tank gun.

In a second part of the site it is possible to find a group of rare concrete trenches, mostly similar to WWI constructions you can find in northern France (see this post), a housing bunker with a water reservoir on top and a standard anti-tank/machine gun bunker. These could be seen only from the outside when I visited.

The museum is not difficult to find, and there is a large free parking on site. The visit may take from less than 1 hour to more than 2 hours, based on your interest. While not difficult to tour for an average physical condition, you’d better go prepared to climb many stairs, move along narrow passages and walk short trails going steeply uphill. Website here.

Hostikka Site

The Hostikka site, deep in the countryside north of Miehikkälä, is composed of a handful of bunkers scattered a few miles apart along the roads in the municipality bearing this name. On each site there is a complete description in Finnish and English, and a map. Most sites can be freely accessed, a few are normally closed and can be opened on request, usually visiting with a ranger. A comprehensive map in Finnish can be found here.

From the south, item B186 is a massive anti-tank/machine gun bunker which is normally closed. The guns can cover a flat field ahead of the facade of the bunker.

A bare 300 ft north along the unpaved main road you meet B182, a machine gun bunker which can be toured freely. You can recognize the sleeping quarters and the observation tower. Climbing on top, you can appreciate the mimetic installation of the bulbous top of the armored tower. There is also what appears to be a firing hole close to the main sealed entrance.

All armored doors are still there, together with an extensive piping system.

Driving north for about 0.3 miles crossing the small village of Hostikka, you can find another site, with a preserved trench system, a machine gun and quartering bunker, open but unfortunately severely flooded, and item B166, a huge cave. This is not the only cave excavated in the rock along the Salpa Line. This multi-entry cave was intended for sheltering 80 people and providing access to open-top cannon/machine-gun dugouts. It was never finished, it is uninsulated and very wet.

The road going to Kirppu passes by items B150 and B132, standard anti-tank/machine gun bunkers. They are usually closed, but can be climbed and walked around.

All these bunkers unwind along a north-south direction, and are easily accessible parking nearby each site. Visiting may take 15 to 30 minutes for each open site, especially if you want to take pictures inside, less for closed bunkers where you may want to have a walk round. For inside pictures a tripod is mandatory, and a torchlight highly recommended.

Lusikkovuoren Cave

This cave can be reached driving for less than a mile on a secondary road departing eastwards from 3842 in Suo-Anttila. The cave is usually closed and sometimes used for public exhibitions or performances – a very suggestive location! -, yet the place deserves to be seen also from the outside. There are actually two neighbor entrances to the cave, which has been carved deep into the rock at the base of a cliff. The cave, intended to be used as a logistic interchange point, a headquarter and a weapons storage, was never completed. There are draining holes and a concrete pavement inside.

Hidden in the trees, far from any village, from the outside the cave really looks like a location from ‘The Lord of the Rings’!

Askola Site

The Askola site can be spotted while driving roughly halfway between Luumäki and Lappeenranta, along a busy road called Lappeenrannantie, next to the shore of lake Kivijärvi. There is a parking area just ahead of it. Heading straight to the big bunker you see from the road, you can find a map of the site. There is an uncommon concentration of armored positions in a small area between this trail head and the newly built highway N.6 to the south.

Despite the majority of the bunkers being normally unaccessible, there are some interesting uncommon sights here. The first is a reinforced dugout, where one of the bulky armored metal turrets you can see in the museums of Virolahti and Miehikkälä is interred in its intended working position. The turret can be accessed from behind and below, and a machine gun is mounted inside.

Furthermore, there are at least two original tank turrets recycled as reinforced firing positions. These turrets are apparently from BT-7 Soviet tanks, probably lost to the Finnish Army during the Winter War or the Continuation War.

More standard bunkers and dugouts can be found, but in some cases they can be barely neared due to wild vegetation.

About 0.8 miles to the west along the Lappeenrannantie road, you can find a small concrete dam – actually it lies in the courtyard of a private house… This is part of a system made to control the water level in the lake for military purposes.

