Votkinsk
Воткинск
Missile Plant in Votkinsk
December 30, 2003
Today we went to Votkinsk to see the village, (Izhevsk is a town according to everyone
and the term city is reserved for places over a population of one million). The
drive between Izhevks and Votkinsk is uneventful; the landscape only consists of
forests, fields, and some rolling hills. There are a number of police officers on
the route, but they don't sit on radar like police in the US. They have a station
leaving and entering town as well as a couple other roadside turn-offs and they
put out a sign to pull random cars over, but everywhere else there are really no
laws on the road. As we passed the police stops, my driver, Katya's dad put
his seatbelt on, because its law for people in the front seats, but then as soon
as we passed the checkpoint he immediately took it off.
Votkinsk is on the Votka River and has a "pond." Upon arrival went immediately
to the Tchaikovsky museum. The house is very big and overlooks the pond. Like everywhere,
my Russian friends told me to say that I'm a student to get the discounted price
and to keep my mouth shut so I'm not charged the foreign price, so I paid 80
rubles. There are typically three or four prices: school children, students, adults,
and foreigners, I am yet to pay the foreigner price anywhere, except in Moscow,
where I was charged the "naive foreigner" price.
The museum was simply his house, which is huge with 10 feet high ceilings and old
elaborate furniture. Most of the rooms looked exactly the same and all is from the
1800’s. The most interesting part was the pictures of the family and his birth certificate.
The grounds were better consisting of his banya, the wagon they took all the way
to St. Petersburg and back, plus the rest of the grounds, which include a chapel,
log cabin, and the huge garage. From the house, you overlook the pond and now there
also stands a statue of Tchaikovsky across the street from the house on the shore
of the lake or pond.
From here we walked around the pond to see the enormous rocket factory that stretched
across nearly the entire south side of the pond. It is no longer in use, but during
the cold war it was one of the largest manufacturer of rockets in Russia, after
which the rockets were sent to a village near Moscow to be armed with nuclear warheads.
There are supposedly some Americans living in the woods nearby to monitor the factory
and make sure it remains inactive.
Across from the factory is the pond and on the southeast bank of the pond is the
central downtown building adorned with a huge religious painting and in front is
ironically a huge statue of Lenin, the man who ended religion for so long.
Nearly the whole village is wooden houses and even the central stores are all wood,
but we went to Anya’s cousin’s house and she lives on the edge of town in communist
block apartments. They have a great view from their balcony overlooking the downtown
area and a large park. Anya's cousin is about 19 or 20, is married, and has
a baby.
When we arrived and knocked on Anya's cousin's door she answered the door
without asking who’s there, which is very unusual for Russians... perhaps the younger
generation isn't as paranoid as my babushka.
We brought a cake as is the tradition and they served us tea and eggs with ham,
which my fellow Russians didn’t accept well, saying its easy to make and people
only make it if they’re in a hurry. Everyone seemed disappointed at this except
me; I was happy given the fairly normal meal for Russia.
The baby spent the whole time without pants and when he started peeing she just
held him over the floor until he was done, a little odd to me, then she cleaned
it up.
Anya's a Russian woman and feels that Seth and I do everything wrong, but she
won’t give her opinion or tell us that she's unhappy since it's the Russian
woman's role to never contradict the man. There are a few very sexist ideas
in Russia; for example, when we were coming back to Izhevsk Anya’s cousin was driving
and I had to sit in the front seat because I'm a man. Anya and her cousin talked
as I sat like a bump on a log, but again its tradition and we were soon back in
Izhevsk.
Bank in Votkinsk
Tchaikovsky Birth House Museum in Votkinsk