Everything seems RED in Russia

At least it can seem that way. A few weeks ago my wife and I happened to be at the “Red Guards” Metro station in Moscow, yet another reminder that the world’s largest and busiest (no, New York’s subway is but child’s play compared to the Moscow Metro) public transportation system holds meaning in every brick, steel rail and strand of electric wire.

The Красная Гвардия (Red Guards) were the beginning of the Soviet Red Army as the Tsar’s troops were being demobilized, a volunteer army of mostly thugs, which began the proud tradition of the Red Army.

One of my jobs is to teach Western readers and viewers how to understand Russian language and culture. My Russian friends still find it hard to believe that most folks in places like the USA, Canada and the UK actually believe that the massive gray block square fronting the Kremlin is “red.”

But they do, I insist. We could blame language I guess. The words for “red” and “beautiful” (красный, красивый) are virtually the same. But it would burst way too many bubbles across the fruited plains of Kansas if the secret got out that “Red Square” is really “Beautiful Square” to Russians.

Ah, I see that you’ve getting it already. So…the RED guards were really the “beautiful guards” which led to the formation of the glorious “beautiful Army.” Now we’re making progress! 

In a country so obsessed with victory over Германия (Germany) in 1945, there is almost nothing “red” about the “beautiful” Army that saved the Russians from Hitler’s clutches.

Well, not so fast. There is a “red” of great distinction–the blood that flowed from 22 million Soviet souls who perished in 4 short years. That terrible human loss, more deaths than all the Allies combined, is memorialized as the fountains flow red at night in Moscow’s “Victory Park.”

Tomorrow I’ll write more on those Red Guards and the Metro station, which honours their memory.

For now, I’m in the mood to stroll down Moscow’s busy Kutuzovsky Avenue and see those red fountains once more. Of some things, one should never tire.