W.W.L.D. What Would Lenin Do

I’ll touch on a topic here that has probably been worn out by every observer to have ever stepped foot in the Russian Federation with even the tiniest bit of culture-consciousness. And that is: the contrast between contemporary Russia and Soviet Russia.
Moscow is the largest city in Europe, and as one would expect to find in any Western metropolis, there is a lot of flashy consumption. All over Moscow we see luxury automobiles driven by fur-clad young women sporting the newest model of iPhone. Similar to New York, most of the younger crowd seems to be very fashion-conscious with many of the Russian girls paying for professional photo shoots. Interestingly, everything American seems to be popular: we went to McDonalds last night (Sunday night at 8:30 or so) and it was packed with teenaged folk. Surely they don’t like hamburgers that much; it seemed like MickeyDees was just the place to be.
Really, I would say Moscow is a bit ritzier than New York, in some ways at least. The last time I was in New York I was with a pal of mine, Vasily, who normally lives in Moscow. We passed a really nice Bentley parked on the side of the road and English and I stopped to gawk at it: it’s rare that I see a $200,000+ car. But, Vasily just looked and chuckled, “oh yes, we have a lot of those in Moscow.” Sure enough, I’ve seen several here. Of course, that’s anecdotal.
I’m certainly not complaining about any of this, I welcome the rise of Russia. Hooray capitalism! But, to get back to my point, all of this contrasts sharply with the lingering Soviet tint.

Most of the central Moscow metro stations are ostentatiously adorned with bronze statues, stone inlays, magnificent mosaics, and elegant chandeliers, all built for the glory of the proletarian everyman! Many of the mosaics and statues depict scenes with strong communist undertones. The hammer-and-sickle icon is ubiquitous. I have seen several large portraits of Lenin in the stations as well.
What irony that the revolutionary infrastructure is being used by today’s generation to skirt back-and-forth between its bourgeois proceedings!
Last night I was riding on a particularly busy train and sitting across from me was an old babushka. The old women in Russia are funny: they all wear drab colors, no jewelry, no makeup, and most of them cover their heads with hijab-type scarves. I assume that this modest dress stems from an upbringing where preoccupation with appearance and other such dainties were considered counter-revolutionary. Why spend time getting pretty when you could be studying political literature. I can’t say I disagree with that logic, honestly.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but wonder what this old woman was thinking as she watched us young folk going hither and thither without a second thought as to the ideological implications of our actions! It must be disconcerting for the old people to live under what was considered “the bad guy system” when they were growing up. Just imagine if it had been American capitalism that had fallen to the communists instead of the other way around: my grandmother’s generation would be beside themselves, I think. Of course, if they took a short lesson in economics then maybe they could appreciate the shift…maybe too late.
One of my Russian friends told me a story about their friend’s grandmother. She said that every time they visited her they would bring sausages. At the next visit, several months later, grandma would pull out these same sausages and put them on the table for everyone to eat. Turns out, she is still in the habit of hoarding in case society collapses or nuclear war breaks out or something. Apparently there is just no breaking the old people of these habits.
I’ve heard that many of the old people still have great reverence for Comrade Stalin. I guess Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization efforts were no match for the cult of personality. Lenin is, of course, popular also.
From what I’ve gathered, most Russians of my generation could care less about Stalin, Marx, Lenin, or the USSR. It is no more interesting to them than the politics of 20th century politics are to the average American 20 year old. “But guys, this was one of the most notable political undertakings in the history of civilization!”
What would Lenin do if he were growing up today? Well, if he were one of today’s youth, I doubt he would have ever fallen into radicalism. His brother would have never been executed, he would have never been exiled, and he probably could have never convinced Muscovites to stop eating at such exploitative establishments as МакДоналдс and Бургер Кинг.


Some relevant pictures