Thread: Travel Blog; CIS/ex-USSR countries (i.e. Russian speaking)

Originally Posted by Hanna

When I finally found the metro (not linked to the actual trains station, you have to go out, cross a small piazza, and then you see, it; it's marked "При[something] Вокзал - very nice building".)

Приміський вокзал = Пригородный вокзал (по-русски) = suburban train station

Yes, I've read in Swedish papers, that Ukraine ordered statues of him. Which was surprising to Sweden because Karl XII has become a hero to extreme nationalists etc (neo nazists etc). Nobody in Sweden was aware that he was a hero in Ukraine.

Not to say he is a hero but Mazepa hoped to use him to get independence from Moscow. So nowadays his statue is a memory of the hope for independence of Ukraine.

AFAIK Karl XII was a great general, who won many battles. But as a ruler he was unable to make use of his victories and his first defeat turned into a complete disaster.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

AFAIK Karl XII was a great general, who won many battles. But as a ruler he was unable to make use of his victories and his first defeat turned into a complete disaster.

It's unbelievable that he continued to wage war against a much bigger country with an advanced army, almost unlimited space and many more people.. Of course that would never work out, at least in a longer perspective! Because of him, we are not a big and important country, but an unimportant country in the outskirts of Europe, and some territories that ought to be Swedish are now Finnish. I really don't know a lot about this period in history, but it seems pointless to blame Russia for more or less simply defending itself. I am definitely not interested in going to Poltava - would be totally depressing.