Few New Zealand bands get the opportunity to represent their country as cultural ambassadors. The Pipes and Drums of Christchurch City has fulfilled that role, always in an unofficial capacity, on various occasions. Its members have always found the role rewarding and a great opportunity to learn about people in other countries.
There is an awareness in Russia that cultural exchanges have a valuable role in promoting goodwill between people of different countries. Accordingly, in 2018, a festival known as The Land of Good and Peace was organised to bring cultural groups from around the world to Crimea to perform in the towns and at places of historic and cultural significance.
We were delighted to be the first pipe band ever to perform in Crimea. For twelve days from 7th to 19th March, we were accommodated at a luxurious tourist resort, the Palmira Palace, close to Yalta.
We performed daily at various towns and were well-received by the big crowds that turned out wherever we went, perhaps because it was the first time they had heard or seen anything as unusual as a highland pipe band in full military uniform.
Many civilisations have called Crimea their home over the millennia, and each has left its mark, as we were to discover.
We visited Bakhchysarai, the quaint, centuries-old former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Since the Tartars began returning to Crimea in the 1990s, it's cultural heritage has undergone a revival, with the fine old buildings and mosques being restored after decades of neglect. We toured Hansaray, the grand old palace of the Crimean Khans. The palace and its gardens are wonderful examples of the charming 16th Century Crimean Tartar style. After giving a recital, our hosts whisked us off to a delicious lunch of authentic Crimean Tartar cuisine that included sweet tea, meaty pancakes and shish kebabs.
One memorable concert was given before a huge crowd at a 2,400 year old amphitheatre, among the ruins of the ancient Greek town of Chersonesus, on the outskirts of Sevastopol. The thin thread of time and place that linked us to all those military and political leaders, musicians, actors, poets and other performers who had addressed and entertained audiences on that spot stretching back 24 centuries invested the occasion with a pathos. After finishing our performance, it took 45 minutes to get through the crowd to our bus, parked less than 100m away. After all our concerts, people wanted to talk to us, or have their photo taken with a piper or drummer.
We gave concerts at palaces on the southern coast, in and near Yalta: the magnificent Emperor Alexander III Palace, and also the Vorontsov and Livadia Palaces. The last of these was a favourite residence of the royal family and was where Nicholas II wanted to retire as a private citizen following his abdication. Even more significant, it was the venue of the Yalta Conference where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in 1944 to plot the end game of The War and decide on the shape of the post-war world. It was a great experience to be conducted through the rooms where such definitive history was made.
Many wars have been fought on Crimean soil, and each has left its mark. This is reflected in the ubiquitous war memorials and museums scattered throughout the peninsula. The 35th Coastal Battery Memorial museum in Sevastopol was perhaps the most noteworthy that we visited. It is the site of a huge World War II underground bunker and gun emplacement. You will have some idea of the size of the place if you have ever seen the movie Guns of Navarone. The guns are long gone, but we saw the 12” shells. They were enormous, with a 42-mile range – that is a long way to fire something almost as heavy as a farm tractor! They were going to fire one for Stalin when he visited the facility, but he declined the honour when told how much each shell cost.
Other highlights included:
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A visit to the home in Feodosia of the renowned 19th Century painter, Ivan Aivazovsky, where some of his 6,000 paintings are displayed. We were spellbound. A genius, his name should be as familiar to us in the West as say Rembrandt. The interested reader might like to look on the internet for 'The Ninth Wave', which is perhaps his best work.
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A look at the battlefield where the Charge of the Light Brigade took place in 1854.
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Wine tasting at the Massandra vineyard, which grows a variety of grape found nowhere else. They claim to produce the best wine in the world, a boast we decided was probably correct. Their wine was the last tsar's favourite, and they continue to supply the rich and famous such as President Putin and Silvio Berlusconi, both of whom visit from time to time.
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A visit to the coastal town of Balaklava. Some of our fitter members climbed up to a ruined Genoese fortress high on a clifftop, above the entrance to the Balaklava inlet. The view was magnificent. A huge hollowed-out hill on the other side of the harbour was the world's largest submarine base until it closed in 1993. Said to be indestructible, the base was designed to survive a nuclear attack. It is now a naval museum.
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A Russian sauna (Banya) that alternates between super-hot saunas and an ice-water plunge. Popular in Russia for many centuries, the banya has developed out of the ancient concept of 'health through water'. Even so, it is not to be recommended to anybody with a weak heart!
Crimea is immensely beautiful. Most of it is a vast steppe, with mountains along the southern coast. Crimea saw some of the most ferocious fighting on the Eastern Front during World War Two. The loss of human life and the destruction in the towns was enormous. Nevertheless, a great deal of the pre-war and pre-revolution architecture has survived, especially in the rural areas, enabling one to appreciate what Crimea was like to live in before those two devastating events.
We left Crimea sad at leaving behind the many friends we had made. The Crimean’s are great people, very hospitable and down-to-earth. They have a rich cultural heritage and are fortunate to live in a land with huge economic potential. We wish them every success in the future.