Moscow still retains it's arsenal of soviet cliche's (Sights & Attractions in Moscow in general)

Member Name: tiaw

Product:	Sights & Attractions in Moscow in general
Date:	20/06/07 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Symbolism, Sights, Intruige

Disadvantages: Safety, Traffic

Parts of Moscow look so dilapidated, dishevelled and polluted - they wouldn’t seem out of place in a post nuclear war ground-zero. The dust is chokingly bad and the people no less brazen than in St. Petersburg.

Yet around Red Square and towards the hills where new apartment blocks tower above war memorials, it’s as modern and swanky as anywhere in Europe. Furthermore, there's an unexpectedly high concentration of parks and green areas - although you wouldn't initially know it.

We weave around a great deal of Moscow during our stay. Predictably though, the most ardent of junctures comes with our time spent in Red Square and around the Kremlin.

To be standing amid the nucleus of such recent historical significance and to be in immediate proximity of these almost mythical surroundings is nothing short of inexplicably surreal.

The transcendence of the experience is even more exemplified by the memory of those mass military parades we've all seen in cold war documentaries or studied in History class.

To then cast your eyes across to the walls of the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum standing imperiously to your right, with the gloriously splendid State Universal Store on your left, graphically brings home the ernormous compositional scope of the whole area and the centuries of prestige it sits bathed in.

We wander into the palatially rich State Universal Store. Inside, It's even more grand than the stunning shell we observed only minutes earlier.

Later, We navigate up the Sparrow hills where temporary stalls offer Matryoshka dolls in the skins of American football players and Hot dogs advertised as 'New York Style' (how times have changed!).

We face the magnificant State University - one of the famous Stalin constructed Seven sisters buildings (another being the Leningradskaya Hotel which we later stop at). The hazy grey symmetriccal spires stand like a mirage in the farness. What a place to study! A 180 degrees turn and we have a favourable vantage point over the modest Moscow skyline. Directly in front is the Luzhniki Stadium, used by Torpedo and Spartak Moscow, as well as having been the stage for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1980 Olympics.

Nearby is yet another remarkable sight in Moscow's plethora of things to see - the Novodevichy Convent with an exquisite neighbouring lake and park.

Throughout the city are a staggering collection of Small Eastern Orthodox churches. No matter where you are, the Ostankino Tower is also most likely visible.

The embankment opposite the Kremlin offers a great photo oppertunity along with sumptuous views of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Bolshoi theater, back towards Red Square doesn't quite retain it's famed elegance during our visit, instead covered by scafolding for much needed renovation.

Yet aside from the multitude of sights to behold and discover, my lasting impression of Moscow will be that of the conflict between new and old.

There's an unnervingly distinction between the boom in new apartment blocks (sprouting up at an unparalleled rate) and the less savoury neighbourhoods that we're told to avoid. It's of no surprise that Moscow is one of the biggest movers in 'most expensive city to live in' stakes in recent years, but still a lot of the population seems to have been left behind.

Broad Lenin inspired avenues are lined by flawlessly symmetrical bristling trees while 1960's style buses cart despondant suburban citizens about town. The young residents of the city centre dress in decade old designer labels. They walk while eating ice cream from Baskin and Robbins or carrying department store shopping bags. Further out and I see destitute residential areas - home to half clothen children who play in polluted rivers and amoungst severely overgrown grass that's littered by rubbish.

These images permeate the apparent prosperity of new Russia. While Communism is officially an idealogy of the past, it's residual effects can be seen on any street in Moscow. The scarred evidence of a once colourful history is apparent. The displays of former glory cast shadows over a residing undercurrent of post Communist bemusement - the underlying turmoil that seems to haunt much of the working class.

While the Bourgeoisie (in the socialist definition of the term) are enjoying wealth like never before, security from the deviations of the less well-off (of which there are still as many) is lacking any guarentees.

Lasting Marxist symbols now stand tarred with the names of western conglomerates or the uninvited attention of foreign tourists, decaying in an atmosphere of 21st century corruption.

Russia still retains it's arsenal of soviet cliche's. The reflective air of post-communist fragility lingers. Few lands find themselves as tangled in confusion and contradiction as modern day Russia. It's a place that is bound to leave a lasting effect on whoever visits - whether it be for it's attempts to embrace prosperity, or the inevitable bleakness and simultaneous elegance of a smeared history that remains.

Summary: The centre of modern day contradictory Russia