BEIJING. December 10, 2004
The authorities of Harbin decided to re-open the five-domed Iversk church. (forgive my ignorance, but all old depictions of Harbin's Holy Iversk Church, we can see SEVEN domes: five on the church's roof, one on the belltower, one above the temple's altar. I don't insist on anything - perhaps the belltower's dome and that above the altar are not part of the count?) Harbin's Russian population sometimes referred to the 1908 structure as the "military church": it was built in memory of soldiers who fell in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War.
Later, é migré s -- former White Army officers -- were buried on the adjoining cemetery. Inside the church, which for a long time was used as a factory warehouse, one can still find the semi-destroyed tomb of General Vladimir Kappel, whose remains were brought by Whites retreating from Chita. (The church is still used as a warehouse and garage - a horizontal partition has been erected. The second floor has offices of a Chinese firm. V.O. Kappel's burial place is outside the church, along its northern side.) A magnificent mosaic panel is to be re-built in the church as well as other decorative elements -- the fate of the tomb is still unclear. (The mosaic panels are outside the church, decorating its exterior walls.)
A large Russian colony once existed in Harbin -- a major population point along the Chinese-Eastern Railroad (KVZhD in Russian), now an administrative center of Heilongjiang Province. (Harbin was founded by Russians, who lived in it for over two hundred years, not just decades.) Memory of the colony's presence is preserved in the "Russian" architecture of the old part of the city -- and also in the lexicon of present-day natives of Harbin who refer to bread as "leba", and a bucket as "veydelo" (I, nevertheless, would transcribe this word as "veydalo"). Harbin's municipal authorities will reconstruct the historical center, attempting to return "European" features to certain streets.
Dimitry Napara