Sunday, August 15, 2010

A Communist day


Despite the smoke, I joined the queue to file past Lenin's body. I suppose it took about 45 minutes of waiting in line. The time spent inside the mausoleum is more like 45 seconds, since you're not allowed to stop. Outside, a man with his young son tried to push in. I challenged him and he used broken English to say something about how they had limited time because they had a flight to catch at Sheremetyevo airport. After that he kept back a little, and at least they didn't push in in front of me ! The body itself is like a waxwork dummy because of the chemicals used to preserve it. After viewing Lenin, visitors see the graves of Stalin and other dead Presidents. My translation of the cyrillic alphabet allowed me to recognise Konstantin Chernenko's name.
In the afternoon I went to Sculpture Park (near Gorky Park) to view some of the old Soviet era statues and monuments which are now kept with a range of other statues and sculptures.

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