Propaganda in the Metro

Who says you can never go back home again, even if that home represented repression and persistent propaganda.

Two phrases you don't expect to read when walking around the city of Moscow:


"Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people. He inspired us to labour and heroism."


"For the Motherland! For Stalin!"


Yes, these slogans can be found today in the Kurskaya Metro station. There are numerous artistic depictions of the sickle and hammer, Lenin, Soviet stars, and the like throughout the stations. One could dismiss the Stalin slogans as going along with the other Soviet-era slogans. There is a lengthy quote by Lenin in another station.


However, following Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his murderous purges and cult of personality and began what became known as the de-Stalinization movement.  The slogans were painstakingly removed in the late 1950s along with other pro-Stalin propaganda.


The station lobby got an extensive renovation between 2008 and 2009. When it was restored, so were the slogans. There is also two large swords in the lobby that represent the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. On the swords had been the name of the modern-day Russian city of Volgograd, but it was changed back to its wartime name of Stalingrad.


I'll give the the designers some credit.What wasn't restored was a statue of Stalin that had been at the station.

This is an excellent example of the political void in Moscow and the Russian Federation. There are still many people who look fondly back on Stalin's leadership because he created a powerful country, beat the Nazis, and developed the A-bomb. But the prices was millions of deaths. Today the people want democracy but not the kind that Boris Yeltsin had provided in the 1990s. It was a disaster. Today, the government of Medvedev and Putin continues to become more authoritative and corrupt. Yet the people accept limited freedoms to avoid a return to the 1990s. 


I'll let you draw your own conclusion as to what this renovation (and restoration) symbolizes.


In an "un-related" story, 3.5 tons of human bones were found at the Pacific port of Vladivostok. There are at least 495 skeletons, who had been victims of Stalin's purges.  


Another example of  propaganda in the Metro: 

The mural shown in the photo below was painted in the Kiev Ring Metro station in 1951. Obviously it is still there as this is my picture. Look carefully at the top left banner. That is an image of Lenin, who represents the power and security of the state.

It is called “The People’s Procession,” a large mural at the Kiev Ring station, is an excellent example of how the government provided abundance, happiness, and state-sponsored security in the form of decor. The mural, which is located at the end of the platform, depicts the Ukrainian people in folk costumes celebrating underneath a banner of Lenin. Old and young men and women are represented, demonstrating unity, and food and flowers representing plenty are seen.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July, Americans. 

As the United States celebrates its independence from a monarchy, I celebrated my weekend visiting relics of a failed political system: Lenin, Stalin (that bastard),  Krushchev (that fool) Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko.

On Saturday, I finally got to see Vladimir Lenin, or at least a waxy representation of him. I admit that I've wanted to view his body since I learned about him in high school history class. But then it was a cool idea because the Cold War was still on, Reagan was in office, Perestroika had yet to begin and it sounded risky and exciting. However, 25 years later it was a major letdown. It was as if I gained entrance to a state-sanctioned freak show to see a man's body whose ideals began evaporating the moment he seized power in 1917. I haven't figured out why Russia continues to treat Lenin nostalgically because he is the same man who immediately created the brutal secret police (the Cheka) and instituted the Red Terror against his opponents once taking power. He is no George Washington, yet his likeness is all around the city on busts, T-shirts, murals, paintings, etc.

Viewing his body was worth every penny. There is no charge to see Lenin. You have to stand a long line with other tourists. (Most Russians don't bother to view his "body" any longer.) Ironically, the line stretched all the way from Red Square to the McDonald's (I'm not kidding.) After queuing through the mausoleum, the formality I mentioned the other day has decreased considerably in the past five years according to my group leader. There are far fewer guards, the line became single file, the few guards in the mausoleum looked bored and were not at full attention. My guess is the "show" is getting old and in a few years they will finally bury this charade once and for all.

After standing in the bright sunlight for an hour, it is a shock to walk into the mausoleum because it is so dark. I began shuffling my feet on the marble floor because I knew there were steps coming up. The room is about 30 x 30 feet with a guard posted on each corner. The line queues around three sides of Lenin's sarcophagus. Once I entered the room I found myself staring at the guard to gauge his reaction to the tourist. He looked bored. I then looked at the "body." It is just as it appears in pictures. His skin is ghostly-white, his right hand is in a gentle fist and his left is laid out, palm down. As I passed the left side of his body I leaned in slightly to look at the skin on his face and it appeared as if it had way to much pancake makeup. Gross is the most elegant word I can muster. And, as I passed around him I consciously began thinking that I had NO reverence at all for this man. The only reason I am viewing the body is probably the same for many non-Russians, morbid curiosity.

