Comments on Scraps of Moscow: R.I.P., Izmailovo?

I found this web site for know more about Russia. ...

2009-08-28T12:08:12.837+01:00

I found this web site for know more about Russia. I hope it will help you.

http://www.indiavision.com/countries/

Great photo. Brings back immediate memories of ov...

2009-07-24T03:22:53.596+01:00

Great photo. Brings back immediate memories of over-cooked salmon on a stick washed down with Baltika 7. And sashlik with "cognac."

I'm obviously--as the link (thanks!) attests--sensitive to the ethnic component of closing these spaces. But there's also a (not entirely unrelated) class story, right? All the little sellers with tables are pushed out and only those who can pay rent for an enclosed shop in certain areas survive. I saw little versions of this while I was in Moscow (07-08) at the markets near me--Savelovskii vokzal and Dmitrovskaia stantsiia--but we thought it was just temporary. This transformation of Moscow (with its related ethnic story) seems to be the larger shift.

(Sidenote: If it gives you any hope, the Vietnamese market that used to be at Savelovskii relocated to an abandoned factory not far away, but just far away enough not to attract much attention. So perhaps there's hope that all the Soviet junk purveyors--who deserve to get thanked in my diss. for adding tomes like "The First Ten Years of the Comintern in Decisions and Numbers" to its collection as this book didn't turn up elsewhere--will unite and also find a low-key location for you to sniff out next time you are in Moscow.)

Stay tuned for the story of the disappearing corner melon cages?

Lyndon, you almost gave me a heart attack with thi...

2009-07-23T19:55:01.199+01:00

Lyndon, you almost gave me a heart attack with this one. Where am I supposed to get busts of Lenin now? Luckily, the following appeared in today's Moscow Times:

"However, the famous Vernisage, where tourists have shopped for souvenirs since the 1990s, remained open Wednesday. Interfax reported Tuesday that the souvenir market, located in the middle of Izmailovsky, had been closed together with the rest of the market."

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/379765.htm

Perhaps all hope is not lost...