Looking for the USSR in Moscow

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  10.13.09 | 3:02 PM ET

World Hum contributor Jim Heintz says that one of the hardest things to find when visiting the Russian capital “is a sense of how bleak life was under the hammer and sickle.” He writes:

Unlike Rome or Athens, where the tourist is called upon to imagine the glory that once was, in Moscow you have to visualize what wasn’t there. Walk into a food store and imagine the shelves empty; picture the store without a clever name or attractive logo—its sign would have read only “meat” or “milk” or “products.”

These days it’s unlikely that one’s tour guide briefs the secret police at the end of the day. Your hotel may not be cute or comfy, but it’s probably not overtly scary like the Rossiya, a signature Soviet monstrosity that’s now a vacant lot. In a way, this may be kind of a disappointment: Going to the Evil Empire had more cachet than a trip to the Overpriced Capital.



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