First visit to Baku

Students from MSU History Department saw Baku and were surprised It so happens that students of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University,or to put it more precisely, the most creative part of them, usually spend April and early May preparing for the Victory Day concert. Every year after the concert, the participants go on a short journey to visit places of military glory, pay homage to the memory of the fallen, lay flowers at the memorial and see sites mentioned in military history. Since we have already visited Brest and Volgograd, this year we went to Baku. This trip was somewhat unusual - in addition to visiting memorials, our concert for the Azeri war veterans on Victory Day itself was also scheduled. Before leaving for Baku I asked my friends who were staying in Moscow why they were staying. They responded: "I / my mom am afraid that we will be kidnapped." For somereason, many people believe that in the Caucasus and the Middle East men are completely preoccupied with kidnapping women, and female students of the Faculty of History enjoy the greatest popularity among them. As a result, 12 boys and 6 girls went to Baku (the composition was quite atypical for the Department of History). In fact, during the 4-day visit I saw no women dressed in the paranja or veil. Virtually all the people in Baku understand Russian. These people are pleasant and smiling people. They wear the same things we do, be it skintight trousers, jeans, coats, Luis Vuitton or high heels. Anticipating the objections of a you-were-taken-exclusively-to-decent-spots-in-the-city-center sort, I’d like to remind you that in Moscow you also shouldn’t walk in Northern Golyanovo at night. It is dangerous. But why refuse to visit Moscow? The situation with Baku is the same. Tourists shouldn’t’go to the poorer districts, because it may be unsafe. However, are you going to Baku in order to visit the poor districts? Legends of Eastern hospitality are true. There are many places worth seeing in Baku:  The Museum of Contemporary Art (unfortunately,we didn’t get there), a carpet factory. Skilled workers make hand-made carpets of wool or silk. It takes about 4-6 months to make one, depending on the size.  There are rugs depicting a map of the world, portraits of famous people, landscapes and still lifes. Some rugs even change color depending on the angle of the light. Such rugs are expensive, but look simply amazing. Large-scale constructions are being carried out everywhere in the city. Entire districts are being built very quickly. Houses and hotels are also being constructed. Every prestigious global hotel network has built a hotel in Baku. Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Hyatt.  There are also many modest hotels in the city. At every turn there are all sorts of guesthouses and the Baku Inn. There is hardly a tourist who arrived in.

Old buildings are ruthlessly knocked down. One has to hurry to have a look at the remains of Soviet Azerbaijan. I have always lived in Moscow and it is rather strange for me to see houses looking as if they were constructed from patches, with open unglazed galleries, stairs and, of course, lingerie, hanging on clotheslines stretched across yards or  just along the floor . Lingerie. Multi-colored panties, shirts, someone’s dresses with floral designs, sheets, pillowcases ... In Moscow all these things would have become black from exhaust, if they didn't disappear. In Baku they are quietly hanging on the clotheslines, even in the central streets. Nobody sees anything  special in it: it is just lingerie. It seems to me that half of my camera’s memory card is occupied with beautifully hanging things. Maybe it is lingerie confidentially hanging in yards and windows that gives southern cities their special charm.Roads. Smooth, wide roads, without any noticeable potholes. Smooth roads and very tasty tomatoes are the two things that are etched in my memory especially strongly. As well as the light architecture, where Stalinist style is mixed with modernity and Arabic ornate lettering, lancet windows go through several floors, and mass houses of the Khrushchev era have been turned into something decent, by coating them with beige stone and changing the balconies. The restoration of old buildings in Baku really means restoration, not renovation, as is usually done in Moscow.

 

We had scheduled three performances - at the Russian Embassy, in a Lutheran church and in the "round room" next to our hotel for May 9. I do not know how to describe this strange, overwhelming feeling, when standing on a stage in front of veterans, whose jackets are decorated with medals "For Valour", "For the capture of Berlin" ... Looking in their eyes I saw the burning tanks, soldiers attacking, brother-soldiers falling, looking in the eyes of the people who lived through the great war and knowing what it means - to protect their motherland, singing about the spring of 1945 and the blue Danube, of Balkan stars, airplanes, heroes of bygone days and promises to return , because "it can’t be otherwise, you hear, my dear..."

I do not know what to say to those veterans that came up to us under the concert to be photographed with us and thank us for the holiday, except for the words "thank you". For some reason, I have always felt that 'thank you' is not enough, and if we managed to bring them some joy, it is a bliss. Veterans are probably the best audience in the world. Even if microphones and sound recordings don’t work and we sometimes sing out of tune, they smile, silently repeating the words of poems, singing the lyrics. At these moments they do not see the students dressed in soldier’s shirts and caps, they think of themselves at the age of eighteen, when they went to war.

Natalie Iolve, History Faculty, IV course. Moscow-Baku. Especially for VK