Poltava

Being a student of European History, I have wanted to visit Poltava for quite a while.  In the United States, I have visited many famous battlefields such as Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor and Little Big Horn. A lot of Americans may be unfamiliar with the battle that took place in Poltava in 1709. The victory by Peter the Great started Russia’s rise as a great power and also began the decline of Sweden’s supremacy in the Baltic. I was a little naïve when I first learned of this clash and its place in Ukrainian History. I thought that if the battle was lost by the Russians that perhaps Swedish would be spoken in Ukraine today rather than Russian (and Ukrainian). However, this battle put the idea of Ukrainian Independence on hold for nearly another 300 years. Actually, if Sweden won the battle then there may not have been Russian Speakers in Ukraine simply because the universal language would have been Ukrainian in an independent Ukraine.

We began our trip by taking the Kiev train from Kharkov to Poltava. All the trains on the Kiev to Kharkov route go right thru Poltava. We got an early start by catching the train at 7:00. It took about 2 hours to get to Poltava. When we arrived, we noticed the train station was small in comparison to Kiev, Odessa or Kharkov. The town isn’t that big, (about 300,000 souls) so we started walking. This was easy for me because I didn’t even have to ask for directions. I just played “Follow the Native Speaker”. This is one of my favorite games! We did find an online reference to Poltava http://www.traveltoukraine.org/pdf/Poltava_Ukraine_guidebook.pdf) that would have been extremely helpful if our printer was not malfunctioning.

I really didn’t have any major “must visit” spots except for the battlefield. However, later I learned about a local delicacy of unfilled dumplings called halushky. You might think that after eating the unfilled dumplings that I would go shopping at the store that provided the Emperor’s new clothes? In that case you might have a point but it is my understanding that the dumplings are special because of the amazing toppings that are put on them not for the non-existent fillings.

Anyway, we found our way to the Korpusy Park and saw the Iron Column of Glory. This was built for the 100^th anniversary of the battle. It was a very pleasant summer day so we sort of wandered around for a while. We did find the Regional Museum but unfortunately it was closed on the day of the week (Wednesday) that we visited. After that, we made our way to the Friendship Rotunda which seemed like another favorite spot for wedding parties to be photographed. One strange object in this location was a sculpture of the abovementioned unfilled dumplings. We also visited the Kotlyarevsky Museum/House. He is a famous Ukrainian writer. Along the way we saw the usual allotment of churches and Monasteries.

We were sort of hungry at this point so we set out on a lunch quest. I really don’t want to go over the particulars but we didn’t do very well on our search. Somehow we ended up at eating at Palazzo, (in the Palazzo Hotel). It was my understanding that they had the best Italian food in town. This was actually my choice for dinner but we were standing right of front of it and hungry at noon (or so) so it became our destination for our midday meal. I didn’t think the selection of Italian food was that good. I actually ended up ordering Beef Stroganoff after starting with a Minestrone soup. The soup was different to what I was used to in the United States. It consisted of bacon, mushrooms, bell pepper, celery, broccoli and haricot (navy) beans. I love Beef Stroganoff and I wasn’t disappointed but I should have read the menu a little more closely because I wasn’t expecting it to come in a mashed potato pastry basket. I also had the benefit of a Stella while eating. The bill was rather large for a place in Ukraine. We spent almost $50 with tip. Of course in the United States, a restaurant would usually have a cheaper lunch menu but that was not the case here. I should not have been disappointed because I knew what the prices were in advance but this would have been a better dinner choice.  

After lunch we took a bus to the battlefield which was about 7km away. Compared to Gettysburg, as far as battlefields go, this was a let down. I did like the Battle Museum. (Only 8 UAH <$1> for entrance) I thought it had a nice mix of genuine artifacts to reproductions. I was amused by a mortar than was being used as a wishing well. At the time I could have filled my pockets with coins by doing a simple transfer. I also liked the fact that so many of the displays were in English. Even though it was midweek I was surprised that we were the only visitors to the building. After all, it was the middle of summer.

We walked around the grounds outside of the museum after checking out the statue of Peter the Great that was directly in front of the building. Helen surprised me when she mentioned that the statue seemed small. I’m not sure if she was kidding but it was a life-sized figure of the 6 ft 8 in (200 cm) czar. Maybe she was more impressed with the Bronze Horseman monument in St Petersburg? In retrospect, we probably would have seen more if we had some transportation. I realized this after looking at the battlefield website (http://www.battle-poltava.org/eng/). It seems there were a lot of Monuments that we overlooked. We did see Spasskaya Church and the Memorial Rotunda. We were glad there was a café here that had a primitive (by U.S. standards) restroom/WC. I didn’t notice it at the time but the café was called Redoubt in reference to the defensive fortifications built by the Russians.

Later we returned to the center of Poltava. At the time, we were sort of all worn out (I think our most obvious clue about being tired was when we practically took a nap on top of the Russian Warriors Bed of Honor) so we just headed back to the train station. Helen bought us some cheap food there to balance our expensive lunch. She is such a good provider. We crashed there for while and then headed home. Somewhere in our day’s travels we acquired a city map of Poltava. It had a lot of pictures of the different sites to see and we saw almost everyone so all in all I would say it was a good excursion. 

Posted by John

PS: I’m not going to give a history lesson about all the details of the battle but if you want to learn more go to: http://www.theartofbattle.com/battle-of-poltava-1709.htm