Riches Beyond Belief

I’ve seen the crown jewels of England. I’ve walked Windsor Castle, Versailles and its Austrian knockoff, Schoenbrunn, in Vienna. Vast as their riches were, none of those palaces and their treasures could compare with the opulence and extravagance of the tsars (perhaps only the riches of the Vatican could be its equal or superior). The Armoury Tour of the Kremlin—don’t be fooled by the name, it’s really not a military museum—is a must-see of Faberge eggs, silver and gold icon covers, diamond jewelry, silver and gold plates, crowns and thrones, gowns, official wardrobes and massive horse-drawn carriages. And since it is an Armoury, there’s a small amount of ceremonial rifles, swords and suits of armor.

It’s a wonder any of this ostentatious wealth survived the Revolution. Indeed, some Bolsheviks in the 1920s wanted to sell it off to pay for needed foodstuffs and manufacturing equipment. But the voices of historical tradition prevailed. The legacy of the tsars was saved. Only by seeing the Armoury, and the Romanov palaces in St. Petersburg, can you fully understand how the royals raped their people to live a life of luxury and distance from the masses.

In modern times we gape at the shooting fountains of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Modern technology, ha! Peterhof Grand Palace outside St. Petersburg, built by Peter the Great in 1715, has its own shooting fountains which erupt every day to music at 11 am. Like Schoenbrunn, its building was patterned after Versailles. Surrounding it are extensive grounds with fountains that lead to the shores of the Baltic Sea.

As impressive as Peterhof Palace is, one needs to keep in mind that the Nazis completely gutted it. Only a charred shell remained after WWII. In painstaking detail the Russians reconstructed the palace. Indeed, the center of St. Petersburg as well was rebuilt to resemble its pre-war façade. The Soviet Union might have projected a monolithic mien to the outside world, but to its people it preserved history and heritage.

Any European country boasts magnificent churches. Russia is no exception. Russian churches are generally smaller, but what they lack in size they make up for in décor. Naturally, onion domes topped by golden crosses attract immediate attention. Inside, they are adorned by icons and frescoes from floor to ceiling. Many, many churches were destroyed by the Communists (and their priests and nuns executed). But many were retained, not always as working churches. Now, under its current government, Russia has been restoring them and building new churches (and many are joining the priesthood. Regular priests may marry. Only those who choose to join the church hierarchy take vows of celibacy).

Anyone fascinated by cemeteries must travel to Moscow to view the New Cemetery adjacent to Novodevitchy Convent (New Maiden Nunnery—Russian royalty really took the “get thee to a nunnery” dictum to heart. Any time they wanted to rid themselves of a wife, sister, daughter or mother, they simply banished the lady to the nunnery). The cemetery dates back to the 17th century but its New portion opened in 1898 as the resting ground of Russia’s most celebrated composers, directors, writers, poets, generals, businessmen, scientists, and now, with the fall of the Soviet Union, its leaders who no longer get buried near Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square.

What makes the New Cemetery unique is its gravesite monuments are not simply slabs of marble or granite. Rather, they are works of art, life-size or larger statues of the deceased, in striking poses. The head of the circus, a clown by trade, is memorialized on a park bench. The head of telecommunications is depicted making a phone call. Everywhere you turn the dead appear larger than in life. A strikingly beautiful sculpture of a young woman stands beside Raisa Gorbachev’s grave. It’s the way husband Mikhail remembers her.