Moving eastwards towards Lappeenranta, in the small village of Rutola it is possible to find another machine gun/housing concrete bunker, with an anti-tank barrier on the shore of the lake. This also lies on private land.

A visit to this site may take a 1-2 hours or more, depending on the level of detail and your ability to move around.

Syysphoja and Puumala Site

Along the beautiful scenic road 62 going from Imatra to Mikkeli it is possible to find two easily accessible forts of the Salpa Line. The first is located on Salpalinjantie road, departing north from the main road east of the village of Syyspohja. The facade of this well deceived anti-tank/machine gun fort, dug in a pile of land and hardly visible from the distance, is partly covered with stones. There are also partly refurbished dugouts and wooden obstacles, plus a long line of anti-tank stones.

West of the village along Töntintie road – very narrow and unprepared – it is possible to find a small Soviet monument to war prisoners interned in a local prison camp.

Another preserved bunker can be found right in the center of the nice village of Puumala, along road Pappilantie. The bunker is basically unaccessible, but very easy to walk around. In a receptacle besides the main entrance there is also a Soviet anti-tank gun, probably captured by the Finnish army.

General Mannerheim Headquarters and Communication Bunker

Among the highlights of the lively town of Mikkeli, you can visit here the preserved headquarters of the Finnish Army. The office of General Mannerheim and other top-ranking military staff, plus a fully equipped ‘op-center’, were installed in a local children school. Today a few rooms, including one with many original maps and Mannerheim’s personal office, are the ‘main course’ of the museum, and can be visited.

There are also informative panels, many pictures and some memorabilia belonging to General Mannerheim.

Almost cross the the road from the entrance of the headquarters, you can find another strictly related museum. It is a cave were the communication central of the headquarters used to be and work during WWII. This ensured an uninterrupted communication link not only with the Salpa Line but also with all positions on the line of the front. A part of the cave has been carefully refurbished to resemble what it looked like in the years of operation, including much communication hardware from the time, whereas another part has been left empty.

Both museums can be visited according to the respective timetables (website here for the headquarters, here for the cave). Total visiting time for both attractions is about 1.5 hours.

Raikuu Site

Two Salpa Line sites are located close to the small village of Raikuu, both easily reachable driving on reasonably prepared, unpaved roads.

The first is a massive and pretty rare heavy artillery position. There used to be four such positions scattered in the nearby area, two equipped with 299 mm mortars, two with 152 mm naval cannons. This is the only partly refurbished position. The base for the central revolving pinion where the cannon was anchored can be clearly seen, as well as rooms for the cartridges and for artillery troops.

The second is a group of three reinforced concrete bunkers, maintained to a very good condition and different from one another. The first two are a machine gun and an anti-tank cannon bunker respectively. The military equipment has been taken away, but the different shape of the barrel hole and the supporting structure for the machine gun or for the anti-tank cannon make them easily distinguishable. The machine gun bunkers bears traces of camouflage on the front facade.

Some of the original ventilation pipelines are still there, and clear traces of the wooden structures can be seen on the walls.

The last bunker is partly accessible from behind descending along a steep staircase. This bunker is leaning on the side of a rock, and is well deceived in the bushes.

The site is completed by an anti-tank wall of unusual construction, made of smaller stones put together to a very big overall thickness.

This site is very nice to visit, it is pretty remote so probably you will stay alone and undisturbed. Total time for visiting both including transfer by car may be 1.5 hours if you want to take pictures, or much less if you just want to have a look around.

Joensuu Bunker Museum, Joensuu

The museum in Joensuu is somewhat smaller than those in Virolahti and Miehikkälä (above), and when I visited it was already closed for the season – in mid-August! The good news is that in case you find it closed, you will miss only a visit to the inside of the bunker, pretty standard and similar to those you can see also elsewhere, whereas the outside can be toured for free at any time.

