Russian Museum of Modern History

Here I go again. Museums and history. Well, I just can't help myself. I was trying to find a bookstore I knew to have some English selections. I couldn't locate the street, but I knew it was just off Tverskaya Ulitsa near the Mayakovskaya Metro Station. The transfer station at Belloruskaya was closed for repairs, and I couldn't quite get to Mayakovskaya, so I decided to walk the final distance. Having passed Mayakovskaya and the Tchaikovsky Theatre, I still couldn't locate the street with my bookstore. It was around freezing and my fingers were getting cold as I passed the Museum of Russian modern history. I had passed it many times and it was on my list of places to see. This was a perfect opportunity.

World War I Tank

Inside the Lobby

These museums never have huge banners and grand entrances. Its more like walking into an apartment building. After reading the sign and determining that the museum was open until 7:00 pm (it was 4:00), I decided to venture inside. After walking through a security detector, my eyes scanned the lobby past several police guards towards the back entrance and finally the cashier's cage on my left. There was no line, and in fact, not many people. I was surprised to see the cost of admission to be only 100 rubles (about $3.50), but for around $50 I could have an english interpreter. Now, what fun would that be? I can read enough Russian to do this myself! Save the $50 for a cup of Starbuck's later !!

The museum was much, much larger than I had ever expected. After getting through endless exhibits of 19th century village life, the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 (they totally got their butts kicked in that one, but it didn't come across that way at all), and finally towards World War I, I was wondering when we get to the good stuff. That is, I really wanted to see the Bolshevik Revolution, followed by the Stalin repressions, then on to the Great Patriotic War (The Russian term for WWII). Much of what is fascinating about Russian History is that it was re-written many times during the communist era. The government had full censorship capability and was able to choose what or who to add or take away from the historical records. In short, they had the ability to change history, and they took full advantage. I was really wondering how they would treat the Stalin "crimes", as confessed later by Kruschev after Stalin's death. While I did see some of Lenin's pictures and a few busts, and then a lot of Stalin, any slant towards opinion or commentary was totally absent. The pre-war years (1932-1937), the times of the great terror, weren't presented as a topic. Only if you read between the lines and really looked at the photos, by seeing how times were hard, could you start to imagine it. But no pictures of the gulags. Wouldn't that be something. When will someone open a museum about the Gulags.


The pictures of Stalin with his military commanders, with Roosevelt and Churchill at Potsdam, of his funeral procession, the parades on red square, the banners and slogans of the communist party, they all bring back memories of newsreels I watched in America as a child and young adult. We still see these events in China (although not as often these days), and probably most pronounced now in North Korea, that last vestige of absolute communist control. I still wonder if Stalin ever considered a more humanitarian approach to his reforms. I believe some of his inner circle did, but they obviously did not make the decisions, and also ran the risk of being sent to the Gulag, or worse, for dissenting too enthusiastically. I found it interesting the KGB, and its predecessor NKVD, were not mentioned. I will check again, but it certainly appeared they have been removed from this historical display.


Finally, a section devoted to modernization, something Stalin, somewhat inspired by the needs of WWII (not unlike the economic engine unleashed in America at the same time), was quite successful at, then followed by Kruschev, who at one time told the Americans "we will bury you", referring to the monumental economic growth in the USSR at the time. There was even a chart, used for propaganda, showing the growth rate of America vs. the (projected) rate of the USSR, and emphasizing, perhaps with a few tricks of the scale I'm not totally unfamiliar with in my line of work, and which you see on many of Wall Street's economic charts today, whose purpose was to convince the world of Russia's economic might, and perhaps even put a little scare into the Americans. If that didn't scare us, then the next exhibits portraying the space race certainly did. Sputnik, the first dog in space, the first man in space. Russia seemingly was pulling ahead, which prompted John F. Kennedy to make his famous declaration, that America "before the end of this decade (the 60s) would land, and safely return, a man on the moon".

But Russia, while pulling ahead in the space race, and possibly even the arms race, neglected their domestic economy (despite what the chart might have said). Housing was in short supply and decrepit, consumer supplies (cars, refrigerators, meat, toilet paper) were inferior or not available to the general public. Following the years of stagnation under Brezhnev, followed by two insignificant figureheads in Chernenko and Andropov, change began to happen under Gorbachev. Demand for change was so pent up that, once the genie came out of the bottle, it would not go back in. It raced now out of control. The Baltic Republics, Western Europe, the Berlin Wall, Chernobil, and finally the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the emergence of Boris Yeltsin and the destruction of all things communist. It happened so fast, if one slept in on Sunday, one may have missed a significant event.

So here we are today. From a westerner's perspective, there are times I wonder if Russia isn't more capitalistic now than many Western European countries, and perhaps even than the U.S., now that Obama has stepped in and allowed the government to control our banking industry and even make our largest car company a government entity. (Can you believe it, the government now manufactures automobiles in the U.S.).

Total capitalism isn't the answer in Russia, as seen by the emergence of the oligarchs and other elements of the Russian mafia, and certainly total socialism isn't the answer in Europe or the U.S. As a people, we eternally strive for the special "Goldilocks" solution. Not too much, not too little, but just right. The pendulum swings both ways, and winds change. Perhaps that's what makes life, and history, so interesting.


Russian capitalism on display. The bronze and silver paint job on this BMW in downtown Moscow must've cost a few rubles.

I'm Baa...aack

I had no idea if I would ever get back to Russia or not. Job prospects did not look good, and assignments would take me to other unknown places. I accepted an assignment in Calgary, Canada, only to find out days before starting that the client had changed his mind and was going in a different direction. Just after that one cancelled, a call came in asking if I'd be interested in an assignment in Moscow, then moving on to Tobolsk, in western Siberia. Assignments don't pop up at me anymore, and, having had some prior experience with Russian clients, I decided to accept. Maybe this will be my swan song, if it lasts. After this I'll teach, write and maybe take up fishing.

From My Balcony

WWII War Memorials at Red Square

So here I am in Moscow, working in the client's office, my own apartment within walking distance, but only minutes away from anyplace in the city via the subway.

Winter isn't far off so I'll try to enjoy what little good weather is left.

Entrance to Red Square; Russian State Museum

Must we have McDonald's EVERYwhere? Then again, isn't that what set them on the road to capitalism?