GC49JBH Captain Furball's World Tour: Russia (Unknown Cache) in Washington, United States created by Captain

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Let me get something out of the way... my Sean Connery impression: "Most things in here don't react well to bullets". Name the movie in your post for extra kudo points.

On to our Russian tour. We start, leaving from Seatac on a dreary, overcast day destined for the lovely city of Kaluga. Kaluga was founded in the mid-14th century as a border fortress on the southwestern borders of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. It was first mentioned by its present name in 1371. In the Middle Ages, Kaluga was a minor settlement owned by the Princes Vorotynsky. The ancestral home of these princes is located southwest from the modern city.
Kaluga is connected to Moscow by a railway line and the ancient roadway, the Kaluga Road (now partly within Moscow (as Starokaluzhskoye Shosse), partly the A101 road). This road was the favored escape route from the Moscow trap for Napoleon in the fall of 1812. But General Kutuzov repelled Napoleon's advances in this direction and forced the retreating French army onto the old Smolensk road, previously devastated by the French during their invasion of Russia.  From Kaluga, we travel to Oryaol, then Lipetsk, Ryazan, and finally Voronezh. Thus ends the first one-fifteenth of our journey.

Our next leg starts in beautiful Moscow, the largest city in Russia. On to Pavlovo, and lastly Tambov. The name "Tambov" originates from the Moksha language word "томба" (tomba) meaning "abyss".
Tambov was founded by the decree of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich on about April 17, 1636. Originally, it was a border fortress against attacks by the Crimean Tatars, but it soon declined in importance as military outpost. It then became the administrative and trade center of a rural region.

Day Three: We awake in our hotel famished, finding ourselves in the picturesque town of Dzerzhinsk. Traditional Russian breakfast foods include pancakes or oladushki. Oladushki are made from flour and rise on yeast. Blini, or crepes, are also popular for breakfast and are also made with flour, but without the yeast. Sirniki, is a cheese form of pancake. Sirniki are made of tvorog (quark cheese), which can be eaten separately with honey for breakfast. Also, a popular dish is buterbrod, open sandwiches with cold cuts and cheeses.
Todays travels take us from our hotel to Cheboksary, Kazan, Penza, arriving for the night in Samara.

Day Four: Through the miracles of our tele-transporting 1973 VW van, we dined and slept in Samara but awoke in Ryazan. It is argued that the Ryazan kremlin was founded in 800, by Slavic settlers as a part of their drive into territory previously populated by Finnic peoples. Initially it was built of wood, gradually replaced by masonry. The oldest preserved part of the kremlin dates back to the 12th century.
However, the first written mention of the city, under the name of Pereslavl, dates to 1095. At that time the city was part of the independent Principality of Ryazan, which had existed since 1078 and which was centered on the old city of Ryazan. The first ruler of Ryazan was supposedly Yaroslav Sviatoslavich, Prince of Ryazan and Murom (cities of Kievan Rus'). After a morning exploring the city, we traveled to Vyksa, Arzamas, Saransk, Voronezh, and finally Saratov.

Day Five: I swear we were in Saratov last night, how we woke in Nizhny Tagil, I’ll never know. The history of Nizhny Tagil begins with the opening of the Vysokogorsky iron ore quarry in 1696. The deposits were particularly rich, and included lodes of pure magnetic iron. The surrounding landscape provided everything needed for a successful and productive mining and smelting operation — rivers for transport, forests for fuel, and suitable climate.
The city itself was legally founded in October 1722 among settlements connected to the construction of the Vyysky copper smelting plant, owned by Nikolay Demidov. I knew I smelt something! After a quick latte and a scone at the local Starbucks, excuse me, Starbootsky, on the road again. Today we stop at Perm, Izhevsk, Yekaterinburg, and back to Nizhny Tagil for lunch. Then on to Chelyabinsk for the night.

Day Six: Ufa. I love this town: UFA. I just like saying Ufa. UFA, UFA, UFA. It’s so close to Oofdah. A short trip today: Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and Aktobe. Aktobe is actually in Kazakhstan, but with our American Express card, we have no trouble crossing the borders.

Day Seven: We arise early in Saransk with a full day ahead of us. Just sightseeing today as we will end up back where we started. Get it? A CIRCLE! But off we go. Saransk to Arzamas, then Kstovo, Cheboksary, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, back to Saransk for lunch then off again: Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Syzran, Penza, and back at Saransk for the night. What a day!

Day Eight: Our magical mystery tour wakes us up in Tula. Tula was first mentioned in the Nikon Chronicle in relation to a military operation conducted in 1146. As the chronicle was written in the 16th century, the date is disputed. The first confirmed mention of Tula dates to 1382.
In the Middle Ages, Tula was a minor fortress at the border of the Principality of Ryazan. As soon as it passed to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a brick citadel, or kremlin, was constructed in 1514-1521. It was a key fortress of the Great Abatis Belt and successfully resisted a siege by the Tatars in 1552. In 1607, Ivan Bolotnikov and his supporters seized the citadel and withstood a four-months siege by the Tsar's army. In the 18th century, some parts of the kremlin walls were demolished. Despite its archaic appearance, the five-domed Assumption Cathedral in the kremlin was built as late as 1764. After lunch, it’s on to Livny. The town apparently originated in 1586 as Ust-Livny, a wooden fort on the bank of the Livenka River, although some believe that a town had existed on the spot previous to the Mongol invasion of Rus'. The fortress was important in guarding the southern border of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the case of a Crimean Tatar raid along the Muravsky Trail.
Thirty years later, Ivan the Terrible sent prince Masalsky to build a town of Livny under the umbrella of a garrison stationed in the fort. It was pillaged and burnt by the Tatars on many occasions. In 1606, the citizens of Livny raised a rebellion against Boris Godunov, killing his governor and proclaiming their allegiance to False Dmitry I. Two years later, Ivan Bolotnikov chose it as a base of his military operations against Vasily IV.

