MOCKBA
Mixed feelings abound......this place is not at all what I expected and The Revolution is all but a distant memory for the under 35s it seems who are embracing conspicuous consumption as the new mantra.
Lenin (as far as I can ascertain) is a marketing tool for the tourists who flock to Red Square in droves to shop at Gum(now a very swanky shopping complex on the edge of the Square).and eat at Macdonalds!
The (small considering the millions interned) Gulag Museum hemmed in by Dior and Chanel(oh my god) was only opened fairly recently (60 years after Stalin's death!!) and was very moving..particulary as it had a few references to Nikolai Bukharin (my Bolshevik hero...shot by Stalin in 1938) and his noble wife Anna Larina.....I found the whole thing immensely moving and was quite overcome......and by the whole feeling of the place (Moscow that is) ....that the ideals of The Revolution have been trashed (having been brought up in a commie household with the noble beliefs of my grandfather ruling the day I have found this whole experience pretty shattering).
Went to the Kremlin today and a pretty impressive piece of history it is too.....the basilicas with their golden domes and medieval wall frescos are breathtaking (atheist sentiments aside of course).....
Found a vego restauarnt and yoga centre underneath this apartment block we are staying in which felt very 70s and hence deja vue...this place is pretty weird at times..and never what you expect....
...and yesterday we conquered the metro but am doing all I can to avoid going back there (walking kms in other words).....pretty challenging when you can't read the signs as they are in cyrillic and NOBODY understands what you are asking/saying (of course it does not help that owing to my pathetic language skills I can still only say thank you and goodbye in Russian ).........another day tomorrow and out into the country with Chekhov and Tolstoy (hope they are ready for us)...
dasvidanya Kath and the Komrades xo
Kathie, you are an excellent raconteur! Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI can visualise everything you write about even though I have never been but have read a lot. I am envious of your experiences (but not the discomforts). Spasiva bolshoi.
George
Your first two paragraphs read like a tragi-comedy - the world is going to change isn't it? Nothing stays the way we imagine..
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm keeping my fingers crossed the Tolstoy countryside will be just the same - now, that's a place I would love to be there with you!
(btw when we publish these comments, the cryptic code thing is almost impossible to read - it took me five goes to send the last one, the alphabet letters are just hopeless to decipher) Fingers crossed this one is easier..
Nothing is ever what it seems to be from afar, but becomes rather unlike what we imagine when in closer range....no, not Dovestoyeski...ME!
ReplyDeleteSorry you are not liking Mocba, funny how things change over time...as we have noted often, capitalism has the WHOLE world in its greedy little fist....
Hope you continue to enjoy Russia and the like More later
Genie