Shopping with Lenin

When I was in Moscow last year I had already felt the presence of Lenin as national hero. Besides the corpse, which is a touristy attraction for most and a morbid symbol for few, metro stations and monuments remind you that revolutionary socialism father was there.

In St. Petersburg, you have the impression that Leninism IS still there, as Lenin is still the father of the country. For example, the arrival of Lenin from exile in 1917 is commemorated in the Finland station and the station square hosts the first ever (1926) statue of Lenin, the model with the famous waistcoat.

The funny thing is that Lenin is always close, very close to symbols of capitalisms. In Moscow the mausoleum is now surrounded by shopping malls and an enlarging district of luxury goods.

Moscovskaya square in St. Petersburg is a masterpiece of soviet architecture (and one of my favourite spots, for what it’s worth) Two enormous fountains and several smaller offer a water show to the people (skaters, chatting teenagers, mothers with kids and of course drunkards) spending time on the square or simply walking through it. But the water is not only for them: it dances to the glory of a gigantic Lenin The square is imposing but pleasant: you can stay hours there, ipnotized by the water’s game. Every corner of the street where the square is located (Moskovskiy Prospekt) is colonised by shops of different sort, a shopping mall linking the square to the Leningrad blockade memorial and a big, always full Mc Donald’s.

St. Petersburg’s image is that of Leningrad, with symbols of the Soviet Union everywhere. But that same symbols, in a changed (in which proportion I can’t say) background, look like simple advertisements on the streets.

Lenin’s hand once indicating the way to the revolution now seems showing you where he bought his waistcoat.