The Communists are coming! The Communists are coming!

Okay, not really.
This past Sunday was the 87th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, for those of you who don't have those things already marked on your calendar. It is still a national holiday, although the holiday is now called "Day of Accord and Conciliation." Yes, there is irony there, in case you were wondering. The last time I was here during an anniversary, I was on a group trip to St. Petersburg, and missed any observance of the event. I did not want that to be the case this time, so at about 11am I went out, to find me some communists.

My apartment is right downtown, and Tverskaia was completely closed and empty of cars - a rare event. But neither was it exactly swarming with people. There was a crowd gathering at the end of the street, and we were blocked from crossing Mokhovaia over to the square that leads to Red Square. On the other side of Mokhovaia were only policemen, presumably ready to beat us all down if we decided we wanted another revolution. Gotta love Russia. I managed to squeeze my way to the front and waited for the parade with a rather old woman. Eventually they came. The parade, with its red flags and banners and songs made its way past us, and I could hear the woman next to me commenting on how few people there were, and every year there were less and less. So few she could practically count them. Then she sighed and said that people don't believe in anything anymore. I wanted to tell her, well actually, people believe in the almighty dollar - I mean Euro.

Then I went to meet my friend Brooke for lunch, but on my way, I had noticed that the parade had gathered in the square across from the Bolshoi theater, around the statue of Karl Marx and were having a rally. So Brooke and I decided that lunch could wait and we went to observe. It was really weird. I mean think about. Its 2004 and communists were gathering, and the speakers were calling for the restoration to Russia of the socialist republic formed in 1917, and power to the workers. And while there were plenty of really old people who actually had some connection to the old regime, there were plenty of younger families and their children. Gennady Zuganov was on the podium with others, and there was a series of speeches and folksy-communist songs about the flame of revolution. One speaker called to women to think about what they need to be happy and fulfilled - they need the socialist state. I am not kidding.
Although I did not shout "long live the Revolution" with them, I did should "Putin - pozor!" which basically means down with Putin. Now that was cool - in the sense that the communists are still able to get their parade and rally and are able to yell "down with Putin" in the middle of Moscow. But when there was a moment of silence for those who died defending the revolution and the Soviet state, and no mention of those who were victims of said state, I felt very uncomfortable.

Yeah, the Soviet Union is now kitschy and cool, but that can lead one to forget that it both 1) meant alot to millions of people, who did die defending it, who did believe in it, and who were better off then than now, and b) that it destroyed countless millions of lives and nations, in a very brutal way. Believing in the dream of social equality and freedom for everyone is a noble dream, but it turned out very very wrong.

Well, having said that, here are my pictures from the day.....
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM2TVm4bOGz3g

Brooke and I also got our train tickets to Latvia that day. Whoo hoo!