Lenin Presents New Zanzibar

Over the past eighteen years, it seems The Simpsons have been everywhere--Italy, Japan, Australia, even China (though not, as far as I know, Russia). But the traveling episode of the The Simpsons I remember best is the one where they go to Africa.

I remember in particular that, on this episode, Homer Simpson and family are about to land in Africa when they are told the name of the country they are visiting has been changed to Zanzibar. Then to New Zanzibar. And finally, to "Pepsi Presents New Zanzibar."

I think of this line a lot as I go around Moscow. Here, it is not Pepsi but rather Lenin that seems to present everything (though Pepsi-Cola is everywhere in Moscow too these days). There seems to be no end of things imeni Lenina--in the name of Lenin. There is a Lenin Prospekt and a Lenin Library. There is a Leningradskiy Prospect and a Leningradskiy Station--even if the latter now takes you not to Leningrad but to St. Petersburg. And on Red Square there is, of course, Lenin's mausoleum. Even the metro, my station on Novoslobodskaya Street proclaims, is not just the metro but the metro "in the name of Lenin"--even though the first line of the metro was not built until 13 years after his death, and even though Lenin had, as far I know, nothing whatever to do with its planning or construction (I suppose the people of Moscow could hardly accept "the subway in the name of Stalin").

A lot of fuss was made in the Western media when the people of Leningrad voted (albeit narrowly) the revert to St. Petersburg. But if Moscow is any indication, there are still plently of place names in Russia bearing names chosen to further the Communist cause. Tomorrow, I will be teaching in a school on Prolitarskaya Ulitsa (Proletarian Street). The above-mentioned Leningradskiy Station is one of three train stations reachable from the Komsomolskaya Metro stop (named after Komosomol, the Communist youth organization). And the Metro stop nearest to Red Square is called Ploshad Revoluutsi (Revolution Square).

A few hardcore old-timers aside, Lenin's values are not much in evidence on the streets. A popular tourist souvenir is a t-shirt bearing Lenin's likeness superimposed on the Golden Arches. But Lenin's name is still everywhere.