The first sights are two Model 1877, 90 mm French field cannons provided in a number during the Winter War and extensively used in the following years. Close by there are some steel turrets for protecting dugouts to form armored machine gun nests. These turrets, similar to those you may see also in some other Salpa Line sites, were supplied in very limited numbers and were produced in two shapes – you find both here – and three different weights. Those presented here are all intermediate-weight exemplars, weighing more than 5 and almost 8 tonnes respectively for the round shaped and the two-lobed model. The thickness is incredible, and these turrets could withstand a direct hit of a 45 mm anti-tank gun!

On the perimeter there is a Soviet 45 mm anti-tank cannon in a wooden open-top field fortification.

There are two concrete bunkers, put side by side on a promontory. One is equipped with both an anti-tank and a machine gun, the other only with a machine gun.

There are also well preserved dugouts and a line of rocky anti-tank obstacles.

The site is easy to access, with free parking, and compact in size, so less than 1 hour is needed for a visit if the inside is not accessible. Some opening info here.

Huhmarisvaara Artillery Position

Many cannons of French design can be found scattered over the Finnish territory. Except relatively few offered by the French at the beginning of WWII before France was conquered by the German Wehrmacht, the majority are actually Russian cannons from before the the Revolution. When turmoil started to spread in Russia in 1917 leading to the anticipate end of WWI, Finland took the initiative and declared independence from the agonizing empire. As a result, many weapons and military stuff stationed over the territory of the newly constituted Nation were recycled by the Finnish Army.

Many such cannons were later to be placed in the fortifications of the Salpa Line. In Huhmarisvaara, roughly 13 miles north of Joensuu, a concrete fortification for a number of cannons was prepared on a vantage position overlooking a local lake. One of the three Russian-made Model 1892, 152 mm cannons remaining in Finland can still be found in this location.

Vanntajankannas Site

The northern part of the front saw an active participation of the German Wehrmacht in the years of the Continuation War. Possibly one of the northernmost heavy installations of the Salpa Line was located about 5 miles southeast of the town of Kuusamo, close to the administrative border with the Lapland district. The Germans – with the forces of the Organization Todt – built also a railway line about 85 miles long in a north-south direction, with the northern terminal in Kuusamo. The railway helped to supply the army groups operating locally.

The history of this installation, today preserved as an open-air museum with a well maintained walking trail about 3 miles long, is a bit different from others. Soon after the armistice which drove Finland out of the war with the USSR, the German forces, which had to be expelled from the Country, started retreating north towards occupied Norway. They found shelter in the fortifications of the Vanntajankannas site for a few weeks, before loosing them to the Red Army. Soviet soldiers were forced to leave by the end of 1944 in accordance with the armistice agreement, but they blew up every hardware in the Vanntajankannas area before retreating to the USSR.

What can be seen here is what remains of some big concrete bunkers, of the types you can find elsewhere along the Salpa Line. The remains of the bunkers are scattered along the trail. Close to the trailhead there are also scant remains of the local railway station along the German-built line going to Kuusamo.

The anti-tank line of stones is still clearly visible. In many points the trenches, open-top passages and soft machine gun nests have been refurbished to look like the early Forties when they were built.

In the most remote part of the site it is possible to spot remains of the original concrete preparation station, used to supply the construction works, and a small concrete sauna for workers and troops – not really welcoming in these days!

This site is very nice not only for war history but also for the beautiful landscape, with incredible colors. You can also experience a walk over the marshes typical of this region of Finland. The trail is easy, there is a small free parking nearby the trailhead. I would recommend about 1-1.5 hours to enjoy the hiking trail and taking pictures of both the landscape,  the destroyed forts and preserved trenches.

Harparskog Line, Hanko Peninsula

The southern branch of the Salpa Line, also known as Harparskog Line, is composed of a group of bunkers concentrated in the small area around the village of Harparskog – on the Hanko peninsula -, which found itself on the border with the USSR for the first time following the peace treaty ending the Winter War. The annexation of Estonia to the USSR and the control of the Hanko peninsula gave the Soviets the control of the Gulf of Finland, which culminated in Leningrad to the east.

