Moscow, Russia – When one thinks of Moscow, Red Square rapidly comes to mind. Located in the heart of the city, it is huge. As a matter of fact, it measures almost 84,000 square yards!
At one time Red Square was a marketplace: one of the main trading centers of the city. Because of its size it was a location often used for events and festivals over the years, too. It still is. As a matter of fact, in winter a giant ice skating rink is created for the public to use. Keeping the ice frozen during a Russian winter is not all that difficult.
Red Square is surrounded on all sides by a number of buildings. The Kremlin runs down one side with Lenin’s Tomb in the center of that side. Directly across from the Kremlin is the famous GUM department store. GUM isn’t really a department store like Macy’s or Bloomingdales, rather it is more like a mall with many different shops and a food area on the top floor. At the far end of the square is the famous St. Basil’s Cathedral. If you have ever seen a picture of Red Square, you have, no doubt, seen this cathedral with it’s magnificent onion roofs. (By the way, those iconic onion shaped roofs are designed that way so that snow will slide off.)
To stand in the center of Red Square surrounded by tons of tourists is to be dwarfed by its size. One of the things russians have always done well is to create monuments that tower over the individual. Red Square surely does that.
By why is it called “Red Square”. The normal first reaction is to link it to russian communism. Communists were always called “Reds”. Sometimes, a communist was referred to as a “pinko”, just a different shade of red.
So? Is that the answer? The square is named after a political system? How could that be when the square dates back to the 15th century, quite a way before russian communism?
The answer is that it is called Red Square because that is the translation of it’s russian name: Krasnaya Ploshchad. But wait. There is more. The russian word for ‘red’ has a second meaning. One meaning is the color, of course. The same word can also mean: beautiful. It is a beautiful square in the center of Moscow.