Ville Ropponen and Natalia Deviatkina: The Crimean Peninsula – travel book

Ville Ropponen and Natalia Deviatkina: The Crimean Peninsula (Krimin niemimaa, Savukeidas 2010, 303 pp.)

 

From Part I: “General Information about the Crimea”

Food, drink, and restaurants (pp 37–38)

Tourists roam the Crimea during all seasons of the year, and eating out-of-doors is common, so there is a wide selection of restaurants from rough and ready grills to the dining palaces of the nouveau riche. Various cultural influences can be glimpsed on the menus of Crimean restaurants. There are Ukrainian, Caucasian, and Korean restaurants. The first pan-European spots opened recently. The Crimean Tatar restaurants are in a class of their own, with the aromas of herbs and garlic wafting from within.

The Soviet Russian culinary model, which the majority of Crimean restaurants follow, will be familiar to those who have traveled in Russia or Ukraine. It is doubtful this was part of the Communist Party’s plans, but the influence of the Soviet Union accustomed the Russian culinary palette to a succulent hybrid of various national cuisines. Shashlk is originally from the Caucasus, borscht and vareniki (potato dumplings) are from Ukraine, and palmeni come from the Volga region and Siberia. The undercurrent of the meal remains the agrarian staples of butter, potatoes, cabbage, and salt. One begins with blini, continues with cold okróshka beer soup, and ends with kotleti. Thanks to the French influences originally introduced to St. Petersburg restaurants by the Russian nobility, salads and sauces, and cutlets and fillets accompany the meal. Turkic plov, i.e. pilaf, can be had from almost any restaurant in the Crimea.

The Russian salads are especially tasty, although not on the lighter side since many contain a mayonnaise dressing. Shrimp, ham, fish, chicken, or eggs are combined in these substantial salads with vegetables, spices, and garlic.

Seafood is a Crimean specialty. Sturgeon skewers sizzled over a charcoal grill melt in the mouth; the breaded zander (pike-perch), scallops, mussels, crabs and octopus will blow your mind.  The most common seafood found in Crimean restaurants is a fish related to the mullet named pelingas, pilingas, or pelengas, taken from the Sea of Azov. Fried and seasoned with herbs and lemon it is so delicious that as you sit there you may find yourself swear never eat anything but fish from that moment on.

…

From Part III: “Perspectives on the Reality of the Crimea”

The Green Revolution (pp 249–250)

In East Crimea, on the outskirts of the city of Shcholkine, a gigantic cube rises from the ground. Doves circle the apocalyptic block, behind which glistens salty Lake Aktashskoye. The structure in question is the unfinished Crimean Atomic Energy Station.

When we arrived at the carcass of the nuclear power plant, which has withered into a tourist attraction, we ran into a film crew. The movie people had dressed three white goats up in clothing. The goats were sent storming through the gates of the power plant – and the cameras rolled. Shots rang out from the direction of the salt lake, echoing through the halls of the power plant.

“Partridge hunting,” explained Maxim, who was some sort of guard.

Maxim was guarding the power plant for a Donetskian investor who bought it the previous year. The investor wanted to sell the metal parts of the power plant as scrap.

“It can’t be torn down completely. It could withstand an atomic bomb,” Maxim observes.

Under Maxim’s guidance we set off on an excursion into the power plant. Flashlights illuminated our way, casting distorted shadows into the twists and turns of the passageways. We walked up endless stairs and through large halls covered in cement dust and wreckage. Wings flapped—doves make their nests along the edge of the ceiling of the upper hall. Shattered components and circuit boards crunched under foot. We avoided the jagged pieces of tubing. We inspected the control room and the empty shell of the reactor.

A nut rolled along the floor and fell into the elevator shaft. We peaked into the cellar where Moscow music entrepreneurs have been holding techno raves since the mid-1990’s. Russian and Ukrainian movies have also been filmed in the power plant.

It is both an amazing agglomeration of industrial waste and a monument to the victory of the Crimean green movement. The history of the power plant project and its demise is a story of the negligence of the Soviet bureaucracy, ignoring the environment for economic gain, and the courage of individual citizens.

…

CONTENTS

Preface

General Information about the Crimea

Climate
Natural environment and geography
Flora and fauna
Government
Economy
A rainbow of cultures
The language issue
Traveling to the Crimea
When you arrive
            Lodging and hygiene
            Currency and prices
            Safety. If you get sick.
            Children
            Communications connections
            Telephones. Mail. Internet
            Getting around the Crimea
            Active vacations
            Travel agencies
            Crimean events and holidays
Local customs
Food, drink, and restaurants
Crimean wine
Crimean Tatar cuisine
Crimean Tatar customs and traditions
Wrinkles of history
            The Hellenes in Tauris
            From Rome to the Mongol Hordes
            Islamic cultural hub
            Tatars versus Cossacks
            Under Russian rule
            The Crimean War was terrible
            Crimean Tatar nationalism
            Wrangel in the Crimea
            Soviet control
            From Nazi occupation to Sürgün 
            Sanatorium oasis
            Crimean history in dates
Between Ukraine and Russia
The political situation
Slow media diversification
Relative freedom of speech
Democratic deficit and green activism

II Where to Go in the Crimea

Simferopol
Bakhchisaray. The Cave Towns
Belogorsk
Sevastopol
Balaklava
Inkerman
Yevpatoria
Saky
The Tarkhankut peninsula
Yalta
Alupka
The holy Tatar mountain of Ai-Petri
Uchan-Su Waterfall and Lake Karagol
Simeiz. Koreiz. Miskhor. Gaspra
The Swallow’s Nest
Foros
Livadia
Massandra. Nikitsky Botanical Garden
Gurzuf
Alushta
Demerji Moutain and the Valley of Ghosts
Chatyr-Dag Mountain. Stalactite Caverns
Sudak
Novyi Svet
Kurortne
Koktebel
Kara-Dag Nature Reserve
Feodosiya
Staryi Krym
Kerch
Shcholkine – The nuclear power plant workers’ utopia
Kazantip Nature Reserve
Kamianske

III. Perspectives on the Reality of the Crimea

Back to the Crimea
The Karaites – the children of Çufut Qale
The Green Revolution
“The state of our culture has improved”
Crimean Tatars versus Soviet power
Darkness as teacher in the Crimea
Always something else – the Crimea in the mirror of Russian literature
Afterward

Cyrillic alphabet
Mini Finnish-Russian dictionary
Literature about the Crimea
Maps of the Crimea, Yalta, and Sevastapol

Translation by Owen F. Witesman