1st May 1984 - May Day Parade in Moscow

MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY DASH DASH DASH DOT DOT DOT DASH DASH DASH

  We got up very early, like you know, before six, had breakfast at 6.15 and left for downtown Moscow at about 7.00. The bus parked in Something Street and we walked to our stations outside the National Hotel. I stood at the front between some Americans; about five people away was an Englishman – it was so good to hear his voice. I had a view of St Basil’s between the Kremlin and the big red building which is a museum, I think. [The National Historical Museum.] That was, of course, until the parade started. [We were not in Red Square, but in the adjacent square]

  We were very early because the parade was due to start at ten o’clock. So while we waited, and waited, busloads of Russians arrived in the 50^th Etcetera Square [I think this is now called Revolution Square, but I could be wrong.] and stood around in groups. Then columns of policemen and arm-banded men came along for the marchers to march between. The arm-banded men were unnecessary, too many and they blocked the view.

  By and by, the procession commenced. There were four or five columns coming down Gorky Prospekt on the left. They went either side of the big red building which I think is a museum and presumably joined up in Red Square. Each column was maybe ten, maybe twenty, maybe fifty (but not likely) people wide – oldies and young children included. They carried flags, mostly red, but some coloured ones too, crepe paper carnations (of a large size) and branches of paper blossoms, and highly transparent balloons. Every now and then a group would pass with the flags of all the Soviet republics. Some sang, there was a band every so often, and they all said “Hurrah!” when the voice on the loudspeaker said to.

   Masses of people, “a sea of humanity”, following and being followed by floats showing great economic achievements, portraits of their heroes, slogans and things like Aeroflot.

     

May Day 1984 - (looking towards Red Square from near Hotel National on Gorky Street) Photo by Patrick Murphy

 

May Day 1984 Photo by Patrick Murphy, who was obviously in an area near us, but a bit to the north, and much further away from the marchers..

   Quite frankly, the parade is too big and gets awfully tedious after a while. So I wandered off and bought a drink and a couple of cakes, and a badge and a little painted plastic box (3 roubles).

   When the parade finished (the last group were young people dressed in blue uniforms who were the Komsomol, I assume [All-Union Leninist Young Communist League]), the great army of street cleaning trucks mobilized into action straight away. They had been ranked outside the library before the parade, and as they swung into action on the square some appropriate ballet music should have been played on the loudspeakers.

  At about 11.20 we started off back to the hotel. Gorky Prospekt was closed off because of pedestrians, and there were a lot of people out promenading through Kalinin Prospekt, Marx Square, Peace Prospekt – all over the place, really.

   For lunch we had some nice cream chicken soup and meat (which I left) with carrots, peas and chips, and ice cream.

   I had a short rest and at 2.45 we got on the bus and left for the USSR Economic Achievements Exhibition, which is just across the road from the hotel. We drove right round the back of it, next to the main Botanical Gardens, and got out near the main sort of square where there are a couple of Aeroflot planes and a Vostok space rocket. We went into the Cosmos Pavilion which was very crowded. On display are satellites, rockets, Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz spacecraft and the Salyut orbital research station. All replicas, of course. Also, Soviet lunniks, which were the first automatic probes and interplanetary stations sent to Venus and Mars. Hands up who knew they’d sent something to Mars, and also a lunar buggy to the Moon? (That was in January 1973.) July 1975 – joint Soyuz and Apollo flight.

  There’s also a lot on Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space and one of the big heroes of the Soviet Union [and modern-day Russia, still].

  The rest of the group went off but I went upstairs in an annex of the building and had a look at a display of optical equipment, including ancient-looking Zenits.

  Then I wandered through the park, got out at the wrong gate and went back to the hotel. I bought three bottles of Pepsi for 1.35. [Really, I'm not a cola drinker, but it was all that was available.]

  We had an early dinner at 5.30, crumbed chicken, a cream éclair and pieces of orange in castor sugar.

   At 6.45 we went off to the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall for a performance of Cossack dancing and singing. The auditorium is oval-shaped and the hall was built in 1940 with 1,650 seats. It is an imposing building, as many in Moscow and Leningrad are, and it has a portico with ten large columns. Nice marble inside, little buffets inside with staircases, staircases leading upstairs, an exhibition including a model of Tchaikovsky’s study/room, a bust of him, a bust of Lenin, basically white auditorium, excellent acoustics. It is used for the International Tchaikovsky Competition, I think, which is held every two or four years.

  The performances were great. A set of singers, a set of musicians and a set of dancers – and the way they can throw their bodies around is incredible. The costumes were colourful of course, but the singing starts to begin to sound much the same after a while. But it was a very enjoyable show.

   After the show we waited outside for the May Day fireworks display. It wasn’t very exciting. Back to hotel.