Moon, Moscow and Miracles…..
Let’s shift from extreme weather conditions to something out of this world - moon.
The world was not enough so Nikita Khrushchev as the cold war peaked decided to have the moon sealed with hammer and sickle. Have it confined within the blood red Communist box. As the moon refused to surrender so it had to be conquered, and at any cost. So much so that, the Soviet space program was tied to the former USSR's Five-Year Plans.
Armed with captured German archives, drawings and scientists; led by space pioneers and aficionados like Tsiolkovsky, Korolyov, Gagarin , Mishin and an unending passion to conquer the moon , which country was there to oppose the aptitude of the Soviets ?
Thus, a new dimension was added to the cold war, the space race had begun.
The ideological struggle between communism and capitalism was soon to reach as far as the moon. Who would be the first to go there? Khrushchev won by successfully launching the Sputnik 1.
I stepped inside The Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (Russian term against the American astronaut). It’s principally dedicated to acclaim Soviet feats in space exploration. Here one is prone to get lost in time. In brief, the exhibits are a persuasive reminder of a bygone era, when space exploration was explicitly viewed as mankind's ultimate adventure.
We got familiar to names like Yuri Gagarin, Leica and Sputnik well before we passed out the primary level. So here too the nostalgia chipped in. Located well within the base of the towering Monument to the Conquerors of Space , it houses a plethora of space technology related gadgetries. Distinguished among them are, the space capsule used by Yuri Gagarin, the R series liquid bipropellant Rocket propulsion engine, spacesuits worn by Russian astronauts in different eras, a collection of posters of the Soviet space programme, an entire room filled with artefacts of Sergei Korolyov(the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the US and USSR during the 50 ‘s and 60’s),crew manuals ; diaries and notes to exercise machines and tracksuits used by cosmonauts. Moreover, new sections are being included with more space related tasks. So know for sure, it’ll be bigger next time when I am there.
As our Russian guide began to lecture about the history and functions of each of the items, the only way open to me was to explore the exhibits individually, for i had absolutely no knowledge of Russian, let alone speaking or understanding it. It turned out to be wise and timely. I not only broke the law by secretly taking photographs, but also met one Mr. Orlov(not real name). A 60 plus senior citizen who fascinatingly described me another side of the Soviet space programme.
Speaking in broken English, he told me, that the soviet space programme tops the list of ‘firsts’ in at least two dozen areas related to space exploration. This writer can’t remember them all, but at least half a dozen of the ‘first times’ were already known.
Which are: the first to send a satellite (Sputnik 1) in space, first to send an animal (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first person in space (Yuri Gagarin), and First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova ; first to land on mars , and also probe to orbit Venus. First to permanently establish a manned space station (Mir) and the list goes on...
But beyond the achievements there is another side to the story. Believed to be, the most successful space state was also the most secretive state when it came to sharing its space related projects. For instance, the news releases of every project came with sheer ambiguity. One would get puzzled with the press releases full of mysterious scientific and technical data which, at times, didn’t even have a photo of the rocket or the space ship. In reality, the citizens didn’t even know ‘what was sent?’ and ‘who was in it?’ Mission details were not available. So they didn’t know why the rocket had to travel so far, in the first place.
Official attempts were to promote the space programme by frequently connecting its successes with the strength of communism. So what was feared the most happened: with the fall of communism the space programme, too had collapsed. What remained is a glory of a golden past that forever binds Moscow with the moon. Today it’s Roscosmos, the government agency responsible for the Russian space science programme and general aerospace research that has replaced the Soviet programme. But the Russians’ ‘moonlighting’ in the moon is far from over.
Spotted the moon, on that chilly clear night outside the museum, it gently whispered into my ears: moon was meant for Moscow to conquer.
But leaving the moon aside there is more to see of Moscow by night. That’s where i will take you now through a bus journey . Since dating the city isn’t possible in winter so you have to romanticise by relaxing inside the cosy cushioned tour bus.
With brief stopovers at GUM the departmental store facing Red Square, Saint Basil’s cathedral, Bolshoi theatre, a series of orthodox churches our bus shot up its speed along the Kremlin road next to the Moscow River. The semi-frozen river glinted in the moon light.
With limited architectural knowledge, i tried to divide the features of Moscow buildings in two. First, the heritage buildings like church, cathedral, and former palaces falling under Renaissance Russian architecture joined with European neoclassical designs. And second is Soviet architecture, which defines building construction by blocks and thinking straight. As if shaped out of a kid’s Lego set, declaring: room for all and opulence for none. There still prevail heaps of communal apartments scattered around the city, sarcastically called – Khrushchev’s slums.
What seemed ironical is that Lenin, Stalin or even now Putin, none was able to sever their addiction to rule Russia from the seductive Kremlin complex. Mr. Putin has now even built a helipad for traffic-free commuting. The grand dukes and Tsars may have been disliked rulers but Russia is still ruled by the same old Kremlin. Only the modality to rule has changed.
Before retreating from Moscow, Napoleon had ordered to blow-up the whole of Kremlin. So began a series of explosions, lasting for three days. Auspiciously, the rain had damaged most of the fuses so the damage was less severe than expected. Much of Kremlin was saved. God must have surely prevented Kremlin’s destruction from the Dormition Cathedral. However, to me it’s no short of a miracle.
Talking of Moscow buildings is incomplete without the Seven Sisters. It’s a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed as according to Stalin’s whims. Today these buildings are used for cultivating intellect, running a ministry, practicing diplomacy to selling luxury. Like the term Seven Sisters, the site selections, miraculously remains a mystery today.
No matter how sceptic one may be, these buildings add a nostalgic charm of the former Soviet Union. Akin to the charm created by Rossotrudnichestvo by inviting the former citizens of the USSR in today’s Russia. Have all of them under one umbrella, unite and portray them with a Russian delicacy to a Bangladeshi so that he can imagine how the people once jointly lived under the banner: USSR. Though coming from different countries today, they were all attached by the knot of knowing and speaking one common language: Russian.
Let’s keep a little more of the Russian tale untold.
(To be continued)
The writer is Current Affairs Analyst at The Daily Star.
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