More Sights in Moscow

In high school, I took AP European history. It ranks in my top 5 favorite classes in high school, maybe even college. Whenever I travel, I'm surprised how much I remember from that class. However, Russia's history is only partly European and it certainly wasn't the main focus of our course. There is so much Russian history and culture... It's amazing how selective the course material in AP Euro is. 

Most of the Russian history I know, is about St. Petersburg. So I'm really looking forward to that part of the trip. All I knew prior to coming to Moscow was here there were some really colorful churches. We visited the church that is featured on the fronts of tourist books and is all over postcards and local art. 

St. Basil's Cathedral sits just outside of the Kremlin wall and is part of the red square. Construction of the original church began in the mid 1200s. It's been through many renovations, updates, and restorations over its 9 century history. Ivan the Terrible played and instrumental role in the history of the church. Legend has it that he thought it was so beautiful that he had the architect blinded so that he could never construct something so beautiful again.

As we climbed up to the second floor, we could hear beautiful music. Old church hymns are just so beautiful. The voices of the men's quartet rang out in absolute perfect harmony, the
acoustics in the church were unbelievable. The echoes created were simultaneously beautiful
and eerie.

In the Red Square is also Lenin's Mausoleum. After his death, Lenin's body was embalmed and has been preserved (against his will). While standing in line to enter the mausoleum, we saw a mass of people all carrying red flowers, mostly carnations, and carrying the Soviet flag. It's tradition in Russia to leave red carnations on the graves of family and important figures, mostly military members. Many important Russian figures are buried behind the mausoleum including Stalin. Many Russian's still celebrate Stalin and come to his grave regularly to leave flowers.

It was a little bit weird seeing Lenin's body.  Didn't look at all real. Kind of like a wax figure. There is crazy security present both indiscriminate and outside of the mausoleum and then people parade past much like seeing the Mona Lisa.   

Near the red square is the tomb of the unknown soldier and Alexander Park. In the park, there a bunch of statues of Russian story characters. Of course the signs were all in Russian so I don't know what the stories are about.

We also walked past the Beloshi Theater - one that has seen many premiers of great ballets and operas and through much of the theater district. Unfortunately most of the theaters are closed to the public except for during performances.  There are so many statues and monuments. I didn't know who most of them were. We did find a statue of Karl Marx.