During my trip through Russia I intend to hit all the major places in Leo Tolstoy's works - Siberian exile, society in Moscow & St. Petersburg, war in the Caucasus, etc. He's my favorite author and his works inspire me, so of course I'm also planning to spend some time in Yasnaya Polyana at his estate, and visit the train station where he died.
Through Europe, it's World War II history: Versailles (WWI, but highly related!), the Ardennes, Volgograd/Stalingrad, the Dneiper, most everywhere in the Ukraine, Normandy, Berlin & Dresden, to name a few. I would also love to follow the North Africa campaign, but that may not be so easy! I really want to hike through many of these areas, not just see buildings and monuments.
I also start planning for a trip by researching UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I don't limit myself to them, but they're a great way to get interested in seeing a country, and it just grows from there.
Anyone else have pilgrimages, patterns or themes to share?
Nomaste Sofia You r in good company since so many people have been influenced by Tolstoy not the least of which was Gandhi; http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2010Jan-9.html
i can not even begin to imagine the suffering involved in the period u speak of and u will walk in the footsteps of Napoleon and Hitler's armies. Those of whom would slice your head off as u practiced nonviolence. Tolstoy's message awaits a higher age that started with India's Gandhi and carried thru with Martin Luther King's civil rights movement. Yet it makes me wonder about your connection to this time and these places. Is it like going back and reliving it all? Like u want to know what u learned from it all? As if u r wondering what place does it have in your current life and conditions? This is often my questions when going over past life sequences.
Often pilgrimages bring us back to places, times and people that we have been with before. Often to tie up some of the loose ends we have left with them. In this sense it can be heart wrenching or inspiring and full of love. It all depends on the karma involved and how we have progressed since then and to what extent others have. Yet none of these life experiences can b described as casual. These people and places r our road to the future. They represent turning points in our lives. They r like bridges from the past to the future.... and along the way... along the way u may meet others who have traveled these roads with u...
Jitendra
lyrics Al Stewart
"Roads To Moscow"
Roads To Moscow lyrics
Referring to the great battle of Germany's WW ll invasion of Russia, the great will of the Russian people and the winter that drove the Nazis back......
They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
Moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood - word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away
Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and our knees
And all that I ever was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the smoke on the breeze
All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolyensk and Viyasma soon fell
By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come - riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill
Winter brought with her the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow
And all that I ever was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the snow on the breeze
In the footsteps of Napoleon the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow,
Standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outposts, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know
Which way to turn, which way to look, you'll never see us
As we're stealing through the blackness of the night
[. From:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/a/al-stewart-lyrics/roads-to-moscow-lyrics.html .]
You'll never know, you'll never hear us
And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming
Two broken Tigers on fire in the night flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home it'll almost be spring
The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin
Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down
And all that I ever was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening now it's the end of the dream
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Now you can taste it in the wind, the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask me of the time
That I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner
"They only held me for a day, a lucky break", I say;
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know
Why I was taken from the line and all the others
To board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia
And it's cold and damp in the transit camp, and the air is still and sullen
And the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers
"Never"
And the evening sighs and the steely Russian skies go on forever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDy91DCQ8JI&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7E38I1ISKw&feature=related