transnistria
November 2025, across the Dniester into a country that officially does not exist: Lenin still in his granite coat, a T-34 as civic furniture, an avenue sized for parades with one pedestrian on it. Lunch was borshch and kompot on a canteen tray, three dollars, no irony anywhere. The market hall is warmer than any ideology on offer outside.
10 entries, newest first.
2025
The Dniester, Slow
· The river that carries the border: low water, bare willows, and leaving a country that never quite began.
The Parliament After Dark
· The Supreme Soviet at night: floodlights, symmetry, and a state performing statehood to an empty street.
A Tree of Steel
· The municipal Christmas tree as bare armature on the empty square, three weeks before its annual resurrection.
Suvorov Against the Sky
· The city's founder rearing in bronze on his hill, empire's cavalry frozen against a white November evening.
The Market Hall
· The covered market: pyramids of pickles, November apples, and commerce warmer than any ideology on offer outside.
Lunch at the Stolovaya
· Tray, rails, borshch, kompot: the Soviet canteen in unbroken operation, and the best three-dollar meal in Europe.
The T-34 on the Plinth
· The tank as civic furniture: a veteran of 1944 aimed at the November sky, and the skepticism it patiently ignores.
An Avenue Sized for Parades
· October 25th Street on a weekday: eight lanes of intention, flowerbeds at attention, and one pedestrian using all of it.
Lenin, Still Standing
· The granite coat before the Supreme Soviet: the statue every other city removed, still supervising his square.
Smokestacks and a Trolleybus
· Across the Dniester into a country that officially does not exist: first frame, industry and a battered trolleybus.