Red Square

Red Square, or Kрacнaя площадь, as it’s known in Russian (wow – I can still remember some Russian!) is the place that everyone heads to when in Moscow. Dominated by St Basil’s Cathedral with its fantastically bright multi-coloured domes, arches and towers (photo time!) and Lenin’s Mausoleum (which I have done separate reviews on and so won’t discuss here), it ...
...trip here in 1997, and Red Square, where the communist May Day parades used to be held, was the very first place we visited. Your first view of Red Square will stay in your memory for ever. We entered at the far end of the square, near St Basil’s cathedral – doubtless many of you will have seen this on TV, it seems to be where the news reporters usually tend to stand. Just before you enter Red Square, a hoard of ‘sellers’ ... more

Red Square, or Kрacнaя площадь, as it’s known in Russian (wow – I can still remember some Russian!) is the place that everyone heads to when in Moscow. Dominated by St Basil’s Cathedral with its fantastically bright multi-coloured domes, arches and towers (photo time!) and Lenin’s Mausoleum (which I have done separate reviews on and so won’t discuss here), it is arguably the most well known Square in the whole of Russia.

I went on a school trip here in 1997, and Red Square, where the communist May Day parades used to be held, was the very first place we visited. Your first view of Red Square will stay in your memory for ever. We entered at the far end of the square, near St Basil’s cathedral – doubtless many of you will have seen this on TV, it seems to be where the news reporters usually tend to stand. Just before you enter Red Square, a hoard of ‘sellers’ will almost certainly rush up to you. They sell mostly Russian hats, some Russian dolls, (matryoshka dolls – the ones which are made up of a collection of dolls inside each other, each getting smaller and smaller) and maybe a few postcards too. These sellers are very very persistent! If you’re new to Russia, this can be a little scary – my friends and I were pursued down the subway by some furry hat sellers (the area around Red Square is full of long and twisty subways) and we ran so far we missed the turning to get back to the bus!

Anyway, once I’d succeeded in getting past the sellers – might be a good idea to buy a couple of postcards just to keep them happy, (if they like you they might give you lots free – I ended up with about 40!) – and was in Red Square, I found I was largely untroubled by sellers – they were still there, but not obtrusively so. However, be wary of pickpockets – this is a notable tourist area. No-one in my party suffered any problems – but we had all been advised to carry our money in money belts under our clothing, making it inaccessible, unless they were really determined!

So what is there to do when you’re actually in Red Square? Well, firstly, the FREE things! Near St Basil’s, you can go and look at the execution platform, where public executions used to be carried out in imperial Russia – if you’ve studied Russian history then you’ll probably find it interesting to see just where the figures you have read about were executed. Imperial decrees were also given from here. With regard to St Basil’s, as I mentioned in my previous opinion, the best way to see this fantastic cathedral is to simply walk around its exterior, since the inside does not live up to expectations, again, this is free.

I found even in November that there were a lot of tourists about, making photography a bit tricky! However, there are a few stalls inside Red Square, some of which sell paintings of the area. I managed to find a lovely pair of watercolours here, for an extremely reasonable price - $25. (If you’re going to Russia, although the currency is in fact the Russian Rouble, most transactions are carried out in American dollars, and indeed, you can’t actually take the Rouble out of Russia).

There is also GUM (I’m not even going to begin to try to write in full what this Russian acronym stands for!), the biggest shopping centre in Russia, this is on the right hand side of the Square if you have entered by St Basil’s. It is a collection of many different shops, including many which westerners will recognise. It seems to sell most things, some quite cheaply. I managed to get camera film here with no problems. That’s another tip – there is so much fabulous architecture in Russia that you will be bound to use much more film than you originally anticipated. Even this shopping centre is extremely ornate for something as functional as a shopping centre – it was built in the 19th century, and has three floors of shops. There are little bridges from one side to the other, and you get a great view of the whole shopping centre from the top floor – no floors going all the way across as you tend to get in this country. I suppose if you get vertigo you might not like shopping on the top floor too much! The roof is glass and so it’s nice and light in there, not claustrophobic at all, but very old-fashioned. There’s also a large ornamental fountain in the middle. In fact, unless you’re a total shopaholic, you will be too busy examining the architecture of this place rather than going into the shops! It’s also interesting just to simply watch the Russian people going about their business.

Back into Red Square again, and on the other side, opposite GUM, you can see the Lenin Mausoleum, where the body of Lenin is available for viewing! I won’t say much about this here, since I have already written an op on this topic. Behind the Lenin Mausoleum is the wall of the Kremlin. We saw some foreign dignitaries (Indian I think) driving in to the Kremlin, through the Saviour Gate, so if you stand here for long enough, you never know who you might see. It’s a bit like standing at the entrance to Downing Street! Hmm…I think an opinion on the Kremlin may follow shortly!

Red Square is certainly a very interesting place to visit, though it is so full of tourists that you won’t be able to experience the real Russian atmosphere that maybe you were hoping for. Take a camera, even if you don’t want to pay to visit anywhere you will still get to see some fantastic sights. I recommend you make a couple of trips, as I did, one in the day and one at night – it looks great lit up at night – and who knows, if there’s an interesting event going on then maybe you’ll see one of our very own BBC correspondents!
 

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