A strange experience

You never know what you're wandering into, when you are new to a place and dont understand what's going on around you. I felt like that last Wednesday when Sandra, Andreas, Miriam, and I went downtown and, having left the glitz and bustle of Nevsky Prospekt behind, came to Mars Field, a giant manicured park. From far away I noticed a giant red Soviet flag flapping in the middle of the park, which of course we had to check out! At the center of the park sits a big granite monument housing an eternal flame to honour the heroes of the Revolution; around this a crowd was gathering, carrying wrinkled Soviet banners and memorial photos of dead young men framed in black ribbon. Some sort of Communist get-together... most of them were at least middle-aged a few of the men were even dressed in their old Red Army uniforms, Soviet medals pinned proudly to their chests. We walked right into the group, trying to figure out what was going on. There were mabye 50 people there already, with more arriving all the time, and a couple groups of militsia (police) standing off to the side, watching. I started to feel uneasy; everyone looked very unfriendly and most likely not real friendly towards foreigners - definitely a good time not to talk in English! Andreas was worried too, so we started to edge our way out of the sullen crowd, motioning the girls to follow and trying to look as Russian as we could manage! I dont know if that group was violently xenophobic, but they certainly could have been and it seemed like a good time to excercise some caution and leave. As we walked away, I looked back and saw the perfect photo - a forest of red flags above the light of the eternal flame, the golden spires and crosses of the Church on Spilled Blood in the background. Too perfect of course - I didnt have my camera!

Once a good distance away we asked two ladies what the gathering was for and they told us that it was because it was for the anniversary of the 1991 attempted putsch by hardline Communists and that the photos of dead men were those killed in riots. It's so bizarre that there are people here who look back longingly at Soviet times, for them a golden age when Russia was powerful and respected, when life had meaning and security. Nevermind the repression, the shortages, the lies and propaganda. We saw another small group on Nevsky Prospekt, one babushka carrying a giant sign that listed all the incredible feats and accomplishments of Stalin and the Soviet Union, comparing them to the terrible state of Putin's Russia today under "democracy." It was so totally ridiculous, you couldnt help but think, is this some sort of joke? But the women carrying the placard was dead serious. I'm sure that people like her and her comrades on Mars Field are only a radical minority in Russia, but the fact that they exist at all and aren't considered completely bonkers is kind of scary.