After visiting Saint Petersburg, it is easy to overlook Moscow as chaotic, sometimes ugly, built, destroyed and rebuilt again. This is what happen with us two years ago when we visited Moscow after a long break. Between the crowds of Red Square, Stalin Empire style subway system, hundreds of churches hiding between grandiose monstrosities built by Stalin, seventies international style decrepit skyscrapers and Putin’s highways, it is difficult to make sense of the city. Moscow is a place where you need a certain level of awareness to understand, because its allure is not presented in impeccable architecturally planned plazas, parks and streets, but rather comes in historical layers. Because the layers are temporal, but we see them at the moment of our presence; the layers appear not in any particular order, but all together. One needs to be able to identify the buildings and the sights and put them in the context of the time and then Moscow opens up in four dimensions, where the fourth dimension represents the history of Russia in all its complexity. We were very lucky to have friends who are not just aware, but have encyclopedic knowledge of the city and helped us to understand how to see the layers and to inhale Russian history in Moscow. Our friend Andre Monams is the author of several Moscow guide books.
Andre walked us thru hidden passages, old churches and secret courtyards to uncover Moscow’s fourth dimension.
In some ways Moscow is similar to London. It is old, it was burnt, destroyed and rebuilt again, different every time, but it is all works and breathes together as huge live organism.
This time we stayed in a little hotel in Clear Ponds neighborhood which was built during one of the prosperous periods of Moscow history. Luckily it wasn’t destroyed over the centuries. Moscow appears at its most charming and it is almost as harmonious as St. Petersburg.
While it is impossible to even start in one visit or in one blog post to analyze all of Moscow layers, here are a few observations about latest contemporary additions.
The infrastructure layer: Russia was infamous for poor roads and infrastructure. The classical Russian novel “Journey from Saint Petersburg to Moscow” by Alexander Radishchev describes many severe problems of Russian serfdom and the horrors and lack of any infrastructure between major Russian cities. While the book was written in late 18th centuries and prohibited until 20th century, very little has changed until only 10 years ago. But now the high speed Sapsan trains connect major Russian cities.
Old Moscow streets were expanded and rebuilt as highways.
Moscow became car-oriented city with infrastructure to please newly rich and well to do upper middle class. Because Soviet Russians were deprived of car ownership, cars and driving became an obsession. This new highway layer represents a new reality. As it always happens, car-oriented cities become a bear for everyone including car owners. The noise, traffic and lack of parking made some old and lovely streets noisy and unwelcoming to pedestrians. Like in many cities stressed by cars, a few central streets are closed for traffic and have become purely pedestrian.
Park VDNH represents one of the layers which was recently rebuilt. The Monument to the Conquerors of Space, which stands directly outside VDNH
Built in 1939, VDNH was designed as the main showcase of the socialist economy and lifestyle. It was opulently decorated in the Russian Stalin Empire style. The park was almost abandoned in late Soviet and post-Soviet times and glorious fountains and pavilions became neglected and ruined. Nothing is more symbolic than the grand renovation which occurred a few years ago. It is a showcase of revival of the empire. If you have any doubts about Putin imperial ambitions a visit to VDNH is must.
Zaryadye Park is a landscape urban park adjacent to the Red Square in Moscow on the site of the former Rossiya Hotel. Hotel Rossiya was a Soviet layer and has been replaced by a new layer. The park has an gigantic walkway over Moscow river with panoramic views of Moscow. The Zaryadye Park is the first public park built in Moscow for over 50 years.
Moscow is the only place in the western Christian countries where I have seen new churches being built. In my neighborhood in central Washington DC churches are being abandoned, bought up by developers and converted to luxury hotels and restaurants. In contrast, the Russian Orthodox church is experiencing a significant revival. Soviets prohibited religion and destroyed many churches. Just like with cars something which was prohibited or unavailable for a long time became very desirable and fashionable. Religion, of course, is a very sophisticated tool of manipulating the people, and it is no wonder that the Russian Orthodox church is in a very tight relationship with the Kremlin
The new layers show the stress, the fears, the talent and the infinite ambitions. Moscow is definitely the place where important things and changes are happening fast, and these changes have a serious impact on the small world we all live in.
