I once read that the days following the fall of Communism were very strange in Russia because no one knew how to be a capitalist.
Well, those days are long gone. This is now a hotbed of raw, unbridled capitalism. There are carnival barkers using bullhorns to sell their wares on almost every corner of Nevsky, St Petersburg’s main thoroughfare. Everyone’s trying to sell something to someone.
Funny thing is, they truly glorify the days of the czars, but don’t say as much about the decades of Communist rule. I wanted to buy a T-shirt or cap that said CCCP (the Russian initials of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) or a hammer & sickle, but I haven’t been able to find anything adorned with either.
But the top of this building serves as a silent reminder that Communism ran the whole shebang not that long ago.