On Communism

I was watching a show during dinner the other night, which as far as I could tell was like a Russian “Figure Skating with the Stars.” I feel like such a show exists in the US, but then again, I wouldn't watch it if there was. Anyways, some of the figure skating “champions” that were paired up with actors or musicians were champions during the Soviet era, and they seemed to be the most loved. This got me to thinking about the legacy of communism and Soviet Power in Russia. One interesting part of this is the names of streets, squares, and such in Russia. True, city names were generally changed - Stalingrad and Leningrad were changed to St. Petersburg and Volgograd, respectively, after the fall of the USSR - but a lot of things have retained their names. For example – the building in which I have all my classes is on Red Square (or Krasnaya Ploshad', to those in the know). We also have a Lenin Avenue (prospekt Lenina), and the University's address is on Soviet Street (ulitsa Sovietskaya). On my way into the city center from where I live, I take the trolleybus down Freedom Street (ulitsa Svobody) past Labor Square (Ploshad' Truda), and then past Youth Square (Ploshad' Yunosti), which totally fits in with the Soviet pattern, if you haven't studied Soviet culture. The weirdest street name has got to be Pavlik Morozov street (Pavlik Morozov was a legend in the early Soviet era. He ratted out his family to the authorities for hoarding grain during collectivization, and his family then killed him, I believe the story goes). And, what is to me probably the weirdest thing of all (except for maybe the naked volleyball player statue, which is a story for another time), is the fact that Yaroslavl' has two statues of Lenin. We have one on Krasnaya Ploshad',where Lenin is standing heroically pointing toward something in the distance (the advance of World Communism, perhaps?). And there's another one north of the university on prospekt Lenina where our dear Lenin is sitting reading a book, like the gentle scholar that he was. And it's not like all these names still exist only because Yaroslavl' is some backwater provincial city still yearning for the days of Brezhnev and Molotov – a quick search of a map of nearly any city in Russia reveals multiple streets or squares with Soviet names - Karl Marx street, or Kirov Square. Things are a little different in Moscow and Petersburg, though you still do encounter it – the oblast', or state, that surrounds St. Petersburg is called Leningradskaya Oblast'. Certainly, attempts have been made to de-Sovietize Russia – notably, I can't think of anything named for Stalin, or any statues of him that I have heard of or seen. And, in many cases churches and other cultural landmarks throughout the country have been rebuilt after the fall of communism – the Tolgsky Monastery just up the Volga River from Yaroslavl', for instance, was recently rebuilt after being used as a prison during the Soviet era. Additionally, statues of Tsars that had been taken down under Lenin and Stalin have been recast, in a strange embrace of the not-any-easier Tsarist era.

Anyway, I think this all says something really interesting about the reaction to and legacy of Soviet power. Clearly, people don't completely reject everything about Soviet life. If that were true, I wouldn't frequently walk down ulitsa Sovietskaya to get to Sovietskaya Ploshad'. At the same time, for obvious reasons people don't completely embrace the Soviet legacy, as evidenced by the complete lack of references to Stalin, and some name changes. Russian culture really has embraced a fascinating combination of things from their past. To me, Yaroslavl' is a great example of this. From the window of the University it sort of looks like Lenin is pointing directly at the gold onion domes of a church built in the 17^th century. Then, just down ulitsa Komsomolskaya (the Komsomol was the Soviet organization for youth) lies the Kremlin, with buildings built in the 1500s. In the middle of the square in front of the Kremlin is a statue of Yaroslavl the Wise, son of Kievan King Vladimir (the Great, I think). Quick side note - Yaroslav founded the city in 1010, when he killed a bear with an ax and decided to build a city on the spot. This is the reason for Yaroslavl's official seal – a bear holding an ax. Betsy, if you read this please do me a favour and tell Brian that the symbol of my city is big bear holding an ax. I think he would appreciate that. Getting back on track (if I had a track to begin with), there seems to be a strange nostalgia for the Soviet years, though with love for the Tsars, and other things that were denounced as being “bourgeois” by the Soviets. As far as I can tell, people here really didn't much like Boris Yeltsin, though they all seem to absolutely love Vladimir Putin. People absolutely love Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who were both censored by the Soviets because of their ideology. Not to mention all the beautiful Russian Orthodox churches that have been painstakingly rebuilt, after being destroyed or turned into museums of atheism during the 20^th century.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what things are like in other cities, cities that are completely unlike anything I would ever find in the US. For instance, I'm not likely to see signs noting the upcoming 1000 year anniversary of the founding of any city in America, while there are signs telling Yaroslavl' residents that they “only have three years.” At the beginning of October we'll be going to Kaliningrad as a group, which should be absolutely fascinating, and then we have a week off to travel in late October / early September, and I'm going to try to get to Petersburg if I have the chance. In the meantime, hopefully I can get out to Moscow, which is only a four hour train or bus ride away. Wow, sorry for having written so much, I guess I got sort of carried away. I hope everyone is doing well. Take care.