And finally reporting from location
This Saint Petersburg (SPB) post will be devoid of pictures. Three years ago, we visited SPB and I posted a blog with a lot of pictures
http://sbelenkaya.blogspot.com/2016/08/stpetersburg-russia_6.html
and everything I wrote there about the city still stands. But this post has a description of a few encounters and events which I wanted to tell without being distracted by pictures. All of this happened over a short five days visit at the end of September, 2019.
The encounters started right away at Pulkovo airport as we
landed on a bright September afternoon. The taxi kiosk outside of the airport was
closed and we were too tired after a long flight to search for the official
taxi stand. Being stupid Americans, we allowed ourselves to be picked up and driven
to the city by one of the con drivers who always search for people like us in international
airports. The chap was super friendly and entertained us all the way. When he
found out that we are coming from US, he expressed a lot of concern about our
situation with immigration. He was very well aware about caravans arriving
through the southern border. It felt like he is listening FOX News every
morning. He said that criticality of the US situation with immigration is even
worse than in Russia. I mentioned that I am an immigrant myself. He said that I
am clearly a different story, because I am an intelligent and educated white
woman not a Mexican or Muslim. He compared immigration from Latin America with
Uzbeks and Tajiks who take Russian construction and driving jobs. He said that
immigrants drive most of the taxis in SPB. And that all of the crime and
troubles come from them. Never mind that he was running little illegal business
himself. His attitude and arguments were an exact copy of the anti-immigrant attitude
in the United States. He recommended that we use a local taxi company which prides
itself in hiring only Russians. Unfortunately, the name of this fine company
escaped me right away.
Otherwise, he delivered us to our hotel safely and made sure
that we were able to get in, since our hotel was on the second floor and the
door was not marked. In fact, he called hotel and said that the guests are awaiting downstairs.
Somehow, the shyster driver set the tone for another encounter
and couple art events which put me in the anxious state of mind.
I really wanted to get a taste of SPB theater scene and finally decided to see
one actor performance of The Yellow Tango (Жёлтое Танго) in the very famous SPB
art cafe Wondering Dog (Бродячая Собака). This café is an old time cultural
institution which hosted the most prominent artists, poets and writers for over
100 years. The play was based on the life of a brilliant Russian performer and
singer Alexander Vertinsky. The actor enacted the stories from Vertisky’s
dairies and performed some of his songs. Vertinsky, originally from Kiev,
immigrated from Russia right after revolution and lived abroad for almost 30
years. He moved around the world following the Russian immigrant community and
sang nostalgic and beautiful songs about longing for illusive home and
unrequited love. Very much in French chanson style but in Russian. The expat Russian
community was his only audience and way to make a living. During WWII he finally wrote a letter to
Molotov (Soviet apparatchik close to Stalin) begging him for permission to come
back to Russia. The permission was granted and when he returned, he was made an
example of the prodigal son whose sins were forgiven by the generous party
leaders. Most other Russians who decided to return died in Gulags. The main
theme and emphasis of the play was about people strong connection to their
motherland and suffering of uprooted people. In the intermission I wanted to
share my feelings about actor and his performance with an intellectual looking
woman sitting next to me and clearly was enjoying the play. She was about my
age and I gathered, based on overheard conversation with her friend, that she
is part of SPB theater world. I told her that the actor is very brave by
attempting to play Vertinsky. While he is good, he always be compared with
original and this is a tough act to pull off. The lady immediately engaged in
the conversation. We started to talk about Vertinsky special almost French
annunciation which he acquired while living abroad. She changed the topic of
conversation to Kiev before revolution. According to her, Kiev was an amazing
city with booming high Russian cultural scene. Kiev inhabitants were speaking
perfect Russian. The unrefined and rude dialect appeared later when after
October Revolution when Ukrainian peasants and Jews from the pale of
settlements like Zhytomyr moved in and destroyed the high Russian
culture. Fortunately, the intermission was coming to the end, I turned back to
Patrick who was bored and whispered that I am glad I am not living in this
country.
