Red Square and The Kremlin

We spent our last full day in Russia on a tour of the Red Square and the Kremlin. Red Square (in Russian, Красная площадь) means both Red Square and Beautiful Square. The color red has long been associated with beauty in Russian culture, and the naming of the square has nothing to do with communism. Nevertheless, it still houses the mausoleum where Lenin’s preserved body is on display. We visited the square on the 6^th of November, which is they day before the day when the USSR celebrated the Revolution. Today, modern Russians celebrate WWII on this day. Nevertheless, we happed to be so luck to see a delegation of the Russian Communist Party (the largest opposition party) hold a ceremony on red square, where they honored the revolution by delivering flowers to Lenin. Apparently, it is quite a rare sight in modern Russia, so we were delighted to be able to experience it.

The Entrance to Red Square

The Communists

Lenin's Mausoleum

The Communist Party is almost entirely made up of old people

A Statue of Marshal of the Soviet Union, Georgy Zhukov, in Revolution Square, right outside Red Square

St. Basil's Cathedral

Later that day, we had a guided tour of the Kremlin, which is the citadel of Moscow, where the Tsar, the Soviet Union, and the modern Russia Federation all conducted their government business. It is also the location of many of the most important churches in Moscow, because there was virtually no separation of church and state in Tsarist Russia. Indeed it was an important symbolic decision to house the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in the same location as the Tsar. It certainly made for the perfect ending for a very interesting trip to Russia. I am so glad I got the chance to go, and see some truly amazing things. Below are some photos of Red Square and the Kremlin.