Lenin's Hut in Razliv

In July 1917, after an armed demonstration by the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg against the Russian Provincial Government turned violent, the Provisional Government issued an order for the arrest of more than forty prominent leaders of the Bolshevik Party,

including Vladimir Lenin. To evade arrest and prosecution, Lenin and a fellow senior Bolshevik, Grigory Zinoviev, escaped St. Petersburg in disguise, but they didn’t went very far. Lenin decided to shelter just outside the city, in a small village called Razliv, so that could be in constant touch with party workers and keep abreast of the situation in the capital. He took refugee at the home of another Bolshevik worker, Nikolai Yemelyanov, who worked at the nearby Sestroretsk arms factory.

Lenin spent a few days in the hayloft of Yemelyanov’s barn, but when rumors reached St. Petersburg that Lenin was working as a fitter in the arms factory, it became obvious that couldn't stay there for long because Yemelyanov’s residence could be searched at any moment. So Yemelyanov transferred Lenin and Zinoviev in the guise of Finnish mowers to the deserted south-eastern shore of a lake. There, by the lakeside, in a small clearing surrounded by dense bushes, Yemelyanov helped Lenin and Zinoviev build a small hut from branches and covered with hay. A haystack was erected next to the hut, because Lenin and his friend would be living as Finnish peasant making hay.

Lenin tried to make the best he could of things. Two tree stumps served as table and chair. A large stack recess held papers and manuscripts brought to him by various members of Yemelyanov’s

family, who also provided food for the fugitives. Near the hut, a pot hung from stakes where tea was made. For relaxation, Lenin and Zinoviev helped Yemelyanov mow the hay. They even went swimming. But at night mosquitoes made life miserable.

“It didn't matter how you hid from them, they would always get to where they wanted and they would frequently eat you. But there was nothing that could be done about it; you simply had to submit,” remembered Yemelyanov.

Only rain provided them relief, but it also made everything wet as the hay roof leaked like a sieve. It was under these terrible condition that Lenin started working on the book "State and Revolution", an exposition on how he believed the socialist state would develop following the proletariat revolution, and how from that point on the state would gradually wither away leaving a pure Communist society.

Many leading Bolsheviks also came to visit Lenin in his hut under the cover of darkness. Yemelyanov’s son would stand guard, and at the sight of strangers would begin to whistle, imitating the call of a bird.

Once on a rainy day, Lenin was sitting inside the hut when a Cossack barged in to take shelter. When Lenin asked him what he

was doing, the Cossack said that he was hunting for someone named Lenin. When questioned about the crime Lenin had committed, he couldn’t answer. All he knew, he said, was that the fugitive was “muddled” and very dangerous and that he was somewhere in the neighborhood.

Following this incident, and the sufferings from rain and mosquitoes finally lead Lenin and Zinoviev to abandon their hut. They remained by the lake until 8 August 1917 and then moved to Finland.

After Lenin’s death, Yemelyanov’s barn was declared a historic monument and a museum was opened in 1925. Later in 1970 on the occasion of the 100th birth centenary of Lenin it was fully encased in glass.

Lenin's Hut didn't survive for long, so in 1928 a memorial in the form of a granite hut was built at the location of his hay hut. Later an exact replica of the actual hut was also created. In 1969, not far from the hut, a museum was opened.

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The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria

Tassili n'Ajjer is a vast desert plateau in southern Algeria, stretching from the borders with Niger and Libya to the east, to as far as Amguid in the west, covering an area of 72,000 sq. km. Thousands of years of changing Saharan climate and erosion have created stunning geological features with towering sandstone pillars, deep canyons and more than 300 natural arches.

Tassili n'Ajjer shot into worldwide fame in the 1930s, not for its landscape but for the precious collection of ancient rock art in the

area. Since their discovery, more than 15,000 petroglyphs and paintings have been identified representing 10,000 years of human history and environmental change. One of the most striking feature of these petroglyphs is the way they evolved with the change in climate.

The oldest art belongs to the so-called “Large Wild Fauna Period” (10,000-6,000 BC) characterized almost entirely by engravings of animals such as hippopotamus, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes and rhinos, depicting the abundant wildlife at a time

when the Sahara was green and fertile. Humans appear as tiny figures dwarfed by the immensity of these animals and are often shown holding boomerangs or throwing sticks, clubs, axes or bows.

Overlapping with this era is the Round Head Period (8,000-6,000 BC) where human figures with elaborate attires took dominance. These figures ranged from a few centimeters to several meters tall. The majority of Round Head paintings portray people with round featureless heads and formless bodies. Some of the pieces seem to suggest shamanism with bodies flying through space or bowing before huge male figures that tower above them.

About 7,000 years ago, domesticated animals began to appear in the art. This period is known as the Pastoral Period. Rock art from this period reflects a changing attitude towards nature and property. Human figures became more prominent, and man was no longer shown as part of nature but portrayed as being above nature, yet

able to derive sustenance from it. Wild animals gave way to cattle and stock. Later drawings (3500 years ago) depicts horses and horse-drawn chariots. It’s unlikely that chariots were ever driven across the rocky Sahara, so researchers believe the figures of chariots and armed men are symbolic, representing ownership of land, or control of its inhabitants. As the climate became progressively drier, horses were replaced by camels as evident from the rock art from the most recent period about 2000 years ago.

