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’ e 5 Moscow. Right: Atlases. : “ , Hermitage and Winter . Palace. Leningrad. i -/\ ‘ (I ; Below: In an Orthodox v ~ ‘) ; Church.Moscow. t 's‘ E I \ \\ bx t (h l} ’ l. 'u. i Rf
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I Q RUSSIA
3 Simon Gooch recently visited Moscow and Leningrad, I 1 and brought back his impressions and illustrations oflife 3‘
i in the Soviet Uniontoday. ‘ if / Moscow is an exhilarating mix of dCSig"Cd for “WW 5 ‘to ' epic and personal scales — much of it Logistics ofcity life quUirC certain - fl u l is dizzythgly monumental; the storcrsms on the part of the tourist: cavernous Baroque Metro stations lavatories are rare and benches are
with their mineshaft-|ength only found in parks and not where
escalators‘ the great sweep of Red YOU CTaVC them most - On Mt)SC0W"S Square where you unite in endless arterial roads or by . .
r slack-jawed stupefaction with Leningradis quiet Cilhiils- This the W110i“ (“CC Ihilrkctsl- retainer— we slip on felt overshoes
7 families of Russian peasants and raw assumed Siurdiness goes deep — in an 'l‘hcsc quieter. unregulated EISPCCtS ! and shuffle awkwardly through the ;
; recruits to the Red Army up in town ' Orthodox church the congregation ofSoviet life are in refreshing shadows as though to avord to see Lenin‘s cadaver. ' all stand. the hunched and contrast to the dynamism and disturbing the ghost of the great man ;
After a couple ofdayg you .- headscarved babushki dropping to mass-movement of metropolitan still at work in his study. Outside
acclimatise to life on the grand scale kiSS the floor or to bow deferentially Moscow. though even the most ; there's a wooded garden and an ; - a horizontal equivalent to the ' IOW- They h0|d C'dndICS popped awesomc Prospcists arc SOhL‘nCd by f unweeded courtyard full of stray cats. vertigo of New York _ and. escaping through squares of paper to protect trees — a vague wrldness that seems to 3 ; the eoeooo of the couch toutt drift old fingers and stand — mesmerised have straggled in from the forest. a horizontal New York f with the flow ()fhumanfiV. [n the by the humming reiterations of the Away from the ring roads and f crowds on Gorky street you find choir (behind a gold iconostasis). avenues are areas of modest Novodevichy Convent is another ‘ yourself magnetised by Russian finally resorting to the tea-counter at backstreets where an almost ‘ ; quiet haven — a miniature rustic facest deeply moved to be among the back ofthe church. These small. provincial quiet reigns. 'l'OlSIO)’ S Kremlin near the Lemn Stadium. t them to a world poised for wot, self-reliant old widows seem wooden house is hidden near Park Under its red-brick walls there a Though appearances are not timelessly Russian — almost to the KUhUFI metro. Piilnlcd £5.09“ and Swan Lake whose elegant birdhfe t rcmarkablvdiffcrcnt thcrcare~ to point ofa touching caricature—as are thn and WIIhOUI CICCITICIIYOY t seems somehow counter- . Western eves. too manv men in the Wealhcrbcatcn peasants selling ' much natural light. Urgcd 0” by the Revolutionary: aristocratic women i uniform and street life is restrained. mOdCSI bundles of home produce in babushkil - Who COUI‘J hC 1m 01d ? bewitched by a Rasputin . . . '
partly through policing and part by an ingrained decorum. The grey-caped traffic cops are the most publicly demonstrative Russians — twirling batons and blowing whistles - and giving one member ofour
party a 3 rubIe on-the-spot fine for jaywalking.
In late August there were already
t autumnal nips and scents in the air
(Moscow is on Edinburgh's latitude
i and Leningrad is on a parallel with
t the Shetlands) but July has been
ferociously hot. The Russians amble
' through their summers but in winter seem to be in their element— expensive fur coats and hats — and the cities have the same quality:
44-i‘he List 17 — 30 October