Moving on. The next cultural event was a show of internationally celebrated Russian artist
collective AES+F: Predictions and Revelations. The show consisted from three digital movies, photographs
and sculptures. It was amazing, thought provoking, imaginative and flawlessly
executed spectacle. The overall theme of the show was anxiety about the future.
The future brings the end of Western civilization, which is being replaced by
inhabitants of mixed races, not binary sexes, and global government. The new
world is weird, scary, violent, cosmopolitan and rootless. The images from the
show still occasionally come up in my dreams. As I promised no pictures, but
here is a link to some promotional videos to get a feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OynXBosqUjc
The next art event was a sample of something
which wanted to appear as a counterculture. The setting was as cool as it could
be. A small gallery located on the top floor of one of the charming old SPB
buildings. No charge, opened only a few hours a week. The Pigs Snout Gallery
had one simple concept to present certain personalities or group of people as a
pigs or in other ‘funny’ ways to express artist ironic, satirical cool attitude
toward the person or a group. The genre was represented by cartoon type posters
and graphics. Some of the images were very funny in a strange Russian idiosyncratic
way. Some not so much. One of the popular Russian rock musician (Mackarevich) who
is openly critical of Russian government and has strong pro-western attitude, was
depicted as a pig with an explanation inscribed right on the image: Trying too
hard to please the West. The separate room in the gallery was dedicated to
antisemitic cartoons and posters. It started with variation on the famous Grant
Wood painting American Gothic. The woman on the painting had her jewel necklace
replaced with prominent Star of David. I have several samples in photos, but
don’t want to post and promote this art.
I have been thinking about these events and encounters for a while and feel that they
are all strangely related. The xenophobic, nationalistic driver, the
sentimental Vertinsky show about motherland longing, the chauvinistic, antisemitic
intellectual lady at the art café, the counterculture antisemitic art and even highly
aesthetic futuristic show by AES+F artist cooperative. The connection appears
to be that they relate to one very basic emotion - tribal instinct. The
connection to people like me, who were born at the same place, the fear and
rejection of others, the anxiety about future devoid of the original tribes and
relationships. It is easy to attribute it to Russia and its propaganda machine.
And while it is definitely part of the story, but only a small one. As I am
writing this post the news about killing Jews in synagogue at Yom Kippur is
coming from Germany. The recent uptick in these feeling comes as a backlash to the fast changes caused by automation
and globalization and anxiety of people who lost and left behind by these
changes. The fear and stress as always exploited by unscrupulous, power hungry politicians,
but there is nothing new about this as well. Leo Tolstoy more than hundred
years ago wrote essay “Christianity and Patriotism” in which he said: “Governments assure peoples that they are in
danger from the attacks of other peoples and from internal enemies, and that
the only way to escape from this danger is through slavish obedience of peoples
to governments.” How this is different from what we hear from our government
about the dangers of immigrations and caravans of refugees coming from the southern
border?
How important is the tribal instinct in the modern world? Over the course of human
history, the tribes were expanding from nuclear family, to extended family, to
villages as people learn to grow crop, to medieval cities and feudal kingdoms
and now to nation states. The recent EU entity, while new and flawed, seems
like natural progression in the expending idea of tribe. The Brexit is a
backlash to the effort to expand the tribe. The borders are becoming less enforceable
and people are migrating at the scale unimaginable even hundred years ago. I can
only guess that every consecutive tribe expansion was more painful and met more
resistance, but humans persevere and found a way. Will they do this time?
With that, the old and intrinsically Russian question comes to mind: What is to be done? And this is where I am going to leave you my friends to think and contemplate if you have nothing better to do…
And finally reporting from location
