From Russia with memories.

It had been many years since I had last visited Russia. Since then TV has shown us how life was changing over there, so I was prepared. Moscow’s Gum is no longer a sinister market lined with empty shelves, it is now a high-end emporium where the world’s most prestigious  – and expensive – brands are on display and St. Petersburg’ Nevsky Prospect is the bustling equivalent of Fifth Avenue or the Champs Elysées, but it is what has not changed that is really worth the trip. No matter how often you’ve seen Red Square and St. Basil cathedral on TV or gazed at pictures of Catherine the Great’s Summer palace in a magazine travel section, you feel overwhelmed by awe. Regardless of what you think of the present regime you have to admire the way Russians have preserved or restored their architectural treasures. The only thing Versailles has over the tsars’ palaces is that it has been mostly untouched since the days of the Sun King while what you see in St. Petersburg is an extraordinary feat of restoration following the looting and destruction inflicted by the Nazis. On a different level, seeing the almost obscene opulence of these imperial residences makes you understand why a revolution was unavoidable. That the people waited until 1917 is the only surprise.

The spectacle of Moscow on the day of Putin’s second inauguration made me think that Russia seems to nurture the tradition of autocratic power over the masses. There were more cops and soldiers downtown than passers by on May 7^th and traffic was remarkably light. Where were the tens of thousands who had protested the election? They had to be somewhere. Putin’s family will certainly not know the fate of the Romanovs in 1918, but I wonder how long Russia’s new tsar will be able to keep the lid over the samovar.