Lose the map

Welcome to LoseTheMap, former diary of travels around Asia, then account of everyday life in Moscow, and now with my family in Berlin - VERSIONE ITALIANA

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Soviet Nostalgia

It was "great", "horrible", "a dream", "a nightmare". "At least better than now".
That's the general opinion about Soviet times.
Vladimir Putin for the first time in his life had a moment of lucidity (I bet some of his literate advisors did the job) when he said: "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants to restore it has no brains".
That's all quite true. Ok, let's DON'T consider the fact that Putin is a former KGB spy and HE is the one who actually restored the Soviet System, (by putting the same people that were in charge twenty years before and just changing the name of officies and descriptions on nameplates in the most important political and economical seats in Moscow), and he's THE one to blame for today's "highly fucked up economical, social and psychological" situation in the country.

In fact the huge revenues of the many Moscow's corrupted oligarchs - the one in charge of any kind of power - thanks to oil and gas exports makes them totally lazy, blind and unwilling to build anything resembling a decent, fair and respectable society.
This is the land of bandits.

Russian Elite behaves more or less like a teenager who inherited a big family heritage; they are simply wasting enormous quantity of wealth, without having a minimum glimpse of thought about the consequences and the people who are under their feet; just for the sake of showing that he's the "best".

For some reasons it couldn't be otherwise, given cultural and political history of the country, especially from the last 90 years, but also from the last centuries, still in search of a suitable and true identity.

And what about Soviet Nostalgia? Well... there's a big confusion in the mind of sober and not billionaire Russians, everything they knew and believed about who they are, who are the enemies and why things are in this or that way had been overturned, 20 years ago!
And in these 20 years NOTHING has been done from above to change the situation. No ideals, no directions (see the reasons above). The Elite is actually interested in having no changes: unlimited revenues, unlimited power, unlimited careless criminals in action. Russians have been keep silent and unable to move and think, while incalculable quantities of money has been stolen and waisted over their heads...
The little that people were trying to build from below, has been violently repressed from above.

That is, in very short, why Russians are so nostalgic of the past: because it represents their "true" identity.
And that's why they don't believe in it (and in themselves) anymore: because they know that their identity has failed.
Churchill defined Russia as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" and he suggested only one possible key to salvation: "Russian national interest".
To study the Russian enigma is like a quest for psychological self.
That's why I'm so nostalgic, too!

Soviet nostalgia
Soviet bas-relief

Soviet nostalgia
Soviet mosaic

Soviet nostalgia
Karl Marx's Capital feature as masterpiece

Soviet nostalgia
Pravda - "The Truth" - May 10th 1945 - original version

Soviet nostalgia
CCCP manhole

Soviet nostalgia
Veterans in front of Bolshoe Theatre

Soviet nostalgia
Veteran's shop

Soviet nostalgia
Veterans queuing

Soviet nostalgia
Once upon a phone...

Soviet nostalgia
Soviet paraphernalia


Victory Day on May 9th represents perfectly the nostalgia: a massive celebration for the victory against the evil on WW2.
The defeat of Nazism is the last stronghold in the heart of Russians, the first and last victory they ever had in recent history.
Russians are truly proud to be Russian only on May 9th

Moscow
VDNH on Victory Day

Moscow
Nobody is missing at the parade: Stalin, a war veteran, a cheery non-russian and Kung-fu Panda!

Moscow
Tanks on Tverskava ready to hit Shokoladnitza

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow
A yellow woman holding Lenin and a gang of metal-heads/bikers/christians. Utopias are possible.

Moscow
Metal-heads/bikers/christians gang detail

Moscow
Digital filter sometimes enhance ideals


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