Tassili N'Ajjer lies about 500 meters above the level of the desert. The plateau can only be reached by climbing on foot, with camping materials and supplies drawn by donkeys and camels. Large diurnal temperature variations and the absence of basic amenities make the trip extremely challenging, so only the young and the hardy attempt to reach it. Recent violence and insecurity in the country have further isolated Tassili N'Ajjer from the routes of most tourists.

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The Mysterious Caves of Mustang, Nepal

The Kingdom of Mustang, bordering the Tibetan plateau, is one of the most remote and isolated region of Nepalese Himalaya. Once an independent Buddhist kingdom, Mustang was annexed by Nepal at the end of the 18th century, but retained its status as a separate

principality until the 1950's when the area was more closely consolidated into Nepal. Because of its sensitive border location, Mustang was off-limits to foreigners until 1992. The relative isolation of the region from the outside world has helped Mustang preserve its ancient culture which is more closely tied to Tibet than to Nepal.

The landscape is also unlike anything that is to be found anywhere else in Nepal deep gorges carved by the Kali Gandaki River, and strangely sculptured rock formations. The cliffs’ face are pitted

with an estimated 10,000 ancient cave dwellings, some of which are perched more than 150 feet above the valley floor. No one knows who dug them, or how people even scaled the near vertical rock face to access them. Some of the caves appear almost impossible to reach even to experienced climbers.

Most of the caves are now empty, but others show signs of domestic habitation hearths, grain-storage bins, and sleeping spaces. Some caves were apparently used as burial chambers. The several dozen bodies that were found in these caves were all more

than 2,000 years old. They lay on wooden beds and decorated with copper jewelry and glass beads.

In other caves, skeletons dating from the 3rd to the 8th centuries, before Buddhism came to Mustang, had cut marks on the bones that may have been inflicted during the practice of sky burial, where the body’s flesh is sliced into small pieces and left to be eaten by vultures. Sky burial is still practiced in many remote regions in the Himalaya.

Archeologists believe that the caves in Mustang were used in three general periods. They were first used some 3,000 years ago as burial chambers. Then around 1,000 years ago, they became primarily living quarters, perhaps to escape battles and intruders

into the valley. Finally, by the 1400s, most people had moved into traditional villages and the caves became places of meditation. Some of these caves were turned into monasteries such as the Luri Gompa, the Chungsi Cave monastery and the Nyiphuk Cave Monastery, all of which were built around and inside the caves.

Luri Gompa is one of the most famous in Mustang. The monastery is set on a ledge, at least a hundred meter high from the ground, in one of the many natural pillar like sandstone structures. A winding footpath climbs all the way from the bottom of the valley to a single entrance door that leads into two interconnecting chambers.

The outer chamber contains a shrine, while the inner chamber the main treasure of Luri Gompa is beautifully decorated with a series of paintings depicting Indian Mahasiddhas saints who were said to have achieved siddhi, or extraordinary powers by meditation. No documentation pertaining to this mysterious gompa or monastery has been found, but the wall paintings appear to be have been made in the 14th century or even earlier.

Source: Natgeo.com

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The Plague Island of Poveglia ( Scary Place to be discover )

The island of Poveglia is one of the many small islands located in the Venetian Lagoon between Venice and Lido. It is believed to be haunted by the ghosts of thousands of people that allegedly died here when the island served as a quarantine colony for plague victims at the time of Napoleon, and later as an asylum for the mentally ill. The psychiatrist who ran the hospital was a psychopath who butchered and tortured his patients, and later took his own life by throwing himself from the island's bell tower. After the hospital closed, the island lay abandoned for nearly fifty years. Fishermen avoided it for fear of netting human bones. Now a new project hopes to transform this long forgotten and feared island into a dream university campus.

Poveglia Island first entered into history books in 421. The first inhabitants were refugees fleeing from the barbaric Hun invaders lead by the fearful ‘Attila the Hun’ who ravaged the mainland. These people escaped to the island and made it their home. For the next several centuries, Poveglia had a peaceful history. The people extracted salt, fished and grew food. The island's population began to grow, and so did its importance until 1379, when Venice came under attack from the Genoan fleet. The people of Poveglia were hastily removed to a safer place.

From 1645 on, the Venetian government built five octagonal forts to protect and control the entrances to the lagoon. The Poveglia octagon is one of four that still survive on the island.

In 1776 the Public Health Office opened a check point on the island to inspect all goods and people coming to and going from Venice by ship. In 1793, when several cases of plague was discovered on two of the ships, the infected were forcibly disembarked and temporarily confined to the island. When plague in Europe took pandemic proportion, the second time since the Black Death of the 14th century, Poveglia Island became the dumping ground for the diseased and the infected. An estimated 160,000 people lived and died here. The rumor is that nearly half of the soil contains human remains.

In 1922, the existing buildings on the island were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill, which constinued to function until 1968, when the hospital was closed. For almost half a century, Poveglia remained isolated, long enough for vegetation to invade every inch of the island and the buildings.

For the last few years, the island has been subject to various reclamation projects. None have been implemented yet. In 2014, an Italian businessman, Luigi Brugnaro, bought lease of the island for

99 years with the intention of developing it into some kind of public use. Now the Young Architects association has launched a competition inviting architects to submit ideas for a university campus on the island. We are not sure whether the project is actually backed by Luigi Brugnaro, or is just a mean to showcase talent.

Note!

 Many online articles on Poveglia say that the island became quarantine quarters for plague victims during the Black Death that swept across Europe in the 14th century. This is incorrect. Poveglia had a healthy, living population at that time. The island’s morbid history didn’t begin until the late 18th century.

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