Day Nine: Craving an Egg McMuffin or 5. A bright, sunny day in Kaluga. For those of you that noticed, yes, we have been to Kaluga but we enjoyed it so much, we’re here again. Into the van and off to Kolomna. Then Ryazan, Kursk, stopping in Voronezh. The toponym Voronezh was first mentioned in the Hypatian Codex in 1177, but human settlement on the site is attested since the Stone Age by archeological finds. Recent findings may push the settlement's foundation date as far back as the 4th century CE. The current official version, however, states that the present city was founded in 1585 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Russian state from the raids of Crimean and Nogay Tatars. The city is named for the river, itself named for an earlier city destroyed by the Mongol invasion, whose name in turn was borrowed from a place name in the Principality of Chernigov, derived from the Slavic personal name Voroneg.

Day 10: How or why we’re in Moscow again, who knows. But here we are. After a brief stop at St. Peters Cathedral for a mocha cappuccino with a piroshky, we set off for Vladimir, Kstovo and Saransk for the THIRD time! Saransk was founded in 1641 as the Russian fortress Atemar, taking its name from a nearby Mordvin village; the fortress was, at the time, located on the southeastern frontier of Russia. The current name "Saransk" refers to the city's situation on the Saranka river. After lunch we loaded up and headed to Luhansk and Volgograd.

Day 11: A week and a half on the road and I’m craving a Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carls Jr. No, wait, an In’n’Out Double Double! But reality sets in and we’re in Vyatskiye Polyany. Vyatskiye Polyany is a town with economy centered around a single enterprise, the Molot factory. The factory was active in machine building and was oriented to the military industry. In 2009, it became unprofitable, and in 2010, it stopped. The salaries were not paid for months. The authorities initiated the programs of diversification of the industry and of reorientation of the factory. So much for this town, onward to Neftekamsk, Zainsk, Ufa (again), and stopping in Otradny.

Day 12: Our trip is winding down but not before some more sightseeing. A long day of driving ahead of us so off we go from Nizhnekamsk, Zainsk, Almetyevsk, Leninogorsk, Bugulma, Bavly, Oktyabrsky, Tuymazy, and finally back to Leninogorsk. Speaking of Lenin, where do communists keep their towels? In the Lenin closet! Ah, beautiful Leninogorsk. "Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1" [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1)]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года (don’t ask me, I copied it from Wikipedia)

Day 13: Our time portal VW van is in full swing as we awake in Serov. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area of Serov was populated as early as 1000 BCE by the Mansi or their ancestors. In the early days of Russian colonization of Siberia, there were only a few minor villages in the area. The situation changed in 1893, when the chief manager of Bogoslovsk Mining District, Alexander Auerbakh, proposed a construction of a cast iron and rail plant on the Kakva River near the end of an existing railroad. This year the construction of a workers settlement began. It was named Nadezhdinsk after Nadezhda Polovtsova, the owner of Bogoslovsk Mining District. The first steel and rails in Nadezhdinsk were produced in 1896. Nadezhdinsk was an important supplier of rails for the Trans-Siberian Railway. Dmitry Mendeleyev, who visited Nadezhdinsk, was pleasantly surprised by the progressive technology used at the plant. The first school in Nadezhdinsk opened in December 1895, the first power plant (415 kW)—in 1907.
Nadezhdinsk was touched by the Revolution of 1905, with the turmoil continuing through 1908. At the beginning of World War I, Nadezhdinsk industry was reshaped to meet the demands of the military. Klein Brothers machine-building factory was relocated to Nadezhdinsk from Riga in 1917. The growing demand for workforce was met by hiring workers from China and Korea, as well as prisoners of war (POWs). There were 1,266 Chinese and Koreans, and 3,329 POWs in Nadezhdinsk in 1917.
So much for our daily history lesson, time to hit the road. On today agenda, Solikamsk, Perm, Lysva, Nevyansk, Polevskoy and Chemushka.

Day 14: We awake in Perm. I really expected the town to smell like the old hair salon where my mother would FORCE me to sit and wait as a child while she “got her hair done”. Little did I know then that the gossip wasn’t necessary for her to obtain that frizzy curl doo. Perm was first mentioned as the village of Yegoshikha in 1647; however, the history of the modern city of Perm starts with the development of the Ural region by Tsar Peter the Great. Vasily Tatishchev, appointed by the Tsar as a chief manager of Ural factories, founded Perm together with another major center of the Ural region, Yekaterinburg.
From Perm, we traveled west to Glazov, south to Izhevsk, then Chemushka, Birsk and back to Zainsk.

Day 15: Our final day in the USSR. Sunshine greets us in Kirov (the town not the submarine). Anxious to get home, we visited Yoshkar-Ola, Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Vyatskiye Polyany and our final resting place, Yoshkar-Ola.

An uneventful flight home gets us here just in time for… rain!

I wonder what country is next???

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Captain Furball's World Tour: Russia Mystery Cache

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