Oh, hey, Lenin

Today we had classes as usual and ate lunch at the stolovaya. After that was all said and done, we headed over to the Smolny Institute next to where we’re studying for a group tour of Lenin’s office and apartment around the time of the revolution and before the Bolshevik government moved the capital to Moscow. The office itself is in a building that now houses the local government and the office of the governor herself. As a result, security is tight and we all had to show our student IDs to even be let on the property. Our guide, a delightful Russian history grad student named Vladimir, took us on a tour of the rooms were Lenin stayed. Since the tour covered rooms on multiple floors, we actually got to see parts of the local governmental offices, although photography was forbidden in the hallway.

I remember reading about how starkly Lenin lived with his wife during the time of the revolution, and may I say how true that is! All of the rooms are sparsely furnished and simple. Many of his personal effects were in the offices behind glass. On one of the desks was an original draft of the soviet constitution from 1913 in Lenin’s actual handwriting. What we saw is kind of hard to describe, so I’ll put some pictures here so you all can see Lenin’s office!

At the end of the tour we went into the White Room where the first soviet congress was held in St. Petersburg and where they still hold special events today. The room is as it looked in 1913 excepting the microphones and newly installed LCD screen in the corner of the room. We were allowed to go up to the speaker’s bar and platform and sit for pictures, which we thought was a total riot and probably had a little too much fun with. If you look in the bottom right of the full-room picture here, you can see our personal militsia escort who followed us around to make sure we didn’t do anything stupid. Actually, I think he liked us; we made him smile a few times and I’m sure that half of us were pretty, young women didn’t hurt. 

democracy at work

After Lenin’s apartment, we called it a day and headed home to get some rest. After all, we need the energy because the sightseeing continues till the day we leave!

Xoxo

P.S. Today marked 60 years since the start of World War II for Russian and beginning of the Leningrad Blockade on June, 22 1941. (For those who don’t know, Leningrad and St. Petersburg are the same city.) There were ceremonies and the like all over the city today. It was very cool to see the veterans with all their medals out on the streets. St. Petersburg is very characterized by its history, and the Blockade has a lot to do with their modern mentality. Everyone here has orange and black stripped ribbons around their houses and on their cars that represent solidarity in the Blockade. Hence, the ribbons were everywhere today.