Jurong Junior College

At Lenin Museum

Despite its location at the heart of bustling Red Square, the sanctity of Lenin’s Mausoleum is strictly maintained as all visitors to the site had to remain extremely quiet when passing by Lenin’s body, which was housed in a beautiful glass case. In addition, as a mark of respect, we were not allowed to wear our gloves nor put our hands in our pockets during the entire time!

by group 2: huiyi, yoongzhen, weiyang, benjamin, wira

The iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral seen in a different light - against the morning sun

Even the security camera in the History Museum is designed to blend in with the architecture

Platform where the Tsars (past rulers of Russia) made public appearance and speeches

At Pushkin Museum

The Pushskin State Museum of Fine Arts

Our Russian tour guide, Ms Alexandra, explaining the history of the museum

Children:
Look! These students are having their history lessons in the museum, which is more engaging & interesting as learning takes place beyond the classroom.

Cosmetic box:
Do you know the function of this item? Let us tell you the answer. This is a cosmetic box which was excavated from Egypt. People in those times believed that there was life after death. Hence, the deceased were buried with their accessories so they could still use them in the afterlife.

Mummy:
Although this artifact is called a mummy, this is not the type which would get a mother’s day card because wrapped under the many layers of linen was a 3000 year old corpse.

David is the beautiful and unique sculpture by Michaelangelo:
Though we were in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the presence of Michaelangelo’s famous statue made us feel like we were in the Lourve Museum in Paris where the original statue is. This allowed aspiring Russian artists to use the masterpieces as a means to study art.

by group 4: philp, uyen, an, alan, teeyang, mengyao

At the Museum of the Great Patriotic War

This giant asterisk is neither scrap metal nor the base of a designer coffee table. Would you believe that this was an anti-tank barricade? This object was scattered throughout the battlefield to halt the tens of thousands of German tanks that advanced into Russia during World War 2

The inscriptions on the sword states, ‘The person who comes to him with a sword will be killed by the sword’. This highlights the maxim that those who wage war to kill will in turn be killed.- a painful lesson we learnt from World War II.

This installation is found in the museum’s Hall of Sorrow. The entire ceiling of the hall was covered completely by these crystallized tears, signifying the tears shed by the relatives of the victims of the war. This illustrated very clearly the tragedy of war for all those who visited the museum

This painting depicting the fall of Berlin in the last stages of World War 2 was brought to life with the use of a diorama- a mixture of both 2-D paintings and 3-D props to enhance a feeling of actually being at the battle site. We felt that we were able to share the joy of the Russian soldiers at the defeat of Hitler’s Germany.

by group 3: jianhui, xiejing, nirmal, boonkang, zhihao

At the peak of the war memorial is Goddess Nike, flanked by two angels, singing glory to the victory of Russia after WWII

Saint George, patriot saint of Moscow city

A 122m tall war memorial erected outside the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow

The War Museum showcases several dioramas (large paintings with actual props) to enable visitors to visualize the harsh conditions of Russia during WW2. This diorama features the bombing of Moscow city during the war.

Soldiers at one of Russia’s collective farms, “ Sovetskuy”, cheering over a small victory.

The diorama depicts “The siege of Leningrad”. This siege was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg) during WWII

Battle at the Octyabrsky collective farm. Notice how the army tank in the foreground blends in seamlessly with the painting in the background

This "Battle of the Lower Dnieper" took place in 1943. It was one of the largest WWII operations, involving almost 4 million troops on both sides and stretching over a 1400km long front

Exchange Rates

Exchanging currencies is convenient in Moscow. We bought the Rubles at US$1= R30 when we began the trip on Day 1. Since the selling rate of USD now is US$1=R29.65, we have in fact saved R35 (equivalent to the price of 1 can of drink) for every US$100 being changed.

This was the last day of our trip and we were changing our excess Russian Rubles back to USD.

Celebration

Piping hot Pizza to warm our hearts in Russia's bitter cold!