Chapter 10 Ulan-Ude, Russia. September 2019.

Old Believer in traditional garb.

An Old Believer member who was the lead singer. She is wearing jewelry on her head which they call KITSCH.


We arrived in Ulan-Ude after an 8-hour train ride from Irkutsk. Interestingly, at that hour of the day, 8am there were no security personnel and one did not have to put the bags through x-ray as in all other stations.

 The stretch between these two cities cost more to build than any other stretch on the Trans-Siberian rail length.  Until this 400 km length was built, the train only went to Irkutsk and then the train, passengers, and freight were loaded onto large vessels which made the 25 km crossing to the east shore of the lake.  This, of course, was a very time-consuming process but the south end of the lake abuts rather large mountains which no one was sure how to get through.  The railroad had been built simultaneously from Vladivostok west and to Irkutsk east with both ends ending on opposite sides of Lake Baikal.

Finally, the rail was built over rather high mountains to go around the southern shore of the lake.  On the day we took the train from Irkutsk, the weather was clear and after passing through extensive flat areas, the train starts to rise reaching probably 1000 meters at a very slow pace.  Then, as one descends, one starts to see the lake on the left.  The train track then descends to lake level at about the middle of the lake which runs north-south for 400 miles.  This is where the Salenga river of Ulan-Ude flows into Lake Baikal. The train continues for an hour going north at the shore level of the lake, then takes a right going east towards Ulan-Ude.  It was nice that this picturesque train section was done in daylight.

Arriving at Ulan-Ude at 3 pm, we had the pleasant surprise that we could go directly from the train platform into the station and out to the street.  Our guide  Sasha and driver were waiting for us on the platform.  They had been told to meet us but no one had given them our names. All they knew was that we were Canadians.  We loaded into a 19 passenger Mercedes bus and went straight to our hotel. There was nothing organized for the day so we had a quiet evening in our hotel suite in the Mergen Bator hotel. Ulan-Ude means Red river Ude which runs through the town.  It was a closed military city until 1991 and no foreigners were allowed here.

Pictures of the visits described below can be seen at:


https://photos.app.goo.gl/gYVPFS2B5a9PZcnn6



We went out for a walk through the downtown of the city of about 450,000 of which 35% are Buryat.  This is clearly one of the poor parts of Russia and the hand of Stalin architecture and lack of maintenance were visible everywhere. Ulan-Ude is the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, which is part of the Russian Republic. Buryatians are part of the Mongol world and have their own language which is still spoken, albeit by fewer and fewer people. Buryatians look very Mongol and seem quite proud of their heritage. They were, like the Mongols, nomads who lived in Yurts and moved around this area and later into the forests to avoid capture by the troops of Genghis-Khan, who was part Buryatan.

They are a republic but clearly are dependant on funding from Moscow as there are no major sources of revenue here.  The landscape is hilly to mountainous but mostly bare of trees. Agriculture is almost non-existent with huge tracts of land laying barren as far as the eye can see.  The city is not very impressive and construction bears the stamp of the Soviet period.  The only decorative building is a concert hall on the central plaza which was built by some of the 40,000 Japanese prisoners of war who spent time here in WW11.

Monique standing in front of the main square of Ulan-Ude with the biggest head of Lenin in the world in the background.  It weighs in at 45 tons of metal!

The next morning our guide for the day, Sasha, who was Buryiat and spoke excellent English picked us up in the great Mercedes bus of Zorikto our super driver and we headed out of town to visit the national center of Buddhism of Russia.

This was our Ulan Ude transport. It was a 19 person van just for us.

Buryats converted to Buddhism almost en masse in the middle of thé 17th century.   The center is located about 25 miles outside Ulan-Ude and consists of some 20 buildings around a temple. The place is in deplorable condition with little or no upkeep. Apparently, some 100 persons study here but the place seemed almost empty except for a few tourists.   The buildings are all made of wood including a rather large building standing 3 stories high which houses a tree that comes from India. This whole construction houses a 40 tree and nothing else.

We then got back into our bus and headed to visit some villages of Old Believers.  These are descendants of Russian Orthodox believers who in 1666 refused to accept the modernizations and corrections made to the Russian Orthodox church rite by the leader at that time. These people were then exiled by Catherine the Tsarina and some 10,000 made the trek to Ulan-Ude to settle the land with the purpose of farming to produce food for the ruling cossacks.  Others fled to countries such as Brazil and Australia.  All these communities here in Ulan-Ude have kept to the old traditions. One of the points of contention was that the new Russian Orthodox church required that the sign of the cross be done by holding the thumb to the first two fingers in a sign of the Trinity whereas these believers continued to make the sign of the cross with the first two fingers.  I have to believe there are other more substantive differences, but this is the most widely known.

We drove for almost an hour west of Ulan-Ude to an area where there are many of these villages of Old Believers. We arrived at the first village and were introduced to the son of the patriarch of the church who is, in fact, the administrator of the main church and of a rather large museum set up to show old pieces of agricultural and domestic items dating back 400 years. The son spoke no English but was refreshingly pleasant and friendly. He was obviously proud of this museum of this family museum and gave us an oral tour of the place for almost an hour.   Sascha did the translating. The museum showed how primitively these people lived at the time. But, as they were by definition traditionalists, their mode of living has not changed much since then.  The son then showed us the small church of the believers which looked very much like the many other Russian Orthodox churches we have seen on this voyage.

Son of the local patriarch who manages a family museum of old pieces of personal items used by Old Believers over the centuries as shown below.

We then drove further inland to another village of Old Believers which has been named the best-preserved village in Russia.  The main road was unpaved but all of the houses were well-maintained log houses and had painted shutters. We were received by an oversized Babuschka, grandmother, all done up with traditional dress and jewelry.  The house used to belong to a family and has been taken over as a museum.  We were shown around this solidly built house with traditional decorations and furniture.  It was in wonderful shape and well maintained and laid out.  Thereafter we were treated to tea with some sweetbreads. The height of the visit was when our Babushka came out with 2 more babushkas and an accordionist.  They then proceeded to give us a 45-minute concert of traditional songs.

A choir of old Believers who sang for us, and sang and sang... Listen!

The pictures include a few videos with the sound of the singing concert we were given when we visited the Old Believers' village.  Enjoy. The leader of the trio of lady singers was named the best singer of Russian folklore in the country.   The beads they are wearing are  Amber stones from the Baltic region which were brought with them far in the past.  The language in which the ladies are singing is old Russian. Our guide could not understand the language.

After saying our goodbyes, we set off back to town.  We stopped in a modern grocery store to get the travel foods we will need on our three-night ride from Ulan-Ude to Vladivostok starting this afternoon. One of my friends suggested we also travel with our own Steward but I am afraid those days are gone. We will tough it out and enjoy 2 days of reading a watching the rest of Russia go by our eyes.