Not an original thought, of course, but it’s hard to miss the fact that the statue of Vladimir Lenin in the central square of Etakerinburg, Russia, is surrounded today by heavy traffic, construction and billboards of global enterprises. This city, closed to outsiders less than two decades ago, is in the middle of a construction and economic boom.
The journalism, as noted below, does not fully reflect the modernizing part of Russia. The regime in Moscow has clamped down heavily on broadcasters, and has put pressure on major newspapers, though so far it hasn’t done anything serious online in this regard.
I’ll be visiting Ural State University today, as well as a growing business magazine. A fascinating and full week is coming to a close.
By the way, as a local resident noted to me, Comrade Lenin is pointing directly at what has become the central-city upscale shopping street.
on Oct 5th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Interesting. So not all the Lenin statues came down then. Looking forward to reading the fuller writeup of the trip.
on Oct 7th, 2007 at 5:32 am
Not only have many of the Lenin statues remained up, in Ekaterinburg you’ll also see the statue of Yakov Sverdlov, the Bolshevik leader who ordered the execution of the tsar and his family in 1918.