Leaving the mausoleum the line is directed along the wall of the Kremlin where name plates list those people  interred in the Kremlin wall, and then finally you pass the row of highest Soviet honor, burial at the Kremlin. These include those that succeeded Lenin: Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. Each has a marble bust. No matter which direction I looked at Stalin, I'm convinced his bust's eyes followed me. Very creepy, but fitting for the paranoid bastard. (Below is the marble bust of Stalin. Once again, I don't understand why Russia continues to pay any respect to this man's memory. I know there are old hard-line communist who would prefer Stalin to Putin, Medvedev and the current government, but at some point the bust has to go. There have already been many likenesses of Stalin that have been removed from the Metro and other places.)

On Sunday I traveled to view Khrushchev's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, which is one the outskirts of the city. While the location is ancient and beautiful, it isn't as impressive as being buried at the Kremlin. Of course, if Stalin was buried in a publicaly accessible area, his grave would have been destroyed by now. For the leader of the Soviet Union I was surprised at how simple Khrushchev's grave is, especially when I compare it with other nearby graves of high-ranking Soviet political and military leaders. (More on this later.)

This is the first Fourth of July that I have every spent on foreign soil, and after having spent the past two days reflecting upon this country's terrible past experiences with brutal leaders, I am thankful for the United States, the Bill of Rights, elected leadership, and representational democracy. Despite the blemishes and the occasional hiccups, the U.S. form of government sure beats dictatorship and repression.

Khrushchev's Gravestone

Side Notes:

Besides visiting Novodevichy Cemetery on Sunday, I spent four hours in the morning riding the Metro taking photos of various decorations that were installed during Stalin's time. The pictures are published here. I will continue to take more photos next Sunday, when there are the fewest people in the Metro. I plan to use the photos to develop a unit on Stalin's use of architecture and propaganda from 1935 to 1953.

As an aside, it appears the mullet haircut, which had been on a steep decline in the U.S., is making its comeback here in Russia.  I've seen some major mullets this past week. (I feel like I'm back in Kentucky at times.) Also, camouflage seems to be a popular fashion print for both men and women. The trifecta will be a man wearing camoflage, sporting a mullet with a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth. Yee-hah!

Weekend's Over - Work Begins

I have had a great Saturday and Sunday exploring Moscow. Obviously there is too much to see and do in a weekend, but that is the great part about being here for another month, is that I will have time to go back and explore what interests me in more detail.

I have become obsessed with the city's Metro system. It is an awesomely designed system that moves about 7 million people daily. I am focusing my attention in the coming weeks to several of the stations that were built during Stalin's regime. These stations are full of Soviet realist artwork, slogans, and architecture that will help me teach one aspect of Stalin's propaganda. I have already started building a website and in the coming weeks will begin adding notes and photographs of what I find at each of the stations. Prior to, during and following WWII, the stations were built deep underground (one is almost 200ft.) to also serve as a bomb shelter. The depth is emphasized as one rides the escalators up or down onto the platforms.

Moscow is 8 hours ahead of Cape Cod. Plus, the sun doesn't set here until 10:19 p.m. It begins getting light again around 3:30 a.m.  It is making it difficult for me to go to sleep. As I write this, it is 10:02 p.m. I am normally asleep by 9 p.m. I'll be up until midnight. Here is a picture of last night's solar menace.

Walking throughout Moscow the past two days I've noted that it is beautiful in parts, and gaudy in others. The city puts a high value upon parks, monuments, flowers, and trees where the ancient city walls once stood on a ring road in the central part of the city. Other parts of the city are a mixture of ultra-modern, 20th century and ancient. Advertisements, wires, and whatever are placed everywhere in spots. (See pictures below.) More on the details of the city in the coming weeks.

The Work Begins: Tomorrow I begin classes and they cannot come sooner. These are the major reasons why I signed up for this program. I have been getting anxious to begin because it has been almost a week since I began the journey from Providence. Tomorrow is my first Russian language course and contemporary Russian political policy course. I hope they are everything I expect.