Poltava: From the Glory to the Dumpling

Heading to a different city or country I usually try to forget about everything that I had read or heard about them as much as possible to free myself from prejudices. I probably perceive cities irrationally. I like places where I can feel as if I am at home, even though conditions (including climate) may be very different, and I dislike those which remain foreign to me no matter how much they are similar to the place where I live and how much time I spent there. I don’t pay a lot of attention to historical places; I don’t have a penchant for battlefields. The key goal for me is to catch the mood of the city and decide whether it’s feels comfortable to me or remains foreign and also whether I would like to live there or not.

It’s difficult for me to judge cities smaller than the one I live in. I feel uncomfortable, because they seem empty to me because they lack movement and noise. This is exactly what I was thinking about Poltava.

Like Donetsk, Poltava also has a long direct main street which leads you through the entire city and to all of the main sites. The only way to get lost is if you turn somewhere unaware that you may simply go in a straight line. That’s exactly what happened to me over there and as a result I found myself buying a city map, which appeared to be quite useful, except the “restaurants” noted referred to outdated information. Walking along the Oktyabr’skaya (in Russian) or Zhovtneva st. (in Ukrainian), you can see an extraordinary mix of cultural artifacts. Some of them came from the 19th century, (mainly devoted to Poltava battle), some from Soviet times while others are contemporary. For example, at the beginning of the street there is a monument to a Soviet officer, whom I’ve never heard about before, then a building with firebirds and interesting architecture, which used to be a bank, but now belongs to regional police. Across the main street from the firebird “palace” if you look towards the central square there is a creepy back street with an overgrown building that is painted only on the side that faces the street. We have a lot of these beautiful spots in Kharkov, so I think it’s worthwhile to make a photographic record of them some time in the future.

The central so-called Round Square in the Corpusny garden will be your next discovery. It is marked by The Glory monument, (or the Iron Column of the Glory). It is not only a historical symbol, but the object that already has its own history, specifically the gilded eagle on its top, which is frequently the object of theft attempts. This is a way people express remarkable interest in cultural artifacts and also convey a sharp sense of humor: the last time it happened was on April, 1st, 2011, International Fool’s Day.

The same craze happened to the dumpling monument (read about it further), which is strange because its material isn’t of any great value. On the morning after it’s unveiling, it was missing one dumpling which was found 50 meters from the monument. Apparently, the plan of bringing it home failed because it weights 250 kilograms.

After you have passed the Corpusny Park, you should head to the Local history museum, (you’ve got to turn a bit on the right towards Lenina st. to the park if you walk straight along the Oktyabr’skaya), you will see an interesting building. I have no idea what was inside of it, but outside it has a candy-like architecture and mosaics that reminded me of something imperceptibly eastern.

The final point of your destination is Ivanova gora or Ivanova mountain (you don’t have to climb though), actually it’s a hill, where you can see the Uspensky cathedral, The monument to the dumpling, the White Rotunda and the Ivan Kotlyarvesky museum. That last one is too small to be called a museum. It’s a “nationally” stylized house surrounded by a lath fence, sunflowers, bushes and shadoof well with a stork in the garden.

A view of Uspensky cathedral from Kotlyarevsky garden

The huge plate with stones, devoted to dumpling of galushka, which somehow was considered to be a symbol of Poltava and has gained general acceptance. It attracts attention, but looks really dumb and makes me think: what are these people proud of? Two centuries ago it was the Poltava battle…Today they couldn’t find anything better than galushka?

Here is a slogan. “Dumpling. Swollen with pride.”

Well, at least I haven’t seen the monument to the PIG (!) of 2003 with an inscription “to centuries-old breadwinner, (I would say bacon-bringer!), of the Ukrainian nation”. Is it really a sign of culture or it just a caricature of it? This is difficult to say. Wow, I just found out there are SIX monuments of Pigs in the Poltava region, so it’s definitely part of the culture. I can accept it with humor, but it seems to be too serious of a case to laugh.

International friendship rotunda or simply White Rotunda it’s a good spot for observing a view of the city, Krestovizdvizhensky monastery and the river Vorskla, and a popular place for wedding photos.

White Rotunda. This view reminded me souvenir magnets I saw: stick figures of a bride and groom with the statement “Game over”.

Somewhere I read about rudeness of Poltava people and suggestions for foreigners not to use public transport (http://www.poltavatravel.com/articles/meet-locals-poltava.html), but compared to Kharkov, I found the locals quite nice and willing to help, even though they don’t know street names very well. Public transport is quite good as well because it’s approximately 50 %  cheaper than Kharkov’s and allows you to reach the suburbs (like a half an hour trip to Poltava battlefield) for 1.5 UAH.

Once I reached this point I realized I have reached my word limit, because it’s John’s prerogative to write long posts, so I might talk about the battlefield in a future post.

Posted by Helen