Day Two: Visiting Lenin

On Sunday we woke up in Moscow with a full day ahead of us. We started it off very right, with a scrumptious breakfast at the hotel that was a buffet to end all buffets; it seems that they were trying to please every possible guest, and the selection was incredible. There was a whole table just for bread, and oh what wonderful bread it was! All fed, we set off by Metro to the Kremlin, to visit Lenin’s Mausoleum before meeting our guide for a tour. Or rather, we were meant to smoothly set off by Metro. I, on the other hand, managed to forget my wallet at the hotel (read: it dropped off my chair at breakfast and of course I didn’t look for it in my purse), so after coming to the realization that this had occurred, I ran from the Metro station to the hotel. After running to the buffet entrance, I frantically inquired in broken Russian and viola! There it was. I ran back much relieved, and managed to reach the group before they entered; understandably, since the line to get into the Mausoleum was rather long and I needn’t have worried nearly as much as I had.

The Lenin Mausoleum is a very, very creepy place. No bags are allowed inside without a thorough examination of their contents, so we checked all of ours for convenience’s sake. After passing the metal detector test, we were directed along the Kremlin wall, passing all the other memorials that lay at its base. Once at the entrance of the actual mausoleum, silent, stoic soldiers watch your every move and with stiff arm signals direct your path. After entering the floor almost immediately drops into stairs, which twist around as the lead downwards, into what looks like darkness since the entire passage is built of dark stone. The combination of dark, twisting corridor and stern military men is a sobering and intimidating one, and as I descended I thought to myself, ‘so this is where they lead tourists before they kill them’. Eventually, however, we reached the main chamber and there, raised high on a pedestal and glowing in the white light shining upon him, was Lenin.

Now, its debatable whether or not this is actually Lenin’s body; many in our group were convinced that it’s a fake, but to me that really isn’t the point. What really matters is that someone – read, Stalin – thought that keeping Lenin’s ‘body’ on view for the public was necessary. Against his own, his wife’s and even the Russian Orthodox Church’s wishes (although why they should care after he persecuted them for so long, I can’t imagine), ‘Lenin’ was placed there to send a message. The symbolism couldn’t be stronger, especially around the actual body. Lenin is raised up, untouchable, high enough that you must ascend steps to a walkway that goes around three sides of the coffin (display table?), while white light brings him into focus. The rest of the room is lit by some sort of red glow, which I believe emanates from the top of the coffin. Around the sides are mainly dark stone, but with a vivid red, jagged stripe running through it at about chest high when walking around. Lenin, preserved, and his dark, stone, sturdy and timeless monument are here to stay. The monument is almost the color of the Kremlin walks that back it, and seems to be at once hidden and obvious, a non-erasable addition to the Red Square. The lesson seems to go something like this 1) Lenin: saviour/saint, untouchable and the foundation of 2) Communism; here to stay.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but it was impressive, to say the least. Stalin’s grave is negligible by comparison, one of multiple graves of Communist leaders set behind the monument.

While waiting for our guide and with free time in the Red Square, Ashley and I took pictures with some Russian soldiers who, it seems, all spend a lot of time at Red Square on a Sunday. There were loads of them around, perhaps because, as soldiers, they don’t have to wait in line to get into the Mausoleum. I mean, what could possibly be better than visiting some old creepy dead guy on the weekend? If I didn’t have to wait in line, you bet that’s where I’d be.

We also heard singing and bells calling people to prayer from a nearby church, tolling over the square. It was a beautiful, almost heart-rending sound.

Once our guide arrived we headed to the inside of the Kremlin, past the point from which everything in Russia is measured (sort of like Greenwich, I guess?). Its supposed to be lucky to stand in the middle of the bronze engraved circle and throw money over your shoulder, and there’s a constant group standing around of eager throwers and even more eager old men and women who wait to reap the ruble-full bounty that is thrown away. It’s a sight.

