yearn for yaroslavl
Yaroslavl on the Volga River is part of the famed Golden Ring around Moscow. Like many places outside the capital, it is a city stuck in a post-Soviet time warp.
TEXT MARTIN HOLMES feedback
It had been 17 years since I first arrived in Yaroslavl as a naive teenager gawping at the final days of the USSR and struggling to come to terms with the huge contrast between life on either side of the Iron Curtain. Back then it seemed a gray place: cloudy skies deposited drizzle into the chilly waters of the Volga, while our ramshackle Intourist coach ferried a reluctant school party from photo stop to photo stop. Tatyana, our formidable guide, told her “dear friends” that the city was the economic powerhouse of the Golden Ring, and yet had retained its historic core miraculously intact. We peered doubtfully into the murk, noted the onion domes and wondered why there was no visible commerce in this industrial powerhouse. On a lamppost, a typewritten A4 sheet, with badly photocopied passport photo, urged citizens to vote for Boris Yeltsin in the upcoming elections, which would bring about the end of the communist era. There didn’t seem to be a lot of choice. Returning this winter, the city had become a fascinating view of how Russia has, and hasn’t, changed since the end of the USSR. For the tourist, the major attractions are largely unchanged: it’s still a city of churches, with dramatic turrets and bulbous domes dotting the skyline while the Volga sluggishly slips past. This was exactly what Tatyana had wanted us to see, back in the old days. And it’s worth a visit, especially the Transfiguration Monastery complex behind Yubilennaya Pl. It’s home to the “Treasures of Yaroslavl” exhibition (100 rubles) which sensibly dispenses with the traditional collection of small-town museum pointy rocks in favor of an impressive assortment of silverware, icons, opulent priestly costumes and elaborate jewelry. Russia’s fashionable lust for shiny, glittery things is nothing new: most of this lot dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Back in the square, it’s a pleasant walk into the old trading rows. In Soviet times these monuments to commercial enterprise were not to be discussed, and that obscurity saved them. New investment has rescued them from politically correct decline and intelligent planning decisions have limited the numbers of garish modern shop-fronts or soulless malls (until you head south of the Kotorosl river into a dismal concrete and plate-glass hinterland). Instead there’s a range of charming shopping streets, mostly closed to cars, which feels prosperous but somehow natural. If you like browsing traditional small-town high streets, you’ll find something to amuse here. Charm is also high on the agenda at the Museum of Music and Time, over on the Volga embankment. This became one of the first private museums in Russia in 1992, and threw away the dreary template of forbidding old biddies sternly guarding formal display cases. Run by the passionately enthusiastic John Mostislavsky — John, surprisingly, is his real name — it’s a bizarre personal collection of clocks, old gramophones, vinyl and more than 1,000 bells. Evenings often bring “magical seances” in the attached concert hall, if you’re in to that sort of thing. The Volga embankment is also the smartest part of town, and perfect Sunday afternoon strolling territory. Elegant houses, historic churches on every corner and the art gallery and city historical museum on the one side, the serene river on the other. It’s a perfect contrast to fast-paced Moscow life, and just the thing to wrap up a weekend away from the frenetic capital. Modern-day Yaroslavl has come a long way from the gray and slightly forbidding city I remembered. Yet away from the charm of the old town center, far from the shiny new retail parks south of the river, some of that Soviet spirit lives on. Gentrification has only spread so far — it’s not too hard to find relics of the recent past in muddy, pot-holed streets and rows of concrete shoeboxes. The Uglich restaurant, apparently still open, resembles a prison more than a venue. And while Yeltsin’s amateurish campaigners are long forgotten, the fluttering fliers for local United Russia politician Sergei Volkov still trail from lampposts. The design is more stylish, the printing more colorful. But there still doesn’t seem to be a lot of choice. tips for travellers • Getting there — Two express trains a day take four hours to reach Yaroslavl from Moscow’s Yaroslavsky Vokzal. Tickets are around 350 rubles in second class, 600 rubles in first. • Where to stay — The Hotel Kotorosl, 15 minutes walk from the station (kotorosl.yaroslavl.ru), is the cheapest (doubles from 2600 rubles, singles from 1500); in summer the floating Volga Pearl Hotel (riverhotel-vp.ru) is perhaps the most charming. • Eating out and nightlife — Vanilla Sky’s riverbank location makes it the ideal place for a romantic meal. DK Dobrynina is the town center’s main venue. |
