Moscow Metro ~ A benefit of Communism
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| Lenin Bust in Metro |
The next morning I find my wish has been granted. The guide we
hire for a few hours turns out to be a lovely, 20-year-old 2nd year college
student named Maria who is a Moscovite. She is studying Sociology and speaks
good English as well as German. I ask her about religion in Russia and she
explains that Stalin tried to destroy religion by closing churches and tearing
down cathedrals. Stalin said, “Religion
is the opiate of the masses.” In turn, she comments Stalin replaced it with
the religion of communism with himself as God. Now she says, there is a
resurgence of Orthodox Christian spirituality, especially for older people. She
comments that many students have been baptized and are religious but most don’t
go to church. She says that about 70% of
Russians are Orthodox Christian.
We ask Maria to take us on a tour of the metro underground subways.
She is surprised we don’t want to go back to the Red Square and St.
Basil’s. Because of the traffic jams (which we experienced the night before) the
metro is the most popular method of transportation. Our guidebook says that up
to nine million people use the metro daily ~ more than in New York or London.
Construction began in 1931 under Stalin. Architects and engineers spent 4 years
building deep stations (350 feet below ground), which served as bomb shelters
during World War II. The cost was enormous. Today 10,000 trains run through 12
major lines and 190 stations that connect all parts of the city. We go to 6 or
7 of these decorated stations, which are beautifully decorated with
chandeliers, intricate mosaic pictures, marble, stained glass windows, and bronze statues of
revolutionary guards, children, students and workers. Moreover, the stations are
absolutely immaculate and like an art gallery.
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| Maria explains why people rub dog's nose |
I am happy to see that women are depicted as athletic as well as men and my favorite bronze busts are of parents and children.
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| Communist Star Motif |
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| Lenin in Mosaic on Ceiling |
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| Pushkin ~ the Poet |
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| Peace |
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| Could be a dance hall! |
It is quite a scene down in bowels
of the earth below the streets with thousands of people packed in metro trains
and rushing up and down very steep and fast escalators.
The escalators are long enough that I see one person reading his I-pad and another kissing her boyfriend.
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| No Translations & in Cyrillic Alphabet |
We feel that navigating this web of lines would be nearly impossible as no signs are in English and all are written with Cyrillic alphabet. This tour was amazing and a lovely opportunity to people watch. I think about the benefits of communism. To provide working people with the opportunity to see this beauty every day as they go to and from work seems like a real gift ~ why don’t we do something like this in our dismal subways?
Afterwards we wander home and into an Orthodox Church. St. Basil's looms up around the corner.
We stop on the Red Square for a coffee and ask Maria many questions about politics, university, gay rights, religion, economic inequality, view of Syria and refugees, ethnic diversity and free speech. Interestingly she asks us about Republicans and Democrats! We hate to see her rush off for a 3 pm university class and have thoroughly enjoyed this brief glimpse into Moscovite life. However, later I realize I am not sure of her position on religion, gay rights or politics. Perhaps free speech is still struggling. Nonetheless she confirms my belief that Russians are mostly friendly.
Searching for Bolshoi Theatre Tickets
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| Bolshoi Theatre |
We are told by the hotel concierge and at the Bolshoi Theatre everything is sold out. However, John insists we go to the Bolshoi Theater to see if we can get some
scalped tickets (as John says on the Black Market) for the evening performance of Swan Lake. After all our guide as told us that bribery is an integral part of the economy and our guide book says 20% of the GDP. In front of the theatre we find 5 large Mafia looking
men dressed in black standing out side the ticket booth who offer us some
tickets at first for 40,000 rubles.
Later John talks to another member of their team who has adjusted the
price to 50,000 rubles. I am feeling
very dicey about this exchange and walk away to ask some young looking students
if these guys are legitimate. By the
time I come back John as bought 2 tickets for 19,000 rubles ($290) ~ he is very
proud of himself but I am worried this being a big scam. John is much more of a
risk taker than I am. We head back to
the hotel for a nap and then go to a trendy bar for a snack before the ballet. John
orders a hamburger, which is infinitely better than a MacDonald’s burger. We are probably three times older than anyone
else in this fun bar with loud techno music and much of it in English. I
remember Maria telling us one thing she likes about America is the music and
movies. In this restaurant we could
easily be in a London bar. Since we don't frequent Seattle bars I can't compare.
Swan Lake and Finding Ideal Love
We set off for the theatre and have no problem getting in
and have delightful and comfortable seats on the 3rd balcony.
This
is the 1733rd performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake since its first
performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877.
It is the 192nd performance of the latest Swan production
since 2001. The choreographer is Yuri
Grigorovich. It is an incredible performance both from the music and ballet
perspective. John thinks Prince Siegfried had found true and ideal love but later
was seduced by another woman (the black swan Odile who disguised herself as his
true love ~ represented metaphorically as fate). John tells me that the moral
of the story is that men shouldn’t trust women. I on the other hand feel that
the Prince had a dark side to his soul that led him astray from staying
faithful to his true love. John is outraged that I have this view of men and
tells me that Wikepedia confirms his viewpoint. I disagree. It certainly is a tragic story of love, delusion
and despair with both Siegfried and Odette (his true love) feeling betrayed. Perhaps
the story is an allegory and more about Siegfried’s delusional dreams regarding
ideal love. He aspires to the ideal love
with brief happiness but has a passion for vice. There is much controversy and
many different versions of the ending and this version of Swan Lake does not
have a fairy tale ending.
Bolshoi Restaurant
We end this lovely day with dinner at the Bolshoi
Restaurant. It is warm enough for us to eat outside on the veranda. Russian
food on the menu includes caviar, forest mushrooms, borsch, beetroot soup, pikeperch
and lots of dishes with sour cream.
John orders what we had the night before pirozhki stuffed
with mushrooms and stroganoff. I have veal cutlet with mushrooms. It is
delicious. We ramble home wishing we had
1 or 2 more days here as there is so much more we want to see.
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| John is in heaven despite his black market activity |
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