The line to get into the Kremlin was long and there was drizzling rain to add further enjoyment to the scene, but it was worth it to get inside. The first stop was the Armory, where many of the treasures of the Russian Tsars are still held, including more fine English silver than inside England (theirs was melted in the Revolution; I think it attests to the respect in which the tsars’ power was held by the people that theirs survived). Needless to say, the building holds many interesting treasures, but to me one of the most interesting was the medieval Russian clothing. Not just because I like clothing and costuming, but mainly because it was so un-European. It really highlight how unlike Europe Russia was before Peter the Great; the garments are nearly identical for men and women, basically long capes that fasten in a very Asian fashion in front and have long, long sleeves that could be tied back. They were the opposite of form-fitting, and the contrast to the (coronation?) dress of Peter the Great’s wife, displayed opposite, was striking. In fact, the European fashion looked positively vulgar by comparison. Peter the Great really did achieve an entire overhaul of the culture, one that was previously deeply religious and conservative to something much more recognizable as European. Or, at least, he gave the old culture new trappings and called it changed.

We saw much more, but I won’t go into detail. I just have to recommend a visit to anyone who plans to be in Moscow.

Our next stop inside the Kremlin was to see two lovely churches, one of which was the traditional burying place of the tsars before the capital was moved to St. Petersburg and they began to be buried in the Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress. I was very excited to see the grave of Ivan the Terrible (Thunderous!). In the other church, my friend pointed out to me an interesting aspect of the frescoes; in Orthodox churches, bad things are always depicted on the Western wall, while in the East is always the main part of the paintings which depict Jesus, the disciples, other Icons… the good. Not only an interesting fact, but as a result perhaps the easiest way to orient yourself cardinally would be step into a church.

Finally, we saw the bell that never rang, and the cannon that never fired. The bell is massive, and sadly cracked after a fire broke out in the forge around it and water had to be thrown on the bell to quench the blaze. The cannon was simply built (and by a master cannon-maker) with too short a length of shaft for the diameter of shot that was meant to go inside it, thus meaning that it would blow up if anyone ever tried to fire it. Not such a good thing.
On the way out of the Kremlin we passed the only Soviet, and ugliest, building. It was meant as a meeting place for the Communist party, and now sometimes holds party meeting but mainly serves as a venue for concerts, plays, etc.

After the Kremlin we had about an hour before our planned meeting to go to the Circus, so I wandered around and took pictures. At some point I will try and get some of them up. One thing that struck me as I was walking was how many images of St. George are scattered around Moskow. He is the patron saint of the city, and apparently is very popular in Russia as a whole; he also appears on the kopecks. Apparently he was an Orthodox saint before he was a Christian one, and the popular images of him depict his slaughter of the dragon, or evil. On a side note, the ‘Bronze Horseman – probably the most famous statue in St. Petersburg depicting Peter the Great – also shows a serpent, in this case Peter’s enemies, trampled under the hooves of the horse. Intentional resemblance? I think so.

The Circus was fantastic. I got to feel like I was 6 again, including the impulsive purchase of bright blue, fluffy, light-up bunny ears. Nearly everyone also bought the delicious doughnuts they had on sale, fried and then coated in powdered sugar, just like mother used to make (no, seriously, just like the ones my mom used to make, and nearly as delicious). It was an ‘international’ circus, so performers from all over were featured, including an incredible gymnastic team from Africa and Chinese acrobats. The worst part was the circus animals, whom I felt sorry for the entire time. Not that they looked terribly badly treated, just that they really ought to be out in the wild, not entertaining humans in a small, crowded tent. The most fantastic part was when the turned the theater tent into a cosmos, with only a few lasers and black lights shining off the performer’s costumes as light. Of course, the Russian performers got the loudest claps, and the circus finished with an act by a Russian woman dressed in white involving fountains and as I called it, the ‘rise of white Russia’ as she was drawn up above the water at the end, to twirl supple-y high above the crowd.

After the circus it was time to return to the hotel and do not much of anything but watch Russian TV, also known as badly dubbed American TV. We could have gone out, but an entire day of walking doesn’t really set one up for that. So ended day 2 in Moscow.

[Note: I feel like I’m rushing through things, but I need to get back to the present at some point. There’s so much to tell, and so little time!]