An Introduction to Inline Skating in Russia

An article about a skating adventure in Russia by Kathie Fry, a Southern California skater also known as Kathie Walling Fry. See also more about Russia Skating, about Skating World Wide, and all of our Skating Resources.

When I told my friends I was planning a skating holiday in Russia, they all had one question... WHY? They said things like "Won't the streets be in terrible condition?" and "Aren't you worried about street crime and the Russian Mafia?". After skating in Russia two years in a row, and spending many hours with the friendly skaters of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pushkin and Novgorod, I can tell you, without reservation, that Russia is one of the most exciting and unique skating destinations in the world.

Why Skate in Russia?

Russian cities have many beautiful, historic and exotic sights, and most of them can be seen on skates. Russia also has a growing inline skating community that is eager to share the joys and pleasures of skating in Russia with the rest of the world. Even the law enforcement authorities in Russia are typically friendly to skaters, as long as you don't do anything overtly dangerous.

Getting Around in Russia

It is very possible to rent a car in Russia, but I have never found it necessary to do so. You can skate almost anywhere you need to go, and when distances are too far to skate, you can always take a subway, bus, or train. When all else fails, you can hire a taxi, but for me that was rarely necessary. If you need to travel between Moscow and St. Petersburg you can take a domestic flight, but I always enjoy taking the overnight train between those two cities.

You can skate right onto most trains and buses in Russia, but one place you will never be permitted to skate is inside the underground subway (Metro) system. You must remove your skates before you enter any Russian subway station. The subways can be intimidating at first, if you are not familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet, but I discovered a trick that makes navigating Russian subway systems a piece of cake: purchase two subway maps, one in Russian, and one in English or your native language. You will need both of them - trust me!

Skating in Moscow

Photos (to be added)

Skating in Moscow is a real treat because of the city's many historic sights, beautiful parks, and incredibly smooth, wide sidewalks. You are welcome to skate in the street almost anywhere in Moscow, but the sidewalks in that city are such a skater's dream, you will find yourself doing most of your city skating on sidewalks instead of in the street. Moscow is rather hilly, so you will probably want to attach a brake to your skates unless you are a true expert at stopping without one. Most Russian skaters do not use a brake, but I would never skate in Moscow without one.

In central Moscow you can skate past all the famous places you have read about, including Red Square, the Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theater, Pushkin Square, the Arbat shopping district, GUM Department Store and many other well-known and historic places. I found out that you can't really skate IN Moscow's Red Square (unless you enjoy skating on serious cobblestones) but you can skate all around both Red Square and the Kremlin.

If you are looking for other skaters, the best places to find them are in Gorky Park, Victory Park, and the park adjacent to the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. Another great place to skate is in the hills around Moscow University. If you take the subway up to that area you can skate on a gentle downhill slope for blocks and blocks on one of Moscow's typical ultra-smooth, ultra-wide sidewalks. Be sure to stop at the lookout across from the University to see a beautiful panoramic view of Moscow.

Skating in St. Petersburg

Photos (to be added)

St. Petersburg (formerly called Leningrad) is a beautiful city on the banks of the Neva River in Northwest Russia on the Gulf of Finland. Moscow architecture is very Russian, but St. Petersburg was built in a Western European style. The city is very picturesque, with views across the Neva River and a series of canals crisscrossing the center of town.

St. Petersburg was built on 50 islands connected by 300 bridges, and it is great fun to skate back and forth across the bridges, hopping from island to island. You can skate past many famous and historic sights including the Hermitage Museum, Palace Square, the Statue of the Bronze Horseman, the Church of Blood and Tears, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Neva River embankments, and many other famous landmarks.

The best time to visit St. Petersburg is during the White Nights of June, when it stays light 24 hours a day, but there are two things you need to remember when you are skating at night in St. Petersburg. First, the subway system shuts down at midnight, and second, many of the bridges in the city open about 2:00 a.m. to allow ships to pass through. That means you need to plan carefully to avoid being stranded on the wrong island when the bridges are up. But really, if that ever does happen, it is not such a disaster. You can spend the rest of the night skating up and down the river embankments, watching the bridges being lifted and lowered.

