teisipäev, juuli 19, 2005
Kohtla-Järve
Yesterday we began our vacation. We decided to spend the week doing day trips around Estonia seeing the various places we have heard about. Because the country is roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire together, this is not a difficult thing to do.
We started in Narva because we were already there on Sunday to do the worship service. We had planned to go to several places, but after spending the morning in Narva, decided to only visit the town of Kohtla-Järva. It is the fourth largest city in Estonia, and since it is in the northeast only around 60 km from Narva, we figured is was a great time to check it out. It was unlike any place else I've been to so far in Estonia.
Every Estonian city has its remnants of the Soviet era: big ugly concrete apartment buildings scattered here and there, maybe some rusty iron bridges that are starting to crumble. But overall, Estonian cities tended to retain their character despite the years of occupation. Kohtla-Järva is completely different.
It was a small town prior to World War II. After that, the Soviets decided to build it up as an industrial center because of the oil shale that can be found there. That is why the city's size blossomed. But because of this, it was Soviet planners who built up the city and their goal always seemed to be to make things feel intimidatingly large and imposing. As we drove around, it was like stepping back in time. There were row after row of the unsightly concrete apartment buildings (common enough in other towns, but Soviet none the less), huge buildings with expansive areas in front that seem to serve no other purpose than to look impressive, a large, glorious monument to the oil shale miners, big factory buildings that stood in ruins. It was an amazing and depressing sight to see. Many buildings appeared to be abandoned. Those that weren't were not well maintained. Everything looked utilitarian and bleak. It really weighed on me to see the place. We even saw the culture house (theatre) that was built in the early 50s, and it still had the hammer and sickle carved over the door. I have included a few pictures below to give you an idea of how it looked (you can click on them for a larger view).
From what I've been able to learn about the town, most of its nearly 50,000 residents work in the oil shale industry, but that has been in decline. Most people speak Russian, not Estonian, and according to one web site I found, "Of the town’s population, 19 939 are Estonian citizens, 6363 Russian citizens, and there are 20 366 stateless persons. 296 people hold some other country’s citizenship, and the citizenship of 715 persons is unknown." That means more than half of the population, as stateless persons, have no citizenship and only limited rights!
I believe that when God is ready for The Salvation Army to expand again here in Estonia, this will likely be a place to go. These are Army people. The place made such a deep impression on me I just had to blog about it.
Please pray for the people of Kohtla-Järve today.
--Tim
We started in Narva because we were already there on Sunday to do the worship service. We had planned to go to several places, but after spending the morning in Narva, decided to only visit the town of Kohtla-Järva. It is the fourth largest city in Estonia, and since it is in the northeast only around 60 km from Narva, we figured is was a great time to check it out. It was unlike any place else I've been to so far in Estonia.
Every Estonian city has its remnants of the Soviet era: big ugly concrete apartment buildings scattered here and there, maybe some rusty iron bridges that are starting to crumble. But overall, Estonian cities tended to retain their character despite the years of occupation. Kohtla-Järva is completely different.
It was a small town prior to World War II. After that, the Soviets decided to build it up as an industrial center because of the oil shale that can be found there. That is why the city's size blossomed. But because of this, it was Soviet planners who built up the city and their goal always seemed to be to make things feel intimidatingly large and imposing. As we drove around, it was like stepping back in time. There were row after row of the unsightly concrete apartment buildings (common enough in other towns, but Soviet none the less), huge buildings with expansive areas in front that seem to serve no other purpose than to look impressive, a large, glorious monument to the oil shale miners, big factory buildings that stood in ruins. It was an amazing and depressing sight to see. Many buildings appeared to be abandoned. Those that weren't were not well maintained. Everything looked utilitarian and bleak. It really weighed on me to see the place. We even saw the culture house (theatre) that was built in the early 50s, and it still had the hammer and sickle carved over the door. I have included a few pictures below to give you an idea of how it looked (you can click on them for a larger view).
From what I've been able to learn about the town, most of its nearly 50,000 residents work in the oil shale industry, but that has been in decline. Most people speak Russian, not Estonian, and according to one web site I found, "Of the town’s population, 19 939 are Estonian citizens, 6363 Russian citizens, and there are 20 366 stateless persons. 296 people hold some other country’s citizenship, and the citizenship of 715 persons is unknown." That means more than half of the population, as stateless persons, have no citizenship and only limited rights!
I believe that when God is ready for The Salvation Army to expand again here in Estonia, this will likely be a place to go. These are Army people. The place made such a deep impression on me I just had to blog about it.
Please pray for the people of Kohtla-Järve today.
--Tim
