307 Nizhny Novgorod - June 28-29 with Ivan and Family - So I was late coming to meet HCer Ivan a linguistics student and his parents. NN is another historic city on the Volga River. With a well preserved Citadel. We went to lunch at a shopping centre there wasthe innevitable statue of lenin, but now he appears to be welcoming people to a capitalist shopping centre.

It was interesting to see their life as a Evangelical pastor's family. They have a nice apartment in the normal rundown apartment block and the River Volga beach is a few minutes walk away. As I was getting nearer to Moscow I could see more development in this city. I felt like I was almost in Western Europe now. I guess in a few years it will be quite nice. In the evening we went to a flute concert.


A view of the Kremlin from the Volga River
Thu- I went out to the Sakarov Museum which where he lived in exile. I couldn't find it I knew it was near a scruffy apartment block. It turned out to be the groundfloor apartment of this ordinary apartment block and this being Russia it only had a small sign.

He had developed the atomic bomb for USSR, but when it invaded Afghanistan he felt betrayed, cos he believed the government should be trying to make the world a more peaceful place. When he saw this aggressive act he spoke out against the government. Of course the Soviet government wanted to shut him up, but they couldn't do their normal thing of arrest him and send him to a prison in Siberia. He was famous and also they needed him for his knowledge so they couldn't just arrest him. Instead they exciled him to NN which was a closed city forbidden to foreigners and they vetted his mail, therefore they knew he couldn't communicate with the outside world.

They then went to a ridiculous extent to watch him in his 4 room apartment. They had a policeman guard the entrance, a "hotel manager" living inside to watch him. They had a KGB portakabin outside and other KGB family living in the next building 5m away facing his windows. What a contrived and twisted method just to stop free speech. Surely someone working on the project must have thought it wrong ! When his wife became ill they refused to let her leave the USSR to seek treatment. Eventually Gorbachov had him released.

Then I came back to town to have a look at the kremlin (walled citadel in the photo etc) and River Volga etc.
Because I was lacking in time I had to take a night bus to Moscow which was a bit rough.


Ivan's Parents

The Sakarov Museum

The KGB looked in thro the windows
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