You will see occasional skaters all over St. Petersburg, but if you really want to meet the local skaters, there is one place you will always find them: Victory Seaside Park on Krestovsky Island. This park is the best place in the city for skating, because of its lovely tree-lined roads and beautiful views across the Baltic Sea. Every time I visit St. Petersburg there are more and more skaters in this park. There are cone skaters, artistic skaters, and aggressive skaters in the large open area below the stadium, speed skaters and roller skiers on the auto racing track that surrounds the stadium, and recreational skaters on the tree-lined roads that run all over this vast island park. Another place the local skaters gather is in front of the Hermitage Museum in the evening, but you are more certain to find skaters in Victory Seaside Park.

Day Trips from St. Petersburg A wonderful way to see the countryside around St. Petersburg is to take a train, bus or boat to one of the towns outside the city and skate back to St. Petersburg. You can make day trips or long weekend trips to Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Novgorod, Sosnovy Bor, and Kronstadt on the Island of Kotlin.

Skating in Pushkin

Photos (to be added)

The town of Pushkin was called Tsarskoye Selo until it was renamed in 1917. It was the residence of the tsars from the beginning of the 18th century, when a huge palace and a park complex were built, including the Catherine Palace and Alexander Park. The Catherine Palace is one of the best examples of Russian Baroque architecture.

Pushkin is only a short train ride from St. Petersburg. Whenever I travel there with friends, we always follow a set routine. After we arrive at the Pushkin train station, we spend some time skating up and down the avenues of the town, through parks and along the shop-lined streets. The town is on a gentle hill, so skaters will get a good workout going one way and a nice long ride going the other. Next we skate to the Egyptian Gates to take a group photo before we stop for ice cream in the square in front of the Catherine Palace.

Now we are ready to head out of town for a skate through the countryside. We skate on a bridge over a ravine, and head for a model Chinese village that is currently being used as a hotel. We take a group photo under the Chinese Gate, skate through the Chinese village, and stop for a group swim at a local lake. Next we skate through a beautiful meadow and forest, to a cafe where we all have lunch. At that point, the group can either catch the train back to St. Petersburg or skate all the way back to the city, visiting the palaces and parks of Pavlovsk along the way.

Skating in Peterhof

Photos (to be added)

No visit to St. Petersburg would be complete without a visit to the beautiful palace of Peterhof (also called Petergof, Petrovorets, and Peter's Palace). Peterhof is about 30 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, and I usually travel there by hydrofoil and return home by bus and underground subway. It is possible to skate in Peterhof, but I usually make this a non-skating day trip to give my feet a chance to rest.

The main reason to visit Peterhof is to spend the day at Peter's Palace. The palace is a fabulously ornate structure built to rival the Palace of Versailles. You can take a guided tour of the interior of the palace, but I prefer to spend the day strolling through the formal upper gardens and the park-like lower grounds, with more than 150 very unique fountains. If it is a very warm day, I might even decide to climb IN all those fountains and dance in the water sprays (it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do).

Skating in Novgorod

Photos (to be added)

Novgorod is about 180 kilometers from St. Petersburg and 530 kilometers from Moscow. There are two Novgorods in Russia, and this one is known as "Novgorod Veliki" (Novgorod the Great). The city is divided in two parts by the Volkhov River, and it is in an area famous for ancient churches and monasteries. As in most Russian cities, it is possible to skate almost anywhere in the town of Novgorod, but there are two very special place to skate: inside the walls of the Novgorod Kremlin and on the beach trail that runs along the Volkov River.

The Novgorod Kremlin is a lovely place to skate because inside those walls you can skate very close to ancient Russian Churches and historic monuments. Don't miss the 11th-century St. Sophia's Cathedral, one of the oldest stone buildings in Russia, and the beautiful "Thousand Years of Russia" monument, a huge bell surrounded by 128 figures of famous Russian citizens.

There is also a very special restaurant inside the Kremlin walls. Detinets Restaurant is one of the best places in Russia to try the local cuisine. You can sit inside the dark and cool interior of the restaurant or have your meal outside under the elm trees, still wearing your skates. It can take 40 minutes or more for your food to arrive but just sit back and relax, try a glass of Medovukha (a local alcoholic honey drink), and enjoy your surroundings. The food will be well worth the wait.

