Subject: Russia Season 1. Episode 4
Dear All,
Last weekend my body count went from one to two.
Body count that is in terms of embalmed and revered leaders lying in state. On Sunday I visited Lenin in his mausoleum.
Having previously been to see 'Uncle Ho' in Saigon I didn't find the experience quite so strange the second time around.
However, it is odd.
You sort of descend into a subterranean vault were the waxy corpse lays in formal dress inside a glass sarcophagus. Only the face and hands are visible and I did notice that Lenin had one hand outstretched and one clamped shut into a fist. Perhaps there was some symbolism to these gestures but it did some what imply that he had died mid a game of paper, scissors, stone...
As with Ho Chi Minh Lenin had not requested that he remain on display in this way. He had stated that he was to be buried beside his mother in St Petersburg. However, when he died suddenly of a massive stroke at 53 years old, his successor, Stalin, decided that he should remain on show. So, for now he remains in the a 'minecraft-esque' type structure in front of the Kremlin.
The embalming and maintenance process was at one time a hugely guarded secret but now anyone can pay the million or so quid to ensure that their necrotic tissue 'lives on'.
I really don't spend too much time outside and everywhere is so over heated that you can sometimes forget the bitter cold. Queuing to go into the tomb reminded me that winter in Moscow is pretty brutal. It was -15!
On my way to the metro station via tram we go across the river and, particularly at weekends, the vast expanse of frozen water is dotted with little tents. These belong to fishermen who spend the days on the river ice fishing and drinking vodka.
Transport is becoming a big part of my life and I have to say I am not enjoying the commuting. My teaching schedule is very full and that combined with all the lesson planning has the added joy of around 4 hours of commuting a day. On Wednesday night it took me two and a half hours to get home. I had to get a bus, then two metro trains and finally a tram.
I actually got invited out for drinks on Thursday night but having battled home I just couldn't face another 2 hour round trip just to go back into the centre for a drink. So I have yet to go out in Moscow.
Although I am certainly doing things in the city I am just not going out drinking which is dull but the current status quo.
At the Northern end of Red Square is the State History Museum so after Lenin's Mausoleum I trotted across there to take a look at all the old stuff inside. Museums can be much of a muchness in truth but the exhibits were excellent and the building itself really beautiful.
I have attached pictures of a few things that caught my eye. (Debs and Martha you may find the carriages and troikas interesting?)
As I am spending so much time on the metro it is a small comfort that some of the stations are in themselves works of art. Several of the stops are highly decorated with ornate features and at Teatralnaya there are bronze statues all along the platform areas. The figures show human struggle and endeavour and as you can see some of the areas have been routinely touched for good luck and the veneer rubbed off over time and many hands.
No one eats or drinks on the metro and I wondered if there was a rule forbidding it, but I was told that, in fact, it is because the Russian people consider the underground to be an unhygienic place to eat.
Blimey! That is in direct contrast to the culinary smorgasbord regularly inhaled on the average London tube train...
The Russian people are in the main very clean in their habits and behaviours. Not in an excessive way like the monied Asian's who have to have a gallon drum of hand sanitiser on standby at all times, but just in a general good hygiene kind of a way.
It is in our contracts that we are expected to wash our hands before we start teaching and we are also required to bring a pair of indoor shoes and change out of our snow boots once inside the building.
Most schools provide little blue plastic overshoes and it struck me that I could have done with some of those for wearing INSIDE the flat I am living in.
Yesterday morning I opened a cupboard and two cockroaches just feel out on top of me....Lush. The flat is very run down and I am struggling with that.
In spite of my best efforts at cleanliness I am also up against the lifestyle of a housemate who as one of you said is becoming more and more like a Roald Dahl character every day. She dines almost exclusively on boiled eggs and her personal hygiene is unsettling. On a Tuesday evening she dresses up as Jane Austen and runs some obscure period dance class...
Life's rich tapestry and all that!
Loving and Missing You All.
