This photo op came up at breakfast the other day; our cat Miki:
Koivisto Church
Here is more information about the old Finnish church in Primorsk (in Finnish Koivisto) I visited a few days ago. I got it from a very interesting site that has info about many Finnish Karelian churches. Thanks to Andrey for giving me the link! (anyone, feel free to correct me if I’ve missed anything)
The church, the sixth in that area, was built in 1904. During the Soviet era it was used as a cinema and a disco, now there is a small museum in the church.
The first pastor of the parish is mentioned in 1575. There was most likely another church in that immediate area going back perhaps even to the 14th century.
The third church, with a bell tower, was located on an island in the gulf, near the current mainland location. In 1706 it was burned during a raid by bandits and the church bells fell into the sea. Later the bells were found and installed in the new church, built on the mainland that same year in the location of the current church building. This fourth church, made of wood, served from 1706 to 1763.
The fifth church building, in the shape of a cross, was consecrated in 1763. In 1775, a bell tower (at left, but with the current building) was built near the church. This bell tower was destroyed in WWII.
The sixth, and present, church was consecrated in December 1904. It was designed by Joseph Stenbeck (1854? – 1929).
It’s a granite church with a cross-shaped length of 110 feet (of 37 meters) and a width of 85 feet (28 meters).
It held 1,800 seats. Inside was a large mural “The Last Supper” painted by the architect’s wife Anna Stenbeck.
The church organ (right) sounded for the first time on Christmas Eve 1906.
In 1940, after the conquest by Soviet troops the organ disappeared and its fate is not known.
Here is a good time to explain briefly the wars between Finland and Russia. The first war, called the Winter War, was fought for four months during the winter of 1939-40. Russia invaded Karelia and took most of the peninsula, including Koivisto. Surprisingly (to the Russians and many others), Finland kept Russia from completely over-running the entire country. The Continuation War began in the summer of 1941, as the Germans invaded Russia from the south; Finland retook its old ground early in the war but then lost it again in 1944.
Here is a picture of the church grounds, after Finnish troops re-took the town in 1941.
And here is the sanctuary after the Soviets took the church in 1944. Notice the new ‘gods’:
The scale of this picture is difficult to comprehend. The window is fully 40 feet tall (13 meters), so the picture of Lenin is quite large. Here is an earlier image for scale (notice how the Soviets blacked out the image of Jesus in the picture above):
Snapshots from Russia
This is a pretty standard view of our city streets these days —
One of my joys in being part of an international family is introducing Olga (and now Valerie) to my home culture; today (sleepy) Valerie had her first bacon and egg breakfast. This is probably the first time she’s eaten bacon, and she really took to it.
Sergei Tovstpyat and I went to Charlie Chastain’s garage to start his van and put on winter tires (the Chastains return from the US next week and need to have their van at the ready).
It’s common here to rent a garage in an area where there are many garages. This is what it looked like today.
Each little building is a one-car garage. The garage owners rent their plot from a company that owns the land. As you can see, some people have a pile of snow up to the roof because their neighbors shoveled the snow from in front of their garage. Like so many things here, it’s not convenient. It took us a long time just to drive to the garage and then clear the snow from in front of the door.
So, for those of you in the US who wonder why it it can take so long to get things done here in Russia, this is one example of how a simple project can eat up more than half a day.
Russian Christmas
Here’s a good explanation about Russian Christmas and why it is celebrated on January 7 –
Russian Christmas
Thirteen days after Western Christmas, on January 7th, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates its Christmas, in accordance with the old Julian calendar. It’s a day of both solemn ritual and joyous celebration
After the 1917 Revolution, Christmas was banned throughout Russia, along with other religious celebrations. It wasn’t until 75 years later, in 1992, that the holiday was openly observed. Today, it’s once again celebrated in grand fashion, with the faithful participating in an all-night Mass in incense-filled Cathedrals amidst the company of the painted icons of Saints.