Hanko was evacuated by the Soviets in late 1941 during the victorious phase of the Continuation War.

Similarly to the rest of the Salpa Line, the smaller line in Harparskog featured all types of heavy concrete bunkers, plus dugouts, field fortifications and trenches. Today you can find at least one of the bunkers preserved as a local small museum, plus plenty of barely maintained but mainly accessible bunkers, stripped of most military hardware but still in a very good condition.

The bunker museum was closed when I visited, so here you have a view of the outside only.

Some of the accessible bunkers are aligned along an unpaved road towards the northern shore of the peninsula, north of the village. A commemoration stone with an explanatory panel clearly marks the trailhead.

Besides some more standard bunkers, it is possible to find here a big assembly composed by at least two large bunkers excavated in the stone. The passages leading to the entrances are carved deep in a local cliff, resulting in a very suggestive fort, a mix of natural and artificial defensive positions. Inside this fort it is possible to see also an original stove, ventilation ducts and an air pump.

Further on you can find an anti-tank line, and also a larger deposit and a cave – unfortunately closed.

Exploring this area can be very rewarding, due to the tranquil location and the beautiful, wild natural landscape.

There is much more to see in the area, and for a complete exploration I would suggest about 5-6 hours. The sector to cover is not large and for some parts you can move with a car, but the concentration of material is unusually high and well preserved. If you elect to concentrate only on a part of the line, the necessary time may drop to 1-2 hours for getting a good idea of the main features of this site and taking some good pictures inside. Don’t forget a tripod and a torchlight, for it’s totally dark inside most bunkers, and you should wear a pair of appropriate shoes, for there are mud deposits on the floor and the terrain around the bunkers is totally uneven.

Hanko Front Museum, Hanko

A museum on the vicissitudes of the Hanko peninsula in the years 1940-41 has been established and recently refurbished. It will show up along the main road connecting Harparskog and Hanko, around 2 miles from Harparskog.

The inside part presents an interesting descriptions of the timeline and facts of the Soviet occupation. There are many interesting artifacts from the time, including everyday hardware, light weapons, propaganda leaflets in Russian, maps and many historic photographs. It is interesting to note that the weapons put in place by the Soviets included huge railway cannons, definitely easier to move compared to fixed installations of similar size.

There is also a room with a collection of heavier weapons.

On the outside there are some reconstructed trenches, a Soviet 45 mm anti-tank gun in a reconstructed field fortification, and some other weapons, especially water mines. Active archeology work is going on in the area, and some recent findings, like pieces of artillery and parts of tanks, could be seen when I visited. A short trail in the trees reveals some dugouts and allows to explore the area nearby the former border. Finally there is a 152 mm coastal gun, reportedly the world’s last of the type with this field mounting.

The museum is not large but very rich, so I would suggest 30 minutes to 1.5 hours for a visit depending on your level of interest. Website here.

War Museums in Moscow

People visiting Moscow from abroad usually spend much of the time in the Kremlin and the nearby districts, where they can find many cultural attractions, as well as fashion stores, great hotels and restaurants. Among the features of Russia’s capital city less known to the average tourist are the many monuments and museums dedicated to war history, which in some cases host extremely interesting exhibitions and artifacts from various ages, which would tell the visitor as much as the most prominent attractions in town.

Three I could visit in person are cited in this post, all of them easily reachable with the usual metro rail in a few minutes from the downtown.

The following photographs were taken during a visit to Moscow in September 2015.

Central Museum of the Armed Forces

This is a purely Soviet installation Cold War buffs will definitely like very much… Despite the old-fashioned website – which after all contributes to the picture of a Soviet-state-owned company… – the building was built following WWII, better known in Russia as the Great Patriotic war of  1941-1945. On the outside, besides the entrance there are a missile and a tank. Once inside you immediately find yourself in a large two-levels hall, dominated by a sculpture of Lenin and a huge mosaic wall, plus paintings of battles and other war-themed scenes all around.

