Parades, Parades and Parades

It has been exactly one month since I last posted an update. I apologize to all of you that were trying to avoid finals. These past four weeks have been nothing short of amazing yet hectic. At this point I'm not even sure where to begin describing what has happened.

Things have definitely become quieter in the past week since all my friends from the KEI program departed and arrived safely at their homes. So right now its only Bernadette and I left here in Moscow along with some non KEI students and more friends who keep arriving daily. But while things are now quieter, I think I'm still just as busy doing things. I've started trying to attend more concerts, ballets, operas, plays etc. I'm only in Moscow for a few more months and I want to be absolutely sure that I take complete advantage of having some of the worlds best cultural institutions while using my fantastic student discount. I recently saw 2 performances. One of which was a performance of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony which was written about and during the time of the Siege on Leningrad. If you don't know much about this tragedy it is definitely worth a google search. The performance was done by the Moscow Conservatory, which is one of the top music schools in the world, in honor of the Den Pobedy of Victory Day celebrations which took Moscow by storm.


Happy Victory Day!!


They covered the Mausoleum with this strange thing.

The next notable event would have to be May 1st. Never in my life had I felt like such a big part of history. There was an old style Communist Party rally/ parade that stretched from Oktyaberskaya to Ploschad Revolutsii (Metro stations "October and Revolution Square" which are about 2 miles apart if not more.) There were elderly men and women there holding up signs of their beloved Lenin and Stalin. It was such an experience to actually see these people in action but at the same time terrifying to realize what they were actually arguing for. The funny thing is, I thought this would be the first and last time I would ever witness a true Communist Rally in Russia...but like so many other times this year, I was wrong.


It's in situations like this that you suddenly realize that you're on the wrong side of the barrier.


Lenin in front of the Lenin Library


Stalin!


And you can't have a Communist Rally without your large banners!

The next more impressive parade was the famous May 9th Victory Day Parade which is done annually to commemorate the "Soviet Victory over the Fascist Germans". This city was decked out in new banners, signs, flowers, pictures with propoganda I have never seen in my life. It might be because I've never lived inside a huge city or national capital before, but this was incredible. They have signs here which are 5 stories high and say "Everything will be ok!" and show pictures of people in the military. Plus they started playing old Soviet war songs in the metro.

Well I did attend the parade, but I don't think words can do justice to how amazing it was, so here are some pictures.


The most impressive part in my opinion was the air force. Look at how they formed the numbers 65 in honor of 65 years of victory.


The last planes to go over shot out white, blue and red smoke which are the colors of the Russian flag.





And of course, excessively large missiles.

This was a truly spectacular day and I'm so happy that I was able to spend it in Russia with the Russian people.

Well I need to get some homework done, but since I have internet again in my room, I'll finish posting soon about the rest of May 9th!