Christmas is one of the most joyous traditions for the celebration of Eve comes from the Russian tradition. On the Eve of Christmas, it is traditional for all family members to gather to share a special meal. The various foods and customs surrounding this meal differed in Holy Russia from village to village and from family to family, but certain aspects remained the same. Continue reading
The Road to Primorsk
Yesterday Zhenya Koltakoff and I drove from St. Petersburg north and west to the small town of Primorsk. It’s a pretty drive up the coast of the Gulf of Finland, into Karelia.
This area was a part of Finland until WWII; Koivisto is the Finnish name for the town. We visited a church, built by Finns in 1904, which is now a city meeting hall and has a small museum in one section. The church is a classic Finnish Lutheran church of the era; I really like the architecture.
First, a video of the road we drove (you’ll see the frozen Gulf of Finland at one point), then just a few pics.
An Update from Russia — About Valerie
Many of you have by now heard our big news: we are guardians of a three year old orphan named Valerie. She came to live with us last Tuesday evening. She’s doing great as she gets settled in to her new life with us.
We have just entered a brand new phase of our lives, and it will take time for all three of us to adjust and settle into our ‘new normal’. It still feels a little unreal, like we are in a dream, we are having a crash course in parenting. Please, pray for us to go through this transition smoothly.
This update will fill in some of the blanks about Valerie, her mother, and our relationship to them.
First, Valerie is a ‘social orphan’. That is, she has a living mother but her mother is in prison and is losing her parental rights. Her mother used to live with us.
In 2003, we became guardians of a teenage orphan named Oksana (left, in front with Olga, Olga’s sister and mom, and our then-new cat Miki; July 2003). Olga had met Oksana in a summer camp several years before and was like a big sister to her and became like a mother.
Oksana lived with us for about 18 months, until her 18th birthday. She then decided to leave our home and pursue her own direction.
Oksana started living a destructive lifestyle. As the years passed, she was distant from us though we tried several times in many ways to help her. She would contact us once in a while, and then fall out of the radar again. She had several live-in boy friends and got involved in dealing and taking drugs. As a result, she contracted HIV and Hepatitis C. Continue reading
Christmas Day on January 1?
We celebrated Christmas on New Year’s Day because Valerie wasn’t with us on the 25th. She’d never celebrated Christmas like this (or maybe ever), and I don’t think she’s ever opened a Christmas gift. It was great fun to watch her learn what it is to open a Christmas gift. There was a sled waiting for her under the tree.
We read the Christmas story from the Bible and later Olga’s mother and some friends came to visit. We cooked a turkey and had a good meal together as a family. And the two grandmothers got to talk on Skype.
We start with Valerie opening a gift from her American Babushka:
Valerie – Day 2
Well, I said yesterday that I wouldn’t post pictures of Valerie every day, but some folks have asked to see more.
We’ll celebrate Christmas on New Year’s Day, since Valerie wasn’t with us on the 25th. We have a tree with presents under it waiting for Saturday morning!
We start with a video of Valerie meeting babushka (grandmom) Cantrell over Skype:
Valerie — Day 1
OK, I promise not to post pictures of Valerie every day, but folks have asked to see some more.
I’ll send out a more complete update hopefully in the next few days.
We didn’t take too many pictures today. We start with a short video from breakfast:
Valerie is home!
Some of you may not know, but Olga and I have been pursuing guardianship of a little girl named Valerie.
Valerie is the 3 year old daughter of Oksana, the orphan who lived with us a few years ago. Oksana is now in prison, and her daughter was placed in an orphanage earlier this year.
Today we finished the process of becoming guardians. We picked her up a few hours ago. I took the picture above of Olga and Valerie walking down the sidewalk to our flat in St. Pete.
I can promise that you’re going to see a lot of pictures of Valerie in the future! I’ll try to post more tomorrow.
Right now she is sleeping soundly in her new bed. It’s great to have her home.
Mike and Olga Cantrell 