The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-04-18
prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington, D. c.

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington, D. c.
~ ED SQUARE, Moscow. is the
X very heart and symbol of Rus
IN STA today.
Lenin's temporary wooden
mausoleum. a squat cube on the north
side of the square, dwarfed by the
towering wall behind, is world
shrine Of Communism. Sentries stand
guard and a double line of visitors
waits to enter for glimpse of the
leader whose teachings still live. His
body lies under glass. The dozen
domes in spirals, facets and diamonds
Of yellow, blue, and green, shaped like
inverted turnips, of st. Basils cathe-
dral, glfsten in the sun.
Legend says that after Ivan w, bet
ter known as the Terrible, started this
barbaric gem, he had the italian archi-
feet blinded so that it never could be
duplicated. However, the first archi-
tects were Russian, though they did
not survive the necessary 125 years
to see the completion of their dream.
The cathedral in which Napoleon sta
bled his horses is now museum, and
anybody, for ten cents, can lose him.
self in its eleven dark, little chapels
and maze Of narrow, winding tunnels.
Through the centuries those bull
bous, gaudy domes have looked down
on the Red square, watching Russian
history, just as they still rise serene
as the square echoes to the tramp Of
Red army and Soviet workers and the
blare of electric amplifiers as party
orators hold forth on the platform of
Lenin's tomb.
From the stone rostrum in front of
the cathedral the ukases of the czars
were read. Before its doors Peter the
Great executed several hundred of the
Streltzi, the old Muscovite militia.
Here cars were proclaimed and pre-
tenders were killed. Across that
square each proud emperor led the
patriarch of the church on a donkey
into the Kremlin, through the Spas
skiya (Redeemer) gate, which no
man entered from 1647 to 1917 with
out barring his head.
Now Soviet Headquarters.
When the Tz. I. K, the 'parliamen-
tary committee" of Soviet Russia,
holds its annual meetings, the various
types that make up its membership
meet inside the Kremlin In the Great
palace. Most of the members cross
Red square and enter Nikolskiya gate,
taking the shortest path to the meet
ing place.
Two narrow sidewalks separate in
side the Nikolskiya gate. One goes
straight ahead along a low terrace
outside the arsenal, on which are piled
in pyramids the S75 cannons, French.
Austrian, Prussian, Italian, captured
when Napoleon wrote his epilogue in
Moscow, in 1912. The other branches
off the left, on the opposite side of an
open court, past the big white build
ing, once the Palace Of Justice and
now the headquarters of the Tz. /. K,
the seat of government.
1t is a long walk, leading past an
cient churches and palaces. The
stacks of old muzzle-loading French
cannon extend for a block, and then
come the barracks, with a fringe Of
cannon Of the museum vintage.
Historic Bell.
Where the sidewalk skirts a corner
Of the old palace and comes out above
the high wall overlooking the river,
stands the great Gar bell. Why it
happens to be put there, hiding behind
the corner, history does not explain.
1t has been there for 90 years, and
Czarina Ann had it cast in 1875, and
1O1 years passed before it got out Of
the foundry which burned around it.
A 2OO-ton bell, 66 feet in circumfer-
ence, and 20 feet high, is not to be
handled lightly. 1t has been raised
on a stone foundation as high as a
mans shoulders, and the broken-out
chunk sits on the ground in front as
If waiting for somebody to lift it back
into place.
The plain white sandstone front of
the Great palace is Clipped and
stained. Soldiers off duty, some with
their wives or sweethearts and chill
dren, loaf along the sidewalk on top
of the wall or sit on the window stills
of the palace.
Two at the door ask each person
who steps up to show ticket, pass
ing him with the familiar Pazhaluista
(please). polite way Of saying go
ahead" in Russian.
Inside, the narrow entrance is fin
ished in coffee-colored marble. and is
neither as large nor as impressive as
many hotels or railroad stations in
the United States. When the dele
gates are meeting, wooden stall COW