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What does Red Square mean to you? Now I know what it really is.

By October 29, 2016 No Comments
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The Kremlin bordering one side of Red Square.

Today is mine and my dad’s final day in Moscow and we chose to head back to the Red Square, which is the parade ground on the side of the Kremlin (this was Tuesday’s blog), but is not a secured area. In fact, when we were there, there was a festival of some type going on in the middle of the square.

The square is bordered by the Kremlin wall, St Basil Cathedral (last Sunday’s blog), GUM department store, and the State Museum. The name red does not come from the color of the street’s bricks (which are black) or the Soviet Union’s national color. It actually come from the name of a nearby area which was extended to encompass the whole square.

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Lenin’s Mausoleum, where his body is embalmed.

On the side of Red Square, right next to the Kremlin wall, you will find Lenin’s Mausoleum. This red marble vault has guards at every turn, who strictly enforce silence and no photographs, as you file through. I was expecting to see a memorial or tomb to the Soviet founder, but instead I found his embalmed body lying on a platform. This was kind of cool to see him lying there and creepy at the same time.

Our other stop today was at the State Museum, which was started in 1872. This is the type of national museum we expected when we visited the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (during last week’s

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The State Museum.

blogs), as it was about the history of the country. They had exhibits starting with artifacts from before written history and then all the way to the modern time. Unfortunately for us most of the displays are in Russian only, but many things you do not need a written description to understand the significance of the artifact.

Once done with the museum we headed to the train station to visit Vladimir and Suzdal before jumping on the Tran-Siberian train in route to Mongolia. I hope you will continue with us on this epic adventure.

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One of the exhibits is an ancient grave with bodies head to head.

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