Lecture by Andrew Brochwicz-Lewinski ARPS
Andrew Brochwicz-Lewinski's talk on his three year stay in Moscow held the attention of his audience, in spite of the hot weather. Illustrated by his photographs, the lecture was full of interesting information and anecdotes, giving us an insight into life in Moscow in the mid -1990s.He took us through the rigours of a Russian winter, the re-emergence of churches, and the remarkable return of long hidden icons. We saw photographs taken of the wedding of his Lada -driving chauffeur, at which vast quantities of vodka were consumed, and which seemed a lavish affair, particularly in view of the low pay, and shortages of commodities.
There was a contrast in the buildings, from the refurbished traditional style buildings, the newly re-emerged churches, whose icons had been reinstated after lying hidden for seventy years or more, to the huge buildings known as Stalin's Teeth. We also saw the apartment buildings where the workers lived, many of them in very poor conditions.
We were shown pictures of the shops within containers, where no-one could ever be sure what would be available from one day to the next, maybe razor blades, maybe Hellmann's mayonnaise.We also saw the inside of the galleries of the huge GUM store, and the queue for McDonald's, with a three hour wait for fast food!
Andrew gave us an overview of the political situation during the period he was there, and the developments since that time.
The overall impression was one of contrast, change and development within Moscow and the wider Russian society. We were given the benefit of Andrew's great knowledge and understanding of his subject, lightened with his dry asides. It is a long time since I have heard such an interesting speaker and I am sure that we all agreed with Cy's comments at the end. If only we could have more lecturers of this calibre!
posted by joyceh @ 4:38 pm
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