| In the mid 1980s the English photographer Roger George Clark twice visited Moscow, the capital of the USSR. 'A thaw had set in between the East and West,' he says. 'There was no longer a feeling that Russia was closed to outsiders as it once was. But people who had never in foot in the Soviet Union confidently assured visitors they would see nothing if they did go. 'The former diplomat and Russian expert Sir Fitzroy MaClean knew better. He wrote an introduction to a modern guide book - "Smith's Guide to Moscow" - encouraging Westerners to go. If you were prepared to walk about the Moscow streets for two or three hours a day, he said, dive down into the Metro, or leap on a tram or bus, or drop into shops, cafes and parks, you would find out more about the Russians in a week or two than reading every book ever been written on the subject. I decided to take him at his word and, armed with cameras, set out to explore the Soviet capital. 'My pictures show the Kremlin, Lenin's tomb, Red Square, the great department store GUM, pictures in the streets, the Novo-Devichy convent and cemetery, the Moscow State Circus, Gorki Park and the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. 'A glance at goods on sale in the shops - or not on sale - told you that something was wrong with the Communist society. A few years later the Soviet Union collapsed. Somebody said if socialism had been more fun perhaps it would have lasted. A melancholy air hung over Moscow even in summer when these pictures were ... |
