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January 21, 2007
Journeys
In Moscow, Party Time Where the Soviet Army Strutted
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
WHAT do Lenin, Paul McCartney, Chanel and St. Basil the Blessed have in
common?
They're all part of the phantasmagoric cultural pageant associated these
days with Red Square, the cobbled, iconic heart of Moscow and, indeed, all
of Russia. In the past year alone, the square, which is adjacent to the
Kremlin, and Vasilyevsky Spusk, the square's extension right behind St.
Basil's Cathedral, have been the site of fashion shows, rock concerts,
revivals of czarist rituals and even religious processions. The opening of a
skating rink in December prompted one Russian Web publication to call the
site where tanks and goose-stepping soldiers once paraded past geriatric
Soviet leaders standing on Lenin's Mausoleum "The Square of Amusements."
"The Kremlin and Red Square are brands known around the world," said Grigory
Antyufeyev, chairman of the Moscow City Committee for Tourism, which
organizes some of the events. "Since 1991, Red Square has become more and
more accessible to Muscovites, Russians and foreign visitors."
One of the biggest events it now promotes is Maslenitsa, the pre-Lenten
festival, this year Feb. 12 to 18, that will turn the Vasilyevsky Spusk
section into a full-fledged carnival. While the Russian capital, even with
global warming, is too cold for women to dance nearly naked through the
streets in winter, Maslenitsa will provide ample opportunity for visitors to
Red Square to ponder the vagaries of Russian history.
Here, after all, is where you will find an array of inimitable Russian
symbols: St. Basil's, with its multicolored domes, commissioned by Ivan the
Terrible in the 16th century; GUM, the pre-Revolutionary shopping arcade
that became a Soviet showcase and is now a luxury shopping mall; the red
brick State Historical Museum; and, of course, the somber Lenin Mausoleum.
Over the years, the square has encompassed wildly varying concepts of public
spectacle. In Imperial Russia, it was used for everything from executions to
outdoor markets to a cavalry ceremony that was recently revived and is now
held, in all its pomp and glory, from April into the fall.
Its Soviet image was more severe. Red Square, or Krasnaya Ploschad, was host
of an endless parade of, well, parades, from proletarians bearing banners of
Lenin and Stalin to military hardware that underscored Soviet might. The
Russian word "krasnaya" means both "red" and "beautiful," but the "red"
stuck in translation, adding to the square's ideological baggage. In Soviet
times, Lenin's imposing mausoleum, where the embalmed body of the founder of
the Soviet state lies at the foot of the Kremlin's crenellated walls, was
the square's focal point. These days people aren't exactly dancing on
Lenin's grave, but close enough.
Paul McCartney performed "Back in the U.S.S.R." on the square in 2003 in a
concert attended by President Vladimir V. Putin, and Black Eyed Peas pumped
up the hip-hop volume on Vasilyevsky Spusk last summer. Of course, this
being Russia, there have been setbacks. An Eric Clapton concert scheduled
for Aug. 3 was abruptly canceled; the musician's Web site said authorities
had withdrawn permission, while other reports said the Vasilyevsky Spusk
site wasn't to Mr. Clapton's liking.
All the partying hasn't gone without criticism. Preservationists have raised
alarms about the impact of concerts and construction on St. Basil's. "The
cathedral was built in 1555-1561, and like any antiquity it requires a
particular preservation regime," Andrei Batalov, the chief of an advisory
commission on the cathedral's restoration, told Izvestia last year. "But it
ends up being in the epicenter of noisy, uncontrolled life, on a huge
theatrical stage - something which has never been the case before."
But while rock concerts in front of the cathedral might seem sacrilegious,
elsewhere the soundtrack is literally a prayer. The Voskresenskiye Vorota,
or Resurrection Gates, - a pre-Revolutionary structure destroyed to clear
the way for tanks entering Red Square for Soviet parades, and then restored
in the '90s - includes a tiny chapel that draws a constant stream of
pilgrims. As tourists swarm through the gates, an endless loop of recorded
prayer to the Virgin Mary plays on loudspeakers.
Last month, in an apparent sign of approval of the most recent form of
entertainment, Mr. Putin paid a visit to the skating rink as part of an
effort to promote sports among Russian youth. Aside from being open to the
public for amateur skating, the rink was host last month to a match between
Soviet and National Hockey League veterans who once crossed sticks against
the background of the cold war.
In another development, Mr. Putin's office has announced detailed plans to
turn a building near St. Basil's into a luxury complex, including an auction
house and a hotel.
All the activity is a sign of the square's vitality, said Mikhail
Kusnirovich, GUM's chief shareholder. Mr. Kusnirovich spearheaded the
skating rink, which opens out from the mall's Chanel cosmetics boutique,
full of huge portraits of Nicole Kidman promoting Chanel No. 5. Long lines
used to wend around the mausoleum for a precious view of Lenin. This winter
they have wended around GUM for a spin on the ice.
"When there is only a mausoleum and no people, then the square is not
alive," said Mr. Kusnirovich, after a figure-skating extravaganza on the
rink featuring stars like Aleksei Yagudin, Irina Slutskaya and Oksana Baiul.
Behind him, GUM was lit up like something out of Disneyland. "When there are
smiling, kissing people, GUM, the Mausoleum, St. Basil's, the Historical
Museum and the Kremlin," he said, "this is all very natural."
Meanwhile, Maslenitsa, a festival of song, dance and mountains of blini, the
Russian pancake, will be widely celebrated in Moscow for the sixth year in a
row, with Vasilyevsky Spusk as the main venue.
"It is a very ancient celebration, over 1,000 years old," Mr. Antyufeyev
said of the festival, which precedes the beginning of the Russian Orthodox
observance of Lent but has pre-Christian, pagan roots. A Russian
fairy-tale-inspired gorodok, or town, is built on Vasilyevsky Spusk for the
festivities. Pop singers and folk ensembles perform on the square and, of
course, blini are sold. This year, thanks to the skating rink, the
festivities are likely to extend to the heart of Red Square as well. A
detailed program of the celebration will soon be posted, in English and
Russian, on www.maslenitsa.com.
Those in search of formal dining with a historical twist can find it on Red
Square. From November through Russian Orthodox Easter, the State Historical
Museum, which has a restaurant called Red Square (www.redsquare.ru),
presents a monthly themed dinner based on menus retrieved and recreated from
the Historical Museum's archives. Themes range from pre-Revolutionary street
food to the traditional Russian Easter meal, all presented with musical
accompaniment. For Maslenitsa, the restaurant will recreate the elaborate
blini menu from the estate of the noble Volkonsky family, Sukhanovo, near
Moscow. Tickets, which must be bought in advance, vary in price based on the
meal's complexity.
The square's new openness is perhaps most casually reflected in a
warm-weather outdoor cafe the restaurant now runs. "This summer is the first
time we had a street cafe," said Mikhail Zrelov, who runs the restaurant. It
took eight years to get official permission to open the cafe, which, he
said, offers visitors a chance to "sit and look at the square" over coffee.
Some people, though, still have a mission when they come to Red Square. In
late December, a flow of people made their way to the Lenin Mausoleum to
honor Stalin, buried by the wall behind it. A sign, however, noted that the
mausoleum was "temporarily closed." One visitor, an elegant woman dressed as
if for a party, laid down carnations at the cordon and walked briskly past
the rink, where Soviet golden oldies sounded and skaters reveled, and
through the gates, where hymns floated through the air.
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