From soon after your arrival, you get to grips with the only real ‘problem’ of this installation, where – just like many others touristic sights in Russia – everything – including the escape plan in the event of fire… – is written in Russian only. So, from the viewpoint of history, you’d better go prepared if you want to get the most from this exhibition, for you won’t find any understandable written information, unless obviously you understand some Russian.

There are several halls in the museum, related to historical moments from WWI up to the present day. A first notable room presents a lively reconstruction of a WWI trench fight, with lights and sounds.

The path through the museum follows the course of history, including the revolution, which put an end to WWI for Russia. Then follows WWII. I have to say I never found a collection of Nazi artifacts so rich as the one preserved here in any other place I visited. Literally hundreds of items, from propaganda posters to flags and banners, weapons, medals, papers,… Also present in due quantity are flags and banners of the Soviet Union, as well as Soviet uniforms, weapons and medals from the age of WWII.

Probably the most notable items from the time are the red banner raised on the Reichstag in Berlin – the corresponding b/w photograph is today one of the symbols of the end of WWII – and an original metal eagle with a swastika, probably taken from the Reichstag or the Reichkanzlei. The flag and the eagle are put together in a kind of monumental installation in a large central hall, celebrating the victory of the Soviet Union in the Patriotic War.

An old coat and a hat belonging to Stalin are also part of the exhibition.

Moving on to the Cold War period, a first focus is on the early history of the Soviet atomic program, leading to the detonation of the first nuclear asset in 1949, and to the testing by the Soviets of the largest thermonuclear device ever. Many models and some documentation are available – I could not understand the details, in that occasion I really regretted having no knowledge of Russian! The development of strategic missiles is covered next, including the much connected race to space.

The highlight of this part of the exhibition – at least for western visitors – may be the wreck of Francis Gary Powers’ aircraft, downed in 1959 by a SAM, basically a Soviet invention, during an illegal flight over the territory of the USSR ordered by the CIA. A large part of the fuselage and of the wings can be seen, with technical labels in English. Also part of the ejectable seat and other parts of this Lockheed U-2 are packed together somewhat inelegantly. Some original papers and maps the pilot had with him at the time of the accident are exhibited, together with many photographs. Extremely interesting.

Approaching the last stage of the Soviet Union, scale models, mockups and parts of larger nuclear missiles are presented. Also the war in Afghanistan is mentioned and the more contemporary war actions in Chechnya and other theaters following the collapse of the USSR are outlined and artifacts and photographs showcased. A window from the relic of the ill-fated Kursk submarine remembers this more recent tragedy – together with a monument on the outside to the right of the entrance.

Finally, the backyard is full of interesting items like missiles, gantries, heavy vehicles, tanks and so on. Unfortunately, it started raining heavily at the time of my visit, so photographs were not possible.

All in all, I would say one of the best museums in Europe on the topic of 20th century war history, and probably the best on Russian/Soviet operations in the 20th century. The presentation may be perceived as antiquated for todays standards, nonetheless this may be appreciated by people who are not totally new to this piece of history and who are more interested in seeing valuable and unusual ‘hardware’. I would recommend at least a full hour for the interested visitor, extendable to 1.5 hours rather easily including a detailed visit to the outside exhibition.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is not far north from downtown Moscow, less than .2 miles from Dostoyevskaya metro stop (line 10). The building can be approached walking along ul. Sovetskoy Armii, on the side of the park. The neighborhood is decent and safe, I had no bad feelings visiting alone.

Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Moscow is scattered with monuments remembering the Soviet effort and the victorious outcome of WWII, but the focal point of the celebration is the park at Poklonnaya Hill with the museum of the Great Patriotic War. The park is an extensive area, built around a perspective leading to the top of the hill, where the museum can be found (website here). This is hosted in the curved building behind the very tall spine which can be seen from the distance.

