Trees for Peace

Marx, Engels and Lenin – the Soviet holy trinity

Marx, Engels and Lenin – the Soviet holy trinity

The Soviet holy trinity is still present in the cityscape of every Russian city we visit. Both in statue form and in road names. Most of Lenin, quite a few Marx and some Engels here and there.

Lenin in Irkutsk, at the intersection of Lenin road and Karl Marx road.
Lenin in Irkutsk, at the intersection of Lenin road and Karl Marx road.
Main road of Irkutsk is Karl Marx road. Number two is Lenin road and unexpectedly number three is Stepan Razin. (The volga pirate of the song "Volga, volga" - sometimes in Sweden known as "vodka, vodka").
Main road of Irkutsk is Karl Marx street. Number two is Lenin street and unexpectedly number three is Stepan Razin street. (Stepan Razin was the Volga cosack pirate of the song “Volga, Volga” – sometimes in Sweden known as “vodka, vodka”).
Karl Marx in Moscow.
Karl Marx in Moscow.

 

Workers of the world - unite!
Workers of the world – unite!

 

In the 90’s, in the Yeltsin times, there was a lot of shame for the Soviet times, and lots of cities and streets changed names. Stalingrad changed name back to Volgograd, Leningrad to St. Petersburg and Gorky to Nizhniy Novgorod.

Now there is a revival of Soviet nostalgia. The heroes of the Great Patriotic War (a.k.a WWII) are celebrated with more fanfare than ever. There are also quite a lot of products in the supermarkets that allude to the “good old days”. One example is the milk brand “36 kopeek”, which was the price of milk in the Soviet times, decided by the Planning Ministry. (0.36 rubel is not much today, this package costs more than hundred times more – 56 rubel.)

Soviet-nostalgic milk.
Soviet-nostalgic milk.

Goran Christiansson

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