After visiting the Red Square we walked to
the nearby Nikolskaya street leading to Lubyanka Square. At a glance the street
just looked like a fashionable shopping street, lined with boutiques, bars and
food shops. But actually, the place had many historical and cultural buildings
in the past. The street is named after the Greek Monastery of St. Nicholas
situated there, and the north side of the street is lined with some historic
buildings, such as the Kazan Cathedral, the former Red Mint building, and the Russian
State University for the Humanities. Other historical buildings have been
replaced with souvenirs shop, restaurants and boutiques.
We can feel the commercial atmosphere in the street, many local ladies and gentlemen wear Russian traditional clothes, complete the big blonde wig strolling the street offering souvenirs or selfies. They greeted the passing by tourists ‘nihao, nihao’ as there are many Chinese tourists coming there. There are also benches in the middle of streets for us to sit after a long walk, enjoying the fresh spring air, under blue sky with flocks of white cloud. There are also street performers there, including one singing opera arias, with his quite powerful voice. We heard that he was actually practicing for an operatic performance, as he wouldn’t be able to do it in his apartment room, it would be to noisy for the neighbours.
From there we took a metro and walked in the Vozdvizhenka Street area, and saw a huge modern building dominating the area. It is the Russian State Library, the largest in the country and the fifth largest in the world for its collection of books. In front of the library stands a statue of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a famous Russian novelist. The statue depicts him in a very informal posture, sitting slanting on a pedestal, looking deep in thought. Within the vicinity of this area there are other museums such as the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Gogol House museum, and Gallery Aleksander Shilov. There are other museums, theater and churches in this district, making it one of the most dense area with cultural heritage.
Taking another metro to the Teatralnaya Ploschad or Theater Square, in front of Bolshoi theatre, at the side of Teatral'nyy Proyedz street stands the statue of Karl Marx the founder of Communism. The statue carved out Marx from a grey granite block, depicting him as a speaker standing on the podium as if addressing people with a speech. The pedestal is engraved with his famous words: "Workers of the World, Unite!". The sculpturer Lev Kerbel was awarded the Lenin Prize the following year.
I captured the soul of Moscow in the brief
walk on its streets.
THE END
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_State_Library
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx_monument,_Moscow
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