Marx, Lenin, Gorky and the Children of the Arbat, not to mention St Basil and Pushkin

‘The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,”’. Or so they say. Not much sign of bread queues in Moscow these days. In fact the biggest queue was to see Lenin’s mausoleum (almost an hour). We found considerably less interest in the statue of Marx: me, 3 roosting pigeons and 1 other tourist snapping the wise old man.

 

A bit of St Basils then a wander back through Kitai Gorod to our favourite cafe – here there’s a queue for abundance, commodified but tasty.

I dont know if Gorky’s Childhood, Apprenticeship or Universities would have prepared him for the ice cream stalls, fast food, dancers, bike riders, skate borders, beach volley ball , basketball and more of Gorky park. But surely he would have appreciated a green space in the middle of the city and we certainly enjoyed « une glace aux Fontainnes ».

Tired now we stopped off at the Arbat. Today’s Children of the Arbat breakdance in front of Starbucks and Crispy Cremes and tourist portrait painters. Pushkin’s house sits quietly amongst the shops and cafes, quite spartan amongst the « immense accumulation of commodities » that surrounds it.

Postscript. At the fingeo conference in Beijing I stumbled on a nice quote from the wise old man « The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption. … In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion  and self sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal  interdependence of nations. …. »