Красная площадь

Sometimes you visit a place that you have seen hundreds of times on the news and in films, and the reality sadly fails to meet expectation. Not so Red Square. James Bond, Michael Burke and Arnold Schwarzenegger had totally failed to prepare me for it.

Nish and I found a quiet back-street route on our first proper tourists' jaunt, and arrived after sunset and a good beef stroganoff. Our first glimpse was of the glowing red star above the crenellated wall by Lenin's mausoleum. That had to be a clear signpost to the centre of Russia. We crossed a garden of fountains, and then entered the vast red-brick entrance to the square itself. St Basil's (of lurid onion-domed towers fame) sat at the far end, a huge light studded edifice on the left, a massive curtain wall with eastern looking fortification on our right. The square shouted 'Russia' in a strident voice, and loudly. It must be one of the most impressive architectural spaces in the world.

Curiously, the 'Red' of its name has nothing to do with communism, or with bricks. The Russian name for the square is Красная площадь (Krásnaya plóshchad), which is rooted in an old form of the language – the proper translation of the name is 'Beautiful Square'. It's certainly impressive… but you'd have to make your own mind up on the beauty question.
I looked at the light encrusted monster and made out the letters УМ, and thought, "ah! The Russian parliament!", but actually this was the major shopping centre of Moscow: the ГУМ, (Gum), not the ДУМА (Duma) at all. Actually, perhaps my mistake wasn't far from the truth… This is by far the most extravagant and impressive shopping centre I have ever been into. It puts London and New York equivalents into the shade. A good symbol of what modern Russia is trying to be, and presumably something that sets Lenin spinning every day in his squat angular tomb opposite.

Another thought, while on that point. It's perhaps surprising that the message of this place seems to be so clear – that this is Mother Russia and it's not going anywhere – when in fact the symbolism is very mixed. All over the place you can see the old Romanov crest of the Tsars, right alongside emblems of the Soviet Union (hammer and sickle), and the new capitalist state (Zara). Perhaps that's actually why the whole is so effective. In one five acre area it gives you a pretty good idea of where today's Russia has come from.