Just outside the Kremlin walls, on the embankments of the Volkhov River, there are paved trails on both sides of the river connected by a pedestrian bridge. There is also a lovely beach where you can spend an entire day relaxing, swimming, and having a picnic.

Two places you should not miss during your visit to Novgorod are the beautiful Yuriev Monastery, with its blue onion-shaped domes, and the fascinating Museum of Traditional Russian Wooden Architecture.

Skating the Dikes of Kotlin Island

One of my favorite day trips from St. Petersburg is to skate from Kronstadt on the Island of Kotlin, back toward St. Petersburg on a series of dikes and bridges. Kotlin Island is the home of a naval fortress that was originally built to guard St. Petersburg against attacks from the sea.

You can access the island by car because it is connected to the mainland by bridges and narrow strips of land. The most pleasant way to travel there is by boat, but if that is not possible you can hire a taxi or use one of the public mini-van services. NOTE: If you ever visit Peterhof by boat, and you look across the water from the spot where you land, you can see the dikes and the town of Kronstadt off in the distance.

Usually our first stop after arriving in Kronstadt is to visit the naval museum housed in the former Kronstadt Maritime Cathedral. After the museum we visit a local shipyard to get a close-up look at some Russian warships and submarines. The road into the shipyard is almost not skateable and getting close to the ships usually requires a combination of skating, walking, and stepping over bad places in the road. You could always remove your skates, but that would not be nearly as much fun! After leaving the shipyard, we skate through the streets of Kronstadt, stopping in different places to view the shoreline and several military monuments.

Finally, with great excitement and anticipation, we arrive at the entrance to the dike road. The highway on top of the dikes is mostly fine for skating, although sometimes, as you approach or leave one of the dikes, you might encounter some gravel or a rough spot in the road. I am only an intermediate skater, and I have never found this to be a problem, but I would advise you to pay close attention to the skating surface when you are on this road. The route across the dikes is mostly a series of gentle uphills and downhills as you skate from dike to dike, with the area just before and after each dike being the steepest. We usually stop at the top of each dike to drink water, take photos, and regroup.

After we reach the mainland at the end of the dike road, we move off the main highway onto a quieter country road that runs through a beautiful pine forest. Usually we skate this road at a more relaxed pace, stopping frequently to take photos, talk to the locals, and view the dachas (country homes) which range from very simple to ultra-luxurious. We continue through the forest until we reach the resort area of Sestroresk, where we linger for a swim and a stroll on the beach. If you walk far enough up this beach there is a naturist area where you can swim and sunbathe in the nude!

After leaving the beach, we usually stop at a cafe for lunch, and skate to the nearest town to catch a train back to St. Petersburg. It is also possible to skate all the way back to the city if you are feeling especially energetic at this point.

Skating in Sosnovy Bor

Sosnovy Bor is a charming town on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, about 100 kilometers west of St. Petersburg. It is surrounded by pine forests and sand dunes, and it is a favorite long weekend destination for skaters in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The town itself is very skater-friendly because it has little automobile traffic, but the real attraction for skaters is the hilly Sosnovy Bor Biathlon Loop Trail that runs through a pine forest just outside of town. The trail is often used for downhill skating contests. It is 1.6 kilometers long and 2.5 to 3 meters wide, with 11 turns, 11 uphill sections, and 9 downhill sections. The maximum downhill slope is 33 degrees.

Skaters from Moscow and St. Petersburg like to visit Sosnovy Bor in groups, camping in the sand dunes, swimming in the Gulf of Finland, and skating the biathlon trail and some of the roads around Sosnovy Bor. An interesting side trip is to skate from Sosnovy Bor to the Village of Kotly. The road is lined on both sides by a pine forest and the distance is about 70 kilometers.

Two additional interesting sights in this area are the Sosnovy Bor Museum of Modern Art and the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Nuclear Power Plant. IMPORTANT NOTE: Because Sosnovy Bor is a significant nuclear power research center, if you are not a Russian citizen you will probably need a special permit from the Russian Ministry of Security to visit this area.

Resources

- FaSST Magazine 2002 Article
- Inline.spb.ru (St. Petersburg)
- Roller.ru (Moscow)

---

More About Skating in Russia

Skating in All of Europe

Regional Skating Resources World Wide

Disciplines of Skating Introduction

---