Back to the USSR – Soviet Tour in Transnistria

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Many of you may question, what it is, that makes Transnistria worth a trip – well – Transnistria today remains a time capsule, of what things used to be in the former Soviet block countries about 30 years ago. Most other countries have found a new way and have kind of parted with Soviet history and have left the then-omnipresent symbols behind … e.g. hammer and sickle are long gone, so are Lenin statues … not so in Transnistria, here those symbols and the relevant traditions remain omnipresent.
I actually have to say, that loads of what I have seen in Transnistria indeed did remind me of former Easter Germany – and how things used to look like right after the fall of the wall and well into the 1990s … just much cleaner and more modern (obviously – given the 30 years of progress in between).

This afternoon was our chance for a first glimpse into that Soviet time capsule. The full group had booked the Soviet tour – and we were picked up by our guides right at the fortress. From here we made it to the central bus station, to see the style of the station itself and the murals – and also (it was well past 13:00 by now) to have lunch – in a USSR-style canteen (essentially serving food very similar to the food in the company canteen in Minsk) in the bus station.

After lunch we continued with a tour around Bendery, the next stop being at the main train station and the memorial to the train workers right next to it. From here we continued to the cinema, followed by a walk around downtown Bender, to get a glimpse of the city hall. A further stop got us to the cultural hall – a very typical Soviet institution, mainly for collective entertainment and activities. We continued by foot to the nearby river terminal (so yet another station), which by now sits abandoned at the bank of the Dniester river.

We left Bendery and made our (sleepy) way to Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.

We got of the van at the Street of the 25th of October, a few steps away from the main government building of Transnistria (aka. the Supreme Soviet of the TMR) and the massive Lenin statue in front of it (feel reminded of “Good Bye Lenin!”, if you wish). After a quick photo opportunity we continued to the memorial complex, commemorating the heroes of various wars, from the great patriotic one via the Afghan war to the Transnistrian independence one in 1992. The complex is in true Soviet style, complete with eternal flame (that – per our guide – only extinguished once for about two weeks, when Ukraine stopped the flow of Russian gas into Transnistria), a tank and an orthodox chapel.

We continued along the Street of the 25th of October, to the nearby square, to get a glimpse of the Monument to Suvorov and the flags of the Transnistrian regions, as well as those countries, that actually recognize Transnistria (Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia).

We made it back to the bus and continued a short bit to our final stop – the bust of to Juri Gagarin, the first human in outer space. From here we were back on Oct-25 for a quick walk to the city hall just down the street. The tour concluded after a group photo in front of the city hall.

There are some good articles about Transnistria in a number of newspapers, that make an excellent read … I found the two below fairly enjoyable – so if your German is up to it, you may continue here … have fun 😉