A Few Days in Novorossisk

The Fellowship Group traveled to the northern Caucasus for our final regional trip. Our destination was the port city of Novorossisk, on the shores of the Black Sea.

The city is along the sides of a deep water harbor (30m) that cuts into the surrounding mountains like a sharp wedge. It’s a striking setting, made all the more dramatic by the mountains, the sea, and the massive industry that rings the harbor.

Novorossisk is Russia’s largest southern seaport, and a principal port of exit for its oil exports. There’s an enormous cement factory, as well, that mines the adjacent mountain for minerals. It’s an industrial landscape of epic proportions, but somehow made softer by the ships at anchor in the Black Sea and the other beautiful scenery.

The city was the front line in WWII, and there are monuments all over town to various heroes and heroics. The Nazi push toward the oilfields of the Caucasus was stopped here, earning the city the title of “Hero City” – a title that is proudly used even in casual conversation.

There isn’t too much to see in a cultural sense in the city – it was completely leveled during the war and rebuilt along soviet functional standards. It’s a nice enough place, in that context, and the city fathers have gone some distance toward beautification with parks and walkways along the harbor.

The real seashore activity takes place at some surrounding towns, like Gelendzhik – a charming seaside city with a stunning view and a brand new promenade from which to enjoy it. The tourist trade here is booming, and all the towns are racing to improve their infrastructure for the swelling crowds of the Russian middle class that come flocking here in the summer. It was still a few months from the season and while progress was being made, nothing was exactly moving at a fevered pace on a somewhat lazy Saturday afternoon along the waterfront. I made a mental note to come back in season some day.

The real culture here is the culture of the grapes, with vineyards from the days of the first ancient Greek settlements still lining the slopes of the mountains beginning just outside of town. We visited a winery on one day, and a Champagne factory (?) on the next. Both were pretty interesting, but the champagne method was fascinating. Production here dates from the late 19th century, and closely follows the official French method. We were fortunate to see the corking phase, too, when the sediments are removed and the bottles corked and labeled. I did my Laverne and Shirley impression – “Schlemiel, Schlomozel, Hossenfeffer Incorporated” – as we toured the inspection line. Of course, none of the Russians got the joke.

We also met with representatives from the two leading ports in town. We talked about their growth plans, the pace of business, the competitive issues of having two independent ports in the same city, the international issues of the Black Sea and host of other issues.
It was an interesting trip – except for the 4 hour delay on the way back to Moscow. We got to see remnants of the past, and a whole lot of what the future of Russian business will probably look like. And all of it in the context of a hero city that honors a past that was practically wiped off the map.

The convergence of all those things was neatly summed up in one monument. Brezhnev was a commander here during the heroic defense, and when he became leader of the USSR he showered attention on the city as the scene of his youthful adventure and glory. The citizens still respect him for it, it seems; just two years ago they erected a statue in his memory.