I Love Red Square

I love Red Square.  There are so many things which are good about it and indeed so many things historically which have happened there that it isn't a short story.

My first trip to Russia was in the dead of winter.  The entire time I was here it never stopped snowing for more than an hour or so then it would start right back up.  It was the constant kind of snow and not the deluge kind of snow we used to see in the mountains of West Virginia.  On that trip I experienced many things for the first time and Red Square was the pinnacle of them all.

As I walked from the metro up the street I saw the top of the famous cathedral.  It was late at night and the snow was really coming down.  It was COLD too and the cathedral was all lit up.  To borrow a phrase from our British friends, "It was brilliant, lovely!"  In fact, the word for Red predates the Soviets and simply means, "Beautiful" in Russian.  It is the Beautiful Square. 

Emotion overtook my senses and I knew I was destined to be there.  Since that night I often go to Red Square for inspiriation.  It is where Ivan the Terrible watched from his window.  It is the place where Lenin held political rallys.  It is the place where all the Soviet leaders stood atop Lenin's mausoleum waving while the SS-20's drove by in parades during the cold war.  It is where world leaders come to have their pictures taken along side the tourists.  It is even the place where Paul McCartney played in concert for President Vladimir Putin.

I go there to stroll and get my thoughts together.  Its a place of destiny.  For all of Russia it represents their nation and its a place we call home.