Monthly Archives: July 2018

The evidence amassed by the historians was overwhelming in volume and content. Their analyses were cogent and profound. They showed beyond reasonable doubt that the Holocaust was a window, rather than a picture on the wall. —Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and … Continue reading →

Waited in line for an hour to view Lenin’s embalmed corpse. I found seeing his body a surprisingly moving experience. The clichés about how lifelike he looks are true. Looking at him it’s possible to feel for a moment that … Continue reading →

I followed the Moskva, down to Gorky Park, listening to the wind of change. On a summer’s night, OMON and Tourist Police passing by, listening to the wind of change. The wind sounds different from what I would have imagined … Continue reading →

Tu-144. I think these are beautiful aircraft. This is across the parking lot from the museum’s main entrance. On the building’s upper floor there is a tree growing out of the wall.

The guy on the right has an anti-tank gun. I am trying to imagine lying in the mud with a 14.5mm rifle and aiming at an approaching tank. Lenin Military History Museum I was pleased to see some lend-lease stuff … Continue reading →

This exhibit is entitled “Monumental Propaganda of the USSR”. The grass has grown long here. There are more statues of Stalin and Marx than I have seen everywhere else I’ve traveled this summer.I had never imagined that in a reserve … Continue reading →

So the tank museum feels a little like looking at porn. I’m not sure how best to describe it. There are half a dozen huge sheds friggin’ full of armored vehicles – mostly tanks, but self-propelled artillery also, and some … Continue reading →

If I were a Pole I’d be furious. I looked at this, and looked at this, and it just seems so perverse.

For many Europeans and Americans, events in the 2010s— the rise of antidemocratic politics, the Russian turn against Europe and invasion of Ukraine, the Brexit referendum, the Trump election— came as a surprise. Americans tend to react to surprise in … Continue reading →