ON THE EVE: A PRAYER FOR RUSSIA

INAUGURATION TOMORROW

VIOLENCE ON THE EVE

EXTERIOR ICON

WOODEN CHURCH

NOVOSIBIRSK, USSR, 1984

The Inauguration of the second round of Vladimir Putin's Russian presidencies is scheduled for tomorrow, May 7. Today saw demonstrations in Moscow which ended in violence and a reported four hundred arrests.

MOTHER'S DAY, WAR, AND COLD WAR: MAY 8

MAY 8 

MOTHER'S DAY 

WAR 

& 

COLD WAR 

MOTHER & DAUGHTER 

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA), USSR, 1984 

May 8, 1945, is celebrated as V-E Day (May 9 as Victory Day by the USSR and now Russia) -- the end of World War II in Europe. 

On May 8, 1984, the Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the Los Angeles Olympics in the summer of 1984, ostensibly because it feared for the safety of its athletes. 

The real reason was generally understood to be retaliation for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 

A couple of months later I was wandering around the USSR by myself ("wandering" meaning following an itinerary I had chosen for myself, but specified and paid for in advance) for seven weeks; in Siberia, in Novosibirsk, I took the photograph above. 

And why had the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics, so dear to "Moscow's" heart?  Because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 27, 1979 (with Soviet troops not withdrawing until February 15, 1989). 

On October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.  This war has already lasted longer than the Soviets'; with Bin Laden dead and 9/11 presumably avenged, what next? 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 

BOY IN OVERALLS, NOVOSIBIRSK 1984

BOY 

IN 

OVERALLS 

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA) 

BACK IN THE USSR 

1984 

YOUNG PIONEERS II

YOUNG PIONEERS II

MEMBERS OF A

YOUNG PIONEER HONOR GUARD

MARCH AT A CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA, 1984

BACK IN THE USSR

YOUNG PIONEERS I

YOUNG PIONEERS I

YOUNG PIONEER

HONOR GUARD MEMBER

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA, 1984

BACK IN THE USSR

SHE TOOK HER DUTIES VERY SERIOUSLY.

On May 19, 1922, the Young Pioneer Organization of

the Soviet Union was founded; it was formally known

as the Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization.

The Young Pioneer Organization continues

today in Russia. (See a Reuters photograph

here -- the second in the slide show.)

ANOTHER NOVOSIBIRSK MONUMENT: MEMORIAL TO THE (RUSSIAN) CIVIL WAR

ANOTHER SOVIET WAR MONUMENT

MEMORIAL TO

THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA

Photographed back in the USSR, in 1984

HERE BE GIANTS

ANOTHER ETERNAL FLAME -- THIS ONE IN STONE (NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA)

ANOTHER ETERNAL FLAME

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA

Another eternal flame (see Stalingrad Memorial),

this time in stone; another upthrust hand

holding the flame

Photographed back in the USSR, in 1984

HERE BE GIANTS

A SUMMER DAY ON THE RIVER (NOVOSIBIRSK)

A SUMMER DAY ON THE RIVER

THE RIVER OB' 

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA), USSR 1984 

On a Sunday two-thirds of the way between Mother's Day and the Summer Solstice, a treat from a boat on the River Ob'. We have taken off from the city of Novosibirsk, the largest in Siberia, and a major node on the Trans-Siberian Express. 

OTHER WEDDINGS I

AT LENIN'S FEET 

OTHER WEDDINGS I 

BACK IN THE USSR 

As June is almost here, and with it the wedding season in the USA, two weddings from other countries, other cultures: In today's photograph a newly married couple in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk comes in 1984 to be photographed at the foot of the Lenin statue in the heart of town.