1. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, whose body lies embalmed on Red Square, is having a(nother) makeover. Allow me to translate the article in yesterday's Metro newspaper.
"On Red Square in Moscow maintenance work is continuing on Lenin's mausoleum. Workers have covered it in a huge inflatable marquee to maintain the correct temperature. The FSO (Federal Protection Service?) explained that is was necessary to guarantee a constant temperature to support the specific technology used to carry out the maintenance work. The body of the leader of the world proletariat will be put in a special sarcophagus, in which the required temperature and light regime will be maintained. The work will finish on 30th April this year."
This is good news for my friends Alisdair and Cecilia, who are coming to visit me (well Russia actually) in May. Lenin's mausoleum is usually high on the list of sights (достопримечательности) for foreigners to visit. Once upon a time it was almost mandatory for Soviet Russians visiting Moscow to pay homage and queues could be seen stretching for some considerable distance. Since the fall of the Soviet Union there has been a significant decline in the number of visitors. It has slowed to a trickle. Times change!
2. On this day, in 1904, the Japanese kicked off the Russo-Japanese war by attacking the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in China. In October, Russian ships from the Baltic fleet, en route to Japan the long way around, opened fire on some British trawlers off the East coast of England - mistaking them for the Imperial Japanese Navy. This became know as the Dogger Bank incident.
3. A tenuous link back to item 2 allows me to show the lyrics to one of my favourite songs. Rod Stewart recorded Sailing in 1975.
"On Red Square in Moscow maintenance work is continuing on Lenin's mausoleum. Workers have covered it in a huge inflatable marquee to maintain the correct temperature. The FSO (Federal Protection Service?) explained that is was necessary to guarantee a constant temperature to support the specific technology used to carry out the maintenance work. The body of the leader of the world proletariat will be put in a special sarcophagus, in which the required temperature and light regime will be maintained. The work will finish on 30th April this year."
This is good news for my friends Alisdair and Cecilia, who are coming to visit me (well Russia actually) in May. Lenin's mausoleum is usually high on the list of sights (достопримечательности) for foreigners to visit. Once upon a time it was almost mandatory for Soviet Russians visiting Moscow to pay homage and queues could be seen stretching for some considerable distance. Since the fall of the Soviet Union there has been a significant decline in the number of visitors. It has slowed to a trickle. Times change!
2. On this day, in 1904, the Japanese kicked off the Russo-Japanese war by attacking the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in China. In October, Russian ships from the Baltic fleet, en route to Japan the long way around, opened fire on some British trawlers off the East coast of England - mistaking them for the Imperial Japanese Navy. This became know as the Dogger Bank incident.
3. A tenuous link back to item 2 allows me to show the lyrics to one of my favourite songs. Rod Stewart recorded Sailing in 1975.
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