Approaching from the east, from the famous Kutuzovski Prospekt where many important political players of the USSR used to live, including Brezhnev, it is possible to spot first a huge arch, just in the middle of the road, and departing from it the perspective leading to the hill, just to the left of the Prospekt. To the left of the hill as well as beyond the spine there is a park with several smaller installations remembering war actions involving the USSR and more recently Russia, and following WWII. It is also possible to find there an exhibition with cannons, armored vehicles and other warcrafts.

The museum, accessible from the front of the circular building, is intended basically to celebrate the heroism of the Red Army in the war against Germany. It acts as a place of remembrance for the many who never came back, and during my visit there I coincidentally could assist to a ceremony with high ranking military staff celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Inside the most notable items are huge and very vivid dioramas – I must say, very well made, especially for the age – reconstructing some scenes from some especially dramatic battles of the war against Nazi Germany.

In the crypt it is possible to find the very interesting ‘Hall of sorrow’, a more modern monument to the fallen soldiers, with many crystal drops hanging from the ceiling, representing the tears of Mother Russia. These should be really many, with a proportion to the number of soldiers actually lost in the conflict.

The exhibition of artifacts includes a selection of items from various moments and fronts of the war. I could not tour this part freely because of the above mentioned ceremony, but what I could see was interesting. Unfortunately, I could not see the Hall of fame.

Above all, the plan of the whole installation and the Soviet style adopted, not so bombastic in this case, are extremely interesting. Touring the museum may take less than 45 minutes. If you are interested in moving in the park, you may need more. Distances here follow monumental proportions, so monuments are not really close to each other as they might seem on a map.

Getting there and moving around

The area can be reached easily from Park Pobedy metro stop on line 3. The perspective leading to the museum starting from the arch (and from the metro station) is about .6 miles long.

Museum-Panorama ‘The battle of Borodino’

You can find this museum very close to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War described above. The theme of the exhibition is here the battle of Borodino during the war against Napoleon and the French Army.

Borodino is located about 80 miles west of Moscow. There the advancing French Army faced the full power of the Russian Army. Napoleon himself was present and led war operations, while Kutuzov and Bagration, the top-ranking generals of the Tsar, were among the strategists on the Russian side. The battle was a prototypical battle of the time, with wild fire from cannons, infantry and cavalry, all in the arena. It turned out very cruel, taking a huge death toll on both parts. As a matter of fact, the Russian Army, which had constantly retreated avoiding the contact with the French until that great battle, continued back towards Moscow, which was finally abandoned and set on fire as Napoleon’s Army was reaching it. On one side, the Russians failed to stop the French at Borodino, on the other they set for the French a deadly trap – the French did not quit chasing the Russians until the winter of 1812 finally struck when they were infinitely far from home with no active supply lines, nor food nor resupply storages at hand. The season killed basically 9 out of 10 on the French side, triggering the end of Napoleon’s dreams of power.

The museum was recently refurbished in a modern key, with a detailed description of some moments of the battle on wide screens and interactive panels – again, unfortunately all in Russian. Uniforms, weapons and artifacts add to the visit, but the highlight here is the beautiful panorama painting. This is similar to the cyclorama in Gettysburg, PA, and it is a more than 300 ft long circular painting vividly depicting some important moments in the battle of Borodino. As you can learn from the website, the painting was made in 1912 (before the Soviets) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the battle. The building was renovated in 1962.

The visit may not take much, especially if you are not interested in the war against Napoleon, but I would suggest going there even only for the uniqueness of the installation as well as  for its artistic significance. In any case, the visit may not take more than 45 minutes, especially if you don’t understand Russian.

Right behind the museum it is possible to see the wooden hut where Kutuzov and his staff discussed and decided for the destruction of Moscow in order to jeopardize the plans of the French to find a shelter there for the approaching winter season.

Getting there and moving around

The museum can be reached easily from Park Pobedy metro stop on line 3, like the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. From the metro stop you can walk west on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and you will soon find the museum on the left (northern) side of the road, about .2 miles from the station.