Russia: Moscow – Meeting Lenin & Stalin on the Red Square
As I was approaching the Red Square – guess who I saw walking toward me? Stalin and Lenin (impersonators)! Seemed like a good photo-op and I asked them how much for taking pictures. “300 rubles (about $4.50), and you can take as many pics as you want ”, said excited Lenin with a smile full of socialist optimism. “Ok”, I said (thanking years of Wall Street for being able to afford it) and we took a lot of pictures. Then Lenin extended a hand and asked for money, which I paid him (despite the fact that there should have been no money in communism). Satisfied and rich, Lenin briskly walked away, leaving me alone with a rather menacing and grim Stalin. “Now you need to pay me too 300 rubles”, he said. I was about to object, but remembered the Gulags and repressions and handed him the cash. Moral? Both Stalin and Lenin ended up being swindlers, while communism failed and capitalism won, handing the leaders of the revolution 600 monetary units in more or less convertible currency. And I continued to the Red Square and GUM department store – one of the most expensive and elitist stores in the world, full of obscenely expensive boutiques; directly across from Lenin Mausoleum…
