Революция!

In the early days of November 2017 I traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg, while celebrations for the centenary of the Soviet Revolution were taking place in both cities in what is now called the Russian Federation.

The centenary appeared twice over. On one side the official version: parades with red flags and hammer-and-sickle banners, painted portraits of Lenin carried through the crowd, Soviet posters hung in the gilded halls of the Hermitage. On the other the residual one: statues, facades and monuments that are part of everyday life in these cities.

The landscape is changing quickly, but the marks of the Soviet era are still there, indelible.

Революция means revolution.

Crowds climb over vintage green tanks on Red Square, St. Basil's colourful domes and the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower behind.A grand crystal chandelier in the Hermitage museum, backed by a huge black-and-white photo of Lenin and a Lenin quote.A worker in camo squeezes behind a cream-yellow gate pier while painting the green wrought-iron railings of a park fence.Moscow, a dark bronze statue of Lenin stands on a red plinth in front of a large building swathed in scaffolding and netting.Seen between two steel bulkheads, a naval cadet in a greatcoat gazes up beside a warship gun turret on the Aurora cruiser.Hermitage, visitors in silhouette watch a huge red Soviet propaganda poster mounted in an ornate gilded palace hall.Moscow, a blurred figure in white passes a bare concrete room where Orthodox icons hang beside a poster of Stalin.At a communist rally: an old man in a grey Soviet uniform and white gloves holds a red flag, arguing with a bearded man.The turquoise, white and gold rococo corner facade of the Winter Palace, a single red modern car parked on the cobbles below.A dense crowd of marchers with red Komsomol flags and hammer-and-sickle banners carries a large painted portrait of Lenin.Moscow: through a revolving glass door, a suited security guard stands still while a red-flag rally is reflected on the panes.Blue dusk: a car blurs past a wide empty square before a monumental Soviet building with a floodlit Lenin statue out front.