Moscow, Russia

Sue Ellen Woodcock
Jan. 24, 2008


After 30 hours of travel, on my way to Kazakhstan to join my sister and her husband for the adoption of two boys, I stopped in Moscow, Russia and spent my time as a tourist. I arrived on a Friday afternoon and met my interpreter and guide setting out for the most famous of Moscow’s tourist sites – Red Square. After a long walk down Tverskaya Street we arrived at an entrance of Red Square, which is actually the backside of a museum. First we stood at the mark of where all of Moscow’s main streets begin from. A few more steps under the arch I saw my first landmark, but was quickly disappointed. St. Basil’s Cathedral sat off in the distance but was covered with scaffolding and shrouded in work tarps. My interpreter, Olga, said it was having some much needed repairs to the domes. I looked down at my feet at one point and it hit me as to where I was. The Red Square where hundreds of troops passed by the reviewing stands of Lenin, Stalin and other great Russian leaders. I was in the seat of communism in a country so feared that an American would never think to come visit in the past.

To the right of where I stood another landmark – that of Lenin’s tomb. It was Friday though and the tomb is not open to the public. This also explained why we were able to walk all over Red Square. I discovered on my second visit weeks later with my brother-in-law that the entire square was roped off and lines of people waited to enter the tomb including us. Things were fine until one of the soldiers guarding the entrance noticed my camera and told me no. He said to take it back to my room but I made a glum face and pleaded with him that I would keep it in my pocket. He leaned over to me (in true Russian fashion) and whispered in my ear, “100 rubles”. My brother-in-law started to get upset but I stopped him – 100 rubles was worth about $3 American. I folded the money into my hand and shook the guard’s hand and we both nodded, with me proceeding through the gate. Thinking back I took a risk doing that, the guard easily could have told the other guard that I bribed him.

Inside the tomb was equally exciting with no light except for that over Lenin’s head. Everything else was so pitch black that we never knew guards were in the room except when they “shushed” us for whispering to each other about which finger had fallen off Lenin’s hand. We were rushed around the glass box holding the coffin so we never did get a good look at his fingers.

Later that day my brother-in-law and I had another run in with the police this time. We had just finished walking through the GUM department store, the long gray building framing one side of Red Square. We stopped outside to smoke a cigarette and drink a Coke. We had already been told not to through your cigarette butts anywhere near Red Square and not really anywhere else. We saw the two police officers as we finished our Coke. Speaking to us in Russian we told them we only spoke English. Then one said “papers” and we proceeded to give him our passports and visas (which they tell you to have on you all the time just for cases like this.) After looking at the papers they motioned for us to move along and gave us back our papers, another thing were warned about. When the police or army looks at your papers they will sometimes ask you for money to get them back and again you run the risk of bribery.

Back with my interpreter I lingered in Red Square and saw the golden domes of the Kremlin looming over us, it also hit me as to how old Moscow and Russia are and how young the United States is. After a quick visit the churches of the Kremlin we made our way to a pizza place to eat and talk. Olga was a young attractive woman with brown black hair and eyes to match, a teacher as Moscow University and an interpreter (She often took groups of businessmen to the United States for conferences). The first thing I noticed about her was that she was not your typical Russian. As we chatted over pizza I asked her where she was from and she said Chechnya and she didn’t go home much, then she continued to tell me her boyfriend was also from Chechnya, was in to politics and traveled home often. That made me raises an eyebrow. From then on we didn’t talk much about her or anything that wasn’t about touring around Moscow.

It was night time now and we continued our tour. We went to Old Rabat Street where people sell things from tables, paint portraits or put on little street shows. Hundreds of years ago it was a crossroads for many battles headed toward the Kremlin. One of the sideshows we saw was a little disturbing but very Russian. A young girl about 9-years-old wore a short, dancer’s style dress, leggings and silver shoes. She was carrying a plastic assault rifle and proceeded to do a dance with it. A box for collecting money was in front of her and her parents stood in the background smiling with pride.

On the way back to my hotel we took the Moscow subway system. First, the escalators inside are the longest you will find anywhere. They were made that way because during the Cold War the stations were used for bomb shelters. But there is a treat down below – the mosaic artwork in the ceiling and the bronze statues at the walls. The mosaics depict different sports and the statues depict heroes, like a dog with a knelt down officer.

While Moscow is a great place to visit from a historical point of view there are still many things that remind use of the communist years.