Yesterday, I mentioned bribes, which make the Russian world turn. Unlike in America, people will and do take bribes for the most petty things, and there have already been two experiences with bribes here that I know of. The first happened to a classmate of mine when he was in the car with his host father. They were pulled over for speeding outside of Moscow (where most of this happens) and from what I understand, the host father was asked, "Would like to pay 2000p or 500p." Given this circumstance, it' easy to see why Russians put up with bribes.
Evidently, the officers in Moscow, especially near the tourist areas, hate their jobs. Bribes are most easily taken from drivers, and tourists don't drive here - plus it's pretty difficult to get away with that sort of thing in the city, even with Russian citizens. Putin loves to claim that he's cleaning up corruption by nailing an officer here or there for taking a bribe so that he and his cronies can keep dealing in American-style, big-business-contract-type bribes. Add to this that officers aren't paid much (a philosophy similar to paying waiters less than minimum wage with the expectation that they will get tips), and you get a lot of jealousy between the city patrol officers and the ones in suburbs/country.
The second bribe I was present for. This one occurred at the Novodjevichij Cemetery. When we got there, we were told that the cemetery "closed" at 5:00 and we had arrived at 5:30 (nevermind that the posted hours had it as being open until 7:00). Sasha, the professor from the advanced class was with us; he turned around and put his finger up telling us that he would "handle" the situation. He entered the gate and one of the guards closed it behind him. About a minute and a half later Sasha re-emerged with a smile (as did the guard) and we were informed that we had three hours to explore at our leisure. The bribe we later learned was 300p - just over $10. It's amazing what people do for a little extra cash here.
Sunday was spent at the Kremlin. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed and don't have much to write about. However, it was pretty awesome to see the graves of Ivan the Terrible's father, grandfather, and great grandfather - as well as the place where Ivan himself is buried behind the three fathers and on the other side of the iconostasis in the Archangelsk Cathedral. Also buried there is Dmitrij Donskoj, after whom the monastery across the street from me is named.
However, those were really the few redeeming features of that tumultuous place of constant destruction and rebuilding. And now for some gratuitous pictures of churches:
Sun and cross have finally combined for me to take this kind of picture, which I've been trying to do for over two years now. This is the Cathedral of the Archangel.
The Cathedral of the Assumption, where the Tsars were crowned (even when the capital was in Peter, they had to come here to be crowned).
Ivan the Great bell tower and belfry, where the Tsar-Bell was supposed to go.
This is actually a palace if I remember correctly. The strange crosses with the half-moon face up are also on the churches at the Donskoj Monastery. They symbolise the defeat of Islam by Christianity - the purpose for the construction of the Donskoj Monastery. Not really sure what they're doing here though.Here are the other two slightly interesting objects in the Kremlin - the Tsar-Bell and the Tsar-Cannon - neither of which were ever actually used:
There was a fire in the city while the bell was still in the casting pit; water was poured over the cooling bell to fight the fire; the bell broke (practically shattered actually - there are cracks across the entire thing) and was never rung.
This monstrosity is simply to large to be used. I'm also pretty sure the balls there are hollow because it was WAY too expensive to cast them.
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