Universal and Ordinary, yet Unique and Extraordinary

All five sites along this pathway are dedicated to themes that are not necessarily uniquely Russian, as most if not all other nations have their own systems of lighting, transit, alcoholic beverage, recreational devices and remnants of political repression. They are incredibly common and seemingly inconsequential elements of a day in Moscow (in the Gulag's case, much too often incorrectly considered as inconsequential) that may not seem to tell us much about Moscow let alone its inhabitant's lives. However, what the museums reveal is how the Soviet Union and modern-day Moscow have made these elements essentially “Russian,” embedding seemingly universal and globalized concepts with significant historical and cultural meaning specific to Russia and Moscow. Today, these relics define Moscow just as much as Moscow defines them. These relics displayed within these museums provide a glimpse into a past space and time that belonged to a world very much different from the present in many ways, yet sharing fundamental traits and bonds with the present that make it undoubtedly Moscow.

In taking one through a few of the places and objects that someone who inhabited Moscow decades and centuries ago interacted with on a daily and routine basis, this path reveals that something does not have to be a groundbreaking artistic masterpiece nor a prominent and distinctive event or figure to be memorialized and cherished. At times, the best way to rediscover and remember a city is to trace the steps of an ordinary citizen who lived amongst the mass and grew up playing arcade games and taking the metro through town, perhaps even growing up to become caught up in the unspeakable injustice and violence